Note: I like to ramble.
I'm in a similar boat.
Six of my close friends joined the marines right out of high school, Five of them (my cousin included) moved to florida and i haven't heard a word from any of them since. My social life was crippled before i started WoW. I have 3 remaining friends left now. One who works as a security guard at the airport, one who works with me at our wonderful 9-5 job, and one who.. well.. since high school has done nothing with his life. He went to one semester of college and dropped out because he spent his days stoned and console gaming. He got a job and a brand new car.. then took a vacation to play WoW and never went back to work. He quit wow 3 months later. He is now on welfare and spends most of it on importing ps2/GCN games. He's still a cool guy but i wish he would do something with his life.
As for myself, i recently moved the town i used to live in to another about 20 miles south. 2 of my friends i don't see because they're busy with work, the "lump" as i call him, i see a few days a week.
My girlfriend is terribly busy with school, a physics major at a private university out here and is graduating in the spring.
I drive in to work at about 7:30 and get home at about 5:30 every day, have dinner with my family and head into my room for WoW. I've been playing since 2 months after release. At first it was fun, but at this point i'm on teamspeak with a second family. I've made a ton of new friends that i will probably never meet, but there is_nothing_for me to do during the week. I spend weekends with my girlfriend when i can, unless i'm working on remodeling the house.
If you have nothing better to do it's not an addiction. I've been playing for a long time now, close to 140 days of playtime on my account.
Which might seem like a lot, but again..
There's nothing else for me to do during the week. Fridays the 4 of us go out for a few drinks and just chill, Saturday we head into the city to find something to do. I've never missed a day of work, i never missed a class, i never blew anything off and i've still found time to spend time with my family and friends, the people i care about. You can still be a VERY hardcore WoW player and still have an active social life.
If you blow off things that should be priorities (family, work, school) then you should probably take a step back and consider what is more important.
If you find yourself just standing around in an MMO.. log off and do something else! I alt tab out and enjoy some hot emulated SNES action, read slashdot, news, a BOOK maybe?
There's a lot more to it than just playing the game though. Making friends with all these people and being on 3rd party voice communication software makes it a social event as well. I'll find myself sitting around just talking to people and giving new people advice, etc.
There's plenty out there to do in the world, just not as much during the week. If the OP's friend is as bad as he says he is, he needs a lot more than just an intervention. But for people like me, don't worry about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Note: I like to ramble. I'm in a similar boat. Six of my close friends joined the marines right out of high school, Five of them (my cousin included) moved to florida and i haven't heard a word from any of them since. My social life was crippled before i started WoW. I have 3 remaining friends left now. One who works as a security guard at the airport, one who works with me at our wonderful 9-5 job, and one who.. well.. since high school has done nothing with his life. He went to one semester of college and dropped out because he spent his days stoned and console gaming. He got a job and a brand new car.. then took a vacation to play WoW and never went back to work. He quit wow 3 months later. He is now on welfare and spends most of it on importing ps2/GCN games. He's still a cool guy but i wish he would do something with his life. As for myself, i recently moved the town i used to live in to another about 20 miles south. 2 of my friends i don't see because they're busy with work, the "lump" as i call him, i see a few days a week. My girlfriend is terribly busy with school, a physics major at a private university out here and is graduating in the spring. I drive in to work at about 7:30 and get home at about 5:30 every day, have dinner with my family and head into my room for WoW. I've been playing since 2 months after release. At first it was fun, but at this point i'm on teamspeak with a second family. I've made a ton of new friends that i will probably never meet, but there is_nothing_for me to do during the week. I spend weekends with my girlfriend when i can, unless i'm working on remodeling the house. If you have nothing better to do it's not an addiction. I've been playing for a long time now, close to 140 days of playtime on my account. Which might seem like a lot, but again.. There's nothing else for me to do during the week. Fridays the 4 of us go out for a few drinks and just chill, Saturday we head into the city to find something to do. I've never missed a day of work, i never missed a class, i never blew anything off and i've still found time to spend time with my family and friends, the people i care about. You can still be a VERY hardcore WoW player and still have an active social life. If you blow off things that should be priorities (family, work, school) then you should probably take a step back and consider what is more important. If you find yourself just standing around in an MMO.. log off and do something else! I alt tab out and enjoy some hot emulated SNES action, read slashdot, news, a BOOK maybe? There's a lot more to it than just playing the game though. Making friends with all these people and being on 3rd party voice communication software makes it a social event as well. I'll find myself sitting around just talking to people and giving new people advice, etc. There's plenty out there to do in the world, just not as much during the week. If the OP's friend is as bad as he says he is, he needs a lot more than just an intervention. But for people like me, don't worry about it.