before iwatch this i just want to throw out the reason i believe it is so addictive is because it is the only game that successfully transports the player into another world, it does it more then any VR headset has done so far. You feel like you are the character. every other mmorpg i have played doesnt give me the same feeling that wow once did and that is because wow did it so perfectly. and no matter how shitty things are in our real lives, we could always escape to another world and literaly forget those problems.
For me, the Elder Scrolls series is the only one that does that. Even ESO has felt more immersive so far compared to WoW, but I'm still only on day three of my WoW trial so that may change
K1NGF1SHER One year late but for other people in the same situation atm. The game will change drasticly when you are getting a bit up in level and can play the game as its supposed to be played
It's kinda weird, the best MMORPG on history is the one with the poorest character customization system. 13 years already, and it isn't even close to Sims 2 in that aspect.
Mob Petruša It could enhance your reading ability, Teamwork skills, Time management skills, Professions usually forces you to do simple but extensive math. WoW is actually helpful. Where as Alcohol (Drinking) gives no health gains and most people who smoke weed also start to smoke cigarettes for a higher buzz which also gives no health gains
I started playing wow when I was ten, back in patch 3.2. I started playing about a year before I got depressed. And whenever I played wow during that time it made me happy, & still does to this day. I think I like it so much subconsciously because I like my character, & I don't like myself, especially when I was deeply depressed. I worked for things in that game, & I got them. I have pride for my character for that. I guess this game just allows me to be in a world, (even if it's not per say real) that I like myself, & I feel apart of. I don't really have friends in real life, but I have a guild, & friends on here that I feel good, & normal as. This game may have saved my life.
Amen!!! I guess for me I felt the same, I have a very good healer, that can do 30-40,000 heals... My depression never goes away, but with wow it's just goes away. I play on Neverendless a Patch 3.3.5a server...
***** I'm similar to you. I'm depressed and have no friends in real-life (business acquaintances and family don't count), but I've met and voice chat with hundreds of people from guilds in Tera, Counter-Strike, and League of Legends. In Counter-Strike, I was the administrator of a 14-man group with a popular forum, and participated in events, like CAL, for 3.5 years where I spent $1,200 in server fees, website hosting, and other miscellaneous items. Like all things, however, it eventually came to an end. I'm now 29, and there is an unfortunate truth that took me a while to learn: All those friends you meet online will not be your friends once you quit playing their games. If you're lucky, maybe you'll find true love and marry someone, but once you quit, it's very hard to convince someone to jump ship and come join you on your next gaming pursuit. It's even harder to convince them to meet in real-life. Nowadays, I play mostly single-player games. They're important because they show real life lessons, teach stories, and encourage creativity. You can play relatively stress-free, and even set the controller down, turn around, and look your mother in the eye when she wants to speak with you.
***** I wish I were all my different characters. Especially a Goblin or a Night Elf, or even a Blood Elf! Imagine if we could go into the game, just for a day? :D It would be pretty fun. ^^ When I feel depressed, I feel a bit happier when playing WoW. Though, sometimes, I struggle to do anything when I feel that way, even WoW. >.< But, it is a good game and therapeutic as well. :) WoW is definitely a life saver. I don't have really have real life friends either, but I found friends on WoW and online. ^^
***** Try working for something in your real, actual life. Then you will actually HAVE a life worth saving. If you have pride for a few megabytes worth of data stored on a server in Irvine, CA, then I feel sorry for you.
I started on Nostalrius on Friday, and I played 10 hours straight until 3am... It's just so satisfying, the quests are fun, you meet people and playing in a group is an enjoyable experience.
***** First off all, earning money from an activity has nothing to do with achievement. Modern games are laid out to create a false sense of achievement to players. They feel rewarded every hour so they keep playing and coming back. It's an addiction to false sense of achievement. By the way, from the 10 million players less than 0.000001% are making an income to sustain themselves from World of Warcraft via RUclips/Twich.
***** It's not false to "me". It's a false achievement in reality. If you ask any psychologist they will tell you the same. People stop achieving things in real life, because they get hooked to "virtual achievements", which have no impact on real life and do not even require any proper work, apart from just doing repetitive actions. It's a very sad overall reality, because I do enjoy games as well. Playing a game that is programmed to tell you "Level 10 - You are A master", is no real achievement, because EVERYONE playing that game will reach this, no matter what. So many games are just programmed to give you a sense of achievement, when in fact it's no real achievement at all. The game will tell you, how great you are. It's a psychological addiction. This false sense of achievements goes so far that kids and younger adults get so addicted, that they no achieve anything in real life anymore.
***** Yes and no. Achievements can be viewed as both, actually making a difference, as well as own personal satisfaction. However when a video game's sole purpose is to only give a player constant rewards in the sense of achievements, just so that players get addicted to it, it becomes dangerous. I have seen this behavior with myself during my teenage years, where I played MMOs before WoW even existed. Now I am 31 and I am still a gamer. I even worked for Blizzard and Activision in the past. I fully agree with you in regards to the "virtuallity" about the achievement. I am a programmer, so all my work is in that sense based in a virtual world and not directly in reality, yet I absolutely consider it real and it's a real achievement if I finish something bigger and complex. However the main difference between a false sense of achievement and real achievement is, that these games are from the ground up programmed, that with very little work, you can accomplish what seems a lot. For just playing the game without going the extra mile, you will be rewarded with achievements. Just playing the game, the way the programmers intended it, is not an achievement. This then leads to people being fully satisfied, thinking they have accomplished something great, when in fact everything was pre-programmed. This goes so far that especially younger kids tend to more and more avoid the need to accomplish something in real life which then slowly affects who they become. It's a very dangerous form of addiction that can change your personality over the course of 5-10 years, which then leads to a full on depression. Here is an interesting article & discussion: www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/comments/1ki960/dangers_of_gaming_the_illusion_of_accomplishment/
+Adûnâi You went from having an interesting argument, to calling his comments "Bullshit" just because he pointed out the reality behind the addiction of video games? Look, I play over 20 hours a week, but I do know it's not a real achievement, it's entertainment, just like watching TV. Don't confuse that with an actual achievement, such as studying for a university.
My story is pretty average I think, but illustrates the point I'm trying to make very well. I had a great time in primary school, which I thought paved the way for an equally great secondary school experience. Instead, I was hated by 90% of the class for not liking rap music, alcohol, confusing emotional and sex life, and smoking. It didn't help that my family wasn't in the best shape either. But for my 18th birthday, I got the Collector's Edition of BC, and I loved it. In the grand scheme of things, I played WoW whenever my life entered a period of heightened misery, to escape what I felt was unjustified torture. Because in WoW, I was an above average player (which admittedly doesn't need more than a functioning brain, some sense and basic communication skills), I had friends I got on with very well, I was part of a great guild, and I felt that whenever I got into any group, either for PvE or PvP, I could contribute to that group's goals; my actions not only had meaning, but value. If I didn't Fear-leash a mob properly (back in BC, mind you), my group would have wiped. If I didn't keep up with my aggro as a tank, my group would have died. If there was a guy who needed some adivce, I could either provide that, or tell him where to look for the info. And then there are those shocking private chats you get into, where you're trying to keep friendships and marriages in one piece. In short, I could make a difference. All the time I've spent in WoW helped me to cope with the pain and sense of powerlessness caused by the outside world, which in turn helped me get a hang of why and how am I can deal with said outside world. I think that for every life WoW allegedly ruins, it saves 10 other lives. The whole reasoning behind why the former is more often heard and discussed is the very reason many players play WoW instead of going outside: sheer, uncontrolled, completely ignorant malice, under the disguise of tradition, law, peer expectations, and the ever-famous "opinion". Fuck that, and everyone who so feverishly believes in either - I can respect another's opinion, but nobody's has the authority to cause harm. Nobody's.
I love WoW I am so glad I discovered it. I made so many friends, and my boyfriend and I (when we were a new couple) have played wow for years now and it brought us closer as well as learning a lot about each other. I was always a sky person and joined a raid team forced me to talk and interact with people, it also taught be so many leadership skills. I can comfotable run my own raids easy and these skills transfers into real life.
sharbel23 She is not a mental case that cuts herself and other craziness, me and my wife also play wow. It's like playing cards, it's a social thing to do. I am no mental case and I enjoy playing wow with my wife in raids.
I like to point out here I really did used to be super addicted to wow back from 2004 to 2010 like would only sleep for 3 hours go to work for 9 and the rest was play wow till work started again. But I got one real good thing out of the game sociability I was able to go out make friends and actually got a boyfriend (and no not thru wow at the time even though I found out he played) Before I even got into wow I was shy and didn't talk to anyone I was to myself never went to parties or movies or hung out with friends. Now I still play wow on my days off but because of this game I have become more social.
I just wanted to say something... I hate it when my mom is like "Hey, come here" and I'm like, right in the middle of a raid, or in a BG or arena, and I calmly say "Hold on." Then she yells at me to get off the game and go help her with something or whatever, and I'm like "I can't pause the game, just hold on" and then we get into a fight... I don't want to be that player that suddenly goes AFK in the middle of a raid or BG and increases the chance the raid or BG fails. Why can't parents just understand that?
They don't understand that you value the game. It's not like you won't come and help right? They just have to be patient and wait for 5 minutes is all. Right?
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Only 3 things. 1: It's fun (quests, large amount of creatures, dungeons, talking... etc. and all those small things, such as weird quests and mailboxes) 2: The variety of macro classes and races you can be, where other games can only get 3-5 classes AT BEST, and only 2 races. 3: The graphics.
ik this comment is 4 years old,but i just tried out WoW, and all i have done so far is spam my 2 abilities and do quests over and over and over and over and over and over! i dont feel accomplished, i have felt no fun from this game either. what is so good about this game that they made a movie about it???
Because the game was way better back then, especially the social aspect of it, everything was more challenging and you were forced to work with others to get stuff done and invest a lot of time and effort to get rewarded
Game is good,wrath started "easy" mode, i remember raiding in Naxx at the beginning of wrath, i had my son and i was off wow for about 3 months, i come back, grind valor (in heroic dungeons) to get FREE epics to get caught up, if ANYTHING BC was shitty because if u get far behind u had a hard to catching up, same with vinilla, they tried to fix it in wrath, but like i said, allthe people working hard to gear out, just gets obsolete from people grinding valor and not being to far behind the raiders, cata i liked people bitched because it was to hard, blah blah blah, then LFR, how the hell can anyone be mad about LFR??? It lets u do easy mode tourist mode of raids, to get caught up...not jsut running heroic dungeons to valor cap to get caught up.. If u complain about not having to search for people to do heroics or find groups to do w/e it is u were talking about...why the hell cant u anymore? because u dont want to waste ur time like u did in BC spamming tade because its faster to do it in LFG...if u want to do ACTUAL raids, u still have to /2 or be in a guild, WoW has not gotten any worse, the game is still fun and still challenging... If u thinks its to easy, ur playing the game wrong.... Almost a year in SOO most people are still clearing heroic mode....FFS stop making excuses because u dont like playing anymore.
At this point I'm addicted to the MMORPG swtor because after maxing my character level out and getting all of my gear I really didn't have much left to do with that character. So I finally started looking in to some RP guilds and eventually got involved deeply with one and now I'm hooked to the game so I can get on and socialize with other people and be respected for who I am despite how I look or my differences. Now I'm one of the highest ranking members of the soon to be one of the biggest RP guilds on our current server and I'm addicted to serving my role in that guild. Despite it being fun and social, It takes away from your priorities in life when you realize just go dedicated you are to the game instead of your actual life. Also, it makes it EXTREMELY hard to stop playing when you have real people that you are leaving, or if you are in the middle of a guild event, or if you are worried about guild events happening when you are not there. It's like a facebook addict having a constant need to check his news feed and like, message, and share all the time with the worry one of his friends just posted a new selfie or something. That's why I've become so addicted. and with the Guild Websites that enjin runs make it even harder to break.
I played 3 years ago back Pre Cata and was insanely addicted. I recently started playing again and I am now where near as addicted as I was before. I played many video games before that I didnt get addicted to.
Steezy I don't think he will be. When you play something for the first time, you are not sure you can accomplish something. After you see it is not a huge deal, you just don't care about it anymore, and since thing stars to repeat in patterns you lose your interest. I was enjoying this game so much when I first met it, because it was totally new genre for me. I enjoyed new game world, that was different than real world. I wanted to achieve the most of the game, that is why I was playing it every day. And when you do something for the first time as I said, it's incredibly addictive. When you buy iPad, smartphone new bicycle, you enjoy it for some time, after that you just don't feel it anymore. It is the same with WoW. When Blizzard releases something new in perspective of game-play, then you can think about another addiction, but since they are repeating all the time it is not addictive anymore. Now they only care to have these players who unconsciously think only about numbers and achievements. This is not addictive for me.
It's addictive because it's immersive. Your in-game character is an extension of your real (offline) self. It's like living a second life... one where you get adventure and glory, instead of boring daily routine. Even behavioural patterns are carried over - e.g. gankers are usually bullies in real life as well, open and friendly players are usually friendly people offline too. To develop this example even further - I tend to be a loner with odd interests in real life, and that's how I am in WoW as well - often doing thing solo, exploring the loneliest and forgotten corners of Azeroth... and I like it. Reminds me of my childhood when I explored abandoned old houses in my grandma's neighborhood. It's like re-experiencing these moments again. That's how games appeared in the first place - to give you an alternate reality where you can escape from daily stress and frustration. We always prefer pleasure over displeasure ;)
"Why is WoW so addictive?" My answer is that there simply aren't any better MMOs out there. Now, I'm not saying that WoW is the best MMO, its actually far from it and I even stopped playing it 2.5 years ago because it got boring, but if the other MMOs can't even reach WoWs level, then they aren't worth mentioning. To me WoW is the standard level of MMO that other MMO games should reach for me to get interested in them.
Tanne Roskat I agree. I believe WoW probably has the most content out of any game out there. There's a lot to do, and other MMOs simply can't compare to the sheer amount of content that WoW offers. Not to mention, a lot of them feel exactly like WoW, but simply aren't familiar and don't have the same amount of content.
Tanne Roskat Its not about the level its the story behind the chracters you play, Yes there are some MMO's out there with better graphics and gameplay but the lore and story of Wow makes you feel like reading a book while playing it at the same time, which other MMo's today lack. Overall Wow can continue to be a Mmo monster as long the writers can create more epic storyline through out the years to come.
chiffon fairchild Community-wise I found that Tibia was the best for that. That MMO pretty much requires having friends to get far, unless you like getting PK'd and losing levels every day. So unless you make lots of friends, you're probably going to hate the game.
Exactly. It's like the best movie you've ever seen, but you get to move around in it and be a part of it, and the history, all of the lore, is fantastic.
been playing for like 9 years now, and it's my number 1 escape from stress. i love getting some alone time in the game with the people i don't know in real life, and i love to be that different character once in a while. i wouldn't say i'm addicted but i sure miss the game after a few months not playing, i wonder if i ever will stop playing but since i'm growing older other things become more important. and i just don't have much time for long raids or anything else.
WoW is not that addictive most of the time I play like 1-2 weeks and then, stop for like 1-2 months and come back if it was really addictive then, I wouldn't quit for months.
Sure why not? It's not like I was paying every single months of the year like some of the hardcore players do. I'm not addicted to the game I only play it because I like it and I want to kill time and even so I play like 1-2 hours and then stop because I have other stuff to do. Be addicted to me is when you cannot stop playing and you have to play every single days for like 3-6 hours none stop or else you cannot sleep. I can easily life without playing it for a week even if I did pay for that month and so losing a week of play time.
Achille12345 why play at all? Either way, I can say I was an addict. I quit playing and haven't turned back since BC. Plenty of other things to blow money and time on than WoW! Gym membership ftw!
In FFXIV's defense, the backgrounds for the races are on their wiki. The lore is ALSO explained in the character creation menu. The lore behind each city-state (Limsa Lominsa, Ul'dah, Gridania, Ishgarde) are explained through cinematics... and Ishgarde's is explained via quests. Also, in order to understand the races and lore more, you'd have had to play FFXIV in the glory days of 1.0, which are long-gone. The game itself now takes place, as of 2.0, five years AFTER the Fall of Dalamud, which brought about the Calamity. There is extensive lore there, just as much -- if not deeper than -- WoW's lore. You just have to look it up, especially in-game.
Why do I keep grinding Zandalari Dinomancers for a tome that will let me tame a big-ass Triceratops? WHY? WHY? Do you know how many giant dinosaur bones I've accumulated? DROP DAMMIT.
choose wisely, i grabbed a green one and...looking at it all day "TwoBigForYou" isnt very appealing to me anymore, hes great as a pet, strong, tanky, but...the visual appeal isnt there, i wish it was, i do, but...it just isnt, i feel if i had a red one id like it better, or a blue one or even snagging a white one, i feel like theres a single better one when i know no matter what i choose, the one that is always going to be the one im going to go back to, is going to be my green one, even if i cant match mount and pet, even if i cant match armor and pet, even if everyone else has this hunter pet, he is my dino and visually appealing or not, hes mine
There’s something comforting about playing WoW where the familiarity of it and the memories attached to it bring a feeling of safety. I play both factions but there’s something about that Stormwind music that conjures up a feeling of being “home” somehow. I know all these things are deliberately put into the game, but… they work. I know some people hate repetition, but the grinds can take me out of myself sometimes where I’m half concentrating on what I’m doing in WoW, but another part of me is freed. Sometimes inspiration pops in and good ideas come to me in that half-meditative state killing mobs. Most importantly, I play with my husband and daughter and consider times spent in Azeroth part of the family history. Winters can be pretty grim where we live and so this gives us a chance to “go out” and do something despite pouring rain and howling wind outside.
What I miss/love the most about the game, is the fantastic vanilla music. The feeling of going on a brand new adventure with your first ever character, and then have that AWESOME music (Night Elf/Teldrassil music) going in the background, filling your adventures with feelings of awesomeness!
I really like the poker machine analogy. Look at the hoopla surrounding flying in Draenor recently - absolute RAGE everywhere in the forums. I read posts where people were *literally* crying at their keyboards. I shit you not - and they get up-voted. And lo and behold, Blizz announces flying is returning…. if you do about a month's worth of rep grinding. Almost like it was planned… As for myself, I play it if there's nothing else to do - for the cost of a movie ticket for a shitty modern movie I'm only going to watch once, I've got a month's worth of WoWCrack.
I think the reason I'm addicted to video games in general (I've played WoW about a week now during Spring Break and have leveled a Draenei Paladin to 35. I also started a Worgen Death Knight and brought him up from his starting level 55 to 60 today) is that I'm comfortable enough in real life that I don't feel wrong spending the time I do on games. I have friends, some of whom only play Minecraft for a couple hours on the weekends, and others who started playing Dota 2 and WoW alongside me, for thousands of hours, together as one group, after we met in real life and discovered we all played ROBLOX of all things years ago. I'm in a happy relationship, my grades are above average (I'm not going to Harvard and I won't be Valedictorian but going to college is probably in my future as an Eagle Scout) and I use games to relieve the stress of day to day life while the big picture is all good. I am somewhat worried though, as I do have some signs of addiction, most notably withdrawal symptoms (when I stopped playing games for a month so that I'd be doubly miserable during summer band practice [thanks parents] I started getting really, well, sassy at first- talking back to people, feeling the need to get the last word, feeling talkative but not in a good way, and I'm normally quiet. Not shy, I just don't feel like talking. Sometimes people aren't worth speaking to [as in i don't think what I say is going to make any difference at all] and others aren't discussing things I care about at all. But I felt like chiming in after a couple weeks without games. I noticed it, my IRL friends noticed it, and my parents noticed it too. I thought nothing of it because I knew beforehand that summer band would pretty much put me into a constant state of pissed off, and I thought I was handling it well considering how much I hate both it and Texas summer heat. Then came the sadness period. I randomly felt sad at strange moments throughout the day, but I never showed it because Ive been quiet my whole life and I had no reason to speak up then. That lasted about 3 days of the third week. Then came the anger. I wasn't just angry at any one thing; I hated the world at this point. I got really mad over small things- someone grabbing my mouthpiece as a joke, my uniform inspection not being perfect, my section leader asking WHY it wasn't perfect. I got really irritated and angry when any of those things happened, but it wasn't until the second week of school (5 weeks after the three week band practice started) that I let it out. Someone I've been moderately annoyed by since elementary school decided it would be funny to hide my mouthpiece somewhere. Basically what happened was I found out he hid it when I needed it for inspections before a football game where we were playing, and lost it. Completely. I was GONE. I barely remember what happened and I know I didn't think it through. I remember slamming the kid against the locker room wall, asking where the mouthpiece was. He pulled that whole "the fuck, man?" thing where he tries to make me feel bad because it's just a joke but I cut him off by punching him in the windpipe, then the gut, then throwing him on the floor. Keep in mind I'm a couple feet taller and twice this guys weight. He's about to pass out. He tells me where it is, I get it, we don't talk for the rest of the school year (thank god, I hated him anyway) and no one ever knows exactly what happened. When I got home I immediately told my parents I needed to get back on my computer that weekend or someone *else* was going to get hurt. They understood.), but (bloody hell it seems wierd saying this after writing down that anecdote) it never interfered with real life. I never missed school solely because of games. I kept up with friends, relatives. My parents were actually happy I wasn't doing sports because my uncle broke his neck in high school football (he's fine now but it wasn't a good memory of football for my mom) and they seem happy that I'm interested in a field that's supposedly going to have more jobs than applicants when I'm out of college (not game design necessarily but computer programming in general). It seems that I rely on video games to control anger and stress (when I do play games for long periods of time regularly I notice that I stop caring about things that would normally at least slightly bother me, which is a double edged sword- if I stop caring about how tired I am right then or how some dickhead tried to screw with me then it's good, but if I stop caring about how tired I will be in the morning that's gonna be bad in the morning.) and to fill a void I'm happy to leave wasted, when other people are studying or working at animal shelters or partying. I suppose that every moment I spend playing WoW or Dota or some other game my friends and I picked up is a moment I'm not getting hurt or hurting others. I'll probably need to deal with the fact that video games are pretty much my only outlet for emotion though, I'd imagine that is a problem later in life when I'll be too busy to have a job and a family life or whatever my dad tells me every weekend when I'm not working on homework because I don't have any. He always tells me that his friends kids all seem to spend hours on homework but I never seem to do any; true enough, i do most of mine the day it's assigned during lunch or before my parents get home from work. Anyway, that's just me commenting about how I'm addicted but apparently only in the I-can't-quit sense more than the it's-ruining-my-life sense. On a year old video. About a game I bought earlier this week... Oh wait it's Monday now.
I actually think this about WoW: WoW is so fun that you don’t know which goal you want to reach in first hand. Get Exalted with every possible faction in the game? Get the Loremaster title? Get a maximum level character of every class? Get Draenor Pathfinder and Broken Isles- and Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder Part Two? WoW is also so fun that you don’t know which class (or race or faction) you want as your main that you’re going to reach all of these goals as. Do you get it?
Freakin' South Park episode got me started 5 years ago, LOL. Great times. MoP is horrible though, from playing every day in wrath to barely once a month now it's so boring, and all my friends/guilds/raid groups quit. No one probably mentioned the possibility of someone playing because of how much they like their character...? I've heard of people wanting to marry their MMO character. xD
Every time I come back to WoW its definitely because of nostalgia. I always remember the fun that WoW brought me but as soon as I play for a few months I remember why I quit. Why don't I ever remember why I quit earlier? And if I do, it has no effect on me until I actually feel it D:
And this is why the level 90 boost sucks for the game, it takes away a bit of the grind and u can just pay a little to gett stuff so it doesnt feel as rewarding to grind it out
well make leveling fun and hard, its so fing easy so u just sit there and no brain, make wow harder and let everyone fight for the cool raids and the other endgame, and the endgame is also very easy, look at the beginning of wow, it was hard now then some1 get to the endgame it isnt the same kick to kill a raid boss, everyone can do it so its not as fun, and blizzard can always do some really hard engame sttuffs, and some more casual so everyone is happy
fituafi I dont think its good for a noob to get instant level 90 cuse they dont know what the f they are doing so cant blizzard do so u have tho have a level 90 guy on that acc, cuse it sounds like u think more about the experienced guys
If you feel like paying the $60 or whatever it is, go right ahead.. It takes a week of gameplay to hit 90, yes? Thats about $15.. So if you wanna pay for a 90... 4x that.. I dont think blizz will care. So dollar for dollar.. $60 for a toon is great for them. And it removes the market for selling toons because people could make $100+ per toon. If you wanted to buy a toon you were going to do it. From blizz or a farmer.
I was a DotA player and lore master of the Warcraft series that came with it and didn't come to wow until early Cataclysm. When I arrived, I realized that I missed so much that I started looking for the characters I knew and loved in the original Warcraft I,II, & III. That's when the addiction set in. I remember trying to scour the world in search for Miev, Turalyon and the like. I wanted to explore the world and experience it on a first person perspective. Stepping into the Dark Portal was one of many things that made it exciting and addictive. No wonder the BC and WotLK era was the golden age.
gives a world in which anyone can become a customized hero, can make progress (leveling) that would be incredible in real life and do things that'd be impossible in real life, gives you the opportunity to play with/compete with people and your friends to further this feeling of being a hero or villain, allows you to team up with people in guilds and on adventures killing extremely powerful beings together, gives an escape from reality in which success is often a great deal harder to reach than ingame. then there are smaller more subjective reasons which are person specific, like the niceness of the graphics, the people in the game, the fact that the character models on the game are always made to look attractive, possible to make money with professions, so you can do something you may have always wanted to but was never able to irl, ... etc. i think its very obvious why Wow is addictive, and i don't blame anybody for finding it addictive. when it's a controlled addiction i think it's very enjoyable and not a problem.
One can quit any vice, any addiction, only, with massive effort and by replacing it with something equally engaging/addictive, yet positive-let's say like, learning languages, teaching yourself stuff, and acquiring a reading habit. Easier said than done, true, but still doable, bit by bit. I have been hooked to wow, so much, I've lost two jobs to it, and, basically, the best girl I will ever be with.(We are still friends). Eventually, sold the account, retook it, did it again, few times. Became a scammer, sad story, yet in time, I realized, if I could manage myself, don't indulge in caffeine, drugs, junk food, do plenty of exercise, try to sleep at least 7 hours, get away from assholes and jerks(this is hard nowadays but try it at least), I didn't miss wow so much, then I started learning French, very slowly but steadily, wow addiction is still there, but can be controlled, and if you don't spend too much time indoors in front of your computer, is power over you eventually starts to fade. I still have an account, that I just use like twice a month and tal with some good old wow friends there, and some times I like watching wow videos in RUclips, but that's as far as I get, as far as I will get from now. Don't hate the game, it's a choice, a choice of life, some people enjoy it more than life, due to personal issues, or lifestyles, and that's fine if they can afford it because of A or B. For most of us, it can become a problem if you are an average joe and it starts to become an obsession at some point, and it can easily happen. Not game's fault, but human's brain, the way we are programmed, to attain success, to progress, to keep growing, wow emulates that and can fool and trick some people and then they start believe in it and take it as if it was life, real life. Some people can moderate and manage, but many others can't. Learning Russian and Polish actually now, and came here because Blizzard does massive marketing campaigns that are hard to elude and ignore, just keep as far off from it. Same could be said of any addiction, it's an escape mechanism usually to cope with fear, insecurity and apathy and cover it with a sense of achievement. Again, game is not guilty and is actually a good game, but bewared of it too, the risks. You will relapse, you will feel in pain and bored, and sad, and will want to go back to it, sometime but In time all is possible, even quitting World of Warcraft.
Aced Positive If you started to smoke after quitting it wasn't all that positive though... the poetry part is great nonetheless. wow is still fun, but hides real life from you if all you do is play it... and not everyone can manage their time etc
Damn, I know the feelings you describe. At least I haven't ever lost a job to my gaming/entertainment addiction, but over the past few years I've come to realize I'm on a slippery slope and I'm trying to change course (well, maybe I did lose a job offer and a few important people already -- people I never could have met in the first place because of the way I spend my time). I've never been a WOW or MMORPG player; my addiction lies in other games. It's funny how easily I've resisted substance abuse, obsessions and other vices, and yet I'm too damn well acquainted with my own textbook symptoms of addiction and even dependency. What worsens it is that friends and family generally see me as succesful person; I have a good job, good health and did great academically. No one I know would understand my everyday self-inflicted suffering. I still think gaming is a fantastic thing overall; ludeme analysis and game history are some of my passionate hobbies. But we gamers need help -- we need society and science to recognize game addiction as a legitimate, common and unhealthy addiction. One that is up to the individual to choose against, but can be healed so much faster with the right kind of input and help from others. And one that will become more common still as more children are born into a game-saturated world.
hannesjvv Indeed. I think anything remotely engaging or rewarding has the raw potential to become an addiction at some point. I still maintain is the individual not the cause. You could get addicted to jumping off bridges, and crave the feeling when you can't go. At the end, is not bridge' fault but yours. To keep balance is key, good sleep, try to relax, keep different activities going on and do not focus much on a single one that outstands for too long, or better, get positive, truly rewarding hobbies that even if abused will bring mostly joy. Like, producing something, creating anything, whatsoever. In fact most therapy centres treat their parents by promoting their creativity. And again, it's all easy to say hard to do.
wow, you are learning polish, russian, and french? thats amazing! Im glad you got over your addiction! and you are right, balance is key ;) but hey, if you are still learning those languages and if you need help, you can always ask me! i know french and my mother knows russian (she is from ukraine, and she knows both russian and ukrainian) and I have a polish grammar book.. for some reason XD i also have a lithuanian grammar book, i kinda found those in my basement lol
I was a LOT more addicted during vanilla and BC. I think WoW throws too many rewards at me now. For example, they made leveling easier with more quests, less xp requirements, easier mobs, more powerful abilities as you level... etc. But I actually fell in love with the game when leveling was slow. It took so long to level up, everyone kind of just accepted being their level. Being a level 42 warrior wasn't an unfinished grinding session: It had taken me so long to reach that level that I felt entitled to those 42 levels. I was proud. I was totally content just to explore new zones, find some comrades near my level, and go adventuring. It wasn't a chore. Now being a low level just means 5 more days of grinding to level 90. What's more is people you meet along the way aren't level 40 adventurers, they are players that are grinding along, and probably don't need/want your company.
To keep the players in a game you have to give them a goal they can try to reach (as excample: some epic mount, gear or whatever). This will work for some time, but after a while they will get bored and you have to give them more(more interesting quests or exp-giving pvp, etc.). But what will happen when they reached their goal? They need the next one. So in in the end you need to give them reachable goals and make the way getting there as interesting as possible. Without a goal you'll need a incredible good questline/story to keep them playing, but only a goal (or some) with some shitty quests (you'll have to grind the rest of the time) will bore the players and they'll leave soon. This concept with goals and interesting way to get there works mainly for (mmo)rpgs, but youll see this principal in other games too.
WoW isn't really that addictive to me. I might come back for a couple months after a new expansion, just because the original game left such an impression and astounding memories. But BC ruined the game for me. Segregating the two ways to play, PvP and PvE, made the game entirely stupid. I liked the feeling of going into MC or BWL, trying tirelessly to get gear. Once I got that gear, I could use it HOWEVER I wanted. Did I want to stomp people in BGs or protect my guildies trying to zone in at Blackrock Mountain? Did I want to supply more dps or healing for my guildies in the next raid? I didn't have to choose what I wanted to do with what I did. I did PvE, because that gear helped me do everything else in the game (pvp mostly). Even after the initial honor system, albeit the pvp sets were generally better for pvp, PvE gear was still considered superior in most cases. You also didn't always get to choose exactly what you had at your disposal (diversifying the types of gear people used as well). Obsidian Edged Blade never dropped? Using Unstoppable Force because things are limiting? To go even farther back, can't afford that Arcanite Reaper yet? Rend's Polearm is a good alternative for a little bit. The game wasn't a treadmill, it was an experience and a search. But now, it IS a treadmill. There's nothing to explore, nothing to experience, nothing to discover. You just queue, do your shit, get your shit, then redo it next week. What incentive is it to get gear that can only solely be used to get more gear so that I can just continually do the same thing? The real test of that gear, (GEAR VS GEAR) fails miserably to just a blue set of pvp gear. So what's the point?
This game is so fun I spend my free time watching videos about it. My accounts frozen, and i dont have the funds to play, and I dont know If i'd be able to reconnect with all my old friends... but just thinking about buying even vanilla and working up the expansions excites me. Starting a fresh character on a rp realm, trying to make a name for myself, beat a few people up in a fight, get into a high profile guild... Or joining a pvp server, trying to gear up nice and strong, get my tradeskills going and eventually become one of the big boys... Either way, I have countless memorys... Vanilla wow, my first mount, my first exotic mount, all the different zones, the times farming reps and tradeskills, going back to zones to finish off later game quests. Working up pvp ranks and arena teams, starting over at an expansion, roaming the new worlds with your t2/t3 trying to learn everything and get a peice of the pie as fast as possible. Roleplaying for hours, going to server wide partys, meeting your special someone in RP, breaking up with that special someone, jumping or getting jumped by a guild(with your guild). Big PVP battles where you just cannot be killed and your riding in the frontlines like a BAWCE... WoW... you sexy game.
***** OK, that's cool the game didn't do it for you. Nothing wrong with that, though I'd never base anything in the game off those private servers. Almost all are utter crap. I was just wondering if you were one of those people who play the game for years then say it's crap.
MoP is terrible I've been since BC. Once you play long enough and learn about all the classes you find out how unbalanced everything is. End content is just one BIG GRIND no quality just quantity, hopefully WoD fixes that
This is actually probably the most important aspect to why the game is addictive. You can create as many addictive systems and mechanics as you like, just like all the thousands of different gambling games and time vampire games like farmville but anyone with half a brain soon gets bored. Quality is a huge reason for the success of WoW and people should admit it, especially as most will try other games, get bored and go back to WoW to have FUN.
its 100% about the people you play with! not when you level, but to stick around for the endgame its the people you play with, for me atleast (and ofc making the raids but that is fun becasue you do it with your frinds)
I started playing after I watched the South Park episode about wow. Then I just played it because the world was so huge and I could do so many things like quest, pvp, and crafting/exploration.
There are two things that also contributed to WoW's success that most people overlook. The first being the ability to modify the game's user interface. This might not be such a big deal these days, but when the game first came out I literally found it unplayable because quest management was completely unbearable. I haven't played much WoW, I only got to lv 33 before getting banned for buying gold and haven't played since, mostly because of the subscription fee. But I have been wanting to play it again. When I first started playing I found it very difficult to manage my quests, especially finding the npc that I had to go to or the monsters I had to kill sometimes. It was simply a mess of clicking tiny links and sifting through tons of menus. I quit shortly after starting because of that. My sister, who had already been playing for awhile, suggested I download a mod to help make that a more manageable experience. I downloaded that mod and man it really made the game playable for me. I still can't imagine trying to play the whole game while having to constantly sift through several menus for thousands of quests! So, if the game didn't do so well in certain parts of its design, mods allowed the players to fix them on their own! I honestly think without mods, the game wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is today. Another thing that I think helped WoW's success that virtually no one talks about is the graphics. Now hold on a sec and let me explain! Yes, the graphic style probably isn't favored by many people. Its too cartoony, too blocky, ect. But one thing that many people may not even realize is the design behind the graphics. The graphics are simple enough to understand and appreciate while complex enough to be believable. Compare it to Final Fantasy 14's graphics. Yes, FF14 has better graphics over all, but I literally had to stop playing that game because the graphics were waaaaaaaay too complex. Let me explain, everything was so high resolution and so highly detailed that everything just looks like a huge blur of pixels. That makes it difficult to see things and it gives me a head ache. It also makes it very difficult to appreciate the beauty of the world. It was such a problem in FF14 that I do not play it or any other game with extreme detail like that. I always knew that there was something I just found charming about WoW's graphics, even if they were a bit questionable, but I didnt know what exactly it was until I played FF14 and had to stop playing it shortly after starting because the graphics are just too complex. Guild wars 2 comes pretty close to having that problem as well due to its high contrast and heavy lighting and shadows. More and more games are coming out these days with that problem, and I hope that the game designers realize soon that too complex of graphics is sore on the eyes. I learned this very lesson in a beginner's graphic design course at my college. If the graphics are too complex, its hard to look at and appreciate. If its too simple, it can't be taken seriously. There has to be a balance within the design of the graphics itself, and WoW gets very close to having a perfect balance of simplicity and complexity.
I wonder if there are any players that have been playing wow since the start. I wonder what it's like when they realize they've spent $1,800 to play the same game for the last 10 years.
***** It's not so much that the amount of money spent being a burden... It's the concept of spending almost 2 grand on a single game. Must be one Helluva game for some people. I mean you could purchase almost 34 brand new titles at a full $60 each. If you were into retro gaming you could purchase almost 134 games if they were all priced at $15. That's a pretty nice library if you're a gamer/ collector. To each their own, but IMO subscription based MMORPG's are a waste of money. They don't last forever either. One day the servers will all be shut down and you'll have nothing to show for all your time and effort; well except the for memories anyway.
88SLLS Not everyone is 12 living in their parents' basement, 1800$ in 10 fucking years is absolutely nothing, you've spent a shitton more in that period on stupider things, people have jobs, with a minimum wage one,it's more than affordable, it's a fun game; as a praised hippie once said: "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted".
88SLLS It really is nothing to spend that over a 10 year period. I mean to use my self and other people in games like Rift, League, Lotro, or now ArcheAge. In Rift over a two year period I spent about $1,800 and now the game sadly just sucks so here I am back to WoW. (Best choice Ive made) But at the same time I know people and specifically one person who has dropped nearly 30k between Rift and ArcheAge.. thats about a 4 to 6 year period with the two games. Granted he can afford that, its insane and he's not even one of the worst spenders in these games.
88SLLS And some smokers spend up to $15,000 in that time frame. World of Warcraft won't give you lung cancer and it's a hell of a lot cheaper. So I don't see your point.
It's kind of funny. Something ' wrong with my limbic system so I don't get the built-in euphoria after completing a task. This is true of everything from completing homework to finishing a workout to completing a quest. That alone isn't enough to keep me interested. So while it makes keeping up in school difficult and makes it much harder to have fun in general, I'm also nearly impervious to games like this.
You actually overlooked the forest by examining the trees. I've been thinking about this subject lately and I realized that we have the natural drive for challenge; it's part of life to explore, struggle, adapt and then take pride that we overcame that challenge. After playing WoW for maybe 9 hours you get up off your couch or chair and you feel physically, intellectually and emotionally poor because you have not been challenging yourself in the ways you actually need to be! Games DO challenge you and that's why they're addictive, but they're challenging in a familiar, escapist world where you can *choose* your challenges, using your same old gaming skills to overcome (for the most part) and are rewarded with 'accomplishments,' quest rewards, titles, gold (spending cash) or simulated emotional thanks. WoW is deliberately designed to create a fictional world in an animated style (which emotionally returns you to a safe, youthful place in your mind,) which makes you feel continually challenged (thus engaged) and accomplished (having achieved things) when in fact it was all simulated. It's a way of avoiding real life. And of course, I love WoW and quality games in general but I'm just explaining why it is so deliberately addictive. People literally lose their real life relationships because they play too much WoW! It's an important subject. Even Blizzard themselves have expressed concern (guilt) that some of their subscribers play their game far more often than they should. It's perfectly healthy to play as a *reward* after a long day's work, or while dealing with difficult real life challenges and you feel you deserve a temporary escape. But when a game replaces your real life, you've let it suck you in far too deep.
Why is this addicting? I mean hell, I find it boring doing nothing but taking quests, walking all the way to complete them by doing nearly mindlessly button pressing to kill creatures or collect something while killing creatures. No puzzles, no brain tasers, nothing different than EVERY quest in wow.
WoW is VERY much about the social aspect. Unfortunately, things like LFR and Dungeon Finder have greatly diminished this, but it's still there. For me, I find the fun to be in going into a raid with a bunch of guildies (no randoms) and taking down a boss with the power of teamwork. I also like the guild PvP weekends where we all go into a Battleground and use team coordination to dominate our opponents.
meh, it's hard sometimes. I feel like when server population density was much higher it wasn't so bad, but now I've kind of been trying to recapture what I had back in the day. My current guild is pretty cool, but it's not like I'm still playing with the same group I was with during the Vanilla/BC days (god I wish they still played, be so much fun).
Failure State Well regardless, I think wow needs more varriety in their game for it to be really fun. Because all it really seems like is a game that had a lot of work put into it with what they had, then never updated the old mechanics and simply continued to expand until now. For how much money they no doubt make, it's irritating to know how much they are holding back on the player and simply only making crap to make a new way to do the same old crap. I mean runescape is cheaper and much better in it's variety of gameplay. Though now I don't know what's happened to runescape. All I know is I miss the good'ol days.
Love your videos DD. Just want to clarify something I heard in your video. Not all of us who refuse an invite to groups are soloists. I will not take an invite from a stranger unless they ask first in either or whisper or say. I also won't accept a random invite if I am sitting in the queue. I find someone dropping a random invite on me, is just plain rude.
I take it the scenic shots of wow come from some stock footage released by Blizzard. Does any one know the source of it?, it is really beautiful and I'd love to flesh out some of my videos with it.
As someone who has played MMORPGs all his short life, I've always believed that the "hook" in WoW and just about any other RPG, is the feeling of progression - seeing your character grow stronger, eventually transforming from a total nobody into the badass hero everyone wants to be. Another thing that makes it so addictive (for me) is the getaway from reality. You get to be someone and somewhere else, to be someone super powerful and awesome, and to be in a place where just about anything is possible.
I understand what this guy is getting at but over all i think this video is stupid. Why think about it so much, if you enjoy playing the game then just play it. 7 million people play out of a world population on what 8 billion now? Its not that big.
I've only watched the first 12 minutes and don't know if this is discussed anywhere in the video, but one reason why you stay hooked and tend to always return is the game is built to be carved in your subconscious, in every way possible. I'm sure every real long time wow player has seen his icons somewhere in the real world dozens of times. And there is the fact that I would not be surprised that every single quest and NPC in the whole game is a cultural referrence.
I lost the gir lof my life thanks to this stupid shit.. I've just uninstalled every game on my pc. Even WoW.. Good riddance. I now have a long battle with my ex that i so want to get back with..
123RAZZER123 It's your fault. Don't blame the game because there are some people that have been playing ever since the game came out and they are able to have a relationship,a job, a social life and overall a good life. You need to regulate how much you play and create a routine so you can maintain your real life and play your games.
Social aspect, quirky aesthetic, years of lore to draw from, likeable (or dislikeable as the case may be) character, and some of the best implementation of the skinner box principal.
Hey I'm one of those who left right before MoP in 4.4.2 , Aug 2012 (why the hell do I remember this????). I left because of Pandas, I actually believed this game just died right in-front my eyes. I was never the Hardcore raider, the loot hunter, the "pull the lever mouse in-a-box", I was the lore hunter, the quest wall of text reader, the Wiki editor, the Role-Player. I really loved the lore of the game and I didn't waste as much time on the game as the avg players, I came to finish the quests, to investigate, and above all to roleplay with my community as a conflicted forsaken DK. Watching this video actually got me thinking of coming back for some reason. you sir play a role as a nostalgic injection (and an addiction re bounder)
I really like your candid reflections of your time when you just left high school. sounded lonely. I'm sure it's not easy to do so but thanks for sharing it. I'm sure a lot of people had a similar experience.
there has been many times ive played wow longer than my attention span could handle. the only way i stayed playing was cause when i got bored i could just switch topics, (ie: do quests, do dungeons, do raids, pvp a bit, play on the auction house, reconfigure my gear, go back to questing, find more dungeons.) if the game was just one goal to do this line of quests, and here's a dungeon in the middle of your questing more, and now im back to my questing, than i would have logged out and quit back in 2005. The reason its so addictive is because when your attention span ends from doing something so repetitive you can hearth and change your directive in a matter of seconds. "well i was questing for over an hour and cleared half this area, but now i feel like repairing my gear selling my bag items and getting into a good pvp match."
It's a good question. What has kept me addicted to wow has changed as the game evolved. It surely was not the graphics, because when i started in vanilla i was young and didnt have a very good computer, so graphics was definetely not it for me. Ar first it was probably the interactions and the involved talent system, which really made me feel like I had earned my mortal striking lvl 60 warrior. Then BC was released and my expectations were exhilarated by how it improved everything. I wanted to level up other classes too, to see the difference in power between all of them at lvl 70. I am sad to say due to life events, I missed wrath, which I have heard a lot about as being the best so far. Re started playing in cataclysm, so much had changed, i went around to all my old alts and checked out what was new. Talents started to be simplified for my taste, but the changed zones and added content kept me interested. Mists of Pandaria is probably where i stopped...i leveled some of my characters to 90 and tried some raids and that was it. Because i realized that the game had lost so much of what got me addicted to begin with. Since then i have heard it has only gotten worse...But I have no regrets, vanilla and bc made for some memorable experiences and encounters, and I know there's just no bringing those back.
I still play WoW to this day because I just enjoy leveling and playing with my friends. I also like most of the armor sets that Blizzard puts out in each major patch and expansion. I love the lore behind WoW as well as most of the characters. There is always a challenge to be experienced in WoW.
I remember watching your channel forever ago and liking the videos but stupidly I forgot to subscribe back then and so yesterday I was just looking up random WoW vids and found your channel and also found that you did WoW vids and now I haven't stopped doing two things in the last two days, one is playing WoW and two is watching yourvideos, they're really interesting and a lot are pretty hilarious, keep it up! :D
Dolan do you think yogg'saron is up to no good? i mean we didnt kill him thats not possible not even the titans could. we just pushed him back under... so is he still whispering ? and if he came in contact with a large amount of saronite would he get stronger? since that is his blood... im really curious now that he might show up in the next expansion after warlords of draenor?
hey question .. i played wow from very early bc all the way up to cata ... with breaks here and there but i've been thinking of rejoining but im trying to figure out if its worth it, i was a big pvp person sooo any thoughts on it and the game right now on general ?!
to me it was the social part of it i loved boost running my guildies trough instances and hang out with them in goldshire and party when ever one was having a birthday. i loved the part where i could chat with people from all over the world i had a break of wow for 2 years and i only missed that part of it now i am back again and i am basicly just messing around in lower lvl instances and boosting alts of my new guidlies... catching pets compleeting achievements and farming mounts.
Civilization has this its called: "One more turn" It's the effect that happens when you want to play one more turn (often done repeatedly) , to find out what the technology that you are 1 turn away from finishing will do (what effect it will have) or if you could move your army 1 more turn, maybe the one turn from fighting for an enemy city. This happens all the time, most of the time when you have been playing for hours and having no idea how much time has gone by.
This video was brilliantly planned. I especially love your chimpanzee and the lettuce analogy. This phenomenon comes closest to describing why I can't seem to find any salvageable entertainment value from modern mmo's, and why every time I get bored with video games I start searching up old WoW videos, private servers, and watching streams again. Once again, this video is Incredibly insightful, and helpful on a personal level. Maybe with this new found knowledge I can work myself out of this "Post-fantasy world depression syndrome" I seem to have contracted from this game.
Manip...maniplauralewnlrjeaATTE MAH BRAAAAIN!! lol, You deserve a thumbs up a few times throughout this video, especially with nailing the Rivendare mount grind and this fun little word debauch, good job throughout, Danger.
I dont play the game often, but I have to say, what keeps me coming back is the environment and exploring possibilities. I swam around an entire island once or twice, just to see if i can find any hidden stuff. all I found were small sand beaches, but it was loads of fun. I like being pulled into another world. I dont have a subscription, I play the free 20 level cap way, but I just try out a bunch of different races and classes. Its more then enough fun. I just hate there are areas I cant go because I'm only twenty. but oh well
www.neverendless-wow.com/ Here you can play till what ever level you want.... Hell I'm promote the private server, it's awesome and I've been on it for years. Then there is Molten wow, a massive private server, you don't have to be stuck at level 20 on the Retail servers, you can play on a private server and explore everywhere. I have several level 80's and one that I could use to get you into more areas ;P Mundi is my characters name
sommopfle I find private servers much more socially engaging. I used to play in Omegawow for some years (it had about 800 online players on average) and it was really nice knowing almost everyone on your faction or the other. You'd join a BG and see familiar names in 5 out of 10 enemy players. There were players that were respected by the whole playerbase for their achievements and social status. This just doesn't happen in retail WoW, there are so many players, that you only really know your guild mates.
He misdefined psychological extinction at 7:10. Extinction is involved in conditioning like he was talking about, but the whole pigeon beating up on the other pigeon had nothing to do with it. Extinction occurs when you are taught to do something by a command, the command is never given again, and you eventually forget how to do the original something over time.
"I've spend X months/years playing this character, should i quit now?" Those were my thoughts for many years. Thanks to Blizz and LFR i finaly said YES!
I can only speak for myself when I say this, but I made some amazing friends through this game that I did not expect to. Despite all its flaws, and the vast amounts of negative media it receives, the game has an extremely incredible social aspect to it. I mean it's crazy to think that I could be better friends with a guy who lives in South Africa, than the people I work with everyday or even friends I go to university with. WOW offers escapism for sure, but it also connects you with people who under normal circumstances you would never have known. People want to feel connected. Most of them are trapped in the monotony of their lives (either married with kids/living with parents/poor/Dead-end jobs/college/etc.) Games like WOW allow them to connect further socially than they would normally in let's say a small town in the middle of nowhere. You can get addicted to anything depending on how it makes you feel...that's why I see WOW addiction no differently than I would Alcoholism or Smoking. Sure there will be people that do it, but not everybody will automatically fall into that category.
I started playing WoW during WotLK period. I did it mostly out of curiosity. I kinda liked it though the repetitiveness of quests bored me. Quit after Cata came out. Not because it was bad. I just had to focus on studies and getting a job. Also I had little money so didn't want to spend it on subscription. Failed studies but got a job now. Recently I started thinking about returning to WoW. Just to do something in my spare time or day off (beside hanging out with friends and other things I do) The biggest dilemma I have is that I would be able to play once or twice a week for couple of hours and I just don't know if subscribing is worth it.
I really like the part on nostalgia - I wrote an article for Freedom! Magazine (Freedom! Network), and I really enjoyed doing it. It's definitely a psychological part remembering the good times and wanting those back, though (at least with more straightforward single-player games) it's hard if not impossible to relive those. The mystery and wonder of what's all out there is gone, but with a game like WoW, there are still things to accomplish or revisit - my love for procuring old, beautiful gear for transmog being one of the biggest. On that note, I think transmog is perhaps the best, simple addition Blizzard ever added to WoW.
before iwatch this i just want to throw out the reason i believe it is so addictive is because it is the only game that successfully transports the player into another world, it does it more then any VR headset has done so far. You feel like you are the character.
every other mmorpg i have played doesnt give me the same feeling that wow once did and that is because wow did it so perfectly. and no matter how shitty things are in our real lives, we could always escape to another world and literaly forget those problems.
For me, the Elder Scrolls series is the only one that does that. Even ESO has felt more immersive so far compared to WoW, but I'm still only on day three of my WoW trial so that may change
K1NGF1SHER yup
K1NGF1SHER One year late but for other people in the same situation atm. The game will change drasticly when you are getting a bit up in level and can play the game as its supposed to be played
It's kinda weird, the best MMORPG on history is the one with the poorest character customization system. 13 years already, and it isn't even close to Sims 2 in that aspect.
That's the problem. Confront your problems bro. I pray for people like you!
I know one thing about WOW, the more I play, the less I drink beer and smoke weed.
MrVibriocholerae It is great.
and more dumber you are
*****
Or is it?
Mob Petruša The irony of your statement amazes me.
Mob Petruša It could enhance your reading ability, Teamwork skills, Time management skills, Professions usually forces you to do simple but extensive math. WoW is actually helpful. Where as Alcohol (Drinking) gives no health gains and most people who smoke weed also start to smoke cigarettes for a higher buzz which also gives no health gains
6:00 - Edgy kid from 2004. Playing WoW, wearing Green Day shirt. Hits right in the feels man. Makes me feel really old.
Scotty McLean I'm a grown man now.. I was only child then. I can only imagine how you feel.. Lol
u guys are in ur 20's calm down
I started playing wow when I was ten, back in patch 3.2. I started playing about a year before I got depressed. And whenever I played wow during that time it made me happy, & still does to this day. I think I like it so much subconsciously because I like my character, & I don't like myself, especially when I was deeply depressed. I worked for things in that game, & I got them. I have pride for my character for that. I guess this game just allows me to be in a world, (even if it's not per say real) that I like myself, & I feel apart of. I don't really have friends in real life, but I have a guild, & friends on here that I feel good, & normal as. This game may have saved my life.
Amen!!! I guess for me I felt the same, I have a very good healer, that can do 30-40,000 heals... My depression never goes away, but with wow it's just goes away. I play on Neverendless a Patch 3.3.5a server...
sommopfle I would LOVE to play on that Wrath sever!
***** I'm similar to you. I'm depressed and have no friends in real-life (business acquaintances and family don't count), but I've met and voice chat with hundreds of people from guilds in Tera, Counter-Strike, and League of Legends. In Counter-Strike, I was the administrator of a 14-man group with a popular forum, and participated in events, like CAL, for 3.5 years where I spent $1,200 in server fees, website hosting, and other miscellaneous items. Like all things, however, it eventually came to an end.
I'm now 29, and there is an unfortunate truth that took me a while to learn: All those friends you meet online will not be your friends once you quit playing their games. If you're lucky, maybe you'll find true love and marry someone, but once you quit, it's very hard to convince someone to jump ship and come join you on your next gaming pursuit. It's even harder to convince them to meet in real-life.
Nowadays, I play mostly single-player games. They're important because they show real life lessons, teach stories, and encourage creativity. You can play relatively stress-free, and even set the controller down, turn around, and look your mother in the eye when she wants to speak with you.
***** I wish I were all my different characters. Especially a Goblin or a Night Elf, or even a Blood Elf! Imagine if we could go into the game, just for a day? :D It would be pretty fun. ^^ When I feel depressed, I feel a bit happier when playing WoW. Though, sometimes, I struggle to do anything when I feel that way, even WoW. >.< But, it is a good game and therapeutic as well. :) WoW is definitely a life saver. I don't have really have real life friends either, but I found friends on WoW and online. ^^
***** Try working for something in your real, actual life. Then you will actually HAVE a life worth saving. If you have pride for a few megabytes worth of data stored on a server in Irvine, CA, then I feel sorry for you.
I started on Nostalrius on Friday, and I played 10 hours straight until 3am...
It's just so satisfying, the quests are fun, you meet people and playing in a group is an enjoyable experience.
To sum up the entire video: "False sense of achievement"
***** First off all, earning money from an activity has nothing to do with achievement. Modern games are laid out to create a false sense of achievement to players. They feel rewarded every hour so they keep playing and coming back. It's an addiction to false sense of achievement. By the way, from the 10 million players less than 0.000001% are making an income to sustain themselves from World of Warcraft via RUclips/Twich.
***** It's not false to "me". It's a false achievement in reality. If you ask any psychologist they will tell you the same. People stop achieving things in real life, because they get hooked to "virtual achievements", which have no impact on real life and do not even require any proper work, apart from just doing repetitive actions. It's a very sad overall reality, because I do enjoy games as well. Playing a game that is programmed to tell you "Level 10 - You are A master", is no real achievement, because EVERYONE playing that game will reach this, no matter what.
So many games are just programmed to give you a sense of achievement, when in fact it's no real achievement at all. The game will tell you, how great you are. It's a psychological addiction.
This false sense of achievements goes so far that kids and younger adults get so addicted, that they no achieve anything in real life anymore.
***** Yes and no. Achievements can be viewed as both, actually making a difference, as well as own personal satisfaction. However when a video game's sole purpose is to only give a player constant rewards in the sense of achievements, just so that players get addicted to it, it becomes dangerous. I have seen this behavior with myself during my teenage years, where I played MMOs before WoW even existed. Now I am 31 and I am still a gamer. I even worked for Blizzard and Activision in the past.
I fully agree with you in regards to the "virtuallity" about the achievement. I am a programmer, so all my work is in that sense based in a virtual world and not directly in reality, yet I absolutely consider it real and it's a real achievement if I finish something bigger and complex.
However the main difference between a false sense of achievement and real achievement is, that these games are from the ground up programmed, that with very little work, you can accomplish what seems a lot. For just playing the game without going the extra mile, you will be rewarded with achievements. Just playing the game, the way the programmers intended it, is not an achievement.
This then leads to people being fully satisfied, thinking they have accomplished something great, when in fact everything was pre-programmed. This goes so far that especially younger kids tend to more and more avoid the need to accomplish something in real life which then slowly affects who they become.
It's a very dangerous form of addiction that can change your personality over the course of 5-10 years, which then leads to a full on depression.
Here is an interesting article & discussion: www.reddit.com/r/truegaming/comments/1ki960/dangers_of_gaming_the_illusion_of_accomplishment/
+Adûnâi You went from having an interesting argument, to calling his comments "Bullshit" just because he pointed out the reality behind the addiction of video games?
Look, I play over 20 hours a week, but I do know it's not a real achievement, it's entertainment, just like watching TV. Don't confuse that with an actual achievement, such as studying for a university.
+Hobbit Stomper lol i knew that from the beginning. isn't that common sense??
My story is pretty average I think, but illustrates the point I'm trying to make very well.
I had a great time in primary school, which I thought paved the way for an equally great secondary school experience. Instead, I was hated by 90% of the class for not liking rap music, alcohol, confusing emotional and sex life, and smoking. It didn't help that my family wasn't in the best shape either.
But for my 18th birthday, I got the Collector's Edition of BC, and I loved it. In the grand scheme of things, I played WoW whenever my life entered a period of heightened misery, to escape what I felt was unjustified torture. Because in WoW, I was an above average player (which admittedly doesn't need more than a functioning brain, some sense and basic communication skills), I had friends I got on with very well, I was part of a great guild, and I felt that whenever I got into any group, either for PvE or PvP, I could contribute to that group's goals; my actions not only had meaning, but value. If I didn't Fear-leash a mob properly (back in BC, mind you), my group would have wiped. If I didn't keep up with my aggro as a tank, my group would have died. If there was a guy who needed some adivce, I could either provide that, or tell him where to look for the info. And then there are those shocking private chats you get into, where you're trying to keep friendships and marriages in one piece. In short, I could make a difference.
All the time I've spent in WoW helped me to cope with the pain and sense of powerlessness caused by the outside world, which in turn helped me get a hang of why and how am I can deal with said outside world. I think that for every life WoW allegedly ruins, it saves 10 other lives. The whole reasoning behind why the former is more often heard and discussed is the very reason many players play WoW instead of going outside: sheer, uncontrolled, completely ignorant malice, under the disguise of tradition, law, peer expectations, and the ever-famous "opinion". Fuck that, and everyone who so feverishly believes in either - I can respect another's opinion, but nobody's has the authority to cause harm. Nobody's.
I love WoW I am so glad I discovered it. I made so many friends, and my boyfriend and I (when we were a new couple) have played wow for years now and it brought us closer as well as learning a lot about each other. I was always a sky person and joined a raid team forced me to talk and interact with people, it also taught be so many leadership skills. I can comfotable run my own raids easy and these skills transfers into real life.
I'm happy for you. :) Congratz!
There are far better ways to learn those skills IRL, and making friends in a cyber context will always be second best
sharbel23 She is not a mental case that cuts herself and other craziness, me and my wife also play wow. It's like playing cards, it's a social thing to do. I am no mental case and I enjoy playing wow with my wife in raids.
sharbel23 have you considered that this view point may in fact be an opinion??
Still same opinion?
I like to point out here I really did used to be super addicted to wow back from 2004 to 2010 like would only sleep for 3 hours go to work for 9 and the rest was play wow till work started again. But I got one real good thing out of the game sociability I was able to go out make friends and actually got a boyfriend (and no not thru wow at the time even though I found out he played) Before I even got into wow I was shy and didn't talk to anyone I was to myself never went to parties or movies or hung out with friends. Now I still play wow on my days off but because of this game I have become more social.
Funny, games don't affect me in this way. When I know there's a bunch of quests I get impatient and quit.
why is danger dolan so addicting
He has a nice voice. (I mean his, not his voice actors)
No doubt.
Because of his accent.
LegendMeadow yes his voice is so sexy.
***** His voice ;D
I just wanted to say something... I hate it when my mom is like "Hey, come here" and I'm like, right in the middle of a raid, or in a BG or arena, and I calmly say "Hold on." Then she yells at me to get off the game and go help her with something or whatever, and I'm like "I can't pause the game, just hold on" and then we get into a fight... I don't want to be that player that suddenly goes AFK in the middle of a raid or BG and increases the chance the raid or BG fails. Why can't parents just understand that?
Thallanar Rabidtooth It becomes a lot easier once you move out of your parent's place. I don't have to worry about any of that any more lol.
Same story when I play dota, I know your pain
They don't understand that you value the game. It's not like you won't come and help right? They just have to be patient and wait for 5 minutes is all. Right?
I guess people really like matricide.
VeroMithril Yep, there's one I played for a bit called Fenix, which was a BC server. Wrath's where it's at though imo.
If you'd like to suggest a future discussion or "Top 5" video, please leave a post over at www.reddit.com/r/theddguides or upvote the one you want to see made!
Likewise, comments left on reddit may be featured in future videos :-)
I did post a topic: "Raids with the best lore. Future discussion?" Intresting to see your opinion.
why is the TB video blocked?
.
Kiwi? I think I played with you in a guild. If you recall a war named Mastas.
I think that the fantasy setting is a big part of the addiction our current reality gives many of us the urgency to scape even if its only mentally.
Only 3 things.
1: It's fun (quests, large amount of creatures, dungeons, talking... etc. and all those small things, such as weird quests and mailboxes)
2: The variety of macro classes and races you can be, where other games can only get 3-5 classes AT BEST, and only 2 races.
3: The graphics.
Leaderofthewolfpack the graphics of wow are very delicate in that the style is unique and prevents it from aging as fast as others tho
NoReXx Yes. and the graphics of WoW ARE UNIQUE :) And cool! They are not very HD and it doesnt have good textures. But its a cool graphical scene
ik this comment is 4 years old,but i just tried out WoW, and all i have done so far is spam my 2 abilities and do quests over and over and over and over and over and over! i dont feel accomplished, i have felt no fun from this game either. what is so good about this game that they made a movie about it???
Christian Jarquin you will never know man.. you missed out on the glory days of old
god how do you play on a notebook without a mouse??
Because real life sucks :)
why is Dolan so dangerous?
+Ale Vidinlic he sucks thatswhy
I became less and less addicted as more expansions was released :P Been clean for over a year now.
Still going strong?
@@stolenname94 Nah I've been playing on private servers for years, until classic came out!
Pre-cata this game was like heroine
I still get huge cravings to play again just by thinking about it
That was where the story ended for me, I'd been playing Warcraft games since the beginning and there was just no point(story) after WotLK.
why is it that most wow players enjoyed those time way more?
Because the game was way better back then, especially the social aspect of it, everything was more challenging and you were forced to work with others to get stuff done and invest a lot of time and effort to get rewarded
Game is good,wrath started "easy" mode, i remember raiding in Naxx at the beginning of wrath, i had my son and i was off wow for about 3 months, i come back, grind valor (in heroic dungeons) to get FREE epics to get caught up, if ANYTHING BC was shitty because if u get far behind u had a hard to catching up, same with vinilla, they tried to fix it in wrath, but like i said, allthe people working hard to gear out, just gets obsolete from people grinding valor and not being to far behind the raiders, cata i liked people bitched because it was to hard, blah blah blah, then LFR, how the hell can anyone be mad about LFR??? It lets u do easy mode tourist mode of raids, to get caught up...not jsut running heroic dungeons to valor cap to get caught up.. If u complain about not having to search for people to do heroics or find groups to do w/e it is u were talking about...why the hell cant u anymore? because u dont want to waste ur time like u did in BC spamming tade because its faster to do it in LFG...if u want to do ACTUAL raids, u still have to /2 or be in a guild, WoW has not gotten any worse, the game is still fun and still challenging... If u thinks its to easy, ur playing the game wrong.... Almost a year in SOO most people are still clearing heroic mode....FFS stop making excuses because u dont like playing anymore.
At this point I'm addicted to the MMORPG swtor because after maxing my character level out and getting all of my gear I really didn't have much left to do with that character. So I finally started looking in to some RP guilds and eventually got involved deeply with one and now I'm hooked to the game so I can get on and socialize with other people and be respected for who I am despite how I look or my differences. Now I'm one of the highest ranking members of the soon to be one of the biggest RP guilds on our current server and I'm addicted to serving my role in that guild. Despite it being fun and social, It takes away from your priorities in life when you realize just go dedicated you are to the game instead of your actual life. Also, it makes it EXTREMELY hard to stop playing when you have real people that you are leaving, or if you are in the middle of a guild event, or if you are worried about guild events happening when you are not there. It's like a facebook addict having a constant need to check his news feed and like, message, and share all the time with the worry one of his friends just posted a new selfie or something. That's why I've become so addicted. and with the Guild Websites that enjin runs make it even harder to break.
How can you play this game with a touchpad? I can't understand.
I used to be able to, can't anymore though. I didn't realize how limiting the touchpad was for WoW until I went to the mouse instead :)
@@cynder3226 It actually makes me cringe when people use their mousepad.
The TB video is private now. Can I have a redirect?
I played 3 years ago back Pre Cata and was insanely addicted. I recently started playing again and I am now where near as addicted as I was before. I played many video games before that I didnt get addicted to.
And will you get addicted when Warlords of Draenor comes out?
Steezy
I don't think he will be. When you play something for the first time, you are not sure you can accomplish something. After you see it is not a huge deal, you just don't care about it anymore, and since thing stars to repeat in patterns you lose your interest. I was enjoying this game so much when I first met it, because it was totally new genre for me. I enjoyed new game world, that was different than real world. I wanted to achieve the most of the game, that is why I was playing it every day. And when you do something for the first time as I said, it's incredibly addictive. When you buy iPad, smartphone new bicycle, you enjoy it for some time, after that you just don't feel it anymore. It is the same with WoW. When Blizzard releases something new in perspective of game-play, then you can think about another addiction, but since they are repeating all the time it is not addictive anymore. Now they only care to have these players who unconsciously think only about numbers and achievements. This is not addictive for me.
answering for another person.......
It's addictive because it's immersive.
Your in-game character is an extension of your real (offline) self. It's like living a second life... one where you get adventure and glory, instead of boring daily routine. Even behavioural patterns are carried over - e.g. gankers are usually bullies in real life as well, open and friendly players are usually friendly people offline too.
To develop this example even further - I tend to be a loner with odd interests in real life, and that's how I am in WoW as well - often doing thing solo, exploring the loneliest and forgotten corners of Azeroth... and I like it. Reminds me of my childhood when I explored abandoned old houses in my grandma's neighborhood. It's like re-experiencing these moments again.
That's how games appeared in the first place - to give you an alternate reality where you can escape from daily stress and frustration. We always prefer pleasure over displeasure ;)
AlexeiVoronin you always have something to do something to work towards
"Why is WoW so addictive?"
My answer is that there simply aren't any better MMOs out there.
Now, I'm not saying that WoW is the best MMO, its actually far from it and I even stopped playing it 2.5 years ago because it got boring, but if the other MMOs can't even reach WoWs level, then they aren't worth mentioning. To me WoW is the standard level of MMO that other MMO games should reach for me to get interested in them.
Tanne Roskat I agree. I believe WoW probably has the most content out of any game out there. There's a lot to do, and other MMOs simply can't compare to the sheer amount of content that WoW offers. Not to mention, a lot of them feel exactly like WoW, but simply aren't familiar and don't have the same amount of content.
Tanne Roskat Its not about the level its the story behind the chracters you play, Yes there are some MMO's out there with better graphics and gameplay but the lore and story of Wow makes you feel like reading a book while playing it at the same time, which other MMo's today lack. Overall Wow can continue to be a Mmo monster as long the writers can create more epic storyline through out the years to come.
chiffon fairchild Community-wise I found that Tibia was the best for that. That MMO pretty much requires having friends to get far, unless you like getting PK'd and losing levels every day. So unless you make lots of friends, you're probably going to hate the game.
+Tanne Roskat Warhammer was going to be the WoW killer, but for some reason they took it down, WarHammer was the best MMO, but the devs too it away.
+Tanne Roskat Cabal buddy,Cabal
Years later, I find this video VERY interesting. There's so many words to express I can't ...I just cannot type them all out. WELL DONE DD!
years later
Whats the problem with a little adddictiveness ? As long as you live a "normal" live everything is fine.
Personally i think its because the game is never ending, also it has such a great story behind it.
Exactly. It's like the best movie you've ever seen, but you get to move around in it and be a part of it, and the history, all of the lore, is fantastic.
Maybe because it taps into a few basic human instincts like ego,greed,and entitlement?
been playing for like 9 years now, and it's my number 1 escape from stress. i love getting some alone time in the game with the people i don't know in real life, and i love to be that different character once in a while.
i wouldn't say i'm addicted but i sure miss the game after a few months not playing, i wonder if i ever will stop playing but since i'm growing older other things become more important. and i just don't have much time for long raids or anything else.
WoW is not that addictive most of the time I play like 1-2 weeks and then, stop for like 1-2 months and come back if it was really addictive then, I wouldn't quit for months.
but you keep going back to it...
Sure why not? It's not like I was paying every single months of the year like some of the hardcore players do.
I'm not addicted to the game I only play it because I like it and I want to kill time and even so I play like 1-2 hours and then stop because I have other stuff to do.
Be addicted to me is when you cannot stop playing and you have to play every single days for like 3-6 hours none stop or else you cannot sleep.
I can easily life without playing it for a week even if I did pay for that month and so losing a week of play time.
Achille12345 why play at all? Either way, I can say I was an addict. I quit playing and haven't turned back since BC. Plenty of other things to blow money and time on than WoW! Gym membership ftw!
Yeah, you're not addicted, but that doesn't mean wow isn't addictive. It's like saying meth isn't addictive, just because you're not addicted
I didn't said it was not addictive I said it was not *That* addictive.
In FFXIV's defense, the backgrounds for the races are on their wiki. The lore is ALSO explained in the character creation menu. The lore behind each city-state (Limsa Lominsa, Ul'dah, Gridania, Ishgarde) are explained through cinematics... and Ishgarde's is explained via quests.
Also, in order to understand the races and lore more, you'd have had to play FFXIV in the glory days of 1.0, which are long-gone. The game itself now takes place, as of 2.0, five years AFTER the Fall of Dalamud, which brought about the Calamity.
There is extensive lore there, just as much -- if not deeper than -- WoW's lore. You just have to look it up, especially in-game.
Why do I keep grinding Zandalari Dinomancers for a tome that will let me tame a big-ass Triceratops? WHY? WHY? Do you know how many giant dinosaur bones I've accumulated? DROP DAMMIT.
i got it first time i killed one :D and it drops on isle of giants
Lol, wtf is your pic? Elizabeth?
Steamheart Riggs BOOKER, CATCH!
choose wisely, i grabbed a green one and...looking at it all day "TwoBigForYou" isnt very appealing to me anymore, hes great as a pet, strong, tanky, but...the visual appeal isnt there, i wish it was, i do, but...it just isnt, i feel if i had a red one id like it better, or a blue one or even snagging a white one, i feel like theres a single better one when i know no matter what i choose, the one that is always going to be the one im going to go back to, is going to be my green one, even if i cant match mount and pet, even if i cant match armor and pet, even if everyone else has this hunter pet, he is my dino and visually appealing or not, hes mine
hahaha I killed maybe 11 and got mine
There’s something comforting about playing WoW where the familiarity of it and the memories attached to it bring a feeling of safety. I play both factions but there’s something about that Stormwind music that conjures up a feeling of being “home” somehow. I know all these things are deliberately put into the game, but… they work. I know some people hate repetition, but the grinds can take me out of myself sometimes where I’m half concentrating on what I’m doing in WoW, but another part of me is freed. Sometimes inspiration pops in and good ideas come to me in that half-meditative state killing mobs. Most importantly, I play with my husband and daughter and consider times spent in Azeroth part of the family history. Winters can be pretty grim where we live and so this gives us a chance to “go out” and do something despite pouring rain and howling wind outside.
I think its incremental progression that makes it addictive.
What I miss/love the most about the game, is the fantastic vanilla music. The feeling of going on a brand new adventure with your first ever character, and then have that AWESOME music (Night Elf/Teldrassil music) going in the background, filling your adventures with feelings of awesomeness!
I really like the poker machine analogy. Look at the hoopla surrounding flying in Draenor recently - absolute RAGE everywhere in the forums. I read posts where people were *literally* crying at their keyboards. I shit you not - and they get up-voted. And lo and behold, Blizz announces flying is returning…. if you do about a month's worth of rep grinding. Almost like it was planned… As for myself, I play it if there's nothing else to do - for the cost of a movie ticket for a shitty modern movie I'm only going to watch once, I've got a month's worth of WoWCrack.
I think the reason I'm addicted to video games in general (I've played WoW about a week now during Spring Break and have leveled a Draenei Paladin to 35. I also started a Worgen Death Knight and brought him up from his starting level 55 to 60 today) is that I'm comfortable enough in real life that I don't feel wrong spending the time I do on games. I have friends, some of whom only play Minecraft for a couple hours on the weekends, and others who started playing Dota 2 and WoW alongside me, for thousands of hours, together as one group, after we met in real life and discovered we all played ROBLOX of all things years ago. I'm in a happy relationship, my grades are above average (I'm not going to Harvard and I won't be Valedictorian but going to college is probably in my future as an Eagle Scout) and I use games to relieve the stress of day to day life while the big picture is all good. I am somewhat worried though, as I do have some signs of addiction, most notably withdrawal symptoms (when I stopped playing games for a month so that I'd be doubly miserable during summer band practice [thanks parents] I started getting really, well, sassy at first- talking back to people, feeling the need to get the last word, feeling talkative but not in a good way, and I'm normally quiet. Not shy, I just don't feel like talking. Sometimes people aren't worth speaking to [as in i don't think what I say is going to make any difference at all] and others aren't discussing things I care about at all. But I felt like chiming in after a couple weeks without games. I noticed it, my IRL friends noticed it, and my parents noticed it too. I thought nothing of it because I knew beforehand that summer band would pretty much put me into a constant state of pissed off, and I thought I was handling it well considering how much I hate both it and Texas summer heat. Then came the sadness period. I randomly felt sad at strange moments throughout the day, but I never showed it because Ive been quiet my whole life and I had no reason to speak up then. That lasted about 3 days of the third week. Then came the anger. I wasn't just angry at any one thing; I hated the world at this point. I got really mad over small things- someone grabbing my mouthpiece as a joke, my uniform inspection not being perfect, my section leader asking WHY it wasn't perfect. I got really irritated and angry when any of those things happened, but it wasn't until the second week of school (5 weeks after the three week band practice started) that I let it out. Someone I've been moderately annoyed by since elementary school decided it would be funny to hide my mouthpiece somewhere. Basically what happened was I found out he hid it when I needed it for inspections before a football game where we were playing, and lost it. Completely. I was GONE. I barely remember what happened and I know I didn't think it through. I remember slamming the kid against the locker room wall, asking where the mouthpiece was. He pulled that whole "the fuck, man?" thing where he tries to make me feel bad because it's just a joke but I cut him off by punching him in the windpipe, then the gut, then throwing him on the floor. Keep in mind I'm a couple feet taller and twice this guys weight. He's about to pass out. He tells me where it is, I get it, we don't talk for the rest of the school year (thank god, I hated him anyway) and no one ever knows exactly what happened. When I got home I immediately told my parents I needed to get back on my computer that weekend or someone *else* was going to get hurt. They understood.), but (bloody hell it seems wierd saying this after writing down that anecdote) it never interfered with real life. I never missed school solely because of games. I kept up with friends, relatives. My parents were actually happy I wasn't doing sports because my uncle broke his neck in high school football (he's fine now but it wasn't a good memory of football for my mom) and they seem happy that I'm interested in a field that's supposedly going to have more jobs than applicants when I'm out of college (not game design necessarily but computer programming in general).
It seems that I rely on video games to control anger and stress (when I do play games for long periods of time regularly I notice that I stop caring about things that would normally at least slightly bother me, which is a double edged sword- if I stop caring about how tired I am right then or how some dickhead tried to screw with me then it's good, but if I stop caring about how tired I will be in the morning that's gonna be bad in the morning.) and to fill a void I'm happy to leave wasted, when other people are studying or working at animal shelters or partying. I suppose that every moment I spend playing WoW or Dota or some other game my friends and I picked up is a moment I'm not getting hurt or hurting others. I'll probably need to deal with the fact that video games are pretty much my only outlet for emotion though, I'd imagine that is a problem later in life when I'll be too busy to have a job and a family life or whatever my dad tells me every weekend when I'm not working on homework because I don't have any. He always tells me that his friends kids all seem to spend hours on homework but I never seem to do any; true enough, i do most of mine the day it's assigned during lunch or before my parents get home from work.
Anyway, that's just me commenting about how I'm addicted but apparently only in the I-can't-quit sense more than the it's-ruining-my-life sense. On a year old video. About a game I bought earlier this week... Oh wait it's Monday now.
the kids running an entire 15 fps.
More like 5-7
I actually think this about WoW:
WoW is so fun that you don’t know which goal you want to reach in first hand.
Get Exalted with every possible faction in the game?
Get the Loremaster title?
Get a maximum level character of every class?
Get Draenor Pathfinder and Broken Isles- and Battle for Azeroth Pathfinder Part Two?
WoW is also so fun that you don’t know which class (or race or faction) you want as your main that you’re going to reach all of these goals as.
Do you get it?
Freakin' South Park episode got me started 5 years ago, LOL.
Great times. MoP is horrible though, from playing every day in wrath to barely once a month now it's so boring, and all my friends/guilds/raid groups quit.
No one probably mentioned the possibility of someone playing because of how much they like their character...? I've heard of people wanting to marry their MMO character. xD
lol south park got me started too in wrath. MoP is a lot better than Cata, yet i just quit myself because i'm tired of the same shit
So I'm not the only one that immediately downloaded the game after watching the South Park episode...
Cristian Gouget Nope, met a lot of people that started it the same day because of it too.
The main reason it is addictive: It is an immense work of art built by thousands of different people and ideas and it is just a GOOD GAME in general.
WoW is like a drug, you cannot get enough of it.
Every time I come back to WoW its definitely because of nostalgia. I always remember the fun that WoW brought me but as soon as I play for a few months I remember why I quit.
Why don't I ever remember why I quit earlier? And if I do, it has no effect on me until I actually feel it D:
And this is why the level 90 boost sucks for the game, it takes away a bit of the grind and u can just pay a little to gett stuff so it doesnt feel as rewarding to grind it out
No, the lvl 90 boost is the best decision blizzard has made in 317 days. You realize that some hate lvling. Which is why this is perfect for them.
well make leveling fun and hard, its so fing easy so u just sit there and no brain, make wow harder and let everyone fight for the cool raids and the other endgame, and the endgame is also very easy, look at the beginning of wow, it was hard now then some1 get to the endgame it isnt the same kick to kill a raid boss, everyone can do it so its not as fun, and blizzard can always do some really hard engame sttuffs, and some more casual so everyone is happy
Btw, im not saying that that is right, im just saying thats what i think and thats what i stand for.
fituafi I dont think its good for a noob to get instant level 90 cuse they dont know what the f they are doing so cant blizzard do so u have tho have a level 90 guy on that acc, cuse it sounds like u think more about the experienced guys
If you feel like paying the $60 or whatever it is, go right ahead.. It takes a week of gameplay to hit 90, yes? Thats about $15.. So if you wanna pay for a 90... 4x that.. I dont think blizz will care. So dollar for dollar.. $60 for a toon is great for them. And it removes the market for selling toons because people could make $100+ per toon. If you wanted to buy a toon you were going to do it. From blizz or a farmer.
I was a DotA player and lore master of the Warcraft series that came with it and didn't come to wow until early Cataclysm. When I arrived, I realized that I missed so much that I started looking for the characters I knew and loved in the original Warcraft I,II, & III. That's when the addiction set in. I remember trying to scour the world in search for Miev, Turalyon and the like. I wanted to explore the world and experience it on a first person perspective. Stepping into the Dark Portal was one of many things that made it exciting and addictive. No wonder the BC and WotLK era was the golden age.
I am truly addicted to it because of the lore... It is one reason I am really liking MoP right now haha
The lore went away after WOTLK.
KaxakaDarktree Shut up, WoW lore doesn't revolve around Arthas. Arthas was nothing but a kiddie villain.
gives a world in which anyone can become a customized hero, can make progress (leveling) that would be incredible in real life and do things that'd be impossible in real life, gives you the opportunity to play with/compete with people and your friends to further this feeling of being a hero or villain, allows you to team up with people in guilds and on adventures killing extremely powerful beings together, gives an escape from reality in which success is often a great deal harder to reach than ingame. then there are smaller more subjective reasons which are person specific, like the niceness of the graphics, the people in the game, the fact that the character models on the game are always made to look attractive, possible to make money with professions, so you can do something you may have always wanted to but was never able to irl, ... etc. i think its very obvious why Wow is addictive, and i don't blame anybody for finding it addictive. when it's a controlled addiction i think it's very enjoyable and not a problem.
One can quit any vice, any addiction, only, with massive effort and by replacing it with something equally engaging/addictive, yet positive-let's say like, learning languages, teaching yourself stuff, and acquiring a reading habit.
Easier said than done, true, but still doable, bit by bit.
I have been hooked to wow, so much, I've lost two jobs to it, and, basically, the best girl I will ever be with.(We are still friends).
Eventually, sold the account, retook it, did it again, few times. Became a scammer, sad story, yet in time, I realized, if I could manage myself, don't indulge in caffeine, drugs, junk food, do plenty of exercise, try to sleep at least 7 hours, get away from assholes and jerks(this is hard nowadays but try it at least), I didn't miss wow so much, then I started learning French, very slowly but steadily, wow addiction is still there, but can be controlled, and if you don't spend too much time indoors in front of your computer, is power over you eventually starts to fade.
I still have an account, that I just use like twice a month and tal with some good old wow friends there, and some times I like watching wow videos in RUclips, but that's as far as I get, as far as I will get from now.
Don't hate the game, it's a choice, a choice of life, some people enjoy it more than life, due to personal issues, or lifestyles, and that's fine if they can afford it because of A or B.
For most of us, it can become a problem if you are an average joe and it starts to become an obsession at some point, and it can easily happen.
Not game's fault, but human's brain, the way we are programmed, to attain success, to progress, to keep growing, wow emulates that and can fool and trick some people and then they start believe in it and take it as if it was life, real life.
Some people can moderate and manage, but many others can't.
Learning Russian and Polish actually now, and came here because Blizzard does massive marketing campaigns that are hard to elude and ignore, just keep as far off from it.
Same could be said of any addiction, it's an escape mechanism usually to cope with fear, insecurity and apathy and cover it with a sense of achievement.
Again, game is not guilty and is actually a good game, but bewared of it too, the risks.
You will relapse, you will feel in pain and bored, and sad, and will want to go back to it, sometime but In time all is possible, even quitting World of Warcraft.
When i stopped playing WoW i started to write poetry and smoke cigs.
Thanks cataclysm for making me quit.
Aced Positive If you started to smoke after quitting it wasn't all that positive though...
the poetry part is great nonetheless.
wow is still fun, but hides real life from you if all you do is play it...
and not everyone can manage their time etc
Damn, I know the feelings you describe. At least I haven't ever lost a job to my gaming/entertainment addiction, but over the past few years I've come to realize I'm on a slippery slope and I'm trying to change course (well, maybe I did lose a job offer and a few important people already -- people I never could have met in the first place because of the way I spend my time). I've never been a WOW or MMORPG player; my addiction lies in other games. It's funny how easily I've resisted substance abuse, obsessions and other vices, and yet I'm too damn well acquainted with my own textbook symptoms of addiction and even dependency. What worsens it is that friends and family generally see me as succesful person; I have a good job, good health and did great academically. No one I know would understand my everyday self-inflicted suffering. I still think gaming is a fantastic thing overall; ludeme analysis and game history are some of my passionate hobbies. But we gamers need help -- we need society and science to recognize game addiction as a legitimate, common and unhealthy addiction. One that is up to the individual to choose against, but can be healed so much faster with the right kind of input and help from others. And one that will become more common still as more children are born into a game-saturated world.
hannesjvv Indeed. I think anything remotely engaging or rewarding has the raw potential to become an addiction at some point.
I still maintain is the individual not the cause.
You could get addicted to jumping off bridges, and crave the feeling when you can't go.
At the end, is not bridge' fault but yours.
To keep balance is key, good sleep, try to relax, keep different activities going on and do not focus much on a single one that outstands for too long, or better, get positive, truly rewarding hobbies that even if abused will bring mostly joy.
Like, producing something, creating anything, whatsoever.
In fact most therapy centres treat their parents by promoting their creativity.
And again, it's all easy to say hard to do.
wow, you are learning polish, russian, and french? thats amazing! Im glad you got over your addiction! and you are right, balance is key ;)
but hey, if you are still learning those languages and if you need help, you can always ask me! i know french and my mother knows russian (she is from ukraine, and she knows both russian and ukrainian) and I have a polish grammar book.. for some reason XD i also have a lithuanian grammar book, i kinda found those in my basement lol
I was a LOT more addicted during vanilla and BC. I think WoW throws too many rewards at me now. For example, they made leveling easier with more quests, less xp requirements, easier mobs, more powerful abilities as you level... etc. But I actually fell in love with the game when leveling was slow. It took so long to level up, everyone kind of just accepted being their level. Being a level 42 warrior wasn't an unfinished grinding session: It had taken me so long to reach that level that I felt entitled to those 42 levels. I was proud. I was totally content just to explore new zones, find some comrades near my level, and go adventuring. It wasn't a chore. Now being a low level just means 5 more days of grinding to level 90. What's more is people you meet along the way aren't level 40 adventurers, they are players that are grinding along, and probably don't need/want your company.
This... this exactly!
its cuz in real life u are nothing but in wow you are a king :I
To keep the players in a game you have to give them a goal they can try to reach (as excample: some epic mount, gear or whatever). This will work for some time, but after a while they will get bored and you have to give them more(more interesting quests or exp-giving pvp, etc.). But what will happen when they reached their goal? They need the next one. So in in the end you need to give them reachable goals and make the way getting there as interesting as possible. Without a goal you'll need a incredible good questline/story to keep them playing, but only a goal (or some) with some shitty quests (you'll have to grind the rest of the time) will bore the players and they'll leave soon. This concept with goals and interesting way to get there works mainly for (mmo)rpgs, but youll see this principal in other games too.
Now I'm really wishing for a WoW theme park.
I have ran Sethekk Halls over 200 times (I've lost count, but it's at least that many times) just to get the Raven Lord mount
WoW isn't really that addictive to me. I might come back for a couple months after a new expansion, just because the original game left such an impression and astounding memories.
But BC ruined the game for me. Segregating the two ways to play, PvP and PvE, made the game entirely stupid.
I liked the feeling of going into MC or BWL, trying tirelessly to get gear. Once I got that gear, I could use it HOWEVER I wanted.
Did I want to stomp people in BGs or protect my guildies trying to zone in at Blackrock Mountain? Did I want to supply more dps or healing for my guildies in the next raid? I didn't have to choose what I wanted to do with what I did. I did PvE, because that gear helped me do everything else in the game (pvp mostly). Even after the initial honor system, albeit the pvp sets were generally better for pvp, PvE gear was still considered superior in most cases.
You also didn't always get to choose exactly what you had at your disposal (diversifying the types of gear people used as well). Obsidian Edged Blade never dropped? Using Unstoppable Force because things are limiting? To go even farther back, can't afford that Arcanite Reaper yet? Rend's Polearm is a good alternative for a little bit.
The game wasn't a treadmill, it was an experience and a search. But now, it IS a treadmill. There's nothing to explore, nothing to experience, nothing to discover. You just queue, do your shit, get your shit, then redo it next week. What incentive is it to get gear that can only solely be used to get more gear so that I can just continually do the same thing? The real test of that gear, (GEAR VS GEAR) fails miserably to just a blue set of pvp gear. So what's the point?
This game is so fun I spend my free time watching videos about it. My accounts frozen, and i dont have the funds to play, and I dont know If i'd be able to reconnect with all my old friends... but just thinking about buying even vanilla and working up the expansions excites me. Starting a fresh character on a rp realm, trying to make a name for myself, beat a few people up in a fight, get into a high profile guild... Or joining a pvp server, trying to gear up nice and strong, get my tradeskills going and eventually become one of the big boys...
Either way, I have countless memorys... Vanilla wow, my first mount, my first exotic mount, all the different zones, the times farming reps and tradeskills, going back to zones to finish off later game quests. Working up pvp ranks and arena teams, starting over at an expansion, roaming the new worlds with your t2/t3 trying to learn everything and get a peice of the pie as fast as possible. Roleplaying for hours, going to server wide partys, meeting your special someone in RP, breaking up with that special someone, jumping or getting jumped by a guild(with your guild). Big PVP battles where you just cannot be killed and your riding in the frontlines like a BAWCE...
WoW... you sexy game.
this game is addicting because its good
for you but for me it was great, its just a waste of money for the subscription
***** Did you play WoW and if so how long? I see so many people say the game sucks or it's boring yet they played the game for years.
***** OK, that's cool the game didn't do it for you. Nothing wrong with that, though I'd never base anything in the game off those private servers. Almost all are utter crap. I was just wondering if you were one of those people who play the game for years then say it's crap.
MoP is terrible I've been since BC. Once you play long enough and learn about all the classes you find out how unbalanced everything is. End content is just one BIG GRIND no quality just quantity, hopefully WoD fixes that
This is actually probably the most important aspect to why the game is addictive. You can create as many addictive systems and mechanics as you like, just like all the thousands of different gambling games and time vampire games like farmville but anyone with half a brain soon gets bored. Quality is a huge reason for the success of WoW and people should admit it, especially as most will try other games, get bored and go back to WoW to have FUN.
its 100% about the people you play with! not when you level, but to stick around for the endgame its the people you play with, for me atleast (and ofc making the raids but that is fun becasue you do it with your frinds)
"Apeshit" oho, i see what u did ther
I started playing after I watched the South Park episode about wow. Then I just played it because the world was so huge and I could do so many things like quest, pvp, and crafting/exploration.
only 88 days? lol its not that bad.
Dude... Hope you're joking! ^^
well.. back in days i had like 180 days... that was sooo bad... :(
Martin Dagorlad
OH MY GAWD
There are two things that also contributed to WoW's success that most people overlook. The first being the ability to modify the game's user interface. This might not be such a big deal these days, but when the game first came out I literally found it unplayable because quest management was completely unbearable. I haven't played much WoW, I only got to lv 33 before getting banned for buying gold and haven't played since, mostly because of the subscription fee. But I have been wanting to play it again. When I first started playing I found it very difficult to manage my quests, especially finding the npc that I had to go to or the monsters I had to kill sometimes. It was simply a mess of clicking tiny links and sifting through tons of menus. I quit shortly after starting because of that. My sister, who had already been playing for awhile, suggested I download a mod to help make that a more manageable experience. I downloaded that mod and man it really made the game playable for me. I still can't imagine trying to play the whole game while having to constantly sift through several menus for thousands of quests! So, if the game didn't do so well in certain parts of its design, mods allowed the players to fix them on their own! I honestly think without mods, the game wouldn't be nearly as popular as it is today.
Another thing that I think helped WoW's success that virtually no one talks about is the graphics. Now hold on a sec and let me explain! Yes, the graphic style probably isn't favored by many people. Its too cartoony, too blocky, ect. But one thing that many people may not even realize is the design behind the graphics. The graphics are simple enough to understand and appreciate while complex enough to be believable. Compare it to Final Fantasy 14's graphics. Yes, FF14 has better graphics over all, but I literally had to stop playing that game because the graphics were waaaaaaaay too complex. Let me explain, everything was so high resolution and so highly detailed that everything just looks like a huge blur of pixels. That makes it difficult to see things and it gives me a head ache. It also makes it very difficult to appreciate the beauty of the world. It was such a problem in FF14 that I do not play it or any other game with extreme detail like that. I always knew that there was something I just found charming about WoW's graphics, even if they were a bit questionable, but I didnt know what exactly it was until I played FF14 and had to stop playing it shortly after starting because the graphics are just too complex. Guild wars 2 comes pretty close to having that problem as well due to its high contrast and heavy lighting and shadows. More and more games are coming out these days with that problem, and I hope that the game designers realize soon that too complex of graphics is sore on the eyes. I learned this very lesson in a beginner's graphic design course at my college. If the graphics are too complex, its hard to look at and appreciate. If its too simple, it can't be taken seriously. There has to be a balance within the design of the graphics itself, and WoW gets very close to having a perfect balance of simplicity and complexity.
I wonder if there are any players that have been playing wow since the start. I wonder what it's like when they realize they've spent $1,800 to play the same game for the last 10 years.
*****
It's not so much that the amount of money spent being a burden... It's the concept of spending almost 2 grand on a single game. Must be one Helluva game for some people. I mean you could purchase almost 34 brand new titles at a full $60 each. If you were into retro gaming you could purchase almost 134 games if they were all priced at $15. That's a pretty nice library if you're a gamer/ collector. To each their own, but IMO subscription based MMORPG's are a waste of money. They don't last forever either. One day the servers will all be shut down and you'll have nothing to show for all your time and effort; well except the for memories anyway.
88SLLS Not everyone is 12 living in their parents' basement, 1800$ in 10 fucking years is absolutely nothing, you've spent a shitton more in that period on stupider things, people have jobs, with a minimum wage one,it's more than affordable, it's a fun game; as a praised hippie once said: "Time you enjoy wasting is not wasted".
88SLLS $1,800 to have fun over 10 years... i think its pretty cheap, and if you count friendship, memories and all the good time, its nothing..
88SLLS It really is nothing to spend that over a 10 year period. I mean to use my self and other people in games like Rift, League, Lotro, or now ArcheAge. In Rift over a two year period I spent about $1,800 and now the game sadly just sucks so here I am back to WoW. (Best choice Ive made) But at the same time I know people and specifically one person who has dropped nearly 30k between Rift and ArcheAge.. thats about a 4 to 6 year period with the two games. Granted he can afford that, its insane and he's not even one of the worst spenders in these games.
88SLLS And some smokers spend up to $15,000 in that time frame. World of Warcraft won't give you lung cancer and it's a hell of a lot cheaper. So I don't see your point.
It's kind of funny. Something ' wrong with my limbic system so I don't get the built-in euphoria after completing a task. This is true of everything from completing homework to finishing a workout to completing a quest. That alone isn't enough to keep me interested. So while it makes keeping up in school difficult and makes it much harder to have fun in general, I'm also nearly impervious to games like this.
MMORPG = false sense of achievements
You actually overlooked the forest by examining the trees. I've been thinking about this subject lately and I realized that we have the natural drive for challenge; it's part of life to explore, struggle, adapt and then take pride that we overcame that challenge. After playing WoW for maybe 9 hours you get up off your couch or chair and you feel physically, intellectually and emotionally poor because you have not been challenging yourself in the ways you actually need to be! Games DO challenge you and that's why they're addictive, but they're challenging in a familiar, escapist world where you can *choose* your challenges, using your same old gaming skills to overcome (for the most part) and are rewarded with 'accomplishments,' quest rewards, titles, gold (spending cash) or simulated emotional thanks. WoW is deliberately designed to create a fictional world in an animated style (which emotionally returns you to a safe, youthful place in your mind,) which makes you feel continually challenged (thus engaged) and accomplished (having achieved things) when in fact it was all simulated. It's a way of avoiding real life.
And of course, I love WoW and quality games in general but I'm just explaining why it is so deliberately addictive. People literally lose their real life relationships because they play too much WoW! It's an important subject. Even Blizzard themselves have expressed concern (guilt) that some of their subscribers play their game far more often than they should. It's perfectly healthy to play as a *reward* after a long day's work, or while dealing with difficult real life challenges and you feel you deserve a temporary escape. But when a game replaces your real life, you've let it suck you in far too deep.
Why is this addicting? I mean hell, I find it boring doing nothing but taking quests, walking all the way to complete them by doing nearly mindlessly button pressing to kill creatures or collect something while killing creatures. No puzzles, no brain tasers, nothing different than EVERY quest in wow.
WoW is VERY much about the social aspect. Unfortunately, things like LFR and Dungeon Finder have greatly diminished this, but it's still there. For me, I find the fun to be in going into a raid with a bunch of guildies (no randoms) and taking down a boss with the power of teamwork. I also like the guild PvP weekends where we all go into a Battleground and use team coordination to dominate our opponents.
Failure State I can't find that in wow. I tried, but the most I've found is immature groups of people and others who are self absorbed.
meh, it's hard sometimes. I feel like when server population density was much higher it wasn't so bad, but now I've kind of been trying to recapture what I had back in the day. My current guild is pretty cool, but it's not like I'm still playing with the same group I was with during the Vanilla/BC days (god I wish they still played, be so much fun).
Failure State Well regardless, I think wow needs more varriety in their game for it to be really fun. Because all it really seems like is a game that had a lot of work put into it with what they had, then never updated the old mechanics and simply continued to expand until now. For how much money they no doubt make, it's irritating to know how much they are holding back on the player and simply only making crap to make a new way to do the same old crap. I mean runescape is cheaper and much better in it's variety of gameplay. Though now I don't know what's happened to runescape. All I know is I miss the good'ol days.
Feel u..
Love your videos DD. Just want to clarify something I heard in your video. Not all of us who refuse an invite to groups are soloists. I will not take an invite from a stranger unless they ask first in either or whisper or say. I also won't accept a random invite if I am sitting in the queue. I find someone dropping a random invite on me, is just plain rude.
Lol that kid is raging and playing with mousepad.
I take it the scenic shots of wow come from some stock footage released by Blizzard. Does any one know the source of it?, it is really beautiful and I'd love to flesh out some of my videos with it.
I feel so much stupider since watching this.
As someone who has played MMORPGs all his short life, I've always believed that the "hook" in WoW and just about any other RPG, is the feeling of progression - seeing your character grow stronger, eventually transforming from a total nobody into the badass hero everyone wants to be. Another thing that makes it so addictive (for me) is the getaway from reality. You get to be someone and somewhere else, to be someone super powerful and awesome, and to be in a place where just about anything is possible.
I understand what this guy is getting at but over all i think this video is stupid. Why think about it so much, if you enjoy playing the game then just play it. 7 million people play out of a world population on what 8 billion now? Its not that big.
Blanco Escobar Its not the biggest mmo out there bro, there are some mmos way bigger then wow, so F you opinion!
Mizore Shirayuki name one??
Mizore Shirayuki WoW is the biggest MMORPG out there. And there is 6 million accounts in China alone.
No1likesasmartass XD
Mizore Shirayuki I give you a cookie if you name an MMO bigger than WOW.
I've only watched the first 12 minutes and don't know if this is discussed anywhere in the video, but one reason why you stay hooked and tend to always return is the game is built to be carved in your subconscious, in every way possible. I'm sure every real long time wow player has seen his icons somewhere in the real world dozens of times. And there is the fact that I would not be surprised that every single quest and NPC in the whole game is a cultural referrence.
I lost the gir lof my life thanks to this stupid shit..
I've just uninstalled every game on my pc. Even WoW.. Good riddance.
I now have a long battle with my ex that i so want to get back with..
Hope you get her back bro
God speed brother
Its actually ur fault, really dude..
123RAZZER123 Wow.... Never chose games over loved ones....
123RAZZER123 It's your fault. Don't blame the game because there are some people that have been playing ever since the game came out and they are able to have a relationship,a job, a social life and overall a good life. You need to regulate how much you play and create a routine so you can maintain your real life and play your games.
Social aspect, quirky aesthetic, years of lore to draw from, likeable (or dislikeable as the case may be) character, and some of the best implementation of the skinner box principal.
Wow is just a runescape clone anyway
and discovering the continents is also my fav. i love to explore
Hey I'm one of those who left right before MoP in 4.4.2 , Aug 2012 (why the hell do I remember this????). I left because of Pandas, I actually believed this game just died right in-front my eyes. I was never the Hardcore raider, the loot hunter, the "pull the lever mouse in-a-box", I was the lore hunter, the quest wall of text reader, the Wiki editor, the Role-Player.
I really loved the lore of the game and I didn't waste as much time on the game as the avg players, I came to finish the quests, to investigate, and above all to roleplay with my community as a conflicted forsaken DK. Watching this video actually got me thinking of coming back for some reason. you sir play a role as a nostalgic injection (and an addiction re bounder)
I really like your candid reflections of your time when you just left high school.
sounded lonely. I'm sure it's not easy to do so but thanks for sharing it. I'm sure a lot of people had a similar experience.
Can someone tell me the name of the piano song in the beginning of the video?
there has been many times ive played wow longer than my attention span could handle. the only way i stayed playing was cause when i got bored i could just switch topics, (ie: do quests, do dungeons, do raids, pvp a bit, play on the auction house, reconfigure my gear, go back to questing, find more dungeons.) if the game was just one goal to do this line of quests, and here's a dungeon in the middle of your questing more, and now im back to my questing, than i would have logged out and quit back in 2005. The reason its so addictive is because when your attention span ends from doing something so repetitive you can hearth and change your directive in a matter of seconds. "well i was questing for over an hour and cleared half this area, but now i feel like repairing my gear selling my bag items and getting into a good pvp match."
It's a good question. What has kept me addicted to wow has changed as the game evolved. It surely was not the graphics, because when i started in vanilla i was young and didnt have a very good computer, so graphics was definetely not it for me. Ar first it was probably the interactions and the involved talent system, which really made me feel like I had earned my mortal striking lvl 60 warrior. Then BC was released and my expectations were exhilarated by how it improved everything. I wanted to level up other classes too, to see the difference in power between all of them at lvl 70. I am sad to say due to life events, I missed wrath, which I have heard a lot about as being the best so far. Re started playing in cataclysm, so much had changed, i went around to all my old alts and checked out what was new. Talents started to be simplified for my taste, but the changed zones and added content kept me interested. Mists of Pandaria is probably where i stopped...i leveled some of my characters to 90 and tried some raids and that was it. Because i realized that the game had lost so much of what got me addicted to begin with. Since then i have heard it has only gotten worse...But I have no regrets, vanilla and bc made for some memorable experiences and encounters, and I know there's just no bringing those back.
Todie85 Nostalrius
I still play WoW to this day because I just enjoy leveling and playing with my friends. I also like most of the armor sets that Blizzard puts out in each major patch and expansion. I love the lore behind WoW as well as most of the characters. There is always a challenge to be experienced in WoW.
I remember watching your channel forever ago and liking the videos but stupidly I forgot to subscribe back then and so yesterday I was just looking up random WoW vids and found your channel and also found that you did WoW vids and now I haven't stopped doing two things in the last two days, one is playing WoW and two is watching yourvideos, they're really interesting and a lot are pretty hilarious, keep it up! :D
Dolan do you think yogg'saron is up to no good? i mean we didnt kill him thats not possible not even the titans could. we just pushed him back under... so is he still whispering ? and if he came in contact with a large amount of saronite would he get stronger? since that is his blood... im really curious now that he might show up in the next expansion after warlords of draenor?
hey question .. i played wow from very early bc all the way up to cata ... with breaks here and there but i've been thinking of rejoining but im trying to figure out if its worth it, i was a big pvp person sooo any thoughts on it and the game right now on general ?!
to me it was the social part of it
i loved boost running my guildies trough instances and hang out with them in goldshire and party when ever one was having a birthday.
i loved the part where i could chat with people from all over the world
i had a break of wow for 2 years and i only missed that part of it
now i am back again and i am basicly just messing around in lower lvl instances and boosting alts of my new guidlies... catching pets compleeting achievements and farming mounts.
Civilization has this its called:
"One more turn"
It's the effect that happens when you want to play one more turn (often done repeatedly) , to find out what the technology that you are 1 turn away from finishing will do (what effect it will have) or if you could move your army 1 more turn, maybe the one turn from fighting for an enemy city.
This happens all the time, most of the time when you have been playing for hours and having no idea how much time has gone by.
Its so addicting because you're trying to reach top level and get sick gear and just be awesome in general IMO
This video was brilliantly planned. I especially love your chimpanzee and the lettuce analogy. This phenomenon comes closest to describing why I can't seem to find any salvageable entertainment value from modern mmo's, and why every time I get bored with video games I start searching up old WoW videos, private servers, and watching streams again. Once again, this video is Incredibly insightful, and helpful on a personal level. Maybe with this new found knowledge I can work myself out of this "Post-fantasy world depression syndrome" I seem to have contracted from this game.
Manip...maniplauralewnlrjeaATTE MAH BRAAAAIN!! lol, You deserve a thumbs up a few times throughout this video, especially with nailing the Rivendare mount grind and this fun little word debauch, good job throughout, Danger.
You know you are addicted to WoW when you're replying to a comment about someone watching a video about WoW addiction.
I dont play the game often, but I have to say, what keeps me coming back is the environment and exploring possibilities. I swam around an entire island once or twice, just to see if i can find any hidden stuff. all I found were small sand beaches, but it was loads of fun. I like being pulled into another world. I dont have a subscription, I play the free 20 level cap way, but I just try out a bunch of different races and classes. Its more then enough fun. I just hate there are areas I cant go because I'm only twenty. but oh well
www.neverendless-wow.com/ Here you can play till what ever level you want.... Hell I'm promote the private server, it's awesome and I've been on it for years. Then there is Molten wow, a massive private server, you don't have to be stuck at level 20 on the Retail servers, you can play on a private server and explore everywhere. I have several level 80's and one that I could use to get you into more areas ;P Mundi is my characters name
sommopfle I find private servers much more socially engaging. I used to play in Omegawow for some years (it had about 800 online players on average) and it was really nice knowing almost everyone on your faction or the other. You'd join a BG and see familiar names in 5 out of 10 enemy players. There were players that were respected by the whole playerbase for their achievements and social status. This just doesn't happen in retail WoW, there are so many players, that you only really know your guild mates.
He misdefined psychological extinction at 7:10. Extinction is involved in conditioning like he was talking about, but the whole pigeon beating up on the other pigeon had nothing to do with it. Extinction occurs when you are taught to do something by a command, the command is never given again, and you eventually forget how to do the original something over time.
"I've spend X months/years playing this character, should i quit now?" Those were my thoughts for many years. Thanks to Blizz and LFR i finaly said YES!
I can only speak for myself when I say this, but I made some amazing friends through this game that I did not expect to. Despite all its flaws, and the vast amounts of negative media it receives, the game has an extremely incredible social aspect to it. I mean it's crazy to think that I could be better friends with a guy who lives in South Africa, than the people I work with everyday or even friends I go to university with. WOW offers escapism for sure, but it also connects you with people who under normal circumstances you would never have known. People want to feel connected. Most of them are trapped in the monotony of their lives (either married with kids/living with parents/poor/Dead-end jobs/college/etc.) Games like WOW allow them to connect further socially than they would normally in let's say a small town in the middle of nowhere. You can get addicted to anything depending on how it makes you feel...that's why I see WOW addiction no differently than I would Alcoholism or Smoking. Sure there will be people that do it, but not everybody will automatically fall into that category.
what is the name of the program at 2:35 ? I've already seen this before...
I started playing WoW during WotLK period. I did it mostly out of curiosity. I kinda liked it though the repetitiveness of quests bored me. Quit after Cata came out. Not because it was bad. I just had to focus on studies and getting a job. Also I had little money so didn't want to spend it on subscription.
Failed studies but got a job now.
Recently I started thinking about returning to WoW. Just to do something in my spare time or day off (beside hanging out with friends and other things I do) The biggest dilemma I have is that I would be able to play once or twice a week for couple of hours and I just don't know if subscribing is worth it.
I really like the part on nostalgia - I wrote an article for Freedom! Magazine (Freedom! Network), and I really enjoyed doing it. It's definitely a psychological part remembering the good times and wanting those back, though (at least with more straightforward single-player games) it's hard if not impossible to relive those. The mystery and wonder of what's all out there is gone, but with a game like WoW, there are still things to accomplish or revisit - my love for procuring old, beautiful gear for transmog being one of the biggest.
On that note, I think transmog is perhaps the best, simple addition Blizzard ever added to WoW.