DoubleHelix

Okies. So i suppose its my turn. I just quit wow today. For good. I have been playing, like many of you, for about 3 years now. Pretty much since it came out. I was never a hardcore gamer, and sucked major ass in eq. I remember going to the basement and throwing a blanket over my computer so my parents couldnt hear the dialup noise from aol. Heh. Those were the days. Then wow came along. I never reallly got into it untill this year. I only have one level 70 character. The only one i played. Orc, hunter, bm. Only spec. So, a couple of things. I’ve tried quitting about 10 times. Serious attempts. They all included me giving all my gold away (i used to buy gold, shutup, so i’d give about 500g away each time), deleting the character, throwing everythingin the bank away, uninstalling the game, canceling the account, and smashing the cd’s). I can say, i bought the game 9 or 10 times, both regular and the expansion. I was never into guilds, just kind of a loner hunter kinda guy. What attracted me was the chat. Since i was on just one server (blood furnace),with one character, ppl eventually got to know me. I was the smart ass that kept making fun of people. So i guess for me, it was a way to let steam off. I also never switched from bm becaue i love to pvp. After i got decent gear, full s1, i was unstoppable, could wipe grps of 3 or so allies by myself and cap frag. Topped Av damage charts most times i played. Im not braging, but i trying to create a picture. For me, it was fun to ‘own’. As most of you know, the game starts anew once you hit level 70. I’m going for my PhD at the moment, and this was my way of getting away. But i lost all track of everything. I stoped going to classes, and when i was i was thinking wow. I lost interest in coursework, going to the gym, even talking to my parents. Just lock the door and play under the pretense of ‘studying hard to catch up’. Wow is such a trap. If you spend enough time in it, you will easily squash players of poorer gear. With a priest, i made 2100 rating in 2’s with s1 gear, so like i said, i pked a lot. 33k honor kills. And now with the new added dailies, you can easily have to log in every day for that ‘free 150g’in about 2 hrs. I deleted my character today. Because i need to stop living like a 18 year odl kid. Because i want to stop lying to my girlfrined, who is the love of my life. Because i want to stop being ashamed on myself as i go to bet at 3am every day since i cant stop bging. I’ll go till i loose. Yeahhh, about that. The secret to quitting isnt deleting your character. Its everything. I destroyed all my gear. Thats a big step, specially if its honor rewards, like mine were. The +4stats rings hurt the most :-( . Then i deleted my kitty, whom i’ve had for 3 years. But heres the key: delete your professions. U know, the 375 mining, 375 enchanting. And destroy that fucking rod. Because even with no gear, you will be tempted to come back, do dailies and quickly get some new shit blues and start pvp/puging, whatever it is you do, to get ur old gear back. It wont be hard for me since i only have a handfull of ppl i ever talked to. I never got vent because i felt that it took away from the game. Now my gpa is 3.05, and i have to maintain a 3.0 to stay in the program. I have a midterm tomorrow that im starting to study for today. And im tired as hell because i went to bet at 3 the last couple of days playing ‘just one more bg’. It feels great to quit wow. For a while. But after a week or so, it will come back with a vengence and you’ll fucking kick yourself for being sOOO dumb. And want to play again. It IS like a drug. Because it replaces other things you could be doing. Bored? jump on wow. Feel like killing a few inutes? jump on wow. Avoiding work with a guilty smile? jump on wow. Well, u gotta try to find something else. Anything. The game will ever end. From a pvp perspective (again, i never raided, it bored me to tears, and i sucked at it since i drew WAYYY to much aggro), hers the outlook. And i though about this a lot. Currently, the best you can do is be in full s3, with the rest full vindicator, your resil trink and some other trink. I dont like the 30k honor trink for bm, i rolled with badge of tenacity (see, im still addicted…i was at 450 resil, 2300ap, 39%crit when my kitty went red). The best chants you can get, including the rep chants for head and shoulder. The best arrows u can get (i had the ??dps ones from revered violet eye). And thats it. You stop advancing. You get the shoulders and the weapon with personal rating. And you sit on your ass till s4 comes out. Do it alllll over again. Then the expasion comes out. If ur nuts, you make a shadowknight and grind that fucker till 80. It will never end, and that will always be something to do. And if there isnt, yous till wont log out because its better to be bored in wow than in rl. At least in wow you can kill shit, while in rl you have to look @ walls or try to do some actual work. I dunno. Im not as bad off as the guy under me who’s homeless and pennyless, but i can easily see myself in that position. Some people just cant handle wow. It is like a crutch, like a seemingly helping hand that unnowingly poisons you and your soul. Even if you think its not noticable that you care less and less about your real life, it does show.
So to wrap this up, if you really wanna quit, take my advice: Dont just ‘pretend to quit’, while in the back of your mind just say you’ll come back, really quit. Be a fucking man. The more you love something in the game, the more that has to go. Love your guild? tell your gl to fuck off. Destroy your most precious items, quit your professions (that was huge for me). Be rude on purpose so you might get banned. Delete your char, even though you can get it back whenever. Break the cd’s. And try something else, anything. Get back into aim ;-)

I didnt log on aim for 2 fucking years, because i was always on wow instead. Dare i say it? GO TO CLASS, asshole! they’ll be as shocked as you are. Because lets face it, wow wont pay the bills. Wow wont feed your future kids. Wow wont get you those ripped abbs you used to have. Wow will always be there like a shot of vodka, ready to make you happy temporarily, and literarly kick your ass in the morning. Sooner or later, if you truly are addicted to wow, your resources are goign to run out. And you will be left with nothing. And lets face it, since you’re a wow addict, your willpower is alreayd too low. Chances are that you will try (and fail) suicide. Because you dont really want to kill yourself, you just want to make yourself believe that you’re ooo so depressed that wow ruined your life. When in reality you’re just cursing that youre fucking money run out and ur parents wont give you more, and that you have no job (with which to pay for more wow), and you’ll piss and moan and try to get attention with a shitty suicide attempt. And then lighten the fuck up, get a job @ mcdonalds, and a shitty appartment, find some ugly spouse that is as much a looser as you have become, and go from there.
All im saying is that it really doesnt have to be like that. Because wow wont blow up if you’re no longer logged on all the time. Your guild wont fall appart because you decided to gquit. It will instead continute to ruin peoples lives, while you try to put yours back together, finally.
I just because a member here because i wanted to write this one entry, and i dont know if anyone can email me, but if you cant, and need to talk to SOMEONE, anyone (even though i wouldnt, heh, it kill my wow playing time), i’m here. Leave a comment and i’ll sent u my email. Don worry, i’ll still talk about wow with you, i fucking love it. But now i want to succeed in life more than i love wow. And this is a nice first step for me.

PS: If you do decide to destory all ur shit, do it as fast as you can, with no ceremony, fucking candles burning, sad vitamin c songs playing, or snapshots. Tell the trade channel ur quitting, go ahead. Tell everyone its been awsome, or fuck off, or eat shit, or whatever your cup of tea is. But quit fast. I did it by making my mind go blank and destroying all my armor without tryign to think about anything. Its easier once your first 3 or 4 pieces are gone. But if you really ARE serious about quitting and dont want to come back, destroy ur gear and quit your professions. Else you’ll be back in a week. Take it from me.

Peace