The only rpg type of game I ever played was secret of mana on the SNES (I guess Deus Ex 1 had some rpg qualities to it.) I'm sure warcraft is fun, but I don't want to sink to that level. I find action games like first and third person shooters much more enjoyable.
Rofl! i remember the days of d2 pre 1.10. classic was the way to go, duping items and then ebaying them @ $2/soj hahhaha, had so many accounts of them. then they started doing the mass bans rofl, that really punked me bigtime then i quit D: uswest: nMarlboro, V_Infernal, sechkies ftmfw!
when you're free and got nothing better to do this kind of entertainment is fun, however if you keep on doing it for a long long time your brain suffers a BSOD and becomes a form of Enterdrainment (draining you of all your power) so your health would go to hell (your mental health most likely). some people are addicted but just because you enjoy playing games full time does not mean you're addicted unless it makes you lose sleep, stop eating and most likely lock yourself without going out for days.
I was a raider myself for 2½ of the 3½ years I've played the game. Yes/yes, for some it's an addiction they can't break - but they still enjoy it. Other's can't break it but don't really enjoy it much, or they feel bound - as if responsible to attend these raids. That's why the last half of a year I spent on that game was dedicated to PVP, as you decide when you'll play, and for how long. It actually felt much less boring in length, and one must remember that every encounter is different, so it's less of the same grind-tastic experience. I broke my smack addiction to World of Warcraft about 2-3 months ago, but now I'm hooked on Age of Conan instead. I must say, however; that I'm enjoying Age of Conan a lot more than I ever enjoyed World of Warcraft. The first 10 levels before you get to White Sands Isles and such were a pain though, good thing it was only a few hours...
I was in a hardcore raiding guild pre-TBC. We were #3 in progression in Naxx on a large pop/release realm, and fully cleared BWL after only being in it for 3 weeks. I joined because I wanted to see some endgame encounters, and my friends had all quit so I needed some people to play with anyways. Now for the bad... I had to do an "interview" on Vent with guild officers and type an application as well. My raid schedule was M,T,Th,Fri 8pm-??? (usually 2 am) then again Saturday at 3pm-11pm. When I started I was on a sub list so I didn't even get to participate in raids unless another healer left, but to even be considered I had to wait IN GAME, and on Vent...sometimes a couple hours. I'm just honestly surprised at how understanding my wife was back then because this went on for months. I literally had to schedule my life around raiding. I got sick of it about 6 months in, and I just up and quit one day. I did end up as one of the best geared pallies in the realm, and I did end up being one of the guilds top healers as well. but yeah WoW can kiss my ass, and raiding can kiss my ass too.
My best friend is totally addicted to WoW, as is his 55 year old Dad. All they do is play warcraft 5-6 nights a week, it’s definitely an addiction and extremely unhealthy. How many times have I heard ‘I can’t see you guys tonight, I have a raid on’ Whats ironic is that he complains about having to raid and how boring the game is, yet he keeps playing I played myself for about a year, was coming home from work and going straight on the pc, my wife was bringing my tea to my desk and I was on the pc until around 1am. She eventually sat me down and told me how it wasn’t fair on her and how she never saw me. So, I quit the next day and deleted my account. Never played it again. I now have a brown belt in OCFM Martial Arts and do the gym 4 times a week (in my lunch hour) Feel like I made a big change for the better! Now I just need to convince my friend to do the same, but he plays in one of the worlds top guilds and I doubt he will ever quit.
Hmm im getting the impression whenever i read these "addiction"- threads that most people have a very black & white view of MMO's and about the amount of time that needs to be invested to get anywhere. This isnt exactly accurate and there is a so called "Grey zone" that gives you the chance of balancing both, having a life and making progress in the game. Im talking WoW here mainly because its the game ive played the most out of the current MMO's and its also the most popular and most talked about one. Im the leader of what you could call a "casual" raiding guild that has been around for over 2 years now, probably over 3. we got about 50 members 20 of wich are active raiders, about 10 are more of the casual types and raid when they can and the rest do pvp, level up some alts, do instances or whatever it is that makes them happy. We raid 3 nights in a week for 3 hours from 9pm to midnight and we've made it to Kael'Thas Sunstrider in The Eye with Serpentshrine Cavern fully cleared and are kicking off properly with Mount Hyjal in the coming weeks. Those who dont play WoW wont know what im talking about but those who do play, will probably agree that its pretty decent progress considering the amount of raiding we do and seeing that we only properly started doing Karazhan and got into raiding again 6 months after The Burning Crusade came out. We may raid only 3 nights per week but we do aim to make the most out of that time and for that 3 hours we put our game faces on and dont dick around. We dont also "force" anyone to raid nor do we start kicking people out if they drop out from a raid, heck just last week one of our regular top healers posted to say that hes dropping out from the evenings raid because his mate had just got himself a new pool and there was a ladies night so he wanted to go there... can you honestly blame a guy for dropping out from a raid for a ladies night ? . During the off nights people do what they want to do, some do instances in the game, some go to the pub, some spend the time with the wife/husband and kids and some play other games or whatever. We dont really even need to grind for raid consumables because our members choose to make donations to our guild bank and those get used for raiding, it all works out in a nice balanced way in the end. I guess some of the reasons why our guild has been around for so long and sticked together is that we enjoy each others company and play as friends and most importantly we try to play for fun and for ourselfs, we dont give a rats ass how other guilds progress or what they do, its not a race for us like it is for some of the top guilds. So in the end people saying that you need to devote your entire life to raiding if you want to progress is pretty much BS. People only choose to do so because they want their fancy gear and they want it NOW rather then taking a chill pill and progressing at their own pace and finding like minded players to play with. Finding those players may require a bit of work but its worth it if you ask me and i guess the same applies to many other MMO's too.
