Jul 09 2010
A Rather Inspiring Video of Someone Quitting World of Warcraft After Five Years
Man, this video almost made me tear up, as strange as that sounds. It’s a guy deleting every single one of his WoW character because he realized he had sunk 100 full 24 hour days into it over the last five years and had nothing to show for it.
I did something similar with Diablo II, where I ragequit and threw all my valuable shit on the ground and lectured people who were picking it up about how the game was bad for your health. And that was only after about a two month period where I played the game over-obsessively (ie. 8-ish hours a day). It really clued me in that video games can be as addicting as drugs or alcohol. Not in a physical sense, but most definitely psychologically.
I can’t imagine the will power it took to end it all after FIVE YEARS, or what kind of toll that much playing time would take on someone’s life.
Cheers to you, account deleter, now get out there and live life my man.
Video of the Week
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would this count as one of those “Real Men of Genius” guys?
“Here’s to you Mr. Roller Cooler-Cooler Roller.”
This guy’s a dumbass. Not for quitting, but for deleting the characters. He could have sold that account for at least 200-300 bucks. In full Tier gear, he’d be looking at 400-500 minimum.
I quit a couple of years ago and sold my Mage with full T6 and Sunwell gear for over 500 bucks. And that was on Craigslist.
@Velovan
Sure he could have sold it. That isn’t the point.
What the video doesn’t show you is that after a month of roaming around aimlessly, he promptly started a new character on WoW and within 5 days was back raiding end game content.
this guy played so much WoW he forgot how to do math. 24000 hours works out to 1000 days, not 100. Even sadder?
“Time you enjoyed wasting, was not wasted.”
Words to live by for sure. I never understood the mentality of saying “I played a game for X days and got nothing out of it!”. If you enjoyed playing it, then you got something out of it.
I did something similar with Everquest. After two years of playing hours per day and nearly flunking out of school (and being sleep-deprived), I realized something was seriously wrong. I could think about nothing but the game and playing with my friends. I had to stop cold turkey.
Once I stopped playing, I actually had withdrawal symptoms! Shakes, clammy skin, nightmares. Lasted about a week, and I haven’t got immersed in a game since.
i quit playing WoW after roughly the same amount of time, of course it came down to being able to afford stuff or WoW, it wasnt a big decision i hadnt been playing much, but you dont realize how addicting it is after you quit, you keep thinking about the game and talking about it, like i am right now lol, i didnt delete my account but i took it off my computer and was thinking of selling it
Yeah, I kinda did the same on Diablo II “expansion pack”……….I too stopped cold turkey, and yes I did feel like it was a waste. But a part of me looks back on those days and remembers the fun I had playing it……..I guess moderation is the key, but yet it was frekin awesome going on quests with others and playing 12hrs straight.
A part of me wants to check out the new one when it comes out, but yet the other part of me knows better.
hmmm.
Here’s my problem: I can quit rather easily with no withdrawal symptoms, but after a month or so, I just feel that life is empty without it. I get bored, finding nothing to do. Then I dream of being back on WoW again…
I agree with joe. I play WoW, and I spend quite a bit of time on it. I don’t feel the NEED to play. I play because I enjoy it. If he enjoyed it for five years, then he simply had a hobby for five years. Nothing more, nothing less. I’m tired of people thinking that if you play games online you must be a loser with no willpower that doesn’t enjoy the outside world.
Think about this:
You get eight hours of sleep a day. 365 days a year.
That’s 2,920 hours a year spent sleeping, or 121.5 days. A year. Sleeping.
How many hours in your life are spent at red lights? In waiting lines? Working?
In the end, none of those activities are any more important than the others. In the end, you die.
So if you want to spend 100 days in a five year span playing a video game, having fun, then by all fucking rights go right ahead.
If you find yourself not having fun with it anymore, move on, but as long as you continue to enjoy your time spent and yourself, play on.
Fuck anyone who tells you video games are a waste of time. Like I said, in the end, I want to know I spent more of my life enjoying myself than sitting in traffic.
@SirEdward
that is so very true. for years, i have beaten up myself for playing videogames instead of doing something society considers to be more practical, i.e. learning music instruments etc. but at the end of the day this all will be pointless and as long as one can enjoy whatever one is doing, then it is perfectly fine.
And alot of people who will judge this will have watched just as many hours of TV and gained just as little from that but there is no RL scripit to hell you how long you’ve spent watching TV.
Eh he can just report that his account was hacked and he will get a full restoration of all characters and items on all servers if he breaks down and I’m sure he knows it too.
Qutting an MMO after all that time is both a relief and an hassle. My story in brief is that I was on the WOW drug for over 3 years. Not just a casual player but one that was on top of both raiding and arena PvP. I was definitely entrenched deep with real life consequences being felt.
I believe its much easier to quit a game if your not committed to a raiding/arena guild. It is astounding how deep you can find yourself stuck by online commitments. To the point where they feel almost like a second job.
Anyway the details of my story are not important only how it felt to leave WOW. The hardest part is the friends you have to leave behind. For only online voices and pixels they can become pretty important to you. I had friends that it was not a question of wanting to do something, but rather the certainty of them waiting for you to show up. It reminded me of the simplicity of childhood really.
So you leaving the MMO can seem traitorous to these people. Though I found it tells you who was really your friend and who just wanted some use of your time. But sure enough nearly a year after my quitting I’m still in touch with these friends from WOW.
Was it a waste of my life? Probably if your looking at your life with mathematical eyes. But I look back and see the good times and the friends I have gained. Hell, I might even go back for round 2 with the new SW game if my friends are there. Though it will be with the knowledge of how to enjoy my MMO with moderation.
But I will say this quitting allows you to find time for the old “RL”. I’ve learned a good deal of spanish, learned how to really play my guitar, and lost a great deal of weight (nearly what I put on playing the damn game).
So I’ll not be telling anyone that they need to quit to save their souls or any some such bullshit. That’s each person’s choice, and I know that I made the right one for me. I have no regrets about quitting or playing. Just remember that your only young once folks. Spend it the way you want to. Thanks for reading.
“Addicting” is not a word.
Or did they replace “addictive” with this new fangled term and no one told me?
idk about the messege this video is trying to send, i have some 3-400 days played on my account from the last 5 years, always made time for my friends, never had it cause any problems with my girl, or my job. just gotta know how to spend your time. for me, i loved the game so whenever i had free time it was spent on wow till i had a engagement somewhere else. before bc, i was somewhat a addict, wont lie. I fucking loved that game. but after that the addiction was gone and i just enjoyed playing the game.
@Inviktus Addicting is a word in the sense it conveys. Please do not sound off as an authority on language until you have been fangling as long as the rest of the grammar-hounds. There, I feel properly superior. Carry on with my blessing.
@WoW I don’t miss you one bit. This is because I never started playing you. I fell for your prettier cousin; Final Fantasy XI. The torrid affair lasted for about a year and a half. I enjoyed much of that time. When I discount in-game social interactions with people all over country and globe, I find I’m left with with a hollow sort of joy that came from a sense of accomplishment derived from merely watching numbers increase on a screen. If only this screen were my bank statement. I would never leave the bank!
In all seriousness, I would play another mmorpg, happily. I feel a good deal wiser now. A price I paid was having what could only be described as a bed sore formed on my ass becoming infected. From my current perspective I can’t comprehend the obsession I was emersed in. Every bit a stereo-type, I emerged from the proverbial cave and met a girl, a very gorgeous-type girl. Not right away, of course. I obtained “enhanced apartment” imbued with “dark magic job funds”. I took an interest in “bard job class”, an interest I still pursue. I did it all for fun.That had nothing to do with “meeting chicks”. Don’t judge me. I know one thing for certain; I could never have met this girl I love if I’d been playing ffxi. She’s pretty darn nerdy and that fact leaves the slimmest chance of paths crossing, but I know I wouldn’t have been where I needed to be for her and us. So I suppose I mean to leave the message of “save some of yourself for the rest of us”. Maybe that’ll be the tag line of my next macro. As soon as I can afford to pay monthly fees again. I don’t miss having my parents pay for everything because I’m having all kinds of sex now. I salute this video message. It’s a friendly goodbye and not a kiss-off, fuck all y’all message. That’s my eighteen cents. Suck it all, y’all!
I understand quitting, but the dumbass could have sold his account for $2000USD.
I started playing WoW shortly after the first release, and played pretty much continuously until about 3 months ago. I had well over 400 days played time on my main toon when I quit. I did end-game raiding at level 60, 70, and 80, and quit before I got a chance to see the Lich King die, but I don’t regret stopping.
In order to really get the most out of the game, to see everything and do everything that the game has to offer, you have to invest a lot of time into the game every single day. It starts to take over your life. You become a slave to the game. It stops being fun, and starts to feel like a job.
So you are an end-game WoW player, here is your life:
You spend about one hour a day doing daily quests for cash, to cover expenses like repairs, reagents, etc, and stay on top of anything new in the game. You have to farm 3-5 hours a week on you herb/alch alt to have enough consumables for next week’s raids (and if you don’t have a herb/alch alt, then lolnewb)
You have raid times that you have to make. You probably raid 3 or 4 days a week, for 2-6 hours at a time, that’s how long the raids usually last. You set these times up in advance, so they don’t conflict with real-life commitments. A typical raid schedule is 6pm to 10pm pst; Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday.
This is all difficult. But if you want into a high-end raid guild then you gotta deliver on some expectations.
You get to know the people you raid with. You know their voices on Vent and you understand how the group dynamics are working. You’re a veteran of the scene and no one questions you.
Cheers!
[...] Source: Unreality [...]
LOL at nubsauce who made the video. 5 years and only ONE 80? I delete level 30-60s on a regular basis (without raf-ing tyvm). Weak.
The part that no one seems to talk about is the fact that any that wants to come back and play again can put a ticket into a Game Master and get every single character, item, and gold back. So making a video and going through and removing everything doesn’t stop the 100,000+ players that quit after a few months of every new expansion and rejoin as soon as the next ones out. They say they quit but their full of shit. The only way to end it for good is to sell off the account completely. Thats why you see 1000′s of movies online of people saying hey I quit watch me delete my stuff,…..20 min later, Mister GM i need my stuff back =(
My whole life centers around the computer, as I’m sure a lot of the people’s on this particular blog are. I don’t know what it is, but playing a fun MMO like WoW or a strategy game like dota or LoL makes me feel very at peace with the world and I genuinely enjoy my time spent playing. What makes it so great are the friends you meet online and the relationships you form. In the outside world, I feel kind of vulnerable and tend to keep to myself until I am comfortable around people. Due to this reason, I don’t go out much and find that playing an online game is just as rewarding with great people. I will never forget the late nights I spent playing Swat 4 with a group of guys on vent having a great time. I never feel so comfortable in real life as I do online. Even as I write these words you are thinking that I am convincing you to stop playing games. I tell you now, if you think you can play just for fun and not base your life around it continue playing. But if you are like me, quit as soon as you can. I know for a fact, that I will never lose my love for video games and this will be my ruin. I am not exceptionally smart, or motivated and there is nothing overly special about me. If you are like me, you will regret the thousands of hours spent playing games when you know with that time you could have gottent a better education and better paying job. But, alas if you are like me you are not thinking too much about the future, but rather how much fun you have playing video games. Just keep in mind that the one thing you strive for in life is happiness — however you attain it is up to you.