When I think about what it means to play too much a few different things come to mind.
I think of Clara from hit web series, The Guild. Clara, for folks who have never seen the show is the loveable stay-at-home Mom who neglects her kids, her husband, and almost every other aspect of her real life to play a MMO, not unlike WoW. The character emphasizes how hard it can be to balance real life responsibilities and MMOs, especially when you throw young children into the mix.
Back in Wrath, I regularly pugged in a 25 man where the raid lead and his partner just had a newborn daughter. My heart went out to him because I know he was trying hard to keep it all together. But, twenty-minute baby afks started to add up and it didn’t take long for him to realize that he had to take a break from the game.
I am not at the point in my life where I am thinking about taking on the huge responsibility of raising children. I may never get to that point. I would like to say that I am willing to give up gaming if I had to but it has always been such a huge part of my life.
When I ran my guild back in Wrath, WoW took up most of my weekdays after work and some weekends. It’s probably safe to say that it was way too much WoW. I was religiously running raids four nights a week and sunday night guild meetings. I found myself blowing off everything besides work just to be there for the guild. It was definitely way too much.
Being a member of Obsessive, I show up for raids at least twice a week. I always set aside Monday and Tuesdays and nothing comes between me and raid night. Pretty much I’m like this kid twice a week. As you can imagine this becomes a bit of a bone of contention with the misses.
On Tuesday I wasn’t feeling so good. I left work in the afternoon and went to the doctors passed out in the waiting room. Eventually they saw me gave me some Tylenol for my fever and sent me home with some antibiotics. That night, I was sick as the dickens but I wasn’t going to let it stop me from downing bosses. The girl said that it was a serious problem that I was putting raiding before my health.
That night, post-patch we downed six bosses. It was the best raid night that we have had post-Cataclysm. We one shot Atramedes. I got three pieces of loot if you count my T11 pants bought with Valor Points. She went to bed early and told me not to wake her up. She was mad as hell in the morning. Was it worth it? Maybe…
Back in Wrath, I remember being on vent one beautiful sunny sunday afternoon running some BGs with guildies and one of my buddies came back from being AFK. He said, “my girlfriend is packing her stuff up right now, she’s leaving me.” Then he said something that I’ll never forget, “third girlfriend I lost to WoW, good riddance”, and then he cracked a beer.
We have all heard stories of MMO addiction getting out of hand. In the new millenium rehabilitation centers for treating video game addiction have started opening around there world, spotlighting this issue. I think many of us justify how much time we spend playing by comparing ourselves to others who never seem to log out of game.
I have heard a lot of crazy stories about MMO addiction gone terribad. What stories have you heard? When do you think it’s time to set up an intervention? Just how much is too much?
I’m a little confused by your post. Who’s “the girl”?
I find people are too quick to yell “gaming addiction”. There’s a huge difference between “addiction” and “priorities”, but it doesn’t have to do with the number of hours played. The person with an addiction has lost control, while the person who puts gaming first is making a conscious decision.
On the topic of playing while sick, I won’t sign out for a raid when I’m sick unless my sickness will hinder my performance. I don’t blame others who do, but to me, video games ARE rest, so when I’m sick, I play more!
About the guy who’s girlfriend left, from the story you told, WoW didn’t ruin his relationship. The relationship was already over but he was too much of a coward to break up with her, so he was a jerk to her (by playing WoW in her face) until she left.
ps, Hope you’re feeling better!
Couldn’t agree more. Gaming, next to sleeping is my favorite way to pass the time while sick. I have fond memories of playing Ocarina of Time all week when I got the chicken pox. As for the guy, I know you’re right becuase it wasn’t too long before he had a new girlfriend and was spending a lot less time in Azeroth. As for the girl, well she’s not my mum. :p
I agree with Ophelie on this one. There is a difference between addiction and priorities.
Now, if you’re making gaming a priority over your relationship, I can see how that might put a wrench in said relationship.
At that point, it’s up to the gamer to decide if they are with the right person or if they are willing to give up some gametime in order to make their partner happy.
Either of those options could be the right one; depending on what is more important.
Ideally, you find a person who likes to play WITH you, and then you both have the same priorities! 😛