me vs. World of Warcraft.. - TravelPUNK Backpacker College Student Budget Travel Message Boards!

**kiwichick** · 03-26-2007, 12:49 AM

How do i win??????

My flatmate who im supposed to be travelling with is OBSESSED no question about it! he and a larger group of my guy mates (do they still count if they havent socialised in err almost a year??) play non stop. im talking 6hrs minimum a day, turning down drinks and friends birthdays bcos of "quests" they dont want to "let down my guild"

......
Im so frustrated cos it makes for a very boring flat and im always left picking up the slack with cooking etc but mostly im worried bout what its gonna be like when we travel?

How do i wean off my once social gaming geek mate??

**space virgin** · 03-26-2007, 02:27 AM

I thought you were asking for tips on how to win the game.

Stage an intervention. Take away all access to junk food and carbonated beverages. Tell him you'll have sex with him if he goes cold turkey. Unless that's a bad idea... in which case forget I said anything.

Seriously, if he can't give up the gaming, well-- you won't have to worry about what he'll be like when you travel, because he won't be going!

**expatben** · 03-26-2007, 02:38 AM

Not really sure what to do or say here...
one thing you might try is stop doing anything for him such as cooking or getting him drinks ect, he'll have to stop to get food. Maybe "something" could happen to his PC?
Or yeah try an intervention.

**kiwichick** · 03-26-2007, 04:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by space virgin

Tell him you'll have sex with him if he goes cold turkey. Unless that's a bad idea... in which case forget I said anything.

lol i luv ur thinking except for a) hes like a lil bro b)even if i didnt c him like that i still wouldnt sleep wif him lol and c) he has a luvly gf (that he maintains that we are all suprised!!)

Yeh him not coming away is a very real worry although his dave is paying his airfare in theory and he has a 100pound inheritance waiting for him so

I really doubt he'd be able to take an intervention seriously but as i do most of the cooking with holding food is not a bad plan...
as for "something" happening to his pc it may or may not be being temporarily stolen

later this week for atleast an evening as a reminder he has friends...

lol keep 'em coming im liking how this is going lol

**raoulduke** · 03-26-2007, 04:08 AM

How does his girlfriend put up with it? You should get her to help you out.

Unless she's part of his 'guild'

**kiwichick** · 03-26-2007, 04:28 AM

well she actually plays!but has the brains to not play at all during term time! shes really studious so doesnt mind that she only seems him like once a week..??

**buzzingtalk** · 03-26-2007, 06:28 AM

i remember when i stayed at a mates house and his flatmate was in the same situation - addicted to warcraft. so, we just turned off the electric when we could hear the dialogue form his guild getting excitable through the door. whoops

**kiwichick** · 03-26-2007, 08:45 PM

its truly bizzare ay? they speak a whole nutha language i swear! and its all consuming-thats all they do!we have a huge party for st pats that absolutly goes off and instead they all get stoned and play each othas characters "it was really cool"...ok no no it was not.so very not cool.

**Diorama** · 03-26-2007, 08:57 PM

oh my freakin god. That would drive me bonkers. I hate when people get overly obsessed about games. I tell ya I could never ever ever go out with/or be friends with a dude that was into those mind numbing things. Okay a little bit is fine, but after an hour your should move on!!! How sad that a person has to find their joy in an imaginary world. I would go an unplug the television.

**kiwichick** · 03-26-2007, 09:11 PM

its an internet gaming thing that has aparently caused huge gaming addictions worldwide and there is now rehab for gaming addicts partly bcos of it!!!can u believe that!!?!?!

Twoguns · 03-26-2007, 11:14 PM

While I was reading this, the whole time I was thinking "gaming is a serious addiction" and you hit the nail on the head with your last statement. It is an addiction that you guys should talk about. I watched a t.v. show that said gaming was just as addicting as drugs. People will actually have withdraws if they cant play. Its on their minds all the time and pretty much destroys real life interaction with people. I have a friend that totally stoped hanging around becasue of that game. When he was around he wasnt himself becasue he was just thinking of going home and staying up all night with his "guild"..... He actually ended up doing terrible in school, "when we told him it was the game, he refused to believe us. We actually unpluged his computer and it caused a fist fight in the living room becasue we wouldnt give him the computer cord back. Thats why I dont own a gaming system and only use my computer for money management, internet, music and pics. Tell him its really affecting yalls relastionship and start having another guy friend over and start treating him like you do your roomate. If he really cared he will stop, if he is to addicted he wont care.

**Somnambulation** · 03-28-2007, 07:37 PM

Reminds me of one of my favorite South Park epsodes ever.

**SuDz** · 03-28-2007, 10:12 PM

Just find a new addiction to replace the one you want to get rid of.

SuDZ

**kiwichick** · 03-28-2007, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SuDz

Just find a new addiction to replace the one you want to get rid of.

SuDZ

lol yeh he actual told me hes trying to wean off..and i was like oh yeh hows that? and hes trying with anutha game!!! he tells me its not as bad and i dont thing its online but seriously!!! although he has kinda re-emerged over the last few days so hopefully things are on an up!

**c0urt** · 03-29-2007, 06:52 PM

good to see he re-emerged, i was going ot say if the room looked like this just let him go

**kiwichick** · 03-29-2007, 07:40 PM

omg that is feral!lmao i hope that is not from personal experience!

**Elizabeth** · 03-29-2007, 07:48 PM

My cousin has the same problem. He started young on Everquest, maybe 13 yrs old. He is almost 21 and has dropped out of school and quit his job to play WoW all day. He doesn't leave his house and his only other real life friend lives across the street and plays the same game. He doesn't have any apparent interest in having a social life or girlfriend. I wish I could help him but I really have no idea how. I used to play those games but I was never addicted like that.

**kiwichick** · 03-29-2007, 07:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lizz

He doesn't leave his house and his only other real life friend lives across the street and plays the same game. .

Really really doesnt help when the mates are reinforcing it huh? I think hes inproving tho..we'll c mid-tri break is coming up..

**PlayPal** · 04-05-2007, 07:11 AM

Ok, so this is coming from a pretty hardcore gamer (me). I've seriously fought with this exact problem ever since I was about 14. You guys remember Ultima Online? Well for a while in highschool that's all I wanted to do. Seriously. Normal games can be fairly addictive, but when it's a 24/7 world with other people, the knowledge that others are playing and getting shit, trading shit, making money, getting better and you're not can just drive you crazy. I know it sounds weird, but it's true. Anyway, before I left to college I had a moment of clarity and deleted my account. If I hadn't, I'm sure I would have flunked out after one quarter. Anyway, since then I've pretty much stuck to only single player games, or multiplayer games that aren't a 24/7 world. World of warcraft would eat my alive...seriously. It's every bit as bad an addiction, complete with the feelings of guilt when you've finished a huge marathon of gaming, during which you turn down invitations to go out, to hang out, or even go into the living room and say hi. You unplug and swear you're done. And then you wake up in the morning some new ideas about how to get more gold, exp, whatever and it's the same thing all over again.

Gaming is a hell of a lot of fun. I'm actually in school right now to learn how to make games. Like everything else in life though, moderation moderation moderation.

Anyway, for your buddy I would say that it's going to take some kind of shock to show him how much that game is costing him. His girlfriend will leave him probably. Never happened to me, but by the time I was doing much dating, I had figured out my weakness. The fact that he has friends that are into it as well makes it much worse I imagine. I was always the only one of my friends that was into gaming, so I constantly had people giving me shit for it. A group of friends with a similiar problem would have been disastrous.

Solutions... hard to say really. If somebody had somehow cut me off from my computer I would have been REALLY PISSED OFF. It could easily not be interpreted as somebody trying to help, but somebody just wanting to fuck with a guys right to do what he wants. It's my life, blah blah blah.

Have you tried actually sitting down with him and having a serious, completely open conversation about it? Explain what it looks like from the outside. Get some definitions of addiction (seriously) and just show them to him. Don't make it an accusation. It probably wouldn't hurt to get a bit sentimental and show him some old pics of all the fun stuff you guys used to do, and then compare that with the definite lack of any such pictures since he started playing warcrack. There's one really sad thing that always occured to me during the post-game guilt: You know the cliche about not appreciating your youth until it's gone? Well gaming is a perfect example. There we are, young and healthy, and what are we doing? Spending our days in front of a screen, something an invalid can do. There will be plenty of time for gaming when we're old and can barely walk goddamnit! Get your ass up and run around! You're young! Enjoy it! It will be over sooner than you think!

I don't usually do really serious posts, because to be honest I haven't traveled nearly as much as many of the people on here, but this one happens to be something I know A LOT about.

PM me if you want any help Kiwichick.

**blinkchick2134** · 04-05-2007, 12:24 PM

My little brother plays Halo and seriously doesn't have a social life. I don't live at home but my mom tells me they have trouble getting him up for school after he stays up to 4am playing. They've tried turning off the game and revoking his time on it but nothing works. He's a big guy, like 6'2" and 220, so when he gets mad they usually back down.

He did go to one party a few months back but that's it. We were hoping that because he got his driver's permit in Oct he'd be out more but that's not happening. I feel bad because he's my little bro and I have no clue what to do. He'll go out if I offer to take him to a movie or something but it seems like all he does is talk about Halo at school and all the other kids think he's a geek. My boyfriend's convinced he's harboring some homosexually tendencies, which I kinda agree because he's never shown any attracting to girls. My parents are really homophobic so we're thinking maybe he's using the games as an output for his frustation/angry. That's our stoner theory though.

As for your flatmate, I say keep offering to take him out. Learn a little about the game, then say "so after you finish this quest we should go get a few beers" - and keep him to it. Even getting him to go to a special night ($2 drafts or something) can work - setting up a scheldued weekly event could help him plan around his gaming. Try to get him to talk about other things besides the game, weather/sports/politics/sex.