[guildan]

I know you're probably saying this in terms of money, but I had to stop because it was an addiction to play Wow... This game is so addictive to me (I'm sure not just me)! I can't watch streams because it will give me the urge to play.

I hope one day I'll be able to play it normally, but I'm not sure. So yeah definitely it can "cost" a lot to play.

[dmos62]

Can you elaborate? I'm genuinely interested.

I seem to have addictive tendencies, but there's a whole multi-dimensional spectrum, as far as I can tell. In my case, when I'm working overtime, I'll jump into a game every few hours for 30-60min just to let some of the stress off. It's quite effective, but I end up popping figurative gaming-pills instead of learning to deal with stress in a constructive way. I'll also do something like that after a tiring day. It's not good, because it's grown into an urge that I get when it's time to relax, so I neglect other parts of life to which I'd ideally dedicate that free time.

[dtech]

Specifically, with World of Warcraft it's a game that takes all of your time.

It's an endless treadmill with diminishing returns. It's full of (digital, ultimately meaningless) rewards which make you stand out above the rest of the players. Some of them are worthless in a few weeks/months (e.g. gear), some of it is timeless (e.g. mounts) but takes 100's of tries (every try 30-60 min) for that 1-5% chance to some mount.

When I played the game, there were people who did nothing all Wednesday (when they could try again for the week) but running hours and hours of dungeons just so they could have a change to get the last 10-100 rare mounts they missed.

The highest-tier end-game content requires large groups (20 players + reserves) to coordinate schedules and tackle dungeons together. This causes enormous social pressure to keep showing up because otherwise the group can't play the game and everyone is mad at you.

It's perfectly possible to play it casually without participating in the above, but it's a game that has a lot of traps for people prone to addiction to fall into.

[guildan]

I would add that you can suffer from "Altolism" too and this was my case. I could not commit time for raiding or doing high-end content so I would just levels characters to max level.

So one main for solo content of the week and then back to leveling alts.

[jsgo]

the game kind of forces this with 2 trade skill max for characters (provided you are interested in that part of the game, that is. But I've always gravitated towards that from my first MMO Ultima Online playing a blacksmith/miner).

And then Legion with the content that was specific to each class. Loved that idea, but it really made you feel like you were missing out if you didn't have x class to see something.

If FFXI's leveling wasn't so group focused and slow, I'd probably love that system above anyone else: I do like the idea of needing to level various classes, but I'd prefer it be all on one character instead of 12 or so I need to manage.

[lreeves]

>If FFXI's leveling wasn't so group focused and slow, I'd probably love that system above anyone else: I do like the idea of needing to level various classes, but I'd prefer it be all on one character instead of 12 or so I need to manage.

Wouldn't FFXIV fit the bill?

[jsgo]

FFXIV's mechanic is that you swap gear and that swaps class or something to that effect (I'm not 100% sure). So if I leveled to 15 in ClassA, put on gear for ClassB, I'm a level 15 ClassB.

I'd prefer the job system where you switch to ClassB, but have to level accordingly. I'd hate to be max level of ClassA and then want to try another class and out level content to really practice the class properly (or be swamped with skills early) or end up being unable to help a group because skill in another class is inadequate.

So basically, FFXI but with soloable leveling (in FFXI apparently you could solo with beastmastery or something as a subclass, pet tanking I believe, but it wasn't a starting class so you'd have to work to get it).

[guildan]

I was using Wow to evade the stress from work and life in general. I was doing this at the cost of my family. So week nights instead of doing something with my wife, I would just jump in online and play. I was watching the kid but she's playing by herself and not need me directly, guess I can do a few quests no problem.

So my problem was that gaming was winning over other things all the time on almost every occasion. I was evading responsibilities at home, neglecting my relation with my wife and not giving quality time to my daughter.

So now I'm like 3 months free of gaming and while being hard , I can now see I was using it not for the right reason.

[whatcd]

Actually I agree with you, it's not about the money but addiction.