What's worse for you - WoW or cigarettes?

[glycerethe]

They're both about equally addicting.

This is a serious question. It's like this game is impossible to quit forever. I haven't played in nearly a year and I still want to play the game every time I think about it. I don't have time for it, I don't even like it when I'm playing it, but I still want to. Exactly like cigarettes. So which one's worse? The one that kills you or the one that kills your social life and productivity?

I don't even understand people who uses those 2 to compare. One option does permanent damage to your body, the other you can just choose when to play and when not to. Cigarettes are 10 times(on average) more expensive as well.

[Tekkommo]

What a dumb thread.

Last I checked WoW didn't give you cancer.

[Deleted]

Well sure if you think social life involves talking to people online, you're right. But keep in mind I play WOW and yes do enjoy it very much. But the reason Im arguing here is sometimes I feel I wish I never started to play WOW. The reason being Id probably have more real life friends and go out more.

Also, many more people smoke than people that play WOW. WOW is actually shunned socially by many people as we are considered "nerds." Whereas even people who dont smoke, usually dont care about your habits...well besides relationships.

If you wish you had never started with wow because you would have had more real life friends, why don't you stop playing WoW right now and get on that? It's never too late, if that's your goal.

Yes WoW is shunned off by some people who have mostly heard or met people who do nothing but play all day, ignore taking care of their hygiene, their school work or even jobs. But that really has much less to do with WoW and more about that person's self control, if it wasn't WoW, the person would be hooked with something else instead, trust me. A friend of mine felt that he had a big problem with gaming in general, it took too much of his time and he felt that he couldn't focus on his University studies enough, to the point he dropped off his program. He signed up for something called "Game Over", it's a program that helps "addicts" turn their life around and focus more on the important things in life. Whilst there is nothing wrong with playing games in general, there is definitely something that is too much. He went there for a couple of months, afterwards he didn't touch a single game for at least a year. Now he's studying at the University again, this time doing really well, and still playing games from time to time (played HoN with him last night).

I would also say that those who smoke are even more shunned off, considering the increase in rules against them. I myself can't stand even being near someone who has smoked within the past five minutes, the smell is just too much... And I'm sure I'm not the only one who feels like that.

When it comes to social life, that's pretty subjective isn't it? Some desire more, some desire less. I'm one of those who desire less, to the point that I hate being around people in general. I would never really be able to go to a bar, and enjoy it, I have been there, left rather quickly. I can't stand parties or other such festivities, I feel extremely uncomfortable around other people. I have a small set of real friends that I meet in person from time to time to watch a movie or something, but mostly we keep in touch over Skype, that's the way I like it.

Whilst WoW has definitely been bad for some people's social life, it has been great for others as well. I have heard of plenty of people who has found their current girlfriend/wife through the game for example. Everyone in my guild has met each other in real life on guild meetings (except myself because I have felt too anxious to actually go, probably will next time this summer though), most of them live in the same city and even gym together and bowl together. Three people in the guild even play WoW with their girlfriend/wife, and one of the wives even raids with us. (Although admittedly, she hasn't taken part in the last few months since she recently had a child.)

What I'm trying to get at, is that WoW has loads of up sides when it comes to social interaction, smoking on the other hand does not. Sure, you might be socializing with another smoker while out smoking, but really you could just as well have taken a coffee together.

[Caesonia]

for me i would say the smoking is worse, the wow addiction is pure mental but when i stopped smoking i felt like complete garbage for awhile and had more mood swings then normal heh

[Tzalix]

Cigarettes must be pretty damn good, then, to be worth losing even more time than it takes to "enjoy" one. Time dead is quite literally time "wasted," and it's one of the one true definitions, in my opinion, of wasted time. The minutes spent smoking the cigarette itself, if you are "enjoying" it is not wasted, but the time it shaves of your life,I would argue, certainly is.

I don't think of it that way.

5 minutes spent = 5 minutes less to live
5 minutes shortened life = 5 minutes less to live

It's all the same to me

[Kelimbror]

What a dumb thread.

Last I checked WoW didn't give you cancer.

There's no conclusive evidence that backs your claim. Also, death can be sudden from playing WoW. Cancer never kills you in a few days from getting it, but WoW has killed people in a few days playing it. The more you know...


To answer the question, I quit them both so I guess neither. Though I did play WoW longer.

[Goatfish]

Cigarettes are 10 times(on average) more expensive as well.

Wow, I didn't know a couple packs of cigarettes cost $150... Guess I must get them real cheap where I live, because I only spend about $10 a month.

[Deleted]

WoW is pretty addicting, but i'd say it is a lot easier to shut WoW out of your life than the addictive materials in cigs

[Underverse]

cigarettes. WoW grows your brain, cigarettes give you cancer.

Also, if you smoke a pack a day, it is way more expensive Goatfish, idk where you live but they're about $8 here. Sooo $240 a month. More than 10x

---------- Post added 2013-02-22 at 09:34 PM ----------

What about the time I spend on enjoy a cigarette?

None of these equal being dead, they are all time spenders. The tobacco has extra time "spent", since it shortens your life, but it all ends up taking away from the same time anyway.

But it isn't time spent, it's time gone. Time on wow at least is time that you have, and more importantly time that improves your brain and perhaps even social skills. Plus, you don't die as painfully. Dying of lung cancer sucks, I've seen it, and it's terrible, much worse than heart disease or w/e.

[Goatfish]

cigarettes. WoW grows your brain, cigarettes give you cancer.

Also, if you smoke a pack a day, it is way more expensive Goatfish, idk where you live but they're about $8 here. Sooo $240 a month. More than 10x

So comparing costs between a fairly heavy smoker and an average wow player using the super-high cost cigarettes no less. I smoke about 2-3 packs a month and I smoke the more expensive ones at $4.20 a pack, Camel Wides. My old boss used to smoke a carton a week and bought cheap Indian cigarettes at $10 a carton, which means a 2 pack a day smoker can still only pay $30 a month.

See? What you are doing is the same thing all of that research data put out by anti-smoking corporations does, you take above average numbers for amount, apply the highest possible price to it, and pretend that that one cigarette has all the chemicals of 40 different brands including ones made overseas that are unregulated and many times unable to be bought here. It's easy to twist statistical data to match what you want to say, but when the actual facts come out it tells a slightly different tale. Finally as far as WoW growing your brain... Perhaps if you actually give a crap about the game and do the math yourself, but that isn't the average player at all. The average player just pushes buttons and sees things die, and if you are lucky they might look up the results of math someone else did. People who put in mental effort to the game are the overwhelmingly vast minority.

[Lilly32]

0/10

According to a global report released by The World Health Organization 5.4 million people die each year — one every six seconds — from lung cancer, heart disease or other illness directly linked to tobacco use. No one has been killed by WoW.

[Deleted]

Smokes give you cancer, and that's an experience I wouldn't wish to anyone, but wow as well can very well ruin your whole life.
Thank god I was already an adult when I started playing but I can only imagine how bad it could potentially affect a teenager.
Of course cigarettes are worst, but mind you, when I was hooked on wow (oh and nearly lost my job and my family, and barely managed to keep track of my social life) I had the same issues and problems I had back when I was using drugs.

I guess it comes down to different personalities. But one should always be aware and consider the potential damage of something, I think.

[dokilar]

well considering prolonged use of cigarettes is known to cause cancer and death id have to vote cigarettes.

that being said i get that youre trying to imply what addiction is worse WoW or cigarettes. well as someone whos never smoked i cant commit on the mental/physical addictions to cigarettes but as someone who played WoW religiously from warcraft : orcs and humans all the way up to Cata i can easily say it wasnt hard at all to stop playing. is there a part of me that thinks about WoW from time to time? absolutely, but i have no strong desire, or feel any overwhelming need to buy the latest expansion and get back to pvping and exploring the world.

for me WoW was my first mmo and while i did enjoy all the time i spent playing WoW i grew up on the rts's and im a much bigger fan of rts games than i am mmo's to be honest.

[derpkitteh]

cigarettes obviously... they give you cancer and stink like shit.

[Deleted]

Well for me personally WOW is more bad that smoke

[ghrolt]

They're both about equally addicting.

No they are not. I smoked for 15 years and quit February 1st.
I also quit WoW in December. MoP ruined the whole game for me. I regret I even bought it.

[Shekita]

Apparently a lot of people in this thread have never heard of Video Game Addiction. It is a thing. It does exist. It is in fact a real addiction.

http://www.webmd.com/mental-health/f...diction-no-fun

So if we're talking about a REAL video game addiction, then a WoW addiction could in fact be as bad and in some cases worse than a cigarette addiction.

Video game addiction is considered a psychological addiction. Video game addiction has caused parents to neglect their children resulting in the death of babies/infants. The loss of children to CPS. The end of friendships, relationships, family, and jobs. It's easy to say "omg just get some self control!" but to the people that truly are addicted to video games that's much easier said than done, it is a TRUE addiction.

Quite honestly you can say the same thing to someone addicted to cigarettes. It's bad for you, just have some self control and stop! Most people whom smoke or has smoked will tell it's a difficult thing to quit.

I would still say cigarettes are worse as they're far easier to become addicted to because chemicals are easy to get addicted to.

Video game addiction is much rarer and is usually the result of another underlying psychological issue.

[BatteredRose]

It depends 100% on the person.

[Banzhe]

The one that causes lung cancer...

Which makes sense considering there's a ton of smokers who never see the slightest illness associated with smoking.., go dig up one documented paper on the topic that accounts for all the toxin's floating about in our air (and 100% rules them out), otherwise stop which being so thick n' ignorant.

It's insane how easy people bite the line when there's enough "publicity" on the topic, the "cure cancer" foundations around the globe are as much business as any other.., try to think a little for yourself.