one does not simply quit wow

I found a link to this video on Reddit about World of Warcraft addiction.  I think it's a powerful video that's worth spending a few minutes watching, even for non-gamers.  Not everyone may be able to relate to the story but as a mass-multiplayer online gamer myself, I personally felt the message hit home.

It's not easy to understand where game addicts come from, especially with all the negative stereotypes floating around in society.  Admittedly it is strange that virtual reality can consume an individual to the point where they blur the boundary separating a game from real life.  Although its popularity has declined over the years, World of Warcraft still has over 10 million subscribers and it is not uncommon for these gamers to put their lives on hold to enjoy a little bit more time in Azeroth.

It begins as a simple game.  You make a character and embark on an adventure to help and solve the problems of the world of Warcraft.  Along the way you meet people, make friends, join guilds, and then one day you realize that your character's existence on a server matters to a community.  In the video Sevrin mentions that he felt like a celebrity where he was playing, and it's true, it happens.  When your real life sucks, it's easy to try and compensate for feeling awful by feeling good about yourself in a whole different environment.  Maybe you don't feel appreciated in everyday life, but hey, when you get home and in front of that computer, there's a whole virtual world of people that look up to you and make you feel accepted and needed.  That's the point where the appeal of a virtual reality can become overwhelming.

But let's take a step back.  Not everyone plays a game like Warcraft, not everyone can bond together and understand the rush that a player gets when their guild finally defeats Deathwing the Destroyer and saves Azeroth after following a schedule raiding five nights a week.  No that's just silly, who wants to commit to a part-time job playing a game?  But a lot of people do, without even realizing it.  Maybe not a game, but how many hours per day do you spend browsing Facebook?  Reddit?  Instant messaging?  How real has the Internet become now?  In World of Warcraft, players sit around in cities all the time just to hang out and talk with other people.  They'll do it for hours, yeah, in a game, but it's honestly no different from the people that sit on Facebook all day and, well, hang out.  I'm not saying that playing Words With Friends on Facebook is life-threatening and dangerous like playing World of Warcraft (seriously guys, friends don't let friends play WoW), but maybe it's not all that far off.

I mean yeah, even after watching Sevrin's video, maybe you still can't relate to his story without actually walking in his shoes.  All I want to say is that it's actually quite terrifying, knowing that playing a game like World of Warcraft can actually change someones life.  It made me really step back and think about how much time we waste away procrastinating at our computers.  After Reddit came up after the SOPA protest blackout, one of the top posts on the website was a meme that said something along the lines of "I thought I'd be really productive with Reddit being gone all day.  Turns out I'm just lazy."  Everyone has that something they procrastinate with.  Some people find escape in games, others like reading newsgroups and checking out their social networks.  Either way, and maybe I'm alone in thinking this, but I feel like technology is really taking over our lives.

I'm sure it wasn't easy for someone like Sevrin to be public and admit to having a problem.  I really appreciate it though, stories like his are really eye-opening.  It's nice to have a reality check now and then.  In a world where it's common to see couples texting on their phones while out for dinner, it's nice to be reminded now and then that we might be missing out on a lot of things back here on Earth.  I'm not saying that we should all just get up and quit the games we enjoy playing, or quit browsing our favourite websites, but it doesn't hurt to stop for a moment and reflect on how much we've been absorbed by the virtual world presented to us by the Internet.  I mean, come on, ...

But no seriously, knowing there might be a problem is the first step to resolving it.  Just some food for thought.