I have been playing alot of World of Warcraft lately. Alot of Warcraft honestly. So much so that I have fallen behind in my blog posting, my regular blog and website reading, even watching some of my favorite tv shows!
Now I am not addicted to the point where I am neglecting my family, my personal hygiene or calling in sick from work just to play. But I have been staying up later than I should at nights which has caused me to slack off on the chores around the apartment, not a good thing. And with WoW being the only game I am currently playing, I have a back log of PC and 360 games that are definitely being neglected.
I love games, and my lovely wife has accepted the fact that I am going to spend alot of my free time playing them. Playing one game is not a problem, and if I decide to spend most of my game time with WoW, then so be it. But I have developed a bad case of gamers ADD over the years, and I am prone to MMO burnout as well, not a good combo.
This post isn't my way of telling others to watch out about game addictions, or that people should not play games as much, but it's my way of letting myself realize that I need to step away from the monitor and keyboard sometimes and get my priorities straight and to use my time wisely. Believe me, I would never tell anyone that they are spending too much time playing games, I would tell them to play more!
3 comments:
The best piece of advice I can give you and you're going to hate it, but you should stop playing WoW. It's a fantastic game, I know. I played it for over a year and got seriously addicted. The best thing I ever did was quit. I still play MMOs and a range of other games, but I do it on my time and not on theirs.
The game is cleverly designed to provide no gratification of competition. There is always something better to get for your character and it requires time and grinding to get it. It's an endless loop, which slowly destroys your life outside the game.
You need to remember one important thing, everything you do, all the time you spend in the game is all virtual. It exists on a database and can be wiped in the blink of an eye. If the game suddenly stopped, what would you have to show for your countless hours of devotion? It will end one day, and it's smarter to quit while you still have a life worth living.
The hardest lesson I learnt from playing MMO's was: It's never too late to quit.
Oh and if you are going to quit, it's best to remove the game and make it as hard as possible to ever play it again. Addictions are a bitch when they come a calling again.
I actually found blogging really helped with quitting. The more time I spent blogging, the less I spent gaming.
Hope this helped. Best of luck with it.
"I actually found blogging really helped with quitting. The more time I spent blogging, the less I spent gaming."
There begins a whole other 'addiction'!
Quitting would be the best solution, but one that I don't think is necessary yet. Cutting back so that I have more time to do the things that I need to do is I think the solution for me.
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