Finally over my wow addiction

[Palee]

They say to get rid of an addiction the easiest way to do it is to replace it with another.

I'm finally done with WoW and the MMORPG genre for good. I discoverd DOTA 2 and I'm hooked. I no longer have any cravings to play WoW. The thought of leveling up a character to 90 (which isn't that bad) and then gearing him up for many weeks until it can be somewhat competitive makes me sick. In DOTA 2 I login, play a game or 10, kick some butt or have my butt kicked and then out. No grinding, no gear treadmill, no feeling of always having to play more so I don't get left behind by the other maniacs who play the game.

I feel ... relieved. Too bad it took 8 years and thousands of dollars to finally be done with this, but it's better later than never.

DOTA 2 cost me 22 bucks and even if sometimes I play for like 4-5 hours in a row in the weekend it still doens't feel as addictive as WoW did. WoW, I just couldn't stop playing it, there was always something else that needed to be done, some profession to raise, some more gear to get on alts, etc.

I feel ... relieved. I actually enjoy working at work, because I feel no pressure to go home and grind some more shit in WoW. I go out hiking or just driving around and enjoying the view. It feels great to experience this thing called IRL.

I don't want to make any of you love WoW less with this post. Nobody should feel bad about their hobbies, but me personally I did, always when playing WoW. There is something seriously flawed in the MMORPG genre. I tried Guild Wars 2 which presumably has a lot less grinding, but I hated it too. Even though it has no subscription it still made me feel bad. So it's not about the money, it's about countless hours repeating the same shit over and over again to achieve nothing in the end.

One might say that any game is the same, you keep doing the same thing over and over, but it's not true. Every game I play in DOTA 2 is different. Outcomes, strategies, local fights, everything is different. It's like playing chess, same rules all the time, but every game is different.

I feel ... RELIEVED!

Palee

P.S. No, you can't have my stuff, my subs expired 3 months ago.

[JohnGabriel]

I just dont like the pvp, or playing with other people. Thats why I box.

But yes if you have the anxiety telling you that you should be home grinding WoW even though you've been playing all week, then its an addiction and not fun. I have that but what else is there for me to do?

[Fat Tire]

I don't want to make any of you love WoW less with this post. Nobody should feel bad about their hobbies, but me personally I did, always when playing WoW. There is something seriously flawed in the MMORPG genre. I tried Guild Wars 2 which presumably has a lot less grinding, but I hated it too. Even though it has no subscription it still made me feel bad. So it's not about the money, it's about countless hours repeating the same shit over and over again to achieve nothing in the end.

One might say that any game is the same, you keep doing the same thing over and over, but it's not true. Every game I play in DOTA 2 is different. Outcomes, strategies, local fights, everything is different. It's like playing chess, same rules all the time, but every game is different.

I agree 100% and I felt the same way as you do about 6-8 months ago about pvp and quit raiding along time ago because of the treadmill. It was only when I decided to take away the pvp grind that I felt free to play how I wanted.

[Mickthathick]

I stopped playing WoW about a month before Christmas due to the fact that the more I played, the more I felt I needed to play (if that makes sense). I was spending hours a day on doing my ahing, then time on my farms then time on my dailies then time in LFR or dungeons to get my toons gear then time leveling a monk then time leveling another alt cause I wanted to have more hunters in my team...............

So yer I feel good now, I play maybe an hour of BF3 a night and am devoting much more time to my health (diet/exercise) not living like a slob, reading (1/2 way through the first Jack Reacher book and I'm hooked on the series) and a bit of drawing and painting when I can be bothered.

Although I am fighting an unnatural fucking urge to start playing EVE again :/

[Chivalrous]

I work 70+ hours a week, am married and have friends and family I spend time with. My wife and I raid with a casual guild on tues. and thurs.

i 5box because it is fun and challenging, I do wish I could play wow more often, but that is the extent of my addiction. I sometimes go 3 to 4 days not playing at all. So I don't feel addicted. To me wow is like a cold beer after a long work day. I think that's how it should be.

[kittykitty]

I miss City of Villains / City of Heroes... The ultimate casual online RPG (I hate the term "MMO" because it's been so devalued that people equate it as "like warcrap", people say stuff like "well, a MMO has to have grind because it's part of the genre" and other such retardedness, grr...), aww.

There was a really good slideshow on Warcrap on Photobucket but it looked like Photobucket stopped doing javascript slideshows and now only allows the crappy flash ones with lowered image quality, aw.

J.mp/warcrap

But if you look at the slides and keep clicking next, you get the idea of the "progression" of I think a lot of the more addicted people...

[MadMilitia]

I work 70+ hours a week, am married and have friends and family I spend time with. My wife and I raid with a casual guild on tues. and thurs.

i 5box because it is fun and challenging, I do wish I could play wow more often, but that is the extent of my addiction. I sometimes go 3 to 4 days not playing at all. So I don't feel addicted. To me wow is like a cold beer after a long work day. I think that's how it should be.

That's how it works. As Mick pointed out the more time you spend on the MMORPG the more time you want to spend on it. The prereq for the addiction is in a sense having nothing else constructive to do. That's how so many on unemployment for example get hooked.

I was unfortunate enough to pick up my first MMORPG when I was a kid with nothing else to do. So yeah...the addiction got me for a few years. Nevertheless I wound up with a mortgage like most others. With the complexities and duties of home and work, games feel trivial by comparison. Not all of course. Some still demand more respect.

Forums are typically where I lose most of my day.

[zenga]

To me wow is like a cold beer after a long work day. I think that's how it should be.

Not sure if I share the cold beer view. I have plenty of friends I used to go out with, sit in the pub, play soccer with etc ... they all got married and have a kid/house/garden. Most of the days, they come home from work and plant themselves in the couch watching TV, till it's time to go to bed. I don't know if watching TV for 5-6 hours each day is better than WoW. Am I addicted to wow? Maybe, but probably to the same extend how most are addicted to their TV, the difference I think is that wow triggers my brain (heroic progress raiding is like solving a puzzle and pvp is like chess to me).

If wow is the substitute for TV I think there is little harm in spending many hours.

[Chivalrous]

It's what you make of it. I like wow, I met my wife on it, It relieves stress from work and entertains, don't feel addicted, I think multi is right-it's about having other stuff to do alongside it. Cheers!

[heyaz]

thanks for telling us