How my World of Warcraft addiction ruined my life. [gGNgt_WXa_4]

From the ages of 16 to 18, I was

completely addicted to online video games,

mainly World of Warcraft. So it all

started in 2005 after I finished secondary

school, and I was getting ready to enjoy a

nice long summer holiday before my A-level

studies began. A-levels are these exams

that you have to take if you want to get

into university. And somehow I found out

about this game called Guild Wars, which

is this massively multiplayer online

role-playing game where you level up this

character in a fantasy world and you do

quests and you kill monsters. And it was

my first ever time playing an online game

where there were so many other people

playing at the same time. Before that, me

and my friends used to play games together

like Halo. I used to completely destroy

them with the scoped pistol. Sometimes

they would try to team up to take me down,

but I would still kill them. We also used

to play this other game called Conflict:

Desert Storm, which was this third-person

squad-based shooter. But before that, I

had never played an online multiplayer

video game before, and when I first

started playing Guild Wars, it was just

amazing being able to play with so many

people from all over the world. I was

instantly hooked. I played Guild Wars for

a few months, but I started to get bored

with it, and I didn't like the way that

when you went out into the world, you

couldn't randomly meet other people unless

they were in your party. The only place

you could see other players was in the

cities. So I started to look for a

different MMO, and I found one called Star

Wars Galaxies, which looked really

interesting. I loved Star Wars as well,

so I thought, hey, great, this looks

really fun. So I started playing Star Wars

Galaxies, and I realized that it was 100%

better than Guild Wars in every single

way. The only bad thing about it was you

needed to pay £10 or something every

month, and my dad decided to pay that for

me, which was a huge mistake. The best

thing about Star Wars Galaxies was it had

this really strong feeling of community,

this sense of community, and I joined this

guild called Exile Corps on the Empire

side. And I felt like my guild members

were my friends. I felt like they were

kind of like family. I would log in,

everyone would say hello, we would meet

up, we would go kill stuff. I started to

get this reputation in the guild as being

the idiot or the clown of the guild. I

used to say the stupidest idiotic things

to try and make people laugh, and people

started to think that I was retarded or I

had autism or something. But I didn't

care. I just wanted to make people laugh,

even if that made me look stupid. And my

guild, Exile Corp, were pretty much the

most powerful PvP guild on the server.

The Rebel Alliance guild used to gather up

and try and attack our town on Dantooine

every weekend or something, and we had to

defend it, and we had these really long

PvP battles that lasted for hours. And we

would always defend it successfully, and

we would push them back to their town,

and it was just so much fun. I played Star

Wars Galaxies for the remainder of the

summer holiday, and then I had to go back

to school to start my A-level studies.

But I was just not interested in studying

at all. I was completely addicted to Star

Wars Galaxies, and all day at school, all

I could think about was going home to play

Star Wars Galaxies. I was so addicted to

it, it was really bad. I started to have a

lot of arguments with my family,

especially my dad. Sometimes me and my

sister would fight because she wanted to

use the computer as well to play The Sims

or to do homework, and we would start

fighting because I didn't want to stop

playing Star Wars Galaxies. And then my

dad got angry and he would take away the

internet for the next day. So when I woke

up, there was no internet because he took

away the cable that connected the computer

to the internet. And I used to be so upset

and angry with this. I, I really hated him

so much for doing that. And I would just

lie on my bed crying, waiting for him to

come home so I could go back onto Star

Wars Galaxies. It was pathetic. I played

Star Wars Galaxies for about 6 months,

and then Sony decided to release this new

update called New Game Enhancements, or

NGE, which completely ruined the game. It

allowed anyone to become a Jedi straight

from level 1, and becoming a Jedi was like

the most difficult, so the most

challenging thing in the game. And people

were really pissed off about this, so me

and all my guild members, we decided to

move to a new game, and that new game was

World of Warcraft. Oh wait, I forgot to

tell a story about Star Wars Galaxies. So

there was this one time during the summer

holiday when I was playing Star Wars

Galaxies And my friends from secondary

school actually came over to my house to

try and get me to go skateboarding with

them. And I was so addicted to Star Wars

Galaxies, I didn't want to go outside of

the house. So they ended up coming into my

house and they just sat behind me

basically on the floor whilst I played

Star Wars Galaxies. They tried to watch

and I tried to explain to them what the

game was about, but they weren't

interested because if you don't actually

play MMOs, they're really boring to watch

even though they're really addicting. So

my My mum prepared food and they just sat

there and ate food behind me whilst I

completely ignored them and played Star

Wars Galaxies. After a few hours they got

bored and they left and that was pretty

much the last time I ever saw them. Now

that I think about it, I really feel bad

about doing that. They were my friends for

years and years. We used to play games

together all the time. I used to go over

to their houses. We used to ride our

bicycles around the village all the time.

When it snowed we went sledging together.

We used to go to the cinema together. We

were really good friends for years, and

because of Star Wars Galaxies and my

addiction to online gaming, I just chucked

that all away, and I treated them like

shit when they came over to my house to—

to see me. Okay, let's go back to World of

Warcraft. So if you thought my addiction

was bad during Star Wars Galaxies, things

were about to get 10 times worse with

World of Warcraft. At least with Star Wars

Galaxies, I was barely functional. I was

getting my schoolwork done, and I was

going down to eat meals with my family.

But when I started playing World of

Warcraft, It was like 100 times more

addictive. And I just started failing

everything at school. I started to become

really depressed when I was at school.

All I could think about was World of

Warcraft. During break, I would spend the

whole lunch hour on the computer reading

websites and forums about World of

Warcraft. The minute it turned 4 PM and

school finished, I would run out of the

door and then sprint to the train station

whilst listening to My Chemical Romance.

And then I'd run back from the train

station to my house. I used to be pretty

good at running, now that I think about

it. Every time I listen to My Chemical

Romance now, it reminds me of those days

so much. At dinnertime, I didn't even eat

with my family. I got my mum to bring my

meals up to the computer, which was a

really bad thing for her to do. She should

have said, if you want to eat, if you're

hungry, then stop playing your video game

and come downstairs and eat with us. I'm

not blaming my parents, but I feel like

some of the decisions they made weren't

very good. For example, My dad shouldn't

have paid for my subscription fee. If he

wanted me to stop, he could have just

cancelled the subscription because I

didn't have any money. I wasn't working.

I didn't have any income. I wouldn't have

been able to pay for a World of Warcraft

subscription, but he was paying it for me.

And then my mum, she just kept bringing

food up to me instead of making me pause

my game or stop playing the game and come

downstairs. I kept fighting with my sister

over the computer, and sometimes We

actually physically fought each other and

sometimes I hit her and then she started

crying and my dad got really angry and he

took away the internet again. And it was

like this continuous cycle of fighting

with my sister, making my dad angry, and

then he would take the internet away. And

then I'd start crying in my room and

punching the wall. And then the next day

he would bring back the internet and then

a few weeks would pass and then the same

thing would happen again. It was just a

complete nightmare. This went on for about

a year, and then I had to take my

end-of-year A-level exams, and I failed

everything miserably. And I decided to

stop going to school. I decided to quit

school because I was just so depressed. I

was so addicted. I just wanted to play

World of Warcraft all the time. When I

told my dad that I wasn't going back to

school, he didn't really have much of a

reaction. I don't remember him being

really upset or angry about it, which I

guess he was. He was just like, Oh, okay,

oh well. And he didn't say much about

it. He never says much about anything

really. It's kind of irritating. He didn't

say anything like, no, you're going back

to school or else I'm going to get rid of

the internet. I'm gonna chuck away the

computer. Nope, he just continued paying

for my subscription fee. It's kind of

weird, isn't it? So you might be

wondering, how did I break free from my

addiction to World of Warcraft? Well, I'm

going to tell you. I discovered this

magical thing. Called anime and Japan. A

few months before I decided to quit

school, I discovered this thing, this

animated cartoon called Neon Genesis

Evangelion, and I decided to buy a DVD

copy off eBay, and I watched it. I watched

it in Japanese, and it was my first time

ever watching a proper Japanese anime,

and it was my first time ever really

listening to the Japanese language, and I

was just blown away. I was amazed at how

good it was. I was hooked. I was addicted

to something new, and I started to watch

anime every single day, just a few hours

at first, and I started to get interested

in learning Japanese and going to Japan

and Japanese girls, and I started to get

interested in drawing. I drew anime every

single day whilst watching anime. I tried

talking to my guild members on World of

Warcraft about anime and how great it is,

and they made fun of me. They started to

mock me and tease me, saying that anime's

for losers and only idiots watch anime,

and I got offended. I got really offended

and upset with my, my friends from World

of Warcraft, and I just stopped talking to

them. I lost interest in playing World of

Warcraft. I was watching more and more

anime every single day where it just ended

up taking over all my gameplay time. So

basically I replaced one addiction with

another addiction to anime, but at least

my anime addiction led to things. For

example, I learned a whole new language.

I went to a country that I've never been

to before all by myself, and I had sex. I

think that if I never went to Japan, I'd

still be a virgin to this day. And I

learnt how to draw. If it wasn't for

anime, I would have no interest in

drawing. Learning a new language,

socializing with people, meeting up with

girls, going to a new country, living by

myself— I think these are pretty big

accomplishments for someone like me who

was basically a shut-in for years, who had

no friends, who was completely addicted to

video games, who never left his house

apart from school, who had no social life.

When I turned 18 years old, I signed up to

the job center and they found me a job,

and I started working at this pub in the

kitchen, and I saved up money, and I

bought my very first computer, and I

bought this desk that's behind me that I

still use even to this day. Sometimes I

ask my dad, why didn't you just buy me my

own computer? Because if I had my own

computer, all the fighting with my sister

would have never happened. And he said

that he was worried that if I had my own

computer, I would just be on the computer

all the time, but I was on the computer

all the time anyway, so that doesn't

really make sense. Ow. I think that if my

own child had this same video game

addiction, then number one, I wouldn't pay

for the subscription fee in the first

place, and I wouldn't take his meals up to

his room. I'd make him come downstairs to

eat with the family, and I wouldn't just

let him quit school without there being

consequences or a punishment. I'd say,

you can quit school, but then I'm going to

take away the computer, so you're gonna

have to go and find a job.