World of Warcraft discussion thread Mr Nice Guy: Has anyone here found this game has affected your relationship(s)? If so, how? I'd like to hear some experiences people have had with this game in particular. Here's mine for starters:
I started playing late november last year. By that point, my wife had already given up on our relationship, unbeknownst to me, and was cheating on me with a good friend of ours. I started playing because my two best friends did and wanted me to play with them. They had and still have a guild, made up entirely of people they know in real life from work and friends.
At first I was very skeptical of the game. "Why would you want to start playing WoW?" I asked my friend many times over. Convinced him he was crazy for paying $15/month just to play one game.
Nevertheless, he brought over his 14-day trial to my house and started me up. I figured "what the hell, everyone else is doing it", and since they were the friends I hung out with the most, I might as well just try out the damn game so I could play it when there was nothing else to do. My wife worked evenings and didn't get home until 9:30 every night, so I often found myself bored at home. While I hoped it could cure my weekday boredoms, I figured it would be boring and I'd play maybe one hour per week and it wouldn't be worth it.
Dead wrong. That game is frickin' amazing. Huge, vast worlds to explore and more things to do than there are in most other games these days all combined.
Did I enjoy the game? Ohhh yes. Did I play it too much? I don't think so. The first couple weeks, a little too much probably while I went through the fast-paced first 20 levels or so. More and more, my wife went "out with friends" overnight. Twice a week probably on average. Can't help but assume now that it was "him" that she was seeing all the time. I was enjoying some much needed time away from her after 3 years of being together as much as we possibly could. I figured it was great that she was seeing her friends more (even though she wasn't). And technically I was spending time with my friends, even though it was online.
I'll admit that while I was playing, I didn't really do much to help around the house. On the other hand, before I played WoW I managed to fill up my time doing other things, on and off the computer, that contributed just as much to me procrastinating and not doing a lot of housework, etc. That's just me. I'm still like that, even the past 4 months or so when I wasn't playing the game I haven't been keeping on top of things as much as I should.
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Re: World of Warcraft discussion thread Mr Nice Guy: I'll back it up again... in March, she went away for 2 weeks. She told me prior to that that she was thinking we should consider taking a break for a bit. The night she came back from vacation was the night she told me about what had happened and how she had been seeing someone else. Didn't tell me who, I found that out later on.
World of Warcraft and alcohol became my 2 best friends for a couple weeks. Every night I'd end up with pains of anger, frustration, and confusion over my marriage that the alcohol really seemed to ease. I'm not talking a lot, just a few beers at night. WoW was good in the way that it passed the time really fast and really well. I'd get up on a saturday. She would have been out the night before and wouldn't get back until later in the evening. Assured me it was just her female friends she was out with. I'd get up around 8 and start playing the game. After what I thought was a few hours I figured I'd go get some breakfast or lunch... looked at the clock and it would be 4 or 5PM already. This I only did maybe 4 or 5 times over several months that I played the game.
Eventually, around the end of May or so my video card started crapping out and made it unbearable to play the game. I didn't really care, I was about level 32 or so out of 60 and was already getting really, really bored of doing the same things over and over again on it. Met a nice girl and started spending my time with her a lot more than by myself. Just recently, after about 3 months, we've slowed it down and taken some time to ourselves.
Here's the kicker... 3 days ago I went to a computer shop and bought a new, cheap but decent video card for about $60. Installed WoW to see if it had fixed the problem, and used my trial account to test out the game. Worked great! No more obnoxious freezing.
A few minutes later, my original account was back up and running. My friends had been pressuring me to start again, something about needing a rogue to open locked boxes and stuff. Stayed home from work Monday while my car was in the shop and played it a lot. I'm actually interested in it again! That scares me... :o
On the other hand, if my girlfriend were to call me up and want to do something, I'd have the game turned off in an instant to go be with her. Also can't prioritize it over anything else fun... going golfing or to a concert or just hanging out with people. It's something I just enjoy doing on those days when I'm bored and alone at home.
I guess the only thing I really need to learn is how to get my priorities straight. How could I convince myself to make myself do, say 45 minutes of housework when I get home from work before playing the game? I could use some motivation but I can't seem to find any.
Anyway, sorry that was so long but it's my story. Would love to hear your experiences with this game and its effect on your life. Good? Bad? Ugly? Let's hear it...
-Complex
Re: World of Warcraft discussion thread confused101: I used to play EQ, then moved to DAoC, and yeah it affected my relationship. These things are a time sink and easy to get engrossed in. I played WoW for a couple of months earlier this year, but I have lost interest in them because they take away a major portion of your life. If you haven't quit or cut back, please do so and get outside for your own good.
Re: World of Warcraft discussion thread Fendann: I've done em all....WoW, EQ, DAoC (4 years and still playing), RF Online, Guild Wars....It hurts when your SO can't / won't understand the games. I have yet to find someone that I can play online with, but hey, you never know...
Re: World of Warcraft discussion thread darkrose: My stbxw played unhealty amounts of that game...so did I for a time..I got her into it and how do I get repaid? She takes off with some guy she met in the game..
Yeah.
The thing is it's all about moderation. I am an avid computer gamer for a lot of reasons. When I moved out of my parents' house, I didn't have much money, so I'd save up and treat myself to a game once a month. I did this at the expense of my social life to a great extent because I found more and longer lasting enjoyment out of computer games than I did people. I worked nights, I had 3 day weekends, so it wasn't unheard of for me to go 3 days in a row without talking to a soul..and I sort of liked it that way.
Anyway, I got in to WoW, and played it for about a month before I convinced my wife to try it. We ended up setting up an account for her and everything was cool for a while..but then she got obsessed with it..she started neglecting our son by playing it all day while I was at work. Housework suffered. I got a little irritated because the LAST thing I wanted to do was stuff I had asked her to do when I was working..menial stuff like "put the bills on the mailbox", which takes like 15 seconds.
Computer games, with the wrong personality, can be addicting. It's all about knowing how to "pay before you play", meaning, take care of the stuff you need to do first, then play in your spare time. :) My wife didn't ever really do that...
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