Just One More Level
Since the 1950s, gaming has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry. Along with the growing industry, came an increasing concern from the parents seeing their kids being involved with this growth. Soon it became a statement that video games were harmful and could among others provoke violent tendencies in the younger generations. The research on this topic was, however, inconclusive and these effects are highly individual and may involve many more factors than simply the amount of time spent playing games.
Nonetheless, even though video games might not turn you into the next Hitler, it was not unlikely that gaming could cause addiction and in 2019 the WHO officially recognized gaming addiction as a modern disease. So if you costantly are thinking of reaching just one more quest, then this might be interetings for you.
Personally, I believe that you can become addicted to almost everything. For instance, I am severely addicted to candy and have an intense consumption of coffee. However, none of these “addictions” are in the same spotlight as “smoking”, “drinking” or now “gaming” addictions. Imagine that you are more afraid of your kid gaming/socializing online than them getting type 2 diabetes.
That being said, I can definitely relate to the addictive aspects of gaming. For me, it is only one game that has truly brought it out of me. I could not stop; just one more quest, just one more raid, one more level, etc. I skipped parties, events, and work for that game. IT was not just me, this particular title has gotten some much attention online, regarding its addictive features.
If you are still wondering what game I am talking about, it is of course World of Warcraft. To me and many others, WoW is what cocaine is to junkies. It might be a harsh statement, and I apologize for any boundaries it might have crossed, but it is a great way to illustrate how deep I was in. I was thinking about questing and leveling constantly – my dinner would be inhaled, my sleep would be reduced and my socializing outside of WoW would be cut to a minimum, so that I could spend more time in front of my PC.
However, WoW is a weird addiction. You can still function perfectly well in the outside world, in the limited time you spend there and your body does not start decaying, if you just eat regular healthy meals. You can even maintain a great social life, some of my best friends at the time, were other people online and christ we had fun!
Where am I going with this?
So is it really that bad? Is gaming addiction such a terrible disease? Of course, I won’t underestimate the consequences, for those who game so much that it affects their partners, work, and health. Yet, what parents seem to be focused on today is whether gaming provides a healthy environment for their kids.
I mean, for my sake, sure I started canceling events for WoW, but on the other hand, I just canceled events for one group of friends over another. Furthermore, I learned a lot from WoW; English, writing, concept of auctions, and coordination through raids.
Therefore, I think today should all be about WoW and the addiction it may bring, with a slight discussion on the good, the bad, and the ugly it might mean for you.
World of Warcraft
World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment.
Set in the amazing Warcraft fantasy universe, WoW takes place within the world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events of the previous game in the series, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne. I must admit that Warcraft III is still my go to game, when I need a “less” addictive warcraft fix.
Since launch, World of Warcraft has had nine major expansion packs: The Burning Crusade (2007), Wrath of the Lich King (2008), Cataclysm (2010), Mists of Pandaria (2012), Warlords of Draenor (2014), Legion (2016), Battle for Azeroth (2018), Shadowlands (2020), and Dragonflight (2022). Three further expansions, The War Within (planned for 2024), Midnight, and The Last Titan, were announced in 2023.
The Plot
The plot of WoW is massive – There are entire websites dedicated to the lore – so I am really simplifying it here! In keeping with the storyline of previous Warcraft games, players must choose between the opposing factions of the Alliance or the Horde (the old tale of human vs orc, should give you an idea).
The two factions have been at war for as long as anyone can remember and will most likely continue to do so for years. However, with each expansion, you are thrown into introductions of demons, new islands, dragons and gray areas, where you are forced to fight side by side.
Depending on what side you choose, you will get different stories and these will further be affected, depending on what race you go with. Personally, even though it is as dangerous to say, as to mention your political standpoint, I always end up being Horde. I don’t know what it is, but i can relate to the trolls for some reason.
In short, the story is long and grows with every expansion, which is one of the reasons why it is so hard to let go of the game, once you have been sucked in.
How Is This Relevant?
When engaging the topic of Game addiction, I think WoW is a worthy mention, but also a double edged sword. What I mean to say is that when playing Wow, often you are still socializing and expanding your horizon with different cultural input (might be an exaggeration but still). Whereas, when I was consumed by Skyrim, I had zero social relations and my “achievements” were only fulfilling a self established purpose, not a common goal, as when you do a massive raid.
However, I would still claim that the hold WoW had on me was the most intense and hardest to get out of – requiring a cold turkey, before I lost my social relations. Nonetheless, I am still no shy to recommend this game to anyone looking for a good MMORPG (does that make me a horrible person?)… and I still tend to load up the free version once in a while, just to get a wiff of the badlands again.
Gameplay
From when you have chosen your faction, then it is straight to leveling and doing tasks for our allegiance, while trying to mess up plans for the enemy, and avoid getting pwnd by High level players invading low level battlegrounds.
Of course, similar to other MMORPGs, the game allows us to create an avatar and explore an open game world in third- or first-person view, fighting various monsters, completing quests, and interacting with non-player characters (NPCs) or other players.
We are encouraged to work together to complete quests, enter dungeons and engage in player versus player (PvP) combat, however, the game can also be played solo without interacting with others.
What path you choose is up to you, some players only engage in PvP, while others stay true to the life of questing – there are even some, who only explore the “gathering skills” and spends day after day fishing in a chill environment.
Nonetheless, the game primarily focuses on character progression, in which you earn experience points to level up your character, in order to make them more powerful and buy/sell items using in-game currency to acquire better equipment, among other game systems.
Debate Of The Day
Putting it like this, you are probably wondering – how could I become addicted to questing with a badly animated troll in a fictive world? It is actually not my fault (entirely, at least)!
You see, World of Warcraft does have a number of so-called “design features” that will cause you to be more at-risk of developing a problem.
According to gamequitters.com, research shows that massive online multiplayer games like WoW are more addictive than offline single-player games. One of the causes is because the amount of time it takes to level up increases significantly over time, causing you to have to spend more and more hours to achieve the next level. Keep in mind that when I played WoW, the final level could take an average of 8 hours of intense gameplay to achieve.
This is a fabulous argument – however, there are several more reasons why I, personally, kept playing. For starters, the game is subscription based and since I am cheap as f*@k, I felt the pressure to play, since I had already paid for the month.
If that was not enough, WoW had this amazing ability to keep you hooked – whenever you had just gotten the best gear, a new expansion was released and so was even better equipment, meaning you had to do it all over again. What is amazing about this, is that it did not feel like endless repetition to me, but more like a way to scratch my itch for competition and challenge.
This might sound like a few negative statements – yet, I can honestly say that wow brought me an insane amount of joy. I would not be without the many hours playing this game, the hilarious lan-parties, the new online friendships, and fun learnings i got! I still remember the first time I walked through the Dark Portal and it gives me the chills!
…it sounds like you miss it?
From reading my above rambling, it is correct if you assume, that despite the potential addiction, I really fancied WoW. However, despite what I say above, it is actually hard for me to openly recommend the game, as it would be a bit like recommending you to do drugs. So if you read any further, it is at your own responsibility.
I still haven’t found a MMORPG that can offer me the same as what World of Warcraft did. Trust me, I have tried filling that void for long. It is even harder for me to say exactly why, as when I Play MMORPG’s today, I expect a good story, detailed character creation and giant skill tree – WoW, only had one of those things and today that skill tree is cut down to a minimum. On the other hand, what it did have was a good community and a system that made every minute spent on it feel purposeful.
The system was so well designed for its time! When I first started, the questing was easy to get into and did not require much of a learning curve, meaning you could play it whenever you wanted – whereas, when playing today, the mechanics always seem more complicated and require a constant upkeep, if you do not want to lose your edge.
Accordingly, when you got tired of the repetitive quests, then you could move on to dungeons, with other players guiding you through the journey. If you really hid it off with the other players, then you could join their guild, which to me, brought many awesome relations. The social aspect of WoW cannot be underestimated, since finding the right group can lead to weekly raids, funny duels, and cultural exchange with people all around the world.
Then what is the problem?
The overall problem is that I have the backbone of a worm. I find WoW to be relaxing, entertaining, challenging, and never enough. It ticks all the boxes for a game, which can be started anytime, you will always have something to do, and you do not necessarily need the biggest amount of brainpower a.k.a a perfect form of escapism.
However, within this lies a myriad of triggers. WoW becomes so addictive to me, as it offers achievable goals to work towards. Having a myriad of quests to complete, enemies to slay, and loot to unlock is an integral part of what makes the game so fun and appealing!
Yet, this brings us back to my former post on “ Excellence Is Not A Skill, It’s An Attitude!”, as it fulfills this desire to accomplish achievements. It provokes instant gratification which I can receive on a moment’s notice like making some quick gold or leveling up my Rouge. This gratification consumes me and I start planning my day around when to achieve it again. This means skipping other assignments, which would not provide a similar feeling and many tasks in life, cannot live up to this.
The worst part is, that you do not even do this in solitude. When you skip an event, so do other guild members – It makes you feel perfectly fine accommodating a life in Azeroth, compared to a life of work and school. Eventually, I (and many others) began to neglect real-life relationships with friends and family in order to continue playing WoW with fellow guild members who I had so much in common with.
I am confused, is it good or bad?
I understand any potential confusion. At the end of the day, it’s not about whether World of Warcraft is bad or not, it’s about what your relationship is like to gaming and whether or not you can play in moderation.
If you have seen Family Guy, then the key is following Death’s advice to Peter; Death tells him the key to his drinking is moderation. Personally, I am having an incredibly hard time playing a game like WoW in moderation, so I only return under hard time restrictions and an abrupt end date.
That being said, the reason why I won’t stop recommending WoW is very simple: For what it is, It is a great game! For as many articles you find on addiction, you can find just as many with positive stories! Many on how long distance friends have stuck together through wow, a few on how couples have met during raids, and even one on how a kid saved his sister from a moose, by utilizing a warcraft skill. Not to mention, that one of the best South Park episodes of all time, is made as a parody on World of Warcraft.
To me WoW has become nostalgia, that can be enjoyed in small amounts. To others it is an escape from a tough time, a break in a long day, or a way to meet friends with similar interests. I would state that it could fulfill a need for most people and I would even say people should at least try it out, just to understand the hype – but keep it at that, if you can’t stop thinking about it before falling asleep.
Moderation
On a final note, I find it important to make you reflect a bit on your gaming habits. It took me seeing a picture on facebook of a party I should have been too, before I realized the hold WoW had on me. I think it might be the same for many people, that we simply don’t realize that we might have an addiction.
Therefore, I recommend to red these “symptoms” put forward by WHO and converted to WoW terms:
- Damage to personal and professional relationships
- Loss of interest in other activities except playing WoW
- Obsessive thinking about playing WoW
- Poor performance in school or work
- Sleep problems and poor sleep quality
- Lying to others to conceal gaming habits
- Neglecting important responsibilities to play WoW
- Repetitive strain injuries like tennis elbow and carpal tunnel
- Lack of energy and motivation
- Decline in mental health and general mood
If you recognize any of these, then don’t overreact and delete WoW immediately. Take action to spice your life up a bit – Go for a walk, call your friends, limit your time with magic and dragons, and have fun.
Say it with me: MODERATION.
Guilty Pleasure?
With that said, I might have brought you through a bit of an emotional roller coaster – but now it is Up to you! Be a good Orc and share your best moments in wow or start the debate on the game that is your guilty pleasure?
Surces
Thank you to the sources providing me with cool inspiration:
- WoW addiction and depression – General Discussion
- How To Break A World of Warcraft Addiction
- Game Quitters
- The mindfull gamer