Hello everyone...a few months ago I became unemployed and had alot of free time on my hands. Once the snow flew as it does in eastern canada, I was presented with a 10 free trial to " The World of Warcraft".

So it began. I thought " this is just another video game, I won't let it comsume my life". But little did I know.

For the next 4 months, until today infact, I religously played WoW every day. It comsumed my entire life. I had originally set out rules of play for myself and those rules began to be quickly ignored. I would neglect my dog. I would play for a few hours while my girlfriend had a nap. Sometimes even be up untill 4am consumed by this video game. I'd then sleep all day and get up and start again. This was my life for the last 4 months.

None the less, I know I had issuses before I had ever played WoW. The unemployment thing comes to mind. But I evetualy became severly depressed because I had no livelyhood. I didn't have anything to get out of bed and do. I was totally hooked on the WoW.

I was depressed, didn't have a job, somedays I wouldn't leave the appartment. I wouldn't even go out to have drinks or party with my friends because I had WoW. I lost my girlfriend because I was depressed and I wasn't a happy person because I chose to do nothing with my life since downloading that free trial. Nothing. I lived for the game.

So with the revelation that I had in my general life. I knew that I needed to get my act together. I went out and got myself a job. That was my first step of getting away from the house. The next thing I did, and that was today, was, I cancelled my credit card payment for my subscription to world of warcraft. I then unistalled the program on my pc so I couldn't even play it anymore while the last 24 days of my subscription ran out.

I do not like what this game did to me. I know it wasn't the sole purpose I am in my delema. There were other factors that had something to do with my recent situation. WoW just ate up the free time I had that I could have been out pursueing a new career.

I could have been out helping myself and getting back to a place where I could feel like a person again. What WoW did was give me an outlet to let my mind forget about what was going on in my life and ignore the problem. I was sitting around playing WoW and waiting for life to come to me, instead of grabbing the bull by the horns and making my own fate.

I have since changed my stance on this video game. It does wreck lives. It does ruin relationships, and it does keep people from achieveing their maximum potential. With out WoW in my life, I will spend more time with my friends and my family and most of all my dog. This is from a now reformed WoW- chholic.

And for all you WoW gamers that are going to bash me on the Anti WoW site, take this into consideration. You may too have a video game addiction problem. If you have ever said :

" well I do what I have to do after I finish this quest"

or

you've ever almost burnt your place down because you forgot about food in the oven

or

you ever just didn't want to go do anything with a friend or family member on a friday night becuase you would have rather stayed home and played WoW

YOU HAVE THE SAME PROBLEM I HAVE!!! Do yourself a favor and honestly take a step back and look at yourself and the way you live your life. You should be able to see that your time spent playing this game could have been used for much better things, mainly the people that are most important to you.

I hope you found my topic interesting anti-WoW'ers. I am now one of you and I promis that I will never play Warcraft again.

Brian A. Gardiner
Saint John, New Brunswick
Canada

this game also stole 4 months of my life i can never get back; i try to warn any of my friends that start to play this game. So far I've lost to this game, an internet girlfriend, 300ish dollars, 2 friends, and countless hours.

thank you for your heartfelt story, you are not alone

be strong i just lost 2 friends to wow! and before they went i was contemplating getting it in the summer. but no! i shall not. the worst things i have heard is people playing wow instead of revising for a-levels.....it is mind boggling!

i lost my bf of 3 years to it he's been addicted for 2 years and i was sick of it, he was boring and didn't take me anywhere his friends get annoyed, it's not a game u want to be involved with, u won't have ur girlfriends long if u play it.

I know this is an old post but I just got to it recently. Can I join the ranks of those who've lost friends/gfs/bfs to the game? I think I just lost my fiance and something in me tells me that he probably has an online WoW-gf to feel connected with because lately, our conversations (if any) have been really stale. I bet he's happier in his World of Warcraft than being with me. Anyone interested in forming Widows of Warcraft? :|

rofl tbh.

WoW doesnt take your life. YOU take your life by getting behind that PC every day and playing one of the dullest and a-social MMORPGS out there.

If you can't say to yourself after.. a few weeks/days; look at me, I've become into some mindless PC geek, this is f*ckd up, screw WoW. Then you do have a problem. Yes, WoW is addictive, but it's really not impossible to get out. Lots of people play it alot, but exaggerating always is negative, even with eating vegetables. Lots of people also CAN say: hmm friday night.. lets get out for a change and have some fun, see some IRL people...

Anyway my opinion will be pretty controversial in here, I'm sure. I'd like to add tho that I AM mostly anti-WoW because I've seen so many retarded kiddies claim that WoW > all other games etc etc.

There's another MMORPG that's way older and WAY, WAY better than WoW. It's called Dark Age of Camelot ( DAoC ). Almost all of the people who played it since the start are looking back at this game with pride and satisfaction, it was a part of their lives, but they have no regret whatsoever. Their was a lively and superb community which made you build up a bond with your character / realm / game. People were so friendly and social in there that it felt great just to say hi when you logged in.
This is what MMORPGs can and should be like. Not like the WoW-hype crap with indeed negative side effects we see today.

Conclusion: try to be stricter with yourself and think twice before talking crap about games/MMORPGs in general.

Regards,
7 years and counting - DAoC player.

wow is the worst game that i have ever seen. i slowly loosing my best friend because he spends all the time on the computer. in the school he is talking all the time about wow! at friday night he speaks only about wow. i began to hate WoW because it destroys people's lives