What's worse for you - WoW or cigarettes?

[Deleted]

wow cos its given me stress from to much of it and makes me have panic attacks sometimes if im not carefull. but playing around 10hrs a day for around 5 years cant be good for any1

[Gravityx]

Following your logic, it's still worse than WoW. WoW in moderation never harmed anyone. There are no lungs to heal over time here though.

Following my logic? LOL. We are comparing apples to oranges here bro. Smoking harms you physically, while WOW harms you socially. There is no definite answer, thats why this thread is here. You seem so confident and set in stone about it, yet you dont have any of the facts.

Personally I believe harm to one's social life is worse than a potential risk to your health.

[Alphamage]

I quit smoking two years ago but I cant quit WoW. I guess WoW is more addicting...

[schwarzkopf]

while WOW harms you socially.

Rubbish - WoW is good for you socially. You meet other people talk to them ...

Playing WoW for a few hours a week does you NO harm. Smoking for a few hours a week - can kill you.

[Seriss]

Following my logic? LOL. We are comparing apples to oranges here bro. Smoking harms you physically, while WOW harms you socially. There is no definite answer, thats why this thread is here. You seem so confident and set in stone about it, yet you dont have any of the facts.

Personally I believe harm to one's social life is worse than a potential risk to your health.

You were talking about moderate use. Even moderate use of cigarettes has a detrimental effect on your health an on that of the people in whose faces you hold your cigarette. While your body heals much of the damage smoking will do over a couple of years after you've quit, there is still damage.

A moderate use of WoW doesn't harm you socially at all. In fact, it even improves your social life. You meet new people, make friends and meet them in RL even if you want to.

The trap people in this thread continuously step into is that they compare an absolute WoW-maniac who is jobless, overweight and lonely (come to think of it... watching TV all day is just as bad as staring at that monitor that has a game on it, right?) to a handsome young man who just happens to light up a cigarette once a day.

[Deleted]

Following my logic? LOL. We are comparing apples to oranges here bro. Smoking harms you physically, while WOW harms you socially. There is no definite answer, thats why this thread is here. You seem so confident and set in stone about it, yet you dont have any of the facts.

Personally I believe harm to one's social life is worse than a potential risk to your health.

WoW harms me socially? Really? I play about 6 hours a week, in all those hours the only thing I do is raid with my guild, hang out with them in teamspeak, chat, joke and have a great time. If anything it improves my social life.

Smoking on the other hand has no real beneficial effects at all, and can even hurt your social life. For example, less and less people smoke in overall, which means the ones who still do will become more and more shunned off by society. Rules will become tighter, and judgement will become severer.

[Toxigen]

They're both about equally addicting.

Laughable. I quit WoW at the start of Wrath after playing ultra-hardcore throughout Vanilla / TBC (Sapph down while current, top 10 U.S. shadowpriest throughout BC, top 25 U.S. guild throughout, etc) without even blinking an eye.

I smoked casually (about 5 a day) for four years. Today is day 9 of being cig free and I want to choke someone/something.

[Breccia]

My paternal grandparents smoked every day of their lives until they hit about 70. Their house reeked of it. Grandma would send me chocolate-chip cookies in college that literally stunk of cigarette smoke. I couldn't eat them.

I play WoW more or less every day. My chocolate-chip cookies taste FANTASTIC.

Based on my 100% unbiased and accurate study which correlates chocolate to quality of life, I have to say WoW is better for you.

[Tzalix]

My lungs or my time...

Hmmm

In the end they are the same, smoking one cigarette shortens your life by 11 minutes(variable number, as it comes down to much more than just the number of cigarettes). Playing WoW for 11 minutes also means you've lost 11 minutes. As long as others are not harmed(smoke respectfully!), it comes down to whatever you enjoy the most. For me it's a happy mix of both

Laughable. I quit WoW at the start of Wrath after playing ultra-hardcore throughout Vanilla / TBC (Sapph down while current, top 10 U.S. shadowpriest throughout BC, top 25 U.S. guild throughout, etc) without even blinking an eye.

I smoked casually (about 5 a day) for four years. Today is day 9 of being cig free and I want to choke someone/something.

I tried WoW for 5 minutes and was hooked for life.

I also smoke casually, yet I have no problem taking regular breaks when I'm low on cash or I'm just out of cigarettes and a store is not immediately available.

Addictions work differently for different people.

[razski]

WOW harms you socially.

Speaking as someone who is almost completely housebound due to disabilities, I think you'll find that for a lot of people, ranging from the disabled to the socially awkward have a better chance at being social in an online game such as WoW. WoW has increased my confidence in myself, my ability to lead raids has given me quite a lot of joy considering how I cannot leave the house.

It's only harmful to a social life if you actually have one and turn your back on it in favour of WoW. There are so many benefits for me as an individual to play WoW.


Whereas smoking, speaking as someone who has recently given up smoking after 22 years, is not good for you in any way, shape, or form. Every part of it is harmful to yourself and others around you. If you deny that then you're a moron for thinking that it isn't when all the facts and tests point the other direction. We have a word for people who believe that smoking doesn't cause any harmful effects, delusional.

WoW has some drawbacks, but has a lot of positives too. Smoking doesn't. So which is worse? Smoking, by a fucking mile. I don't understand why this is even a discussion.

WoW is not an addiction, it's a hobby. Quitting a hobby, something you enjoy, is more difficult than giving up something that physically makes you addicted through chemicals.

[Regen]

Cigarettes easily is the worse of the two. One is chemically bad for you. The other is fine with self control. I personally work 40 hours a week, have a girlfriend of 3 years (met her after I started playing wow too) that I spend considerable time with, and then find free time to play wow if I have it around other things like PT and gym.

All of this was to attest to WoW being perfectly "fine" if you can control yourself.

[Daetur]

I'm gonna go with the one that is chemically addicting, a poison, causes lung cancer among a myriad of other physical health issues, and has the potential to diminish or risk the health of those around you.

Playing WoW for 11 minutes also means you've lost 11 minutes.

That implies that time spent on the enjoyment of Warcraft or interacting with any friends or guild members in World of Warcraft is the same as being dead. Regardless of its relative value towards things other people may consider more "productive," it sure beats the pants off being dead.

[Goatfish]

Are you seriously that retarded? There's been a hell of a lot more deaths caused by smoking, not to mention that lung cancer has been around way before computer games were even thought of.

Lung cancer has also been around way before smoking tobacco was thought of. It's also around in people who have never touched or been around a cigarette. What is your point? As far as more deaths by tobacco, I would like to see statistics based off every smoker in the world and those whose deaths have been explicitly caused by tobacco use (as in without a shadow of a doubt) and compared to the number of lives ruined by excessive gameplay. I would bet you the statistics probably aren't too far off, especially because most of the deaths attributed to tobacco only place smoking as a possible factor, not as the entire cause. Smoking isn't great for you, but it isn't a guaranteed cancer ticket and death warrant either like some people like to pretend.

PS: It's not nice to call people retarded on these forums, but you might get away with it because you are anti-smoking.

[Deleted]

How did this thread even get to 9 pages...Cigarettes are worse, hands down. Why are we even discussing this?

[Tharkkun]

Ah so because babies die from neglect all the time we should just ignore those that have died and will die in the future due the parents gaming habits? I'm sorry I do not see the words "WOW" or any combination of the words "World," "Warcraft" or "of" anywhere in my post so I am not sure how deduce that I was saying that WOW is a huge culprit.

As I have already explained in this thread the majority of gamers will not experience any problems with addiction but that does not mean that we should ignore its existence. It is, also, important that we do not react in a knee jerk fashion nor that we should diminish or attempt to excuse gamings involvement when these terrible tragedies happen.

As gaming becomes more and more wide spread the chances of people falling victim to addiction becomes greater and greater and every tragedy will be seized upon by a story hungry main stream press and out of touch politicians and there will be little argument in the defence of gaming when the majority of gamers are in denial that there might be a problem.

Did you forget you were posting on a WoW forum in a Wow versus Smoking thread. If you weren't blaming Wow then I guess you inferring that smoking parents causes DVT and neglect in children. I agree it can be a problem but even if gaming continues to explode the level of neglect and problems from gaming is so little compared to all the other causes out there.

---------- Post added 2013-02-21 at 01:14 PM ----------

Cigarettes. WoW is only addicting cuz people let it be addicting. Cigarettes are addicting via the crap in 'em and an hour of smoking sounds more dangerous than an hour of WoW.

Wow is psychologically addicting. Cigarettes are physically and psychologically addicting. Many people get addicted to holding something in their hand for 5 minutes, 5-10 times a day. That's why fake cigarettes are so effective while the patch is equally as effective.

[Goatfish]

Nature and destiny? So you're saying that the metric fuckton of research that has gone into proving how smoking shortens your lifespan and gives you all sorts of nasty, lethal diseases is all basesless and useless, and that naute and destiny are the only things that control our lives? What colour is the sky in your world, and how has someone with such miniscule brainpower survived for as long as you have?

You mean the ton of research that is funded by gigantic anti-smoking corporations and has the tests and results twisted to tell people how horrible smoking 50 cigarettes at once is? I could easily find you at least half a dozen well known examples that have been clearly twisted if you want to look beyond the title of the article. In fact, if you look through my post history I think I've already done that for someone a couple months ago.

They're more expensive than WoW. I buy 2 packs a month, or ~$10.00 a month. Which is more expensive?
They make you stink. A pure opinion, I love the smell of smoke in general, tobacco included.
They fill your lungs with tar restricting the oxygen into your blood stream which makes your skin age. Except for the fact that lungs heal over time, so smoking in moderation does roughly nothing to your lungs and skin.
The smoke rots your teeth and gives you bad breath. Because this isn't countered by proper hygiene at all?
It makes your heart work harder opening you up to heart attacks and heart disease. Again, doesn't happen in moderation. Going for a good run will work your heart far harder.
Increases the chances of lung and throat cancer. It does, but the chance is still miniscule even if you were to smoke a pack a day.
It makes you incredibly unfit. This is a flat up lie. I would almost guarantee that as a smoker I am in better shape than you. More so since I am a butcher and before that worked doing manual farm labor for 6 years.
And all of this shortens your life. I'd love to see proof on this, because I have a magic number everyone else can see that shows exactly how long I am going to live. Is this like people with cancer being told they are only going to live 2 months and they end up living 10 years? Cause that actually does happen all the time. No one knows how long someone else is going to live, we can only hypothesize on the effects, there is no proof.

Responses in bold above.

Worst case scenario you play WoW too long you get a bit fat and remain a virgin till you're 30.

Worst case scenario with cigarettes? your body rots, falls apart and you die looking like a fucking zombie before you even hit 30.

Please tell me you are joking. There is a limit to exaggerations, and I think your fish story here crossed it a while back.

WoW harms me socially? Really? I play about 6 hours a week, in all those hours the only thing I do is raid with my guild, hang out with them in teamspeak, chat, joke and have a great time. If anything it improves my social life.

Smoking on the other hand has no real beneficial effects at all, and can even hurt your social life. For example, less and less people smoke in overall, which means the ones who still do will become more and more shunned off by society. Rules will become tighter, and judgement will become severer.

Besides the fact that smoking actually does have some medical and psychological benefits, as well as the fact that smoking has helped my social life... I just want to ask one question. Of those people you raid with and hang out with online, how many of them are people you have met in person and can receive help from, put on a job application, or use in any way in the real world? Because actually having people who can help you out in life is what people talk about when they talk of social connections, not random people you met online and like to talk to from time to time even though you will probably never meet them, and will be mostly forgotten after you quit for a few months.

[Pann]

Did you forget you were posting on a WoW forum in a Wow versus Smoking thread. If you weren't blaming Wow then I guess you inferring that smoking parents causes DVT and neglect in children. I agree it can be a problem but even if gaming continues to explode the level of neglect and problems from gaming is so little compared to all the other causes out there.

Are you going to continue to quote me out of context? The post I made that you quoted originally was in response to one of the more informed posts in this thread about gaming addiction that ended by saying that gaming addiction cannot be fatal. I simply pointed out that this was not case as people had died due to gaming addiction in past as far as I am aware these players were not playing other online games so why would I blame WOW?

I'm sorry that my post has caused you to jump to WOWs defence but at no point in this thread have I said that WOW is worse than smoking or that it is to blame for any deaths I simply pointed out that when taken to extremes online games can have fatal consequences.

[Tzalix]

That implies that time spent on the enjoyment of Warcraft or interacting with any friends or guild members in World of Warcraft is the same as being dead. Regardless of its relative value towards things other people may consider more "productive," it sure beats the pants off being dead.

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.

[Daetur]

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.

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.

[Gravityx]

WoW harms me socially? Really? I play about 6 hours a week, in all those hours the only thing I do is raid with my guild, hang out with them in teamspeak, chat, joke and have a great time. If anything it improves my social life.

Smoking on the other hand has no real beneficial effects at all, and can even hurt your social life. For example, less and less people smoke in overall, which means the ones who still do will become more and more shunned off by society. Rules will become tighter, and judgement will become severer.

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.