Diary of a WoW Noob's Addiction

Noobab writes "There's an absolutely hilarious diary style article in CNET's Crave blog about Nick Hide's first experience playing World of Warcraft. It starts off pretty tame but soon enough the man has turned from unsuspecting casual gamer into a fully fledged 'Warcrack' addict." Your mileage may vary. From the article: "I can't say that I'm experiencing withdrawal symptoms after two weeks of fairly casual World of Warcraft play (a couple of hours a night, tops. Honest, doctor), but 'neglect of other activities' made me rather worried. Last night my girlfriend got hold of an extra ticket to Wicked, the new musical. 'I, er, I'm going out tomorrow night, I'd like to stay in and, er, get an early night,' was my pathetic effort at hiding my spiralling dependency on WoW."

Comments

geek rejects girlfriend for Wow?

[theStorminMormon]

That's not WoW addiction. That's stupid addiction.

-stormin

Re:geek rejects girlfriend for Wow?

[theStorminMormon]

Then again, the mischievious part of me wonders if we should just let this gentle version of natural selection run its course.

No we should not:
1) It would not be natural. It is man-made!
2) It is precisely the smarter, more intelligent people who have a propensity to become virtuality addicts.1. Yes, it is natural. Humans are natural. Unless you are supposing some fundamentalist version of creationism or other ex-nhilo origin for our species, we're basically just smart monkeys. And our use of computers is no less natural than a monkey's use of a stick or a crow's use of a rock. There's no rational basis for calling the actions or creations of human beings un-natural without recourse to superstition.

2. What does intelligence have to do with anything? Evolution has no values. It's purely about survival, adaptation, and successful procreation. The notion that we can define intelligence is barely more coherent than the idea that people or their creations are non-natural. The idea that evolution cares about intelligence is, if anything, less coherent. If intelligence helps you make tools, then great. It's a positive adaptation. If intelligence ensnares you in addiction to those tools (an addiction that clearly hampers procreation to some degree) than guess what - intelligence ceases to be an advantageous trait. Now personally I don't think it makes sense to equate intelligence with a propensity to become virtual addicts. I'd say that shows a blatant lack of intelligence in a very basic sense: the ability to make rational decisions against our own urges. But even if there is such a correlation, evolution doesn't care.

-stormin

Re:geek rejects girlfriend for Wow?

[Lord_Dweomer]

Exactly. And I post this everytime a story about MMORPG addiction is posted but for those wondering how it could possibly addict someone that badly, I STRONGLY urge you to read this excellent essay on how EQ (and games similar to it) are essentially giant virtual Skinner Boxes. Psychological addiction can be just as bad, if not worse than chemical addiction. At least with chemical addiction once its out of your system you stop craving it for the most part.

Re:geek rejects girlfriend for Wow?

[Shaper_pmp]

"1. Yes, it is natural. Humans are natural. Unless you are supposing some fundamentalist version of creationism or other ex-nhilo origin for our species, we're basically just smart monkeys. And our use of computers is no less natural than a monkey's use of a stick or a crow's use of a rock. There's no rational basis for calling the actions or creations of human beings un-natural without recourse to superstition."

Thank you, thank you, thank you. It's a pet hate when people indulge in pseudo-drippy-new-age "everything should be natural man... and not, like, all the artificial, y'know... stuff that harshes up our natural buzz..." bullshit.

Unless you can draw a line around "natural" and "unnatural" and sharply distinguish the difference, shut the fuck up with your romantic, luddite, wanna-live-two-hundred-years-ago-and-most-probably -die-of-tuberculosis crap.

I had a taxi driver once who found out I worked in computing, and spent an entire 30-minute ride bending my ear about how he hated "artificial stuff" and "that technology" and "liked things to be natural". He shut up fast at the end of the journey when when I enquired if he still ate his meat raw and lived in a tree.

Re:Cost

[TinyManCan]

I pay a hell of a lot more than $15 a month for cable TV. That does not make me want to watch it ALL the time, and I am well aware that I am buying channels that I never, ever watch. It doesn't bother me in the slightest.

Re:Cost

[Brown Eggs]

Wrong - I don't think cost is the key. Look at games like Maplestory or Runescape. Free games (mostly) but almost as addictive. I think it is the leveling, the competition, and all the little RPG elements that keep people coming back for more.

It's not the game, it's the person.

[friendofish]

You always hear of people losing their wives "Because of WoW" or forgetting their family "Because of Everquest". No, they lost their self control, they lost their loved ones because of themselves. They are the only ones to blame.

Re:Warcrack the New Evercrack?

[talis9]

And I failed at Uni three decades ago because I spent all my time in the common room playing cards.

Students failing is nothing new, just the reasons change. It doesn't matter if it is cards, beer, girls or computer games, students will always find something more interesting to do than go to lectures.

staged addictions != news

[graycode10]

thanks zonk, it was fun to watch this man's epic journey from installing the game all the way to... his second post a few weeks later. why are we listening to a person with a character in its mid-teens and two weeks' experience? i'm willing to agree that the game can cause problems, but i'd rather hear a testimony from a person with 200 days /played, not someone who still has the crinkled cellophane on his desk and *gasp* skipped a night with his girl so that he could find his class trainer... i also like how the articles feature a night elf with a big lit doobie in his mouth. um... a real addiction is something that catches you by surprise. a staged addiction for publicity is one that you go into expecting to be addicted, complete with funny clip art and a spot on a major web page. and i'm sorry to be so bitchy, but i'm tire of people using the term 'warcrack' like they are the first person to ever do so. yes, we get it. please stop wasting our time with things like this, slapping "WoW" onto the title to get us to click on it and start our daily south park reference banter. (yes, it was a great episode) but i think i am more upset with cnet for printing this crap than i am at slashdot for linking it.

Played for two weeks

[Datamonstar]

.... and yes, battlegrounds are crackity crack crack! But still.. my interest is waining quickly. I've gone from 4 hours a day to only two hours this week. AND we had an ice storm today. that had everyone at home, but I still only logged three capture the flag matches before I got back to something else. I played Everquest for about 6 years and after that, you just don't want to log those sort of hours in a game anymore. Believe me. Once it's worn off it's worn off for good. It doesn't matter what the next game is going to be. Unless you happen to just LOVE mmorpg's your addiction will eventually burn out over time.

Re:What an Idiot

[Anonymous Coward]

Once you start seeing sex as a reward for doing what she wants she has you by the balls.

Re:Addicted to Warcrack?

[treak007]

i know some people who would suck dick for better gear in wow

Re:Warcrack the New Evercrack?

[Wolfkin]

"Grouping made gameplay more interesting, rewarding, and entertaining, although very often more frustrating."

Mostly the last. WoW is already plenty interesting enough solo, and I *most* *certainly* don't want my game playing to be anything like frustrating. It requires a group? I'll pass, thanks. I'm actually okay with groups where I'm just helping someone, but after about 20 bad experiences, I'm not interested in going into any instance I can't solo, and so when there are places that require a group in order to still be able to get XP, I'm off to do something fun, instead.