World of Warcraft

[ipedregon]

Hey Tim .. I used that subject cuzz I knew it get your attention

Quote:
Originally Posted by UrbanShaman
Hi ipedragon:


Guilty as charged. Imagine how surprised I was that a belief system so important to my ancestors makes a hit and miss appearance on WoW. I couldn't resist and now I adore the game.

I will however, be cutting my playtime considerably to make room for exercise and meal planning. Responsible playing of WoW will be my reward for a job well done.

Thanks for the info on the caffiene withdrawal. The headache is slightly better since I drank more water. I just can't wait to feel better.




Hey Tim, I never followed up to see your reply on this one.

I played for 2 years, led a guild as GM, led raids, ran web sites and ate alot of Pizza and drank alot of beer in the process

I cut my play time tons of times but in the end I had to give it up because I loved it soooooo much

In December I left the game, sold my accounts, took my family on vacation to Disneyland and never looked back

It was super super hard kudos if you don't have a problem with it, for me it was a true addiction and a huge part of why i got up to 310 lbs (I'm only 5 foot 8 so that was a astronomical BMI

Right now I still wish I could play sometimes but at the same time I realize how much time and RL (real life) I burned away, I saw guys loose their jobs, girl friends, kids fail school, older kids failing college courses, and I almost lost my wife over it

To those who don't know about it .. it's just a super addictive game that is soo good, soo addictive, but soo time consuming the amount of time that the game requires to do "end game" is crazy we had raid sessions that lasted 4-5 hours at a time several nights a week and then we probably prepared and "farmed" 20 hours a week

I just wanted to share my story with you Tim me and my best friend we were Co-GMs for the entire time we built the Guild up to the largest on our Realm at one point with over 400 accounts and 2 Guilds maxed out to 500 characters, we completed all of MC/ZG/Karazan/Gruuls and now we have both quit and handed it over , we are both over weight, fighting health problems and trying to win back our wives hearts .. it's pure evil dude ..

Enough of that though ... the whole story is better suited for the Wow Widows forums

Good luck with that if you sense for a minute it hinders your ultimate health though remember in RL you don't get to Res

[UrbanShaman]

Re: World of Warcraft

Thank you for the post, dragon! I feel the pinch already as it were. My guildies are already making noises at my absences but I've held firm. Resto shamans are in big demand right now so the noises sound more like whining. If necessary I'll leave the guild and stay independent or find a more low-key guild that doesn't need to run Kara every other day and twice on Sunday. Plus, I figure when WoTLK comes out, there will be more solo or small group content at which point, a guld becomes a bonus, not a necessity.

I admire you strength for making the change. I hope everything works out for you. You've already done so well on weight loss, I'm sure the rest will fall into place.

[ipedregon]

Re: World of Warcraft

Hey there Shammy

Yeah I did not want to get too preachy or anything. I just know what I did to myself over gaming. Both times that I gained super amounts of weight it was during a period of time that I was gaming. The first time it was Diablo I and II and a few shooters. The second time it was WoW.

My wife took pictures of me at 190 all lean and fit sitting at the computer as she was upset about me gaming again. My biggest picture ever was at 310 .. guess where ... sitting at the computer

Hmmm I gotta dig up pictures .. its scary

Oh let me find and then put on photobucket ..

Anyways yeah ANYONE i run into playing WoW I tell them .. ITS EVIL !!! ... lol so it's not just you. I would tell it to anyone off the street right now.

Here is another way to think about it

In WoW if you raid you will spend lets say at a minimm of 10 hours raiding and prepping for raids. That would be LOW but for the sake of argument lets use 10 hours.

Now imagine spending 10 hours a week in the Gym, practicing a new musical instrument, or working on a new professional degree or certification. The yields of those 10 hours would be phenominal !!!

Now what are the WoW yields ? Cooler graphics which are just bits rendered to look cool. And well the experience of doing the same raid over and over and over again until everyone gets their drops.

Well .. enough gettin preachy on WoW hehe ..

I'm gonna upload some reverse before/after pics soon ..

[ipedregon]

Re: World of Warcraft

OK here we go Shammy

There are 2 pics in this slide show

The one with me by myself is at 190-200 lbs I don't know the exact weight but I was exercising, working out, running

The big one is at 310 Lbs I"m the obvious big guy in the picture


http://s190.photobucket.com/albums/z...view=slideshow

[Mirya]

Re: World of Warcraft

Wow its amazing. I didn't really think anyone else playedthat washere lol guess I should have known. And yes it IIS EVIL. The pic below is what my ad back, eating crap and playig video games did to me. I am playing it again BUT this time I SAY when and how lon and I make sure I eat when I am supposed to and still work out. I will stop a group or raid to eat. I WILL Not let them drag me intothe funk again. I also already made mty guil aware that if they can't respect my time I WILL NOT respect theirs.

[ipedregon]

Re: World of Warcraft

Yeah its the REVERSE before and after pics in my case.

I had lost 70 lbs when I was off Diablo II, Starcraft, and Counter Strike then once I felt good again I started to play slowly but surely and then went full blown into WoW and then when I was 310 and so unhealthy I knew I had to change, I tried to diet alone and moderate and that helped but still I ended up in the hospital with a near miss stroke, high bood sugar, high blood pressure, acanthosis nigricans skin disorder and depressed and miserable

omg .. i just remembered during raids which I was the GM and raid leader, my feet would fall asleeep and I would just leave it till we were done .. can you imagine .. putting a game before even your limbs ?

I have a long way to go and the road is going to be hard but I know that I have to personally give up gaming .... it sucks me in too deep .. that might just be me but on the other hand if you find the Wow Widows web site I'm not alone so ...

Just take care guys its pure crack and gaming is not a healthy life style I've tried to "manage my time" for about 10 years now .. LOL

[zarniwoop]

Re: World of Warcraft

I quit full-time raiding a couple months before BC, but still played heavily on several *9 alts. I could pop in and out, do a few bg's, and walk away. Yeah right. I'd finally log at 3:00am, grumpy, and because I hadn't gotten anything done IRL.

Haven't been in-game in a couple of weeks, and I'd like to play again, but I hate how purposeless I feel after I've played for a few hours. The skillz you develop in-game really really don't matter IRL... But oh the one in a hundred BGs that everything comes together right is such a rush..


My ex-bf is still MT for whatever is end-game content nowadays, and it's not doing him well. He smokes too much, eats horribly, and he is stressed anyhow because of job instability.


Zarni
UD priests - Atkins/Atkinstoo

[DigitalMocking]

Re: World of Warcraft

You know, it is possible to just play from time to time and have fun with it. It took me years of an Everquest addiction to figure that out, and the addiction was baaad. I played, my roomates played, everyone in my department at work played, my girlfriend played. When you're passing up Sex because you need to do a raid.. there's a problem.

I still play WoW right now, but with a bunch of other ex-addicts. We get together 3 nights a week to mess around and that's it. Setting those limits is really important, otherwise I'm sure at least one of us would fall off the deep end and wind up end-game raiding again, and that's like a second full time job.

[Mirya]

Re: World of Warcraft

You know, it is possible to just play from time to time and have fun with it. It took me years of an Everquest addiction to figure that out, and the addiction was baaad. I played, my roomates played, everyone in my department at work played, my girlfriend played. When you're passing up Sex because you need to do a raid.. there's a problem.

I still play WoW right now, but with a bunch of other ex-addicts. We get together 3 nights a week to mess around and that's it. Setting those limits is really important, otherwise I'm sure at least one of us would fall off the deep end and wind up end-game raiding again, and that's like a second full time job.

It is very hard to play "from time to time" for some people if they have VERY addictive personalities. Thats like telling an alcoholic or a drug addict that oooh you can just take a hit or drink from time to time to enjoy it. I agree with you though that it is possible but if the person isn't quite "ready" emotionally or mentally or even physically to remove the habit establishing a better control of themselves is going to be impossible. These games can definitely be as bad as drugs and alcohol

[Grant]

Re: World of Warcraft

Yeah I couldn't do it either. I was a big EQ addict and that transferred to WoW. EQ had this cool feature where you could see how many real time hours you spent playing each character. I added it up one time and discovered I had played 6 months real time out of 2 years. That averages out to 6 hours a day. I shudder to think of it now. If I could have taken that time and done something *useful* who knows what I might have accomplished?

[ipedregon]

Re: World of Warcraft

I was a guild master for 2 years and I can't tell you how many conversations I had with kids and adults about how it was affecting their life. It would start with a pst/tell hey I need to talk to you, then we'd go off and chat and I'd find out someones girl friend just left him or that some kids was going to have to attend summer school and the worste was when someone lost their job and was going to take time off to focus and find a new job!

Yep it is possible to play in moderation I just don't know many people that do. It starts with rationalizing that 10 hours a week is "OK" and goes from there.

Even my friend who used to tell me "you need to learn how to balance things" eventually quit and now all he talks about is the "wasted time" and he shudders at the days played.

I am getting stabalized on Atkins now and starting to exercise. I'm hoping I can spend 10 hours a week exercising Now that would ROCK !!! I'm gonna level up my RL and treat my family and friends as my Epics! LOL