This is a great article from BBC telling the story of someone with a severe disability and how WoW made it possible for him to live a fulfilling, adventurous life through the immersive world and all the people he met along the way that made him whole.
I understand this game is filled with players from all walks of life, but we have also enjoyed the magic and experience that WoW gave us through out the years that might have helped with IRL issues.
We’re all here for different reasons and are on different paths in life, but I hope WoW has helped all of us in some way. I know it helped me during some of my darkest periods and that’s how I would like to remember WoW, not because of why I stop playing.
First of all, that link is EPIC. Thanks for sharing it with us.
I came here because another game I was playing was turning into a second job. I wanted to recapture gaming as something fun to do, not a schedule to keep. WoW allows me to unwind after work, take the edge off when I’m stressed, and lets me pretend … at least for a short while…that I’m a brave adventurous soul making a difference in the world, and not a cog in a big machine.
WoW helps me on not having to focus on real life when I don’t have/need to. It’s nice to take a break from real life because real life is exhausting and it sucks with all the day to day problems there are. I’ll just end that here or else I’m gonna go real deep and into details and get all depressed.
I read the story this morning and for that guy it was more than just a time pass. For a good number of people it is more than a time pass. It is where they find community, a place to belong. It is really amazing that people can find a way in game to live a life being true to themselves. There is nothing sad or shameful about that. No reason to belittle it because you don’t use the game for those things.
WOW has helped me more then I can ever imagine either after a stressful day at work to log on and go murder some poor bear for 200 butts or murlocs just for one lousy pearl.
Which is why I keep playing to collect those bear butts or that lousy pearl but most of all to take me away from real life for a few hours and relax.
This was shared in my WoW Facebook groups, but thank you for sharing it here. I think it’s important for the GD community to read this as well.
What can I say about the game that I owe my career to? No, I’m not a streamer or esports superstar (yet…), but without WoW, I wouldn’t have the ability to improvise and think critically through stressful situations. Nothing else in my life has prepared me for my current career as an Intelligence Analyst like WoW has. Normally I’d be a nervous ball of stress when it comes to jobs with where the higher ups are yelling and screaming and my team is cowering in a corner. Instead, I sit there, and think to myself “Did someone die? Is a building on fire? No, o.k. then, deep breath. We’re all OK!”
Beyond that, WoW among other MMOs has inspired me to write a fiction novel series about a group of people who play online games. Consider it a love letter to the MMO community. I, like many others, just want to be remembered in this life, and this is one way I am attempting to immortalize one of our favorite hobbies. Especially for those who we’ve lost along the way, like this young man for instance. I hope to one day reach out to his parents to receive their blessing to add their son into my story. I already had the concept very similar to this story, but it took my breath away realizing that my character was real. I truly believe my destiny is to immortalize our experiences especially for those who don’t understand why we spend so much time in Azeroth, among other worlds. Because one day, this is all gonna end, both for MMOs, and for each and every one of us. All we’ll have is our memories. And then one day, even that will be lost in time…
I was the sole caregiver for my mom as she deteriorated because of Alzheimer’s disease. It was very stressful, and WoW provided an occasional escape for me which helped me keep my sanity.
i was bullied alot in school and i suffer from anxiety, depression and add. Things are just harder for me than others. through all my struggles in life and to this day i have always came to wow as a way to get my mind off of my problems.
my depression is very random and takes steep dives time to time. i just cannot tell you how much the game has helped me through so much of it. i log on and interact with amazing people, and take myself through amazing story’s in wow… but it definitely has always offered me that way out of all the crap RL has given me, a way out that made me happy.
This is going to sound strange, but I actually don’t really play WoW with anybody.
I used to play with a few other people, but most of them have since stopped playing. Likely permanently, while the others just do World Quests, Warfronts, and then log off for the day.
I feel like I’m just playing the game wrong.
I know I could join a guild, but I don’t think I’ll be able to fit the raid schedule.
All that being said, WoW has sort of helped me by helping me write and express ideas. I love theorizing about the story of the game and taking in the scenery of WoW’s world.
It helps me relax, to say the least. Though I wish I could be doing more in the game.
Beyond it just being something to do, it hasn’t. Actually, WoW has contributed far more darkness to my life in the decade I’ve played than any bit of light it has ever brought me.
![:slight_smile:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/slight_smile.png?v=6" ":slight_smile:")
![:rofl:](https://d38bqls1q93fod.cloudfront.net/en/wow/images/emoji/twitter/rofl.png?v=6" ":rofl:")