Wow Addiction And How To Deal With It World of Warcraft addiction

[q9c9p 0]

Hello to everybody,I have to admit I have and had my own problems to deal with but since I came back to my family I've got to deal with this too...I have a little brother ( 5 years younger, he is 24 ) and I think he is addicted to WoW ( World of Warcraft ), reading on the internet it seems to starting to become really common...Some years ago he had his own computer shop that went bankrupted because of various reasons ( WoW was no existing yet ), after that he started playing this game and since then he just play, sleep, wake, play, eat while playing...he spend all of the day in his dark room playing this game.My poor mum is working to pay off bills ( internet too ) and food and he is just standing in his room playing all the bloody day till the point he started to become anemic, he shakes, he is completely pail and my mum feed him vitamins and supplements because he does not want to go out or do gym at all, he does not even clean after him self in anyway...does not meet friends no more ( about 2 years now ).I suggested my mum to cut the internet and make him pay the bill if he really think he needs it but that lead to a ferocious family fight about me being the hippy traveler who always get in troubles and that I should shut up because he is not hurting nobody ( while I get arrested every now and then for demonstrations and the like ).How should I deal with this, and, should I really deal with it? I mean is my family...and I know all in all I'm not a saint my self...how is that word...paternalist maybe, am I too much paternalistic by thinking I might have the right to tell he is hurting him self and ruining my mother life?Is it like with drugs/alcohol junkies that nothing can be done till the person himself does not realize to have a real problem?And his WoW companions...I know that most of them work or study, I mean they must have a life? Should I try to get in contact with them?Thanks for any suggestion and pardon me for too much personal information but I really don't know what to do or think anymore...Ciao,q9c9p

[deadmad7 4]

You should ask him nicely to get off his *bottom* and stop playing stupid online games (he's 20 something...) and get a job. And if that doesn't work, you can go ahead and kick him out of your house. That'll teach him He'll probably crawl back and be a good boy

 

But thats only the easiest way though. You could try to get in touch with his old friends (from 2 years ago) and tell them about his problem and im pretty sure that they'll help him out by hanging out with him something like that, they should cause they're his friends.

 

Or you could get your own WOW account, follow around your brother and KS (kill steal) his monsters which makes him level up really slooow. And get a hold of his WoW friends and tell them not to chat with your brother and stuff like that. He'll quit eventually if everything works out alright!

 

Another good method is corrupting or deleting his WoW files everytime he goes outside (to the bathroom, mind you, not "outside" outside ). And then he'll have to download/install WoW again... or find the internet cable that connects to your house and damage it ("cut it") and act like nothing happened. It'll take a few days for the ISP people to come so follow step #2 then and invite his friends .

 

Well, thats my advice... good luck! XD

[q9c9p 0]

Well...we tried that...while I was living in Amsterdam he also came to live with me for a couple of months telling my mum he would get a job...well he toke his computer with him and you can imagine how it ended up, first I cut him the connection, and he hooked up to my neighbor connection, then I told my neighbor and make him a rule on the router to not allow him to connect and he changes his MAC address, then I corrupted his files and he went back to mum...never went out looking for a job...I've tried already corrupting the files and he keep backup since then on usb sticks...but today something happened...after I posted some how my mum got pissed off and started threatening him to cut off the internet, that he needs to get a job and to take care of his health because he really really look in bad condition, and also saying good things about my life style...she never did that before ( talking good about my life style ), but I've seen already this kind of arguments to know that she is not gonna kick him out or cut the internet...I was actually think to cut the cable out of the house but the problem is that this is a flat type house, so there is about 10 more apartment, it would be disastrous to cut the cables...About his friends...I've tried that too but they live far away and when they did understood what kind of situation his in they also told me he is the only one who can do something...and the friends who where living close they are just some bourgeois italian spoiled kids who think only about taking drugs, *BLEEP* and playing playstation...Well I wonder what the future will bring, for now I'll go on my traveling, lucky me I leave this place today...I hope to anyone who might have the same problem as my bro is having to don't give up and cut them internet! :DCiao,q9c9p

[sonesay 7]

This sounds like a very bad and common problem. I can give you some insight as I was once addicted to MMORPG myself. The more you let him get away with being a slob the worse it will get. Eventually it may get to the point where its so bad he will start giving up on everything all together or it might actually make him realize how much of a time hes wastes either way it will take too long and waste more valuable time. You say hes 24 that's the age you should be changing from a kid to and adult already. I know people are all different but generally by that age you should be old enough to take care of your self. I know a lot of people who grow up and are responsible when they are 20 and it amazes me. I wonder what makes them different from me and why at that age I was lost and messed up. It has to do with parenting I think. If you had raised your kid well and taught them good qualities like hard work and responsibilities then they would not end up like this. I have to say my parents were not the best being not very educated they still have no idea on how to be a parent or what parenting is. To this day it causes problems in the family when there is an argument and no one is willing to concede thinking they are the only ones right. You cannot go through live having kids and not teaching them good values and then expect them to turn out right when they are adults it does not work that way. I think a lot of parents fail this way because they don't know what parenting really is. My little brother has the same problem he is 11 and all he thinks about is games. I know its up to me to teach him because my parents wont do it. They are too concerned about their own life to really be parents. My only suggestion for you is to take it upon yourself to help your brother out. You have to find a way to make him see the light its not going to be easy but if you don't do it who will? Your his brother and true you may have your own life but it will take sacrifice if you love him enough you will do what ever it takes to help him. Your brother is probably also feeling a lot of helplessness and wondering why things arn't working out so he gives up trying. Nothing comes out good without putting in hard work and he should expect to fail many times before he success but if he does not change then the outcome surely will not be any different. Another problem is if your mum is letting him stay for free then its easy for him to be lazy. Kicking him out might sound bad but its probably the best thing and the only thing that will get him to do something about his situation. It may seem harsh to do such a thing to family but its not. I wish you the best of luck with your brother.

Edited January 24, 2011 by sonesay (see edit history)

[deadmad7 4]

Well, I didn't mean cutting the cables for ALL the apartments in your building, just the cable that comes from the main junction or whatever you call it to your house. It's inside in most of the buildings, but it might be different where you live . Have you tried talking to some doctor or anything? First of all, does he KNOW that he is wasting his life... or is he too absorbed in the game. If he is, you should talk to a therapist or someone who can help.

[q9c9p 0]

First of all thank you all,second, well, he is really too absorbed by that game, in the past 2 years I've tried my chances, taking him with me abroad and meeting him people but it did not work, his friends tried and gave up, now I'm on the run around my country because of some jobs/projects and I'd really prefer to be taking care of myself first, before leaving the house I had a chat with my mum and she is going to cut the internet after easter holidays, thats the deal now, either he get to pay the internet by himself or leave.Shouldn't there be some filters by blizard? We have dynamic ip and I know he have multiple accounts...but is it really worth to have something so addictive on the market? Pardon me for the trivial question...maybe I'm just an idealist...Ciao,q9c9p

[deadmad7 4]

Shouldn't there be some filters by blizard? We have dynamic ip and I know he have multiple accounts...but is it really worth to have something so addictive on the market? Pardon me for the trivial question...maybe I'm just an idealist...

Hmmmm.. yeah. Even I play WOW, but its not like its the only thing you do. You can't just blame it on technology or blizzard, its mainly his fault and he has to deal with it.

I say that you help him get through this, hes probably in a low point in his life and as his brother you should probably help him get a degree or something or get a job somewhere! at a company or flipping burgers! it doesn't matter!

And if that doesn't work, just log onto his account, curse at everyone you see or probably use some hacks, that will be enough to get you perma (permanently) banned!! Now, all his hard work is gone! congrats! he will either stop playing altogether (and probably beat you up, which is OK) or start a new account... in which point you should kick him out of your house!

Or else consider giving his username and password away to someone inside the game, if you know it.

[Iniyila 2]

hmm why i haven't saw this thread ? maybe i was tired in that day you posted this topic. I'm a online game addicted too but no it is not like alcohol or like drugs and how i find it, the answer is very simple i just didn't extend my internet service for one month and so i didn't play any online game during that month and nothing happened, i just mean you can see how hard is to leaving an addiction like alcohol or drugs which causes many physical and mental problems when you don't use it for a while but i didn't experienced any of these problems in that month i just find that i have many free times which i can use them for doing many things and one of them was going out with my friends, so after that month i again got a internet service even with higher speed but duo to some effects of that month i never played again any online game more than 3 hour in a day. The effect of that month was that i found going out with my friends is so much better than playing counter strike with virtual friends, i found that i'm happier in those day than days i played 12 hours of various online games like wow, counter strike, cod 4 and many other games.As you mentioned he is not meeting his friends for 2 years , this is exactly what happened to me so i have a suggestion : do something to make him going out with his friends at least two or three times. i bet you it is enough for him to give up playing WOW , he will understand how much fun it is to be with your friends and he will understand that no game can do such a thing. do not cut the internet you can do a better thing, just call your internet service provider and tell them to change your DNS to a dns from countries which they have very low speed connection (you can do this yourself with your modem but if your brother is familiar with these things it will not help) so your ping and delay time will increase which kills all online muliplayer games fun. so you will see he will not play WoW anymore but he will seek for finding an alternative then just suggest him to call his friends and see if they want to meet with each other. Anyway WoW is really addictive and i haven't played it since that month i have mentioned because you can not say i will play only a round you know because a round maybe take you 3 or 4 hours in a strategic game. but counter strike and COD are better with their 20 minutes round so you can play one or two a day and do not wasting your time an d loosing your friends. why do you want to cut the cable just ruin the delay time its very easy even you can do it with changing your modem settings but as i said he will fix it so just do it by asking your service provider, they will change it (at least they done it for me because of high delay but you can ask them to do what they have done for me in reverse ) , another way is ip filtering by your isp but i think they take money for doing this, you can ask them to filter a certain ip (WoW server IP) and so your brother will not be able to access to that server any more.