Goodbye WoW

[Haven]

Finally kicking the game into touch. What started as fun eventually became a habbit and then finally an addiction.

With the need to find a new job and the strong desire to do more with life I've cancelled my subscription and deleted all installs and backups.

For the faint of heart you may want to look away, some awkward truths below:

Account Created: 26 April 06 19:20 CEST
Last Login: 13 September 09 16:21 CEST

Played Time for my top characters:
Pinklove: 9d 18h
ShadowHaven 24d 16h
Goshin 30d 15h
StormHaven 33d 5h
SoulHaven 130d 5h

Total time of subscription: 1236 days.
Total played time across mains: 228 days.

Thats 18% of each and every day for the last 3 1/2 years. On top of holding down a full time job. Imagine the possibilities for that time ...

Regards

Haven.

 

[Marqo]

I quite understand your reasons. You're not as bad as Blacker though...

Good luck on your RL endavours!

 

[Ronin Storm]

That's a fair ol' quantity of WoW! Average of 4 hours 19 minutes per day, day on day.

Well, welcome back to the world outside of Azeroth.

 

[Angelic]

I congratulate thee. Personally I'd try selling my account or simply delete, cancel and throw away the keys it in no time if I hadn't so many friends in the game... But I do.

EDIT: Just did complete inspection and come up as 92days /played across all my characters in the 974 days since I created my subscription. I took two 1month+ breaks and this brings me to over 2hours every day for the last two and half years. God that's terrifying

 

[Silk]

Any way to get these stats without logging on every single character?

 

[Angelic]

Not that I know of, I logged them all. The date you first set up your subscription can be found in account management on the web.

 

[Belegon]

Good luck in the real world my good man.

Sad times indeed, I remember when first i met you in game for a caverns of time instance, you tanking on Storm, me healing in Bele. That old Hillsbrad one. Just started pally healing! You put up with my piss poor skills, we got through it and invited me into The Haven.

Your coaching and advice from then on to make me the (still poor) healer i am today was invaluable.

Hope to see you in WoW again (if i ever get back in!) when you get an Azeroth urge - in moderation ofc

 

[Burrick]

Well in a post very unlike me ... Me and Kirsty wish you all the best mate you will be missed looks like the end is coming lol

 

[Windzarko]

You'll be back! *maniacal cackle*

In all seriousness, see you round, mate; the old times were fun!

 

[SwampFae]

You came. You saw. You laughed and pwned.
Now new adventures await you!
Sorry to see you go, Haven and hope taht World of LifeCraft treats you well

 

[Bradstreet]

Welcome aboard the RL express! Get a dog!

 

[Nazgaroth]

Time to live, time to lie,
Time to laugh, time to die.

Take it easy, baby,
Take it as it comes.
Don't move too fast
And you want your love to last.
Ah, you've been movin' much too fast.

Time to walk, time to run,
Time to aim your arrows at the sun.

Takes it easy, baby,
Take it as it comes.
Don't move too fast
And you want your love to last.
Ah, you've been movin' much too fast.

Go real slow,
You like it more and more.
Take it as it comes
Specialize in havin' fun.

Takes it easy, baby,
Take it as it comes.
Don't move too fast
When you want your love to last.
Ah, you've been movin' much too fast,
Movin' much too fast,
Movin' much too fast.

 

[HotStuff]

Your deserve full dignity with ur honesty Haven. And even more praise for actually carrying out the decision to quit this game of enormous lure. I have only been playing the game for 11 weeks and have to admit there is part of me that perhaps wishes I hadn't went to "trywarcraft.com".

The following quotes are from http://www.wowdetox.com

1) I'd like to start off by saying this game is fine if you play it for 10 or 15 hours a week. Blizzard made a near-perfect game, but even Blizzard would agree that seeing people destroy their lives on this game is a tragedy.

2) The game is practically to good for us human being to handle somehow. It can move your life completely into this substitute world.

3) WoW is a complex, intelligent game with a great deal of lure.

4) In my opinion, if you play ANY pc game excessively and become a social outcast, then the problem doesn't lie in the game itself, rather in the individual.

5) It's kinda like a disease. They seem to get a weird satisfaction from it. A lot of it has to do with being able to feel accomplished

6) WoW can be a fun hobby, but if you let it, it'll take over your life.

7) I recall canceling my subscription but only to reactivate it 48 hours later because I had nothing better to do with my time

9) There is just WAY too much grind to achieve absolutely nothing meaningful in the real world.

10) WoW just gave me an excuse to sit and do nothing while life was passing me by. When you only play when you have nothing to do... that turns into playing most of the time... Its funny how little you need to do when you dont go anywhere and meet people. While even writing this I still want to play.. I miss the "fun" but know that my REAL life needs to come first now, not getting any younger.

11) My husband of 2 years has been playing this game ever since it came out! i am only 58 years old and i have never even heard of this game! it is ridiculous and to be a 65 year old man and to be playing this is an abomination to our relationship!!!!!!!! HELP

12) This game is an absolute f*****g waste of time!

13) don't marry them until after they quit.

14) I left my husband of a year and a half because of his addiction to world of warcraft. That was two years ago and he continues to play to this day. I just embarked on a journey with someone else and sadly found 3 months into this relationship that he also plays WOW.

15) This game never satisfies you!

16) Playing World of Warcraft has proven to be the worst decision I've ever made.

17) It is so easy to get lost...in a world that gives you the illusion of working hard for increasingly (and almost endlessly) better and better rewards.

18) I played WoW for 3 years, during that time I got nowhere with my career, lost 2 girlfriends. Quit 14 months ago. Got promoted twice and am now married and like to travel with my wife. I feel the urge sometimes and find myself going to the website, but each time... it reminds me about what a horrible waste this game is. Every hobby has an element of futility, but there are few activities that trap you psychologically and prevent you from enjoying them unless you dedicate all of your free time. This game is an escape, ironically it is only an illusion of escape that lures you into much worse drudgery than real life.

19) I quit wow one year ago this month. It was one of best decisions of my life.

20) We all are given one life. Only one. To waste this one life on an activity that does nothing good for anyone is pitiful. Everyone who has played this game has wasted part of their life. Everyone who is playing this game at this very moment is wasting their life. Even if you only play it for a hour a day or a couple times a week you are wasting your time. There is honestly nothing to gain from this game. In reality, it is not even a good game and it has no ending whatsoever. This game is definitely not worth all the harm it causes. Give up the fake world and explore the real world. The feeling of accomplishing something in real life is a million times better than the feeling of accomplishing something in a game.

21) To the addicts reading this, if you are realizing by now that you need to quit and just don't have the determination to do it, please quit. As real as it seems to you when you are playing, it's nothing more than a graphical representation of coding through the internet with an interactive database on a server. The character that you "love" is not real. The "l337ness" of your toon is not real. Life is real. Love is real. The people you are hurting with your addiction who still love you for unfathomable reasons are real. I've been there, i know how real it feels. Yes, it feels real. Remember this though. The gold you make will not pay for a downpayment on a new house, nor will it put food on your table. Downing the hardest boss in Ulduar will not earn you any credibility with anyone in real life. The only thanks you get in game will be from the raid leader thanking you for at least not f**king up the boss fight despite your dps being about 400 less per second than he wanted you at. Wow is not an escape, it's a time sink. It doesn't make you feel good, it only numbs you. The problem with the numbness is numbs you to the happiness real life offers. It doesn't numb you to the pain though.

The hard part though is when you're off of this drug (and that's what it is too) and you're going out of your mind for the first few weeks, no one who has ever been addicted to it will understand. I would suggest making this website a daily visit until you can start to see real life without the Warcraft goggles. Life is short and in real life, there are no soul stones.




I do hope u will update us Haven on how u feel in a few days, weeks or even months from now on reflection of this game.

 

[Razaak]

I could probably search and replace "WOW" with "EVE" or any other MMO out there.

Odd how we don't get this kind of sanctimonious bullshit when people quit other games, but WOW has always been the bastard child of the THN forums, hasn't it?

 

[Zooggy]

Hey,

I think much of that simply missed out on the meaning of the gamer mindset.

To a gamer, any good game cannot be a "waste of time". Games are, in fact, the whole point of play.

Grantedly, WoW can suck up a lot of time, if you don't pay attention. So can Everquest, fondly known in many a gamercircle as Evercrack.

But to cast a blanket reproach of all gaming as a "waste of time" is missing the point, if I do say so myself...

Cheers,
J.

 

[BiG D]

Odd how we don't get this kind of sanctimonious bullshit when people quit other games, but WOW has always been the bastard child of the THN forums, hasn't it?

Methinks thou doth protest too much. Everyone in this thread so far had been expressing understanding and encouragement up until you posted...

 

[Zooggy]

Hey,

Everyone in this thread so far had been expressing understanding and encouragement up until you posted...

Well... no. Not everyone.

On those numbered things above, numbers 1 through 6 are, I suppose, somewhat truthful. Number 6, in particular, is, I guess, where Haven is, and yes, it's a good thing to be lifting off your foot, if so.

Number 7, however, is an utterly pointless testimony of an anonymous Joe, and everything after number 7 is judgemental crap...

This is, after all, the WoW section, ey?

So...

No. Not everyone.

Cheers,
J.

 

[BiG D]

The enumerated list from an undoubtedly biased website is strange, yes, but it does contain praise for the game as well as scorn. It certainly illustrates just how addicted some people are. And, you'll note that the part of the post actually written by hotstuff conveys both encouragement and understanding, as I said, and asks for future updates. I have to say the intentions here seem fine, not to mention that hotstuff is playing the game himself.

 

[Blacker]

Check this out then lol
Account Created: 11 March 06 12:20 CET
Last Login: 20 April 09 02:09 CEST

Total time of subscription: 1136 days.
Total played time across all my 31 characters was 365days

Ouch!!!

 

[Silk]

Good call Haven.. I was once addicted and reckon I have in the region of 100-200 days played (mainly from before TBC even came out, before starting on SSL)

Maybe I'll check for a laugh

I think anything in life is addictive if you let it be.. i.e. can't find anything better to do or just don't want to. I've tried to find a bit more balance in life than I used to have, I no longer play games in every spare minute of every day but am still a gamer and would say still do 20+ hours a week across various games.

I swim, I go to gym, I have to keep my house clean and cook and do the gardening.. I used to neglect things like that but never again.

I like my gaming to be a lot more casual these days and feel I have wow and other games under control. Should that ever not be the case I'll probably just hit the cancel button again.

Main question is, what are you going to do with all that spare time?