Video Game Addiction is real.
My intention is not to convince you one way or another. Some will dismiss me as a stupid adult baby who can’t control himself with basic self moderation. This is of course, completely true. But still… this might resonate with others. If it does, this post is for you. If it helps one person, I’m happy.
Experts all over the world are slowly starting to recognize video game addiction as a real disorder. In fact, just last year the World Health Organization officially added video game addiction to their list of mental health disorders.
It works very similar to gambling addictions. Basically, the brain gradually gets accustomed to little mini-shots of dopamine that come from rewards within the game. This can come from loot, getting a Firewater from a Furbolg, herbing or mining, killing someone in pvp or simply seeing those big numbers when you crit. These are all little shots of dopamine that our brains really like. Eventually, our brains get used to them. Then they become resistant to them… and finally, some of us become dependent on them.
Do you…
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Play more than 20 hours a week? …40?
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Hide how much you play from friends or a spouse? Do you lie about playtime? Maybe you say you’re working when actually you’re playing? Do you alt-tab out of the game when your wife or girlfriend walks by?
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Have you lost interest in things that normally bring you pleasure? Hobbies, hanging out with friends, exercising, sex, movies or even hygiene?
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Do you re-arrange activities in your day in order to maximize play time?
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Do you find you need to gradually play for longer periods of time to get that ‘satisfied’ feeling? It used to be 30 minutes… then an hour. Then 2. Eventually you need 4+ hour binges to feel ’satisfied’?
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Do you play so often that it negatively affects your life? Maybe your wife feels neglected and you two have been fighting more? Or maybe your performance at work is suffering because you’re constantly on the forums and wowlogs? Maybe you’re gaining weight, or simply just exhausted all the time from long play sessions into the night?
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Do you experience withdrawal symptoms when you can’t play for a day or two? This can come in the form of anxiety, headaches or just general irritability. Do you find you’re generally unhappy when you’re not playing, and the only way you can truly feel content is when you’re playing?
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Do you have a difficult time concentrating on non-game related activities? Perhaps you’re always thinking of your gearing plan, guild drama, or theory crafting?
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Do you play to avoid stress or regulate your feelings? An escape?
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Have you tried to quit multiple times only to find yourself constantly coming back to the game?
I’m no expert, but if more than a few of these resonate with you… you might want to assess how this game is affecting your life. As for me… I can answer yes to every single one of these questions because they are all examples from my own life.
Unfortunately, Blizzard makes it very difficult for people like us to quit permanently.
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Cancel your sub? No problem! Start again any time you want with a 30 second online process.
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Completely uninstall the game? No problem! Re-download it any time from the Battle.net app! You can even start playing instantly while the game continues to install.
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Delete your character? No problem! Instantly restore it with one button.
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Delete or destroy all your gear? No problem! Blizzard offers an item restore service. You don’t even need a GM. It’s self-serve. How handy.
I’ve been through all these processes too. I remember uninstalling WoW and snapping my CDs in half in 2007 during one of my many efforts to quit… I biked 30 km each way to the nearest mall and re-purchased the game (and TBC expansion) 2 days later.
If anyone out there can relate to any of the above… here is a step by step process on how to actually quit the game for good if you can’t rely on willpower alone. I believe this is as close to a full delete as you can possibly get. The idea is to make the process of relapsing as painful and inconvenient as possible by adding as many roadblocks as you can. This is for true addicts. People who can’t control themselves and can’t be trusted to stay away from the game when the cravings hit later down the road. “Addicts will find a way.” Even if you do somehow find a way to restore your characters (which I really don’t think you can) hopefully just the thought of undoing all this will keep you from even trying.
12 Steps to Quitting WoW Classic for GOOD!!
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Destroy or vendor all your gear. I’m talking everything… even your epic mount and Onyxia bags.
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Destroy or vendor all of your other stuff. Consumables, bags, bank items, materials, etc… You can AH this stuff too and give the gold to a friend, but It’s crucial you find at least 50 things to vendor or destroy. This is because the Blizzard item restore service only restores up to 50 of your recently deleted items. So the idea is to ‘bury’ your gear with 50 other useless things. Keep your gold, you’ll need it later.
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Restore all key bindings, interface addons and mods to their default settings. Drag all your skills and abilities off your bars. Uninstall all your mods.
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Restore Blizzard’s default UI. If your UI is anything like mine, the thought of re-doing it from scratch is not something I relish.
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Drag any remaining skills and talents off your bars. Respec for 50g and make it the worst spec you can think of. Make it completely useless and non-functional. If you relapse, you won’t have enough gold to buy a flightpath let alone respec.
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Delete all your macros and any quests from your quest log.
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Unlearn your professions. This can’t be undone. Hopefully the thought of levelling mining all over again will prevent you from ever relapsing.
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Repeat all above steps for all your alts.
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Back on your main… Just to be safe, buy roughly 50 super cheap BOE greens on the AH. Equip them all, and then vendor or destroy them… again this is to be absolutely sure you won’t be able to restore your gear through the Blizzard restore service.
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Give all the remaining gold and valuables either to a friend or a stranger. I’d recommend giving it all to a random stranger. Friends are more at risk of pressuring you to come back with the promise of jumpstarting you with gold and bags, but a stranger won’t. I’d give it to a random stranger and ask them to donate a small amount of money to your favourite charity or something.
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Sit your character down in a comfortable place. A bed would be nice. /bye to the World of Warcraft.
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Delete all your characters. After 30 days they should be permanently gone.
