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Re:Entire cities dead on some World of Warcraft realms by npsimons on Sunday October 07, 2012 @04:45PM (#4624398)
Chuckle. How many of those will go out and rob a liquor store? How many will perform an act of vandalism? How many will kill themselves because they are cut off from the only friends they've ever known?

While I can emphasize a bit (I used to play WoW, but "grew away from it" and now spend a large portion of my time in search and rescue and musical performance), I have to say that this is a very judgmental POV to take. You're seriously going to compare playing WoW to smoking? Even in the worst case, at least playing WoW is a step up from watching some inane TV show with no interaction. It's not like anybody suffers from second-hand MMORPG.

And you can always play moral superior: instead of reading a book, why don't they start their own company? Instead of going for a walk, why don't they run a marathon? Hell, I could see how someone could look down on the activities I choose ("why rescue idiots who got themselves into trouble? Let natural selection sort it out!" or "why perform music that's already been performed thousands of times before by better performers?"), but FFS, sometimes "wasting time" is some of the best time well spent.

Re:Entire cities dead on some World of Warcraft realms by ChuckMcM on Sunday October 07, 2012 @07:17PM (#4624774)
As an ex-WoW addict allow me to disagree a bit.

"It's not like anybody suffers from second-hand MMORPG."

this is flat out wrong. Kids suffer when their parents can't bother to change them because they are in the middle of a raid and this boss hasn't been killed yet. Spouses suffer when the amount of time they can spend with their WoW playing spouse dwindles to zero. Parent's suffer when their kids grades head to zero.

So any behavior that can warp your life to that extent is a relatively poor choice with respect to any other behavior that does not.

Re:Entire cities dead on some World of Warcraft realms by adgar2 on Sunday October 07, 2012 @08:15PM (#4624917)
> It's not like anybody suffers from second-hand MMORPG.

Addicts always say they're making a personal choice that doesn't affect anyone else, whether it's WoW or booze or blow. And they're always wrong.

The last AA meeting I went to, someone spoke for the first time and told a story about a typical night at the bar. Drinking, watching the game and minding his own business. Just like every night. Except this time, 8 beers deep, his daughter walked from home to the bar and tugged on his sleeve - there was nobody at home but her and she was scared.

Bet you'd never heard of "second-hand drinking" either.

Re:Entire cities dead on some World of Warcraft realms by npsimons on Sunday October 07, 2012 @08:38PM (#4624985)
Bet you'd never heard of "second-hand drinking" either.

Until someone gets a case of cirrhosis of the liver from someone else's drinking, there is no such thing as "second-hand drinking", just as there is no such thing as "second-hand carpal tunnel syndrome" from someone else playing too much WoW. I'll be the last to say that addiction doesn't affect others, and yes, I will agree that people can spend too much time playing video games (or getting drunk). But much like the alcoholic telling someone else they should never drink because it's "Evil", I won't take my advice from someone who obviously thinks that WoW is inherently evil.

Re:Entire cities dead on some World of Warcraft realms by adgar2 on Sunday October 07, 2012 @08:50PM (#4625019)
I don't think WoW is inherently evil - were you referring to your parent poster, or me? I just think nearly everyone in this addiction subthread is woefully underinformed about the realities of addiction.