digg

Facebook Connect Join Digg About
See the original image at hellforge.gameriot.com

Addicted: How Do You Quit An MMORPG?

hellforge.gameriot.com — Unlike chemical addictions like alcohol, cigarettes and forms of narcotics, the addiction to a MMO is not physical. However, it is both emotional and psychological, and can even be more detrimental than the aforementioned substances. Quitting is a difficult task that takes strong will power and mental toughness, but can be done.

Who dugg this? Made popular Feb 7, 2009

Digg DudeWhat is Digg?

Digg is a place for people to discover and share content from anywhere on the web. Digg surfaces the best stuff as submitted and voted on by the community. Take the Tour to learn more.

247 Comments

show profanity settings
expand all
  • Shazbuckle, on 02/07/2009, -1/+61I quit WoW after 78 days /played on my main character.

    How did I do it? I dunno, I just got bored. I decided to give it a go a few months later, but I stopped after an hour and haven't gone back since.
  • inactive, on 02/07/2009, -0/+50Diablo 2 was like crack for me back in the day.
  • kaoitik, on 02/07/2009, -0/+42Diablo 3 will be crack for me once it comes out.
  • Nicoon, on 02/07/2009, -1/+411. Give away all of your in-game belongings.
    2. Realise how futile it would be to go back to the game due to previous step.
    3. Do something else.
  • Ventiron, on 02/07/2009, -1/+40Get banned

    It's a real quick way to never want to touch the game again.
  • Juaquin, on 02/07/2009, -0/+38Alt-F4
  • feyded, on 02/07/2009, -0/+36Cold Turkey. Oh, and destroying the discs isn't the best way. Delete your characters.
  • Gaalsien, on 02/07/2009, -1/+28I wean myself onto gradually less addictive things.

    Warcraft > Tribalwars > Team Fortress 2 > One of those bats with a ball attached to it
  • Oea420, on 02/07/2009, -2/+27As someone who has 200+ days played... on more than one character... WoW is the most destructive thing that happened in my life.

    I've been addicted to opiated, quit cold turkey... it was rough.. but with WoW.. I could never quit. Like the article said, your entire 'social life' becomes dependant on the game (It's just like your body getting physically addicted to a drug, everything around you changes to try and meet balance). Soon, all you 'best friends' are dudes that you talk to on ventrillo every night.. but the thing is............. they were and still are my good friends. I made a ton of really good friends playing wow, some that i got pretty close with. Is that a bad thing? No. But the time commitment you have to put in to 'stay ahead' is ridiculous and obviously slowly ruins your real life. A lot of these good friends are still quite addicted to wow.. somehow I put it down after hitting level 75 after WOTLK.... and I didn't even know I was going to.. I was full swing into the level grind, trying to be the best always.... until I decided to go to a party one night... and a lot of old friends i used to know come up to me thinking i've moved or died etc etc... then it came to me.. i totally shut out my former life for wow, and that's unacceptable.

    Oddly enough that exact date (Nov 21st, 2008) is when I met my current girlfriend.

  • chrisduser, on 02/07/2009, -1/+22must get up... *F5* oh look at that, president obama throwing a shoe at president bush... WHAT?! Israel just bombed the ***** out of school? 10 comments? I got comment quick for max digg possibility. Oh hey, what does this word mean. *GOOGLE* oh look at this interesting wikipedia about that word. "See also..." Oh I didn't know that hmm... I wonder if there was a reply to my post on that forum I frequently browse... GET UP DO HOME WORK... *www.digg.com* only one new story? I better check my comments. -9? I guess I'll learn something form that, but whats going on at this other forum I frequent... I have to get off of here. There is so much to do. Oh let me make a long ***** comment... etc, etc.
  • angrynorwegian, on 02/07/2009, -2/+21Tell your mom to stop paying the subscription?
  • Ismith988, on 02/07/2009, -2/+20I quit after over 360+ days played on my only character, but I sold my account all together so I couldn't just resubscribe. ***** WARCRAFT
  • loconet, on 02/07/2009, -3/+20Find ways to stay productive (and healthy) in real life. Yes, there is such a thing as REAL LIFE.

    Get a job, work in your career, concentrate in school, exercise, spend time with real life friends and family, volunteer, learn to play an instrument, travel, etc. You know, real life "quests".

    The instant gratification you get in a game only gets you so far. Working hard in long term goals enriches your life and those around you further. Once you realize that, letting go of this destructive (because, yes, it _can_ become destructive - I have seen it personally) addiction is only natural.

    This of course is easier said than done :(
  • Munk3y, on 02/07/2009, -1/+17I'm addicted to WoW but it's not only WoW, I've been addicted to video games (actually electronics in general) since the NES. That type of behavior is sometimes bad but sometimes it can be good. It's probably the one and only reason I learned so much about computing, enough to be a consultant. I've been a Computer Network Consultant for about 10 years now and I've pretty much been computing, video gaming, etc 24/7.

    I'd really say that addiction isn't necessarily a bad thing but if it's nothing but destructive behavior, it's obvious there's addiction AND something else going on. Perhaps depression?
  • ligyron, on 02/07/2009, -1/+16I got WoW on release day (November 2004). Played it constantly/obsessively until April 2005, then woke up one day and thought, "What's the point of this game? Just keep improving your characters...forever? All my hours of hard work come down to some 1mb file on a hard disk in California somewhere."

    Let my subscription run out and haven't resubscribed since. Didn't even tell my guildmates/online buddies I was leaving.

    Some people have addicting personalities. Me and my friend signed up to play the trial over last Christmas holidays for something to do, but he never wanted to play more than an hour a day because he was afraid he'd get addicted. I, on the other hand, played as much as I wanted to during that 10 day trial period because it's fun and passes time, then when it was up I forgot all about WoW. In the past 4 years since I unsubscribed, I played it for 10 days. Big whoop
  • supermanly, on 02/07/2009, -2/+17****** WORLD OF WARCRAFT

    WC3's not bad, I play some now and then
  • Butters757, on 02/07/2009, -0/+15Paddle Ball? ***** YEAH!
  • chrisduser, on 02/07/2009, -0/+13I'm more interested in quitting the internet. Must have more information...
  • tj111, on 02/07/2009, -0/+13Sounds pretty much identical to my story. Got ~85-90 days /played, once BC launched just got bored and stopped. Every time I try to play again I just get bored quick.
  • theda3g0, on 02/07/2009, -0/+12Wait for the development team to ruin it. Don't worry, it will happen eventually.
  • w00master, on 02/07/2009, -7/+19How to quit? You stop playing. Done.
  • Zera, on 02/07/2009, -6/+18How to Quit: Think about the game critically for "what it is" and when you realize it's nothing more than extreme repetition requiring almost no thought, wit, or skill, you then realize that "Time Spent Playing" is almost exactly equal to "How Good your Character Is" and when you realize both of those things you'll see that the "best" players in the game are merely the biggest losers playing the game, and since you cannot beat them with wit or skill, that the game is utterly flawed and in fact, not fun at all.
  • Charlie1er, on 02/08/2009, -0/+11Dugg for a WoW player who having sex irl.
  • cyborgbill, on 02/07/2009, -0/+11I played wow hardcore for over 2 years. Had no job, few friends (other than online friends), but a Bad Ass Pally. I finally decided enough is enough and deleted all of my characters one night. It really hurt at first but It was for the best. Now I am a functioning member of society. And the best part is I'm happy. Even though almost a year and a half later I still get urges to run through deadmines and box VC.
  • Eastcoastsurfer, on 02/07/2009, -1/+11It should have been title, "Are you addicted to WoW?"
    However, the game is fun if you treat it casually.
  • inactive, on 02/07/2009, -0/+10Sounds like someone is addicted...
  • ThunderGodNick, on 02/07/2009, -0/+9I still happen to enjoy World of Warcraft. I have absolutely no intention of quitting in the foreseeable future. (And I have a 42 hours a week job. So screw you stereotypes!)
  • Adelhas, on 02/07/2009, -1/+10Bad solution; minimal security jails around here allow restricted internet connections that let inmates play online games... Hell, if I was a real addict, Id probably consider it a great way to play all the time in peace.
  • massproductions, on 02/07/2009, -1/+10I had to hit rock bottom.

    I woke up one morning at 10AM and played WoW until 3:00AM. I didn't eat, I didn't go to the bathroom, I just played WoW. The very next day, I gave access to my account to a girl from work and uninstalled it from all of my machines. I've been clean since March '08.
  • Grolsch, on 02/07/2009, -0/+9Diablo 2 is the only game I was addicted to, and I can honestly say that I was literally addicted. Waking up in morning and thinking if I am going to get that soj today I can buy tal-armor or something.
    Those were the days.....I never found a soj though. Its like chasing the dragon LOL
  • LilRabbitFooFoo, on 02/07/2009, -0/+8I only played an online MMORPG with my girlfriend. When we broke up, I stopped playing. Easy enough.
  • Biscuitz, on 02/07/2009, -2/+10I guess it's better than an addiction to drugs...
  • ajveach, on 02/07/2009, -0/+8This information is almost useless coming from someone who has (admittedly) never been addicted to an MMO game. Hearing methods other people have used successfully is the way to go.
  • limpits, on 02/07/2009, -1/+9DOTA!
  • Foot56, on 02/07/2009, -2/+10I dont understand how poeple can still play that game.
  • IntelSoap, on 02/07/2009, -2/+9MMORPGs arent even close to "instant" gratification

    instant gratification is, click -> headshot -> victory
    not, 5 hour raid -> lame drops -> 5 hour raid again ..... -> quit playing wow 5 years later -> victory
  • FreddieD, on 02/08/2009, -0/+7Yeah, I think that helped back in the day with me and Everquest.. i ended up thinking of it in the same terms that people do with those "all you can eat" music subscriptions that abruptly vanish as soon as you stop paying your monthly fee. I'd think "geez, all of these hours i'm putting into this game will produce absolutely nothing once I finally do quit" and that made it alot easier.

    I'll tell you what DOESNT work (at least for me), is when you say to yourself "I could have been spending all of this time doing productive stuff such as..." and then reel off a bunch of things you always meant to do but never got around to. The reality is that you would have procrastinated on those things to begin with. So when you finally do quit, you realize about 75% of that time you used to play a MMORPG ends up being spent channel flipping on TV and it's a real letdown from what you perceived in your head prior to quitting.
  • xxMorrissey, on 02/07/2009, -1/+8Destroying discs deletes WoW off your computer. True story.
  • TheMishap, on 02/07/2009, -2/+9depends...
  • du4l1ty, on 02/07/2009, -0/+6Play hardcore for a while and you'll get burnt out fast.
  • Brak710101, on 02/07/2009, -1/+7That has to be the dumbest thing I've ever heard. I think your ex had more problems then WoW in that case.

    Quests are NOT fun and few are rewarding other than what EXP/gold it gives you. Trust me.
  • zeth006, on 02/07/2009, -0/+6The answer?

    Simple. Find something important to work toward. For me, it's my upcoming test for grad school. Studying 3-5 times a week for it helped me cold turkey from Guild Wars. You'd be surprised how much the seriousness of a life event can really change your mindset.

    It's either that or uninstall and if necessary, break your installation disks. Cancel any subscriptions of you're playing WoW. Get a life.
  • paidhima, on 02/08/2009, -0/+6You're wrong on both of your major points:

    1. Extreme repetition, no thought or skill. Not true. Oh, there can be extreme repetition, but no more than other hobbies or pursuits. Want to learn a language? Extreme repetition. Want to learn to play a sport? Drills. Learn a musical instrument? Same thing. Becoming good at pretty much anything requires repetition. I also take issue with "no thought or skill." While it's true that there can be some seriously mindless grinds in an MMO, the best times I had playing were when thought and skill were required.

    2. The best players are the biggest losers. Again, incorrect. I played EQ for almost eight years, and damn near every other major MMO at one time or another. At various times I was anywhere from a casual player to a cutting edge player doing the newest content available. I played significantly *less* as an end game player than I did casually. Having known many absolutely top of the heap players (top five or ten across all servers), they invariably had a job and a family - I remember the wedding announcements and baby picture threads that used to pop up here and there. These were not basement-dwellers, they all had lives, and they were not 20 or 30-hour per week players. We're talking a couple hours a night during the week for raids followed by some leveling/questing time during the weekend.

    It's unfair to lump everyone in because of the stigma that some bring to the ranks of MMO enthusiasts.
  • wildkats74, on 02/08/2009, -1/+7and by current girlfriend you mean first? kidding :) +1 to your comment, good stuff in there for sure.
  • skc0der, on 02/07/2009, -3/+9I've been banned from digg before and I'm still here.
  • Shazbuckle, on 02/07/2009, -0/+6I enjoyed BC. I only had 11 days /played pre-tbc so the majority of my time was spent playing the expansion.

    Looking back, I was online a lot, and even though I'd only be raiding once or twice per week, i still spent a considerable amount of time running around one of the main cities. Doing. Absolutely. Nothing.

    One of the factors which kept me playing were my guild mates. Sure, some of them were hilarious and kind, but they aren't actually your *real* friends. I was an officer, and I didn't want to leave cause of that. But really, you are probably going to be forgotten preety soon :P
  • CreamySmooth, on 02/08/2009, -0/+6Curious as to what you do for income?Living situation?
  • archimago42, on 02/08/2009, -1/+7Sooo, you don't work or go to school or anything? That's pretty pathetic.
  • Cerealkillr, on 02/07/2009, -0/+6Play on private servers to ween yourself off. You will get bored much more quickly and many of the don't require a ridiculous amount of time to play.
    Or if you really have to, use mmoglider. It may be frowned uppon. but it can help you quit
  • Gloogle, on 02/07/2009, -2/+8is not that easy, you seem green. life will teach you ;)
  • Fetching more discussions...
    Show 51 - 100 of 250 discussions

  • Add a Comment

    Login or register to comment!
    Or, sign-in super fast with your Facebook account ...


© Digg Inc. 2009 — Content created and posted by Digg users is dedicated to the public domain | Terms of Use Updated | Privacy Policy
DIGG, DIGG IT, DUGG, DIGG THIS, Digg graphics, logos, designs, page headers, button icons, scripts, and other service names are the trademarks of Digg Inc.