WoW: Is it/becoming unhealthy?

[Transmigration]

Wow has been a part of my life for many years. Wow, however was never my life.

I've seen people play games too much. I've just never been the type. I have always be far too busy with other things to just sit inside and game all day. Not to say I haven't for short periods of time if I wanted to, but it's not a chronic behavior for me.

[WowIsDead64]

You're a little bit late. At the point, when game probably loses 600K players per quarter, talking about addiction - sounds like joke.

[Faenskap]

It can be healthy and unhealthy.

Back when I started (early TBC) all I wanted to do was to play, play, play. At the same time, the game provided an escapism for me, because family life was difficult and class 'mates' made school terribly unbearable. If not for WoW, I wouldn't have been married today too

Some time down the line, in Cata/MoP, I still played. My life was work, WoW, sleep. Unhealthy? Yes, of course. WoW was superfun but a defeat in WoW - that was hard on me.

I still play. Maybe it's unhealthy. Probably. I read these forums, I play. Sometimes I can just indulge myself in the game and play 5-6 hours without caring. Then I can be without the game for a few days and not really miss it.

Am I addicted? I don't know. Sometimes I despise WoW, other times I have a lot of fun. The reason I'm playing (despite WoD being a poor expansion) is because I have the whole day to myself without too much to do. I also easily get stuck in habits. Couple that with disturbingly few interests - even for other games - and well...

All things in moderation! Though one should not forget that WoW is made to want you to play. For instance, you need oil for your shipyard. If you're poor (or don't know better),. you can only get the oil from Tanaan, thus you do Tanaan. Otherwise rewards are locked for you, same with upgrading your fleet. Then you can hit revered with Vol'jin's headhunters and get the oil rig - but that requires a lot of playing too (or money).

[AwkwardSquirtle]

I don't know about whether it is, but it's certainly not becoming more so. You can see that clearly enough from the subscription loss. People aren't as in love with the game as they used to be overall, that's pretty clear.

[thewallofsleep]

Currently, no. The elements of WoW that made it so addictive have been largely stripped away over the last 5 or 6 years. I was VERY addicted to the game in the WotLK era. I had a small raiding guild and I had an alt I worked on with my guildies. WoW relied on socialization and long term play. I'm sure there are some older players who have little social interaction outside of WoW, and so they are still addicted to it, assuming they still have people to play and talk with. I can't see a new player falling into that rabbit hole that was WoW a number of years ago. There is barely any time requirement with this game anymore and socializing has been stripped, so getting addicted isn't so much of an issue.

[Ratyrel]

Imo WoW has lost most of its addictive traits as the entanglement of the player in a social structure tied to rewards crumbled. I agree with the sentiment that you are several years late with this thread.

[Soulwind]

It's fine. When it becomes too healthy, they squish the health values down.

[djcoin]

If you think the game is addicting now you don't know the meaning of addiction. During BC when the game had enough depth to be considered another life there was actually WoW help centers because people were dying. It'd where the phrase "world of warcrack" was coined.

[EternalBany]

When i was a teen i screwed many night outs and possible dates cause of wow, as well as my health.

But much later on wow also got me through some VERY dark times.. it totally occupies my mind when i am in there, great relaxatio and therapy when your soul hurts

Its both good and bad

[djcoin]

I remember doing 80 pushups and being surprised at how easy it was, before I played wow.
I can barely do 1 push up now :P
I agree that WoW was good when you wanted to ignore your problems, because it used to be so deep, now the game could not get more shallow if they tried.

[Seefer]

In the early days, I was quite addicted to WoW to the point of screwing my teen years quite bad but nowadays I don't think people could become as addicted if they tried. Early on WoW was about the friends you made, the grinds you did and the community it had but I feel like those days are gone, maybe because people grew up, or maybe because games are a lot of plentiful now. Either way things have changed quite a bit and I just don't see people wasting hours upon hours on this game unless they are the most dedicated WoW players around which at this point probably means they've got nothing left to fuck up.

What Rick said.

[djcoin]

but I feel like those days are gone, maybe because people grew up, or maybe because games are a lot of plentiful now

It's not because of those things, they started screwing up in wrath with the welfare gear and the insta ports and LFD.
Then they just kept making the game more and more shallow and easy to the point of utter dullness.

That's why there was such a nostralrius outcry because it was the only good private server for vanilla and it was so much better of a game then it is now.

The sad part is I think blizzard actually thinks they are doing a good job.

[Seefer]

It's not because of those things, they started screwing up in wrath with the welfare gear and the insta ports and LFD.
Then they just kept making the game more and more shallow and easy to the point of utter dullness.

That's why there was such a nostralrius outcry because it was the only good private server for vanilla and it was so much better of a game then it is now.

The sad part is I think blizzard actually thinks they are doing a good job.

They are and they aren't and as I always say, if you aren't having fun stop playing, it's not like you are getting paid to play it or have a moral obligation to keep playing.

[ReVnX]

The dose makes the poison. Even water can kill you.

[Freedom]

I never thought I would want a thread to be someone bitching about the health of the GAME, but... honestly, that would be a more interesting topic than this. To echo what others have said, user error in using WoW too much, not the game's fault. And WoW doesn't feel as addicting as it did before - though for me it's more down to IRL being better/more rewarding than in past rather than omg wod is shit guyz.

[Thelxi]

There is positives and negatives to everything, but I would definitely advice against sinking time into any MMO really unless you are healthy, happy and responsible. I've seen a lot of people over the years be very social and active online but in shambles when it comes to real life.

[Kolvarg]

The game isn't unhealthy, the behaviour some people approach when getting too much into the game is.

Yes, some people can start slacking on their health, higiene, socialization, work/classes because they spend the whole day playing WoW, but the same is just as likely to happen if someone spends the whole day playing CoD, or LoL, or CS, or binge-watching series on netflix, or watching TV, or watching videos on youtube, or scrolling through social media, or sleeping, or staring at the ceiling, or doing drugs, or drinking heavily, or over-working. Anything you use to consistently ignore/temporarily forget your problems/issues and avoid facing/solving them becomes unhealthy.

Yes, games can probably be particularly "dangerous", as they can probably offer a fairly bigger "fake" sense of reward/accomplishment, but they are not dangerous by themselves. People don't just get "sucked in" if there's no inherent problem to lead to it in the first place. Just like healthy people don't go on killing sprees after playing GTA or watching a violent movie.

And btw if anything WoW has gotten less "dangerous" over time. It's as easy and fast as ever to complete content and to raid or pvp at a moderately serious level without having to play too much. Something like Black Desert Online is a lot more dangerous in that department, nowadays.

[Queen of Hamsters]

Fun thing how people that clearly aren't as into the game today for whatever reason, confuse that with the game no longer being engaging enough to BE into...
Anyone I know that was the "no-lifer" back when I started, are still no-lifers today. Including myself. The game gives more options, having few options locked behind long grinds means you're FORCED into a no-life situation to excell in just one area. Nowadays you can play 4 hours per week and excell in a narrow field that you care about, OR you can still spend all your game time in WoW and excell in multiple areas that you care about. Due to WoD's narrow progression paths, the max level edge has manifested itself as raking in gold with Garrisons, having tons of characters at max level and completion of old content

Legion's systems will still mean that no-lifers like myself will always have the edge. Same as now, only it adds enough progression paths at max level that it'll take a LONG time to excell in them all.

And there will still be jaded-as-fuck people claiming that there's "nothing to do, no reason to play!".

I started playing as an adult though, so my "no-lifing" still didn't affect my IRL all that much. My younger brother's "no-lifing" throughout Classic to Cata did affect his life as he was a kid still. He didn't quit because the game became less addictive to people with that mindset, but because he forced himself to quit once Rag HC was down so he could focus on his real life.

TLDR: WoW isn't dangerous, people with addictive personalities can still latch onto it though. Hell, people manage to get addicted to far less complex games just fine as long as they offer "rewards".

[Akka]

WoW was maybe unhealthy through addiction at some point, but now it's far too shitty to be addictive in any way, so worrying about it has become moot.
Yay, finally found a silver lining to WoD !

[Darktbs]

A thread divided in people actually talking about the topic and the people that use this as a oportunity to bash the game.We all know that the current game is not the best,you don't need to bother reminding us of that.

That aside,depends to person to person.I for example can't pass a day withou thinking about Wow however is not everyday that i log in to play.It was like that in previous expansions as well,for me there wasnt i reason to me online.However some might spend most of their time in WoW and find it fun or that may turn into a need.