Leveling, dueling, crafting potions, getting fired from your day job, getting dumped by the considerably large girlfriend you settled for… these are all basics in the life of a World of Warcraft player. But in the following stories, the game not only interfered with the player’s social life, but actually got up and smacked him across the face screaming “Dude, get a life!”.
5. Norwegian 12 year old boy survived a moose (elk) attack by using feigning death
In World of Warcraft “feigning death” is a skill acquired by hunters at level 30 that allows them to take a page from the possum playbook, collapse to the ground, and convince their enemies - who lose all ingrained animosity in the process - that they’ve died. Believe me, it took me a while to get around this information. So anyways, long story short: Hans Jørgen Olsen, a 12 year old Norwegian boy survived a moose attack by feigning death, “just like you learn at level 30 in World of Warcraft.”, according to his claim.
Looks like the little guy and his sister were wondering around in the local forest, managing to get a moose (or elk, I should say elk, that’s the European moose) extremely pissed off. Then, our little Dwarf (sorry, that’s the only class in World of Warcraft that I know) decided to try and get the elk’s attention by screaming and jumping around so his sister can get away then, when the animal came towards him, he played dead well enough to trick the not-so-bright moose. I mean elk.
Though seemingly in this case World of Warcraft may appear to have saved a life, my take on this is that 12 year old kids shouldn’t play Wizard in the woods. They were probably playing “instance”.
4. Guy - married with kids - needs “intervention”
Here’s a quote from the guy himself on a World of Warcraft forum: “my kids were no longer getting my full attention. My wife was getting me part-time. My job was not getting my full attention. Even my friends with whom I’d go fishing were seeing less of me. I had my ‘online friends’…but eventually I had to recognize that, as nice as they were (and they are all great folks), none of them were going to be there for me in the hard times of life. I was not spending time with folks who really cared about me, in order to hang out with folks who thought I was a short, bald gnome. There really is a substantial difference between sitting down to dinner with real friends and raiding a dungeon in an online world.
Basically, within about two weeks of my friends’ challenge to me, I didn’t quit altogether, but I decided to step back. I gave up my role as an officer and a raider. After that, I quickly played less and less…I couldn’t keep up with the rest of the guild, and found that as I got involved in other real-life hobbies, I couldn’t focus on keeping up with all of the changes (patches), as much as I used to. And the game lost it’s glory and power over me. About two weeks after that, I logged on for the last time.
I hope that if any of this story resonates with your experience you will consider the cost of passing up Real Life for a fantasy one. Seek help if you need to. Ask your Real Life friends (who AREN’T gamers) to help you quit if that’s what you need to do.
Go out, and enjoy LIFE!”
Epic…
3. Chinese teenager burns rival and blames “the voices” of World of Warcraft
A 17 year old Chinese high-school student covered his class mate in gasoline and lit him on fire after losing a schoolyard fight with the latter. Questioned about his reasons, he claimed it wasn’t him that did it, but rather the “Fire Mage” he turned into. While I believe that the said Fire Mage should be arrested no matter what guild he’s a part of, I should be a little serious and declare that - in this particular case - the game probably has nothing to do with the perpetrator’s sociopathic ways. The Chinese apparently thought the same as - while not forbidding the game or anything - they put the guy away for eight years. The Fire Mage is yet to be found.
2. Wife hooks up with World of Warcraft friend, putting the whole marriage in danger
This one really cracks me up. Here’s the story written first hand by the very idiot that married her in the first place:
“I find all of this a bit strange. My wife is addicted to WOW. I don’t know what to do. she plays with every free moment she has. Ever since BC came out she has been playing nonstop. My problem with it is all the time dedicated to playing. She spends more time with her online friends, which are all guys, than she does with me. I have also found that she has one of her online friends phone number and they are conversing out of the game.
I am at my wits end. I feel i should call this guy and let him know she is married and not on Wow to hook up but i am afraid of what the consequences of doing that will be. I am this close to filing for divorce. And when i do i will send blizzard and dell a thank you for ruining my marriage. without them (blizzard and dell) i think i would still have my wife.”
He’s thinking of blaming Dell and Blizzard. Right on. I would try and punch in a few suggestions of my own: blame Haulmark for making trailers. If it wasn’t for those guys, her parents would not have had a bed to conceive her in the first place. Blame Graham Bell for inventing the telephone. Blame McDonald’s. Blame Bush. Blame the founding fathers.
1. World of Warcraft player got beat up in his own house
Mexican World of Warcraft player Bronco Carson reported to local police that 3 men broke into his home and beat his arms with clubs and smashed his computer. It was supposedly in retaliation for Carson stalking and repeatedly killing one of the attackers wife’s character during computer video game play. Carson admitted that he might have made a mistake by sharing his real life address with the victim of his online attacks and that he did it because he thought that the woman’s husband would be man enough to face him alone. Honorable eh? Must have been a Barbarian or something. At least that’s what strong characters were called like in the old Diablo days.
What a fun game that ruins peoples’ lives. I’ve seen it on more than one occasion to ruin a relationship or pull someone from depression into a deeper dark-room with WoW stasis.
We will soon have support groups that are as prevalent as AA for these addicted gamers.
wow that was lame
not much to say besides that
WoW is just the beta version of concept from The Matrix.
i m most convinced that ted was 100% sure i will reply to this post!:)well…i play wow for 3 years now!indeed it gets alot of your time if u wanna see the end game stuff wich is the target of the ppl who play it!but the social part of this game is fantastic!its the thing that makes this game working!it s all about working in a team for gettin to a purpose!ppl who didn t tried it can t understand what i m talkin here!the thing is the game is the best thing that went on market in gaming area!10 000 000 players!come on can t be 10 000 000 low lifers:Dand as stories trust me u can find 10000000000000…00000 stories about things that happened bcs of wow!that s simply bullshit!i ve saw 9999999 cases where some sick kid killed schoolmates bcs he saw somethin on tv come on the guys who do such things are lunatics they only need to find some real shit to blame!and for the thing that ppl who play wow are low lifers forget it :D!there are some of those but most of ppl who play wow are over 20 years old adn most of them have good jobs families friends etc…u just have to know to take thins in moderation!i preffer playn wow i nthe evenigns when i m alone than watch some stupid tv with all the bullshit in it!ted how many days from your life have u lost by playng dota???:D i never organized a wow conquest u did organize a dota one so sushhhh:P u missed my girlfried bday bcs u were on a dota conquest!i never missed a party bcs wow!seee…
Fuck. He’s right. I’m a DotA addict and that makes me miss parties. Dude, don’t give out our personal stuff anymore:)
The Great Geek Manual » Link Round-Up: October 30, 2008 // Oct 30, 2008 at 5:00 am
[...] crazy real world Situations that began with World of Warcraft, most of them depressingly [...]
I think it is too naive to blame a game for such problems. Problems are created from people and not from other sources. SO if you played WoW 24/7 then is your fault not the games fault. I would suspect that if you are able to do that for a game then you would also do it for other stuff. I believe there is a minority who can control themselves in general terms, and a “game” or “drug” is just an excuse to for the problems they are creating themselves. Everything in life needs to be done with a limit. Others work 24/7, others drink alcohol 24/7 others are being lazy 24/7, so i guess you need to put limits for what you are doing and leave the crap of a “game” giving you problems. If it wasnt the a “game” it would be something else…..
@ lucian I can verry well see that you are a WOW addict and that without even bothering to read 3 lines of your post… dude have you never had grammer or spelling come on… if I were you I would go to and read a book
I can comment on your english and i’m from freaking Belgium man
and on toppic: I played WoW when it first came out but the costs were way too much after a while so i quit… it is pritty nice though
Let me shed some light on this wow addiction. I have first hand experience because I have played off and on for at least a couple of years now that I think about it. While it is wrong to just assign blame solely on the game thereby avoiding all personal responsibility. It is more complicated than that, I agree in essence with what Lucian said above. People become addicted to the social aspect of the game and whats more, because you are in a way communicating with real people, it can be rationalized that at least its not as bad as being totally anti social.
In fact whether you believe it or not, it is actually quite a bit more social than people that do not play. You can log on and immediately be amongst like 30 people that you talk to every day if your in a guild. Whats more is that a voice chat program called Ventrilo is so common in the game that almost every group you join you can talk to like a party line on the voice chat program.
Its extremely seductive because its like a great big party of people chatting and there does not exist the same social phobia or acceptable behavior that happens in real life. You would not strike up a random conversation with someone on the street, in wow you would and do and in about 30 seconds you can be cracking jokes with that person and perhaps 10 of his friends. All this traditionally text based but currently voice chat is so common it could easily be a real life conversation with like 10 people in less than a minute.
Couple this with the daily problems issues of life with stress and making plans and its easy to see how you can get totally swept up in raids and the team work aspects of the game that are lacking in your daily life.
I have quit wow but it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. #1 because it was easy to play and talk to people I knew online. #2 because it felt like I was leaving behind a ton of people I have joked and laughed with for more than a few months. Just because you do not talk to people in the game face to face does not make it any less personal especially because I really did chat with them like a phone conversation.
This got long sorry.
Hope this sheds some light on things.
First, fun facts really ^^
Good job 
And when I heard the news about the guy that survived a moose-attack from norway, I almost died of laughter. (I play wow aswell, but.. Cmon! xD )
And just for your information, you wrote Elk feil ^^
It’s ELG, really ;D But, your’e close!
WORLD OF WARECRAFT is the best, i have played over 4000h and will play 4000 more.. love this game :DDD
LOL all you haters are just noobs.. dont like to be gankt anymore? then run back in the real life and hide sucker
…..Seriously? Haters?
The WoW craze needs to die, just like Mario, and all these other things people begin to let consume their souls. What ever happened to punks with REAL habits, like black-tar heroin? People can’t even get addicted to normal shit anymore. It’s pathetic, it’s weak-willed, and it’s a waste of energy and money. I’ve been there… wasn’t all that… was more impressed with Second Life. At least they can make their own crap over there. And not be harassed and “p0wn3D” by some 8 year old with no life. Anywho, peace-out.
And BTW, WoW sucks bawls.
I’m only reading this post beacuse the wow server is down.