Kicking the World of Warcraft habit can be tough. Actually seeing someone do it publicly is something I haven’t witnessed before, but the video you see above is an example of exactly that.

Maybe showing everyone he was doing this was the only way this guy could find to stick with it and not go back to playing. Experienced players will know that some of the characters and items being deleted or given away here would have taken a long time to build up.

The 55 months and 24,000 hours quoted in the video is probably no exaggeration. A level 80 Priest and level 73 Shaman can attest to that.

After telling us he has no friends he finishes with this message:

I hope this inspires you to quit as well. Remember, the “cooler” you[sic] character looks in World of Warcraft, the sadder your real life is.

The biggest loser in all this is Blizzard due to this player’s regular subscription now being lost, I doubt they’ll feel it too much though. Hopefully now he can go outside and make some friends. MMO-ing 24-7 isn’t cool kids.

http://www.geek.co...00-hours-20100721/

At least with a MMO you can still your character and make some $$$ when you're done. I never played, but I'd assume that upper tier WoW accounts could sell for in the 1,000's of USD.

lol...I did that earlier this year after 5 years, counting closed beta, back in February. I left for Star Trek Online, which is a lot less like a job and more like having fun. I had an 80 alliance Warlock in all the good gear, an 80 horde shaman and an 80 alliance gnome death knight.

Hurt like hell to leave, but my life got a lot less complicated when I split.

At one time, my account could have gone for 2500-3000 bucks, but I would rather my characters die with my subscription.

I'm admittedly the only person I know who plays WoW casually - are there others like me?

I would hate to see how many hours I've racked up on my WoW account. I could safely bet I'm approaching at least 20,000 hours.

I've played WoW off an on (but mostly on) since 2004. I have two characters at the level cap (one of which is decked out in some really nice gear), 3 close to the level cap, and at least 10 more with at least 24 hours of play time on them each. I've raided semi-hardcore since 2007 or so, done a lot of silly time-consuming things that don't count for much game wise, and in general wasted days upon days of my life playing one game.

And yet, I'm still a subscriber. I keep telling myself I'm going to quit, but I don't. Something new and shiny catches my eye, so I return. Start getting bored, think of quitting, something new and shiny catches my eye.... repeat ad nausem.

It's a viscious cycle that is extremely hard to break.

And then there's me, who's never played. I've played games like it, but never WoW. A friend of mine played nonstop from about 6 p.m. on a Friday until 3 p.m. on Sunday when his wife returned from a weekend away. Anything that addictive I try to stay away from. I'll just stick with heroin, instead.

Posted by WarBird69 It's a viscious cycle that is extremely hard to break.

That it is...my warlock was in full Molten Core gear...right down to the offhand and that's when I actually started working for a living. I was unemployed for two years before that. Pre-IP (International Paper). I was a raiding warlock, loaned out to other guilds on occasion back then, when I wasn't locked into a guild raid.

I managed to rack up enough guild DKP to get all the pieces and got lucky enough to see all the pieces drop in one weekend and blow it all in my last hurrah of a nonstop Friday to late Sunday/early Monday morning MC raid before reporting to work Monday morning. Back when it was hard.

I miss those days, honestly.

Onyxia was a bi**h and Magmadar the killer dog was the biggest pain in my a**. That's when it stopped really being fun. When the first expansion hit and all that work was rendered useless. But there were new challenges...which made it sort of fun for a while. I got into it with the Northrend stuff again, but eventually, I just didn't have the time anymore. The shinies kept me in it too for a long long time. My last real shiny was the blue drake flying mount from heroic Occulus.

I was an explorer at heart though, I loved taking screenshots of stuff and keeping a photo album.

I was an explorer at heart though, I loved taking screenshots of stuff and keeping a photo album.

The three things I enjoy most in WoW are (in no particular order):

1. Raiding
2. World PvP / City raids
3. Exploration

EDIT: Here's a few pics. Realised I've been a lot more places and forgot to take pics.

Under Karazhan (lol, gotta love the hidden humor):


Under/behind Undercity/Ruins of Lordaeron:


Some area of Stonetalon Mountains you aren't supposed to be...


Some ruins you fly over between Stonetalon Mountains and Darkshore, not accessable by normal means:


Bonus image: I soloed Tyrande Whisperwind on my death knight!




Some other places I've been but forgot to take pics:
Ironforge airport
Tauren hut south of Silthius
Dancing troll village
Night elf ruins north of Tirisfal Glades
Karazhan crypts
On top of Orgrimmar
Under Orgrimmar
Under Stormwind
On top of Stormwind's gates
Under Silvermoon City
Un-instanced Quel'thalas
Un-instanced Zul'farak
So on, and so forth...

Posted by Shael At one time, my account could have gone for 2500-3000 bucks, but I would rather my characters die with my subscription.

That is crazy. $2500 is a lot of quiche

That's like sending your car to the junk yard after retiring from professional racing instead of keeping/selling it

Posted by insanebuslady That is crazy. $2500 is a lot of quiche That's like sending your car to the junk yard after retiring from professional racing instead of keeping/selling it

Yeah, but I had a reputation in the game on the server I played on. I'd rather preserve my reputation by allowing the good times to become memories. I can still get my account back, it's locked down, secure. If I ever want it back, I can go get it. I just would rather the account remain dormant.

It's just I don't want to go back. That was part of who I was, not who I am now. It's existential and weird, but it's me. I would rather if the day comes and I do go back that the character names be me instead of some idiot who bought it off ebay. I know they can change the names and all that, but I would rather it stay with me instead of with someone else.

Those are great pics by the way. I had a bunch of Illidan and stuff from a few years ago, but I think they're on a zip drive somewhere that I can't find.

Posted by Shael That was part of who I was, not who I am now. It's existential and weird, but it's me.

I can totally understand this. It's the same reason why I have box after box after box of old RPG stuff from way back. I never got in to RPG's online but I did play many with my old group, spending hours upon hours battling it out with the baddest of the bad.

I could cash out and get a nice amount of $$$ for all the books and stuff but I have never been able to part with it.

Played it until shortly after the first expansion came out, I had a 70 Warrior, 63 dr00d, 45 paladin.

I raided pretty extensively with my druid doing Molten Core, Onyxia, Black Wings Lair, and Ahnqiraj. I had lots of fun with these instances, but I hated the end game that came with the first expansion...

Posted by jacunda I can totally understand this. It's the same reason why I have box after box after box of old RPG stuff from way back. I never got in to RPG's online but I did play many with my old group, spending hours upon hours battling it out with the baddest of the bad. I could cash out and get a nice amount of $$$ for all the books and stuff but I have never been able to part with it.

Yeah, you understand what I mean.

I mean, there's memories attached to everything I have on my characters...like a few bits and pieces from Molten Core...because I got those the night a good friend of mine, who'd never played a warlock before, pulled the whole instance down on our heads with an Eye of Kilrogg. He went down to where Rag was and pulled every fscking thing in the instance with one little spell, all he was doing was trying to see the rest of the instance that none of us had the chance to see yet. The Eye of Kilrogg is supposed to be a non aggro drawing spell that allows a warlock to scout ahead without causing such things, but Blizzard forgot to put that onto the mobs in Molten Core.

That's one reason I won't part with it. Too many good memories.

It was the single, most spectacular wipe I'd ever had the experience, and pleasure laughing about to witness.

First battle in BWL was spectacular, wish I could do that again with a 40 man raid group...

Posted by Shael Yeah, but I had a reputation in the game on the server I played on. I'd rather preserve my reputation by allowing the good times to become memories. I can still get my account back, it's locked down, secure. If I ever want it back, I can go get it. I just would rather the account remain dormant. It's just I don't want to go back. That was part of who I was, not who I am now. It's existential and weird, but it's me. I would rather if the day comes and I do go back that the character names be me instead of some idiot who bought it off ebay. I know they can change the names and all that, but I would rather it stay with me instead of with someone else. Those are great pics by the way. I had a bunch of Illidan and stuff from a few years ago, but I think they're on a zip drive somewhere that I can't find.

It was weird when I sold my MxO account. I as well had a nice reputation going. After I sold the account, it changed hands a couple times. When I occasionally talk to my old clan they would always say the new [char name here] just isn't the same as the original [char name here]. Even though I quit playing the game, I wish I kept the account though. Every now and then I had the urge to log in and go around killing some newbs quick occasionally.

From the other thread I got going, you can see I'm playing APB now. This is going to be interesting because there's a cash backing behind the in-game currency due to using real money to buy points to buy game time, but these points can also be earned/sold/traded in-game too. SO at ant time you can see how your in-game currency exchanges with real money which keeps the value up. I've only played a few weeks and probably could get $240 just for items and gold.

Played the 7-day trial, got frustrated at the lack of tutorial, never played again.

Seriously, it was like "hurr we're going to tell you how to click 3 of the 2300 things on your UI and then thrust you into the world or warcraft. have fun bud"

Posted by FFStudios Played the 7-day trial, got frustrated at the lack of tutorial, never played again. Seriously, it was like "hurr we're going to tell you how to click 3 of the 2300 things on your UI and then thrust you into the world or warcraft. have fun bud"

Well, when the new expansion launches (Cataclysm) it is going to be very n00b friendly. If your interested in WoW, I'd wait and give it a try then. No official release date yet, though.

Posted by splumer And then there's me, who's never played. I've played games like it, but never WoW. A friend of mine played nonstop from about 6 p.m. on a Friday until 3 p.m. on Sunday when his wife returned from a weekend away. Anything that addictive I try to stay away from. I'll just stick with heroin, instead.

I too have never played. The reason for this is because I know for fact that I will get addicted. I have a very addictive personality that I recognise and the only way to avoid addiction in so many things is to not even try it. I have never tried WoW because I am absolutely certain I will get addicted. I have never tried pot because I know I would be chronic etc etc.

I do however play GuildWars. I love the game, it is built perfectly to allow me to be addicted yet not have to play consistently. It is designed for the skill of playing and not on acquiring higher level uber equipment. I have played since the first open beta weekend and to this day I love the game.

WoW frightens me.

You really arent missing out on much at this point, most of the quests are go to x and collect y amount of z.


PVP was pretty fun though

PvP before arenas and battlegrounds.

That was where it was at. Start up a raid, keep it going for three or four days, and maybe you'd make rank that week. I know I did, especially with the old Southshore and Menethil Harbor raids.