How to quit online gaming
Online gaming addiction can be a serious problem. In a previous article we examined how addictive online gaming (especially MMORPG's) can be by using World of Warcraft as a case study. But how do we define if someone is addicted and how serious is that addiction? The answer is simple. If the time spent playing is negatively affecting other areas of a persons life then it can be said that the activity is unhealthy. Unfortunately there are four reasons why an addict won't quit.
1 - Commitments
2 - Effort
3 - Achievable targets
4 - Fulfilling
1 - Commitments
In the majority of MMORPGs there are groups of players who get together to form guilds. There are several advantages to belonging to a guild which include help with leveling your character, access to other players with a wide range of professions and guild events such as weekly raids. For the addicted player it can become more like a job with weekly commitments to guild raids and events that can each last several hours. The individual in question believes that they have a responsibility to their online friends and guild. After all if the other guild members come to the raids they should too.
2 - Effort
After many months (even years) of playing a particular character some players can become quite attached to them. Moreover with the amount of work and effort that has gone into leveling, training and customizing your character it would be a waste to simply throw all that away.
3 - Achievable targets
There is always a way to improve your character whether it is with new enchants, new gear, or professions. Within the game world it is easy to set targets and to achieve your goals. In comparison the real world has less definable targets and it takes significantly more time and work to achieve those goals. Modern day MMORPGs are the quick fix easy alternative to the real world.
4 - Fulfilling
How can real life compare to an MMORPG? Imagine the following scenario from World of Warcraft:
- 5 minutes (sell and buy some items at the auction house)
- 5 minutes (chat with your guild mates discussing the weekly raid)
- 20 minutes (group with four other players and delve into a dungeon defeating hosts of monsters and three bosses)
- 15 minutes (enter a battleground where two sides of 40 players face off against each other)
- 15 minutes (perform 2 daily quests that will earn you some gold and reputation)
There are very few activities in life that have such a varied scope as this.
How to quit
An addict will not see their addiction as simply playing a video game for hours on end. For them it is broken down into numerous tasks. So instead of seeing 5 playing they see 2 hours in a guild raid, 1 hour of daily quests, 1.5 hours of battlegrounds and 30 minutes of buying and selling items. Each task they perform is quite different from the rest thereby creating the illusion of diversity and balance within their life.
There are two primary methods to break any addiction; immediately or slowly.
Immediately
- Cold Turkey
- User has an epiphany
Psychologically good if you delete all items, gold, professions and take the character back to the starting point to delete them.
Slowly
- Find outside activities to become involved with
- Usage will generally drop over time
Even if the user has broken the addiction there are still many other MMPORG's in the market place to take it's place. Ultimately it comes down to the player wanting to limit the time spent online gaming while devoting more time to other activities. This is the key. If there are no outside activities that are fulfilling then why would they want to quit?
Conclusion
If you are thinking of quitting an online game or know some who is wanting to quit then remember the following message:
"No game lasts forever. Eventually the servers will be switched off and your characters, your achievements, the work you put into them and the entire gaming world that you came to know as a second home will cease to exist."
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