I’m completely fed up!!!!!!i hate myself repeating telling him how our real life in such messed and I felt like a broken CD …

recently i have started playing again after my relationship ended ( wasnt playing WoW during this time as it was almost 2-3 years since I had played).I play no more than 90 minutes a night, if I have nothing else on. I joined a few social groups, such as Toastmasters, do some charity work, and go see my parents each saturday or sunday. If I dont play for a few nights I dont feel the “urge”. so I have found the key to playing is to live a normal life and if you have time then its ok, but not to excess.

There is no harm in playing games - just has to be done in moderation. I note that in China there are limits as to how long users can be logged into the game - 3 hours I believe. It’s a shame that Blizzard doesnt make this a mandatory rule for all users.

The game is relatively cheap to play $15.00 a month. Going to the cinemas to see a 2 hour movie costs the same. If it was charged at an hourly rate I think people would think twice about investing 100’s of hours per month. I personally wouldnt even play if it was an hourly rate.

The “end game” content is huge and time consuming - some of the required dungeons can take 5 or 6 hours to complete. I myself dont even bother with this stuff as I consider it a waste of time. People spend countless hours playing raids for a specific piece, only to have a new patch released that makes the original sort after piece second rate. This also ties in with the fact that the game just never ends. Constant updates and patches continue to place new objectives etc. When I first started to play there was Tier 1 pieces, now I believe that they are at Tier 10. the player level cap went from initially 60, then to 70, now 80, and in the future the new cap will be 85. To get from level 1 to level 80 requires hundreds of hours..

It appears to me that the people addicted have lost focus on the important things in life, such as family and friends, exercise etc. Maybe there was an issue to begin with, something underlying to that wasn’t addressed and the game became the vehicle to escape from all the troubles of their lives. Such was the case in my life when i first started playing.

Some may consider me to be an addict, I personally dont, as my life doesnt exclusively revolve around it anymore. If I have time, have no social or family obligations and everything else is in order then I’ll play.

Addiction: compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine , or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly: persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful

Disassociation: to separate from association or union with another

Lower Wolf– You said you threatened to cut the cord on her ventrillo headset and she got so angry she hit you on the head with a vodka bottle.

I am sorry but it sounds like gaming is not the only issue she has. It seems as though in your case there are several issues at hand.

I am married to an alcoholic/gambler… by gambling where we live he can not stay away from the poker machines because he claims he can just feel it when it is getting ready to hit big. Funny thing is it never does and he knows the owner of the bar he frequents will play the game late at night and roll the machine over.

My spouse is a prime example of someone with an addictive personality. Alcoholism and the illusion that the machines are going to pay out big. He does this when he knows financially things are tight and he just cannot stop himself. With the alcohol he can goes days even weeks without drinking and during those times he knows financially we cannot afford it.

Where does the gaming come into this picture you may ask? I am the gamer; I play WoW and Sims 3. I started to play more and more when he decided he would rather go to the bar and drink and gamble. Are we both wrong? Yes. Are they entirely different situations? No. They are disassociation, I use games because I have nothing else to but work, take care of the house, make sure the bills get paid and our pets are tended to. He works as well and makes decent money when there is work to do.

Iowerth the Forest Lord — I agree with the term escapism, as it is a more relevant term in the situation that has generated this posting. I play because I am bored as you can see from my posting. I am sorry that after 38 yrs an obsession with an online game will destroy a marriage. I am also sorry that our society has made it so easy for us to “escape” from the real world.

Remember that you aren’t responsible for her acts. Her addiction depends of her unwillingness to see that she has a major problem with her playing computer games.

I’m a former game addict my self, ironically from the same game your wife is addicted to.

I wish you good luck.

The reason fantasy and sci fi games have caused such problems in families is that they are an extreme form of hyperrealistic environments that allow you to solve “problems” with fantastic abilities and great rewards, a form of escapism. Escapism occurs especially when someone’s needs in the real world are not met and they prefer to spend their time and focus on a world that is totally artifical. Therefore, to break the cycle requires two questions to be asked: What in her real life caused her to feel this way and fall into this behaviour, and now that she is in it, how can we get her back from it so that she enjoys her real life again and has…..drumroll….balance. But there is one hard question you alone have to ask yourself, how much does this mean to me and how far am I willing to go to try and get my wife back?