WoW Rookie: Safe, Sane, and Balanced

Posted Apr 14th 2008 1:00PM by Amanda Dean
Filed under: Virtual selves, Features, Guides, WoW Rookie

WoW Rookie is brought to our readers to help our newest players get acclimated to the game. Make sure you send a note to WoW Insider if you have suggestions for what new players need to know.

Over the years, World of Warcraft has gotten some bad press from people who invest too much time into the game. Some people have had trouble with work, school, and relationships as a result of spending too much time in the virtual world and losing touch with the real world. One woman cited WoW as the reason for her divorce request; her husband dedicated all of his off time to playing, while neglecting his other responsibilities. In perhaps the most sobering case of game addiction, a young lady died of exhaustion as a result of a marathon WoW session.

As much as we may complain about Blizzard, there is no doubt that they have made a fantastically engaging role playing game. True, from a psychological standpoint they have mastered reinforcement schedules and give goals that compel you to keep going. It's an excellent game, but along with its MMORPG predecessors, it can become all-consuming and soul-sapping. Just remember that it is your job to make sure your WoW time is safe, sane, and balanced.

Welcome to World of Warcraft. WoW Insider offers information and tips for players of all skill levels. Covering everything from character creation to account security, WoW Rookie is specifically formulated to help new players be the very best that they can be.

Continue reading WoW Rookie: Safe, Sane, and Balanced

CNN on WoW addiction

Posted Feb 9th 2008 6:00PM by Adam Holisky
Filed under: News items

Last week CNN ran an editorial story about online game addictions. Its the typical story about how bad online games can be, and how this addiction can destroy a person's life. The article itself has some good examples of this, from both Final Fantasy and World of Warcraft.

In particular, a specialist at the Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery at Proctor Hospital, talks about a young man in his twenties. This poor fellow has lost numerous jobs, his girlfriend, and is quite the recluse since he became addicted to World of Warcraft. It's quite the unfortunate tale, and I'm sure we're all sympathetic to his plight.

Many of us have someone in our family, or otherwise know someone who has dealt with an addiction. They can be a difficult period in everyone's life to deal with. Addictions to WoW and other games in the genera can be no less serious than an addiction to gambling. The results are all the same: people loose their jobs, their families, and can become severely depressed. When that happens disastrous things take place, such as the young man that lost his life in South Korea last year.

The article on CNN doesn't go into any great detail about what you can do if you think you or a loved one has an addiction to WoW. It does give some tips to family members, but CNN is hardly the place to go to for medical advice. Instead, don't bother with anything else then going right to your doctor. Any doctor, at any clinic, anywhere, can at least point you in the right direction.

I'm sure a few of our readers out there have dealt with this in the past, either directly or indirectly. What have you done? What stories do you have to tell?

Student newspaper raises concerns about WoW addiction

Posted Jan 11th 2008 6:00PM by Samuel Axon
Filed under: News items

A boy skipped his senior prom because he was busy playing WoW. A woman divorced her husband because he was more interested in WoW than in her. We've heard these kinds of stories many times before; the media runs them all the time. And while it's frustrating that the games we play are often seen only in that light by the public at large, there's no denying that some people have a problem with unhealthy addiction to WoW and games like it.

The student newspaper of Northeastern University ran yet another piece lamenting the negative effects of World of Warcraft on some people. At this point, all these addiction articles are becoming white noise to me, but this one had a couple notable contributions to the discussion.

An expert was quoted within, saying that video game addiction is mostly a problem for young males of high school or college age. Imagine that! Also, the article featured a not-new quote from Liz Woolley (founder of On-Line Gamers Anonymous and the mother of that boy who committed suicide while playing EverQuest way back when); she said that MMO developers know that players can become addicted, and that those devs are therefore "no better than drug pushers." I think that's a bit harsh, but it's understandable that she'd come to that, given what she's gone through.

You can still achieve many of your in-game goals on limited playtime. Our weekly WoW, Casually column has the hints, tips and tricks for those with 2 hours or less to play.

The dangers of Warcraft

Posted Nov 20th 2007 11:08AM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Humor, Comics

This comic began its life in the 1960s as a "Dangers of Alcohol" comic, but with updated text it manages to fit World of Warcraft surprisingly well. (And before you click, be warned -- though the first panel looks innocent, the comic itself is not at all safe for work.) And for those of you in the same situation as poor John in our comic, just remember that the first step in your standard 12-step program is to admit that you're powerless over World of Warcraft and that your life has become unmanageable. Step two usually involves extensive EverQuest therapy.

[via Boing Boing, thanks Fantastik]

Getting enthralled, or getting to bed?

Posted Oct 26th 2007 4:34PM by David Bowers
Filed under: Virtual selves, News items

WoW tends to be a night time activity for most people, many of whom find that it's surprisingly easy to move from one objective to another and lose track of time until the wee hours of the morning. Some people I know sometimes stay up most of the night playing WoW, only to get an hour or two of sleep before whatever they have to do the next day. They're young and they say they make up that sleep at other times, but still, no one would argue that this sort of situation is ideal.

A recent study reported by CNN says they're not alone. People who play MMORPGs tend to sleep less and spend more time playing than players of other computer games. It may seem obvious, since MMOs are by nature somewhat of a time-sink, but there is undeniably something more to it; any activity can potentially be a time-sink, after all -- so what is it about MMOs that makes people actually sink time?

The answer is up for debate, of course, but one important factor is that WoW's community of players gives the accomplishments within the game a context of reality. The game's goals, dangling in front of us like carrots, would be nearly meaningless if we could only appreciate them in a single-player context, but with a whole realm of other players working alongside us to get them too, they can feel very important. If the choice is between a few hours having dreams you won't remember, or getting a little closer to riding an impressive dragon mount, then certainly sleep can seem boring and useless by comparison.

Continue reading Getting enthralled, or getting to bed?

Might as well face it, you're addicted to WoW

Posted Aug 27th 2007 3:11PM by Matthew Rossi
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Social Conventions, Humor

A tipster sent in a link to this post about World of Warcraft, specifically, how to force yourself to stop playing it.

I don't know why this made me laugh as hard as it did. For starters, some of the advice is good... I'd encourage you to read a book or take a martial arts class whether or not you're going to play WoW any longer. Books are fun. I sometimes read a book while I play WoW, but I suppose that wouldn't really be what the article is going for.

Part of the problem would be that I don't want to dismiss the article out of hand. After all, "Psychological dependence does not have to be limited only to substances; even activities and behavioral patterns can be considered addictions, if they are harmful, e.g. gambling, Internet use, usage of computers, sex / pornography, eating, self-harm, vandalism or work" according to Wikipedia's article on the subject. I suppose for me it's the 'if they're harmful' qualified that gets me. So far, WoW has given me and some friends some fun times and a chance to do something as a group when we can't all get together in one place, it's allows me to make new friends who live well outside my range, and it's allowed me to work out some frustrations that would otherwise go without venting. So for me at least WoW is a game that I play and a source of fun. Clearly, for some people WoW has become a big part of their social lives. And anything you care about can become an obsession or an addiction.

But still, I cannot help but laugh when I see advice like "burn yourself out by finding ways to cheat...Find a private server to play on" or my personal favorite, "Sabotage your WoW future". I'm kind of surprised the original author didn't feel the need to add "Seal yourself in a lightless vault with only tins of tomato soup for sustenance" or "hire an angry man to break your thumbs if you go near a keyboard'". It just seems so hyperbolic and reactionary that I can't help but be amused by it. The funniest part is when he advises people to play on private servers, warms them that this may get their account banned as it is a violation of Blizzard's ToS, and then later advises people to violate Blizzard's ToS to get their accounts banned. I don't think most players have to go to these extremes, I know I don't play so much that I feel this kind of fear over it.

Have you already begun to construct your WoW-proof bunker?

Neglecting kids isn't videogame addiction-- it's bad parenting

Posted Jul 16th 2007 4:00PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, News items

The AP is reporting on the story of a couple in Nevada who claim they were so addicted to "the Internet and video games" that they neglected the health and well-being of their two children, a 22-month old girl and an 11-month old boy. I won't go into the details, although you can read them in the article, but it's a horrific story. WoW isn't mentioned-- "the fantasy role-playing Dungeons & Dragons series" is, but does that mean DDO or does the reporter just, as usual, have no idea what they're talking about?

At any rate, (also as usual) the report eventually turns to videogame addiction and what a "serious issue" it is. Exactly zero mention is made of the hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of parents who play WoW and other online games right alongside their children, happily and healthily. A few of my guildies are parents and often play with their kids, and our own Robin Torres writes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about doing exactly that and how to handle issues like playing with your kids. You'll also note that almost no attention is paid to the other problems with this couple-- they gained $50,000 in inheritance, and spend it on computer equipment and a plasma screen rather than anything for their two children. This isn't "abuse rooted in videogame addiction"-- it's abuse rooted in bad parenting.

Kayholder over on WoW Ladies says she gets attacked for playing the game with young children at home-- people automatically say that having children around to take care of should automatically exempt you from playing a game like World of Warcraft.

That's just plain wrong. Any game can be played responsibly by anyone of age, World of Warcraft included. Kay even says that she doesn't raid because she doesn't think she has the time (which is fine as well), but one of my guildies who just had yet another kid is actually our main healer. Good parenting and videogames aren't mutually exclusive-- in fact, in some situations, they're better together.

How much WoW is too much WoW?

Posted Jun 4th 2007 8:30PM by Paul Sherrard
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Podcasting, Virtual selves

Today has a new podcast from the folks over at Taverncast, and it has my guild a-buzz with talk of WoW Addiction.

We're a casual raiding guild, 3 nights a week, 4 hours a night. Sure, that's 12 hours of commitment a week, but still a low number compared to other raiding guilds. That would be well and fine, but a large number of our members play a lot outside of raiding hours - farming mats, doing daily quests, getting reputation, etc.

So when the Taverncast After Hours #3 came up today, with the gang discussing gaming addiction, and one member going so far as to undertake a little experiment a la Morgan Spurlock, it really got us thinking - are we playing too much WoW?

Some of the things on their list (about an hour in) of questions to ask yourself, I have had to say yes to at one time or another. How about you?

So, go take some time out to listen (while you're playing WoW, of course) and then come back and let us know how much WoW you play each week, and what you think is a reasonable amount of time to commit to the game. Is 15 hours in a row of ANY activity too much? (listen to the whole podcast to get that one)

The Dangers of Internet Parenting: an Azeroth Interrupted Special Feature

Posted May 24th 2007 11:30PM by Robin Torres
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Azeroth Interrupted

Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.

A local Philadelphia news station covered this story yesterday about the dangers of MMO addiction. It is a more responsible article than most because it quotes an actual psychologist as saying that most people have no problem playing WoW, just the people who have problems dealing with reality. On a related note, the always delightful Jack Thompson seems to have sent out another letter, this one to Microsoft, about Halo 3 being marketed to underage gamers. I'm not going to get into a discussion about the merits of Jack's case (cough media slut cough) or the impossible task of marketing to 17 year olds, but not 16 year olds. I also don't want to belittle addiction. Addiction is a real and horrible thing that ruins more lives than just the addict's, whether the addiction is WoW or alcohol or whatever. Often addicts will move from one addiction to another, unable to cope with life without a crutch. I, unfortunately, know somebody like this.

The problem I have with the Internet Addiction news story, all news stories like it and everything having to do with Mr. Virtual Ambulance Chaser is the fact that it is "news" that children don't do well when they are electronically babysat. Well, duh.

More on this topic and some solutions after the jump.

Continue reading The Dangers of Internet Parenting: an Azeroth Interrupted Special Feature

Ask WoW Insider: How do you know when you're addicted?

Posted Apr 13th 2007 3:05PM by Barb Dybwad
Filed under: Fan stuff, Humor, Ask WoW Insider

Gather 'round for the weekly edition of Ask WoW Insider, wherein we publish your questions for your peers to answer. This week brings us a bit of Friday levity care of Marlin:

My friend came up with his top 10 ways to know you're addicted to WoW. I thought it was funny and figured others could possibly add to the list.

Top 10 ways to know you play too much World of Warcraft:

• 10. You try to book a vacation in Azeroth.
• 9. You've ever planned to "raid" another department.
• 8. You consider work assignments "quests" and expect items and XP for completing them.
• 7. You have ever challenged a co-worker to a duel.
• 6. You want your paycheck in gold, silver and copper.
• 5. Your character is killed by a higher ranking enemy so you take a week off to "extract vengeance".
• 4. You have ever called in sick because your character died and you are in "mourning".
• 3. You have ever tried "hearthing" to escape work.
• 2. You've ever mistaken your supervisor for a class trainer and demanded new skills.
• 1. You refuse to answer to anything other than your WoW character's name.

Big ups to Marlin's unnamed friend for the list, and now it's time to open the floor to you all to add to it. What are your signs of addiction? Remember people, there are only 12 Steps to recovery -- and if we could only find a tank and a healer we could all get through them together.

Don't forget to send us your questions for next week -- hit us up at ask AT wowinsider DOT com.

College bookstore puts WoW in the window

Posted Mar 19th 2007 1:05PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Odds and ends, Humor

The Tensor was walking past the bookstore at "Unnamed University" (oh come on, you can tell us-- The University of Washington, maybe?) and saw the sight you see above. That's right, a college bookstore has WoW proudly displayed in their front window.

Are they actively trying to distract their students from work? Don't get me wrong-- there are plenty of good reasons to play WoW, even if you're supposed to be studying for a career. But I'm glad WoW didn't get released until I was out of college with a degree-- I had enough trouble when I discovered Civ, sophomore year, as it was.

[ via WorldofWar.net ]

Obese gamer collapses, dies after "marathon" gaming session

Posted Mar 1st 2007 9:07AM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Virtual selves, News items

Well here we go again. Reuters is reporting that a Chinese gamer has died after a "marathon," weeklong gaming session. The 26-year-old apparently collapsed on Saturday after he spent the entire week before (he'd been on break because of the Lunar New Year's celebration) playing an unidentified online game. A local teacher says the reason he played games for a full week was that because of the holiday, "there are only two options. TV or computer. What else can I do in the holiday as all markets, KTV and cafeterias are shut down?"

Be prepared, I guess, to hear about this in all future media examinations of whether or not WoW is addictive. I won't argue that this isn't a sad thing to hear-- no matter what the real cause of this poor guy's death, there were serious problems there that should have been fixed a long time ago.

But I will note that the article mentions the 26-year-old weighed 330 lbs. Why doesn't the headline say "Food addict dies"? Also of note, the last line of the article says that China considers 13% of its Internet users under 18 addicted. WoW, according to "experts," is supposed to be 40% addicts, but neither figure, as far as I can see, actually says what they define as "addicts"-- are they setting the bar for "addiction" low or high?

WoW Moviewatch: Curing video game addictions

Posted Feb 11th 2007 12:20PM by Elizabeth Harper
Filed under: Machinima, Features, WoW Moviewatch

WoW Moviewatch: "Level Up"

Posted Feb 5th 2007 6:28PM by Eliah Hecht
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Virtual selves, WoW Moviewatch

WoW ruined your life? Stop playing! [Update]

Posted Oct 18th 2006 12:19PM by Mike Schramm
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Fan stuff, News items, PvP

Slashdot is pointing to this blog post, written by a guy who just quit WoW, about how it completely ruined his life. According to him, WoW and the time "required" for even casual raiding were responsible for him gaining weight, losing his girlfriend and friends, wrecking his health, and generally causing him untold anguish and pain. On top of that, after he's quit, he even complains that his guild-- gasp-- moved on without him.

Listen to me, right now: if this game is ruining your life, stop playing. If your girlfriend is telling you to choose between her and WoW, choose her, you idiot. If you're about to lose your job because you play this game too much, stop playing this game. It's a game. It's not responsible for any of the stuff that happened to this blogger-- he is.

We've heard the arguments he makes before-- blah blah blah, the game is addictive, it becomes an obsession, Blizzard is rewarding farming and time investment instead of skill. And all those things are true, to a degree. But coffee is addictive, too, and so is smoking, and so is alcohol. Is it beer's fault that college students do stupid things on the weekend? Of course not-- it's the students' fault for drinking too much beer. And if this guy is overweight, girlfriendless, and a loser, it's his fault, not the game. WoW is just that-- a game. Shame on him for forgetting that when most of the seven million other players don't seem to have a problem with it.

And the worst part... is after the jump.

Continue reading WoW ruined your life? Stop playing! [Update]

WOW Insider Features

Featured Stories

Upcoming events

RESOURCES

• About
• Directory
• Send us news tips
• Contact Us
• Advertise
• Corrections?
• Problems?

Class Columns

Pimp My Profile (1)

(Druid) Shifting Perspectives (40)

(Hunter) Big Red Kitty (33)

(Hunter) Scattered Shots (14)

(Mage) Arcane Brilliance (35)

(Paladin) The Light and How to Swing It (47)

(Priest) Spiritual Guidance (20)

(Rogue) Encrypted Text (33)

(Shaman) Totem Talk (44)

(Warlock) Blood Pact (26)

(Warrior) The Care and Feeding of Warriors (48)

Gameplay

(Arena PvP) Blood Sport (22)

(BG PvP) The Art of War(craft) (21)

(Casual) WoW, Casually (17)

(Engineering) Hoof and Horn Research and Development (17)

(Guild Leadership) Officers' Quarters (55)

(Professions) Insider Trader (56)

(Raid Healing) Raid Rx (17)

(Raiding) Raiding 101 (2)

(Raiding) Ready Check (19)

(Roleplaying) All the World's a Stage (36)

Hybrid Theory (14)

AddOns and UI

AddOn Spotlight (79)

Macro Anatomy (12)

Reader UI of the Week (25)

Reader WoWspace of the week (28)

The Creamy GUI Center (11)

Lore and Stories

Around Azeroth (473)

Barrens Chat (2)

Know your Lore (52)

Tales from the Lion's Pride Inn (14)

WoW Moviewatch (466)

Features

15 Minutes of Fame (18)

About the Bloggers (24)

Ask WoW Insider (55)

Azeroth Security Advisor (1)

Back In The Day (3)

Breakfast topics (676)

Build Shop (34)

Gamers on the Street (19)

Guildwatch (76)

He Said She Said (4)

It came from the Blog (25)

Phat Loot Phriday (86)

Two Bosses Enter (61)

Well Fed Buff (22)

World of WarCrafts (19)

WoW Insider Show (52)

WoW Rookie (36)

[1.Local] (6)

Classes

Death Knight (55)

Druid (265)

Hunter (252)

Mage (156)

Paladin (267)

Priest (219)

Rogue (160)

Shaman (245)

Warlock (172)

Warrior (183)

News

Account Security (10)

AddOns (231)

Analysis / Opinion (2700)

Blizzard (1472)

BlizzCon (184)

Bugs (212)

Burning Crusade (358)

Contests (204)

Economy (183)

Events (366)

Expansions (562)

Fan stuff (821)

Features (606)

Forums (244)

Guilds (462)

Hardware (25)

Humor (723)

Interviews (136)

Lore (266)

Mounts (128)

News items (1404)

NPCs (186)

Odds and ends (1592)

Patches (1112)

Podcasting (73)

Ranking (50)

Realm News (274)

Realm Status (226)

RP (159)

Rumors (32)

Virtual selves (612)

WoW Insider Business (278)

WoW Social Conventions (135)

WoW TCG (49)

Wrath of the Lich King (263)

Strategy

Alts (85)

Arena (167)

Battlegrounds (104)

Bosses (311)

Buffs (114)

Cheats (67)

Classes (285)

Enchants (30)

Factions (146)

Guides (324)

How-tos (362)

Instances (615)

Items (791)

Leveling (246)

Making money (164)

PvP (692)

Quests (342)

Raiding (671)

Talents (120)

Tips (541)

Tricks (215)

Walkthroughs (74)

Media

Comics (63)

Fan art (34)

Galleries (137)

Machinima (541)

Podcasts (52)

Polls (55)

Screenshots (611)

Races

Alliance (103)

Draenei (61)

Dwarves (15)

Gnomes (39)

Human (15)

Night Elves (42)

Horde (102)

Blood Elves (68)

Orcs (25)

Tauren (42)

Trolls (22)

Undead (21)

Professions

Alchemy (75)

Blacksmithing (55)

Cooking (66)

Enchanting (71)

Engineering (106)

First Aid (16)

Fishing (57)

Herbalism (44)

Inscription (10)

Jewelcrafting (78)

Leatherworking (58)

Mining (42)

Skinning (27)

Tailoring (63)

Retired

Azeroth Interrupted (24)

World Wide WoW (8)

/silly (14)

RSS NEWSFEEDS

• Subscribe
• Feeds by category

Featured Galleries

 

Most Commented On (30 days)

• Racism in arena names (331)
• Guildwatch: "officers dont do officers like u did" (246)
• Breakfast Topic: Favorite Boss quotes (192)
• One reason tanks won't PuG (168)
• The gquit macro (159)
• Why PvE has been, and always will be, the only real game (151)
• Drysc reveals new arena season 4 rating requirements and rules (133)
• Is it really OK for Arthas to be 10-mannable? (130)
• Blood Sport: No scrubs allowed in Season 4 (123)
• Forum post of the day: Keep your E-sport out of the Battlegrounds (120)

Recent Comments

• Sirg on Bring back the Warlord's Battlegear model
• Gulbrandt on Overhauling the engine
• Pie Pants on The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Wrath on the horizon
• Gulbrandt on Overhauling the engine
• madcaddie on WoW, Casually: Wrath of the Lich King is for casuals too
• Brian on Bring back the Warlord's Battlegear model
• Matthew Rossi on Bring back the Warlord's Battlegear model
• kevin on The Care and Feeding of Warriors: Wrath on the horizon
• Tenchan on WoW Rookie (End of the Semester Edition): Dealing with difficult people
• Matt on Overhauling the engine

Weblogs, Inc. Network

• Autos
  • Autoblog
  • AutoblogGreen
  • Autoblog Spanish
  • Autoblog Chinese
  • Autoblog Simplified Chinese
• Technology
  • Download Squad
  • Engadget
  • Engadget HD
  • Engadget Mobile
  • Engadget Chinese
  • Engadget Simplified Chinese
  • Engadget Japanese
  • Engadget Spanish
  • Switched
  • TUAW (Apple)
• Lifestyle
  • AisleDash
  • DIY Life
  • Gadling
  • Green Daily
  • Luxist
  • ParentDish
  • Slashfood
  • Styledash
  • That's Fit
• Gaming
  • Joystiq
  • DS Fanboy
  • Massively
  • Nintendo Wii Fanboy
  • PS3 Fanboy
  • PSP Fanboy
  • WoW Insider
  • Xbox 360 Fanboy
• Entertainment
  • Cinematical
  • TV Squad
• Finance
  • BloggingBuyouts
  • BloggingStocks
  • WalletPop
• Also on AOL
  • African-American Culture
  • Autos
  • Games
  • Maps
  • Money
  • Movies
  • Music
  • News
  • Radio
  • Sports
  • Television
  Travel

More game info on GameDaily: GameDaily Biz, Fast & Free Game Downloads, Video Game Trailers, Video Game Cheats, Video Game Reviews, Video Game Screenshots,

All contents copyright © 2003-2008, Weblogs, Inc. All rights reserved

WOW Insider is a member of the Weblogs, Inc. Network. Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Notify AOL

• WOW Insider
• Web