Dude, I've seen some hard core gamers but this is a whole new level! The Ultimate Warcraft Fan? This guy, runs raids and plays 36 accounts all by himself on eleven computers! It costs him over $7000 in subscription fees! I don't know about you, but someone is pretty damn dedicated. I won't pay for one WoW account, let alone 36 XD. The Set Up is Pretty Sick
Yeah, I saw about this on digg. The guy apparently does the raids all by himself but with the aid of some game macros. It's amazing the time and money some people have. Time to play + putting together those awesome rigs. Hope the rigs were custom, if not then there's a perfectly good waste of time he could have been putting together his own pc's which would have given the guy more awesome points. Wonder if he has considered playing Guild Wars, no subscription fees. Haha!
Wow, I believe it's okay to play games for recreation, but this is well... a bit over the top. When people spend literally their entire lives in a silly game that will be long forgotten years from now is just a waste of life, and time. What can they say on their tombstone, "Here lies -*insert name* --- He was level 70 in WoW --- Slayed many n00bs"
That's too much. I'm all for using some of your time to play games -- I do it myself. But I feel like this guy isn't actually... creating, I guess. Personally, I like Freud's definition of humanity that he gave to a reporter when he visited America: "to love and to work." By work, I think he meant having some kind of creative output (which, strangely enough, comes from sexual desire...). Plus, I feel like a full life ought to involve a sense of connection with others. Is he really good at playing a game? Yes. Does that mean he's actually making a difference for anyone but himself? Maybe not. Maybe we just have different values on what a good life is, but I know I couldn't spend all my time in a virtual world, even if it were life-like. EDIT Of course, I don't actually know what else he does with his life. But WoW seems like it takes up a lot of time....
And I thought I had dedication to video games. Or is this obsession. Or a combination of both, that is pretty scary. I didn't think a person would do this. This was like to me. I thought a whole bunch of computer screens and playing video games was only a story thing. I'm scared now.
I wonder what a person like that would do if power was cut from his house, and couldnt play the game for a day... Also, i wonder what the death rate would be if Blizzard one day said quits to WOW and took their profits and braught a few small islands.
I think a better question would be how long before public outrage forced the US government to invade the Blizzard Isles .
WOW is addictive. I used to think of myself as a WOW widow. "Honey, I'm naked and horny, come to bed." "Hold on, I'm doing a raid and I'm SO close to levelling." "Fine, I'm going to bed alone...honey...HONEY" "What? Yeah. Fine. Goodnight." Talk about a blow to the ego. Thank God we are too poor to keep up the subscription. LOL Althoug he did just get Saints Row 2. Sigh.
But seriously, folks: If you substituted the words "heroin", "cocaine", "betting on horse races", or "porn" for "World of Warcraft" here it would be a more cut-and-dried example of someone who has a TERRIBLE PROBLEM, lol, and no one would consider it the least bit cool or noteworthy. On a more positive note: I do love hearing about how many people get so sucked into the cyber-world that they abandon normal existence completely. It keeps em off the streets, right? yours in Chaos, Scarlett
The greatest episode of South Park eva . Yes people. We are dealing with someone, with absolutely, no life. Question: How do you kill that which has no life? XD XD XD XD XD
As addicting as Wow is, it'll never beat its elder By speedyjjj at 2008-10-16 They were the days! (Actually i never played it, just was around when it was doing the rounds in the 90s))
I think sick is exactly the word to describe that... An addiction of that level is staggering. If it was herion rather than WoW, he'd have been dead long before reaching this stage.
Actually the "sick" part was more referring to "wicked sick" as in seriously dedicated. Boy is he dedicated. I wonder how he earns all that money to pay for that.
That's a bit harsh, don't you think? The only thing we know about him is that he has a lot of money and a pretty cool pc setup. I'd like an actual interview before making my judgment.
A doctor would indeed call someone like that an "addict", regardless of whether the person could afford his substance or not. Yes, a heroin addict is passionate about heroin and has a relationship with the drug that he takes very seriously--but he's still considered by medical science to be ill. Most of the drug addicts I'm personally acquainted with would kill to be able to spend $7,000 a month on their favorite drug--and some of them, usually via means of some illegal activity such as prostitution or thievery, do actually spend more than that. (NOTE: These are not people I am really close to, but people I know or have known.) One man who was a client at the mental health center I used to work at started off doing about $100 worth of cocaine a week, which he could easily afford since he owned a home decorating business. Then he started spending $200 a week on coke--then $500 a week, then $1000 a week. At that point his business was starting to suffer because of his habit. He ended up losing his business. At that point he started going out with a partner and burglarizing homes to get the money he needed to buy his drug. His business had been netting him over $250,000 a year, and he had been living a great lifestyle--he was married, had kids, had lots of toys to play with, etc. When I first encountered him at the mental health center he was under a court order to get treatment as part of his probation, because he had finally been caught burglarizing a home. His wife had divorced him and he had lost his business. You could certainly say this man had a "passion" for cocaine! Was he sick? I think that anyone would and perhaps should have the right to judge someone like that, as it is very, very obviously abnormal. Look at it this way: If you have a passion for a particular person, you buy that person gifts, take him/her to dinner, and spend as much time with him/her as you can, right? That's healthy, normal, and good "passion". If you started spending $7,000 a month on this person (whether you could afford it or not), and spending 20 hours a day with that person, and were otherwise obsessed with that person to the point that it consumed your entire life and all your waking hours--would you still consider that a "passion"? Or would it be an "illness"...? (This is a serious question.) xoxoxo
I can't judge that person since I don't know him. I can judge my husband for cohosing WOW over sex with his wife (it sucks to be repeatedly rejected for a video game). I can judge his friends who have kids yet have 5 characters over level 70 and spend all day on the computer and none with his kids. Even if it is not classically "addictive" it can certainly become compulsive and interfere with your life in a negative way.
Most certainly not an illness by any account, if you could afford it, youd still be i the $$ right, healthy both physically and mentally, so no . Time wise it wouldnt be bad as some people have to work with their partners, so youtr allowed to groan and winge than.
Are they mutually exclusive? Anyway, I don't think this guy spends 20 hours a day playing (just in case that was what you were trying to say). He has to get those 7000$ a month SOMEHOW.
Don't take my word for it; after all, I'm not a doctor (I just play one on TV.) You should speak to an actual doctor or someone with a medical degree about it, and see what he/she would say. Many drug addicts are shockingly healthy, and indeed one can't even tell they are addicts unless one knows them. The medical profession doesn't differentiate between different substances, but treats them all pretty much the same. Google the phrase "video gaming addiction" (in quotes to get better results) and see what you come up with. If it was gambling, and the guy could afford the $7,000 a month he lost at the track--you would call it a sickness, wouldn't you? The medical profession does! And really--you don't need to defend this guy, or take my remarks personally. If you had to live around Mr. Sick Gamer, you would probably have started to think there was something wrong with him long ago, either that or he would have dragged you into his addiction along with him. That's what addicts do--there's never a middle ground. xoxo
Not defending him at all. I just think we're under-informed, that's all. Also, I don't think video game addiction is in the DSM, which is pretty much the bible in the psychiatric business.
DMS-IV (the latest edition) was published in 1994, if memory serves. That's not particularly up to date.
