Topher wrote:
As some fo you have seen, i am sufferng from really bad stress and depression. My parents are aware of this, i tihnk they want to help me and bought WoW for me, and im going to make sure it does not rule my life. I think it will help me at least try to chill. I need to cheer myself up.
Be careful.
MMORPGs can be very addicting, and can easily take up time that would be arguably better spent doing things that you know you should be doing, like improving your grades (which you said you wanted to do). Even though there can be a lot of interaction with other people when playing an MMORPG, remember that it's still interaction with real people, and it is quite possible for you to get mentally tired of dealing with all the people. This is especially if things happen in the game that you don't particularly like. People can be insulting, people can be rude, they're often more blunt online, because some people think that they can get away with being an ass simply because it's
online. If you find yourself losing control of the amount of time you end up spending on WoW, then that's a good sign that you've become dependent on it, and it'd be a good time to get out.
I hate to be the bringer of doom and gloom, but I have had bad experiences with MMORPG and people with AS. My friend (diagnosed with AS) was and still is addicted to video games. I first met him while playing Final Fantasy XI, another MMORPG. Since I last talked to him two months ago, I know that he now plays FFXI
and WoW. His social and interpersonal skills were terrible before he started playing FFXI two and a half years ago, and now... well, he has regressed considerably. Something to keep in mind would be that he played FFXI 40+ hours per week. He has had a lot of trouble maintaining any form of control in his life, because he doesn't understand people. He doesn't understand many of the social situations that he encounters in the MMORPG, and frankly, most people playing the MMORPG are not going to sit around explaining these things to him. He has been dismissed often as an oversensitive baby, a control freak, and some of them have given expletives at him. He acknowledged that he couldn't interpret people well at all, and he even attributed that to the online aspect of the game. He once took two months away from FFXI, but then admitted that he kept looking up stuff online about FFXI, as well as started up WoW during that time. He was at first hesitant to go back to FFXI, because he said that FFXI was totally messing up his life... and yet he went back to FFXI anyway, thinking that he is now going to control his online game time. Yeah, he plays less FFXI... because he plays more WoW.
P.S. I do not play any MMORPGs, or any video games for that matter, any longer. With all the time to focus on school and real life face-to-face friendships, I'm much happier now, than I was back when I played FFXI.
If you want to learn a bit more about my video game-addicted friend, you're welcome to read some of my other posts ("Can't stop obsessing ...").