IRL – In Real Life
“IRL – In Real Life” is a short, light-hearted documentary, which takes a look at the effects of World of Warcraft addiction/compulsion.
It was produced as part of a 3rd Year Film Production project at the University of the Creative Arts.
Released 12 Jan, 2012. 7 min. YouTube documentary.
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Well that spectral tiger IS pretty flippin sweet!
What a great short film about the World of Warcraft.
I myself was addicted to playing that game for 3 years, I wasted about 100 days of my life on it. I met my friend in game, he and I quickly became friends and team mates, we did everything in the game together. It wasn’t until he suddenly passed away in July 2011 from being hit by a car, did I realise all the time I had wasted, so I quit WoW and now live for him.
I still get the urge from the addiction to sometimes go back to playing, but I must be strong for him.
I’m sad to hear about your loss.
I, too, spend a great deal of my life playing WoW. I cut myself off from reality and lived in an easy world of decking my virtual char out in purples. Only when I one day, after years of playing, woke up to the chaos my addiction had inflicted, did I stop playing. Now, whenever I see anything from inside the game, I feel nauseous.
It’s a great short film, I could really relate.
Pathetic.
My boyfriend was badly addicted a few years ago. Playing all though the night then sleeping a few hours only to go on it again when he woke up. He ended up skipping work to play and it cost him his job. I was prepared to stick it out with him until he started to put the game before me and we were basically becoming strangers. We had a huge fight and I think it woke him up, he uninstailed it the next day.
I wish these losers would stop blaming the game and start blaming themselves. They need to grow the eff up and probably had crappy parents. There is no addiction here, it’s call bad parenting and letting your kids grow up playing videogames their whole lives. If those bad parents had taught their kids how to live in the real world that wouldn’t be so stupid.
If I played video games my whole life instead of leaving the house and playing outside my ‘single mom’ would have kicked my ass, sold my computer and made me get a job. That because that’s what a parent is supposed to do.
First is was stupid people blaming music for their stupid actions and now its stupid people blaming video games. I say FUCK YOU to all those stupid people.
Really? Addiction take many forms and the way the addiction works may not be the same in every person. I do believe people can be truly addicted to video games, I’ve been there myself, for me it was Warcraft 3. As any addiction, it’s really hard to stop, you feel at loss when you don’t play. It’s also quite impossible to make somebody understand how hard it is to stop,if you’ve never been there yourself.
And I don’t believe in your theory about bad parenting. Of course there will always be those who actually are bad parents and all the shame to them then, but believe or not, some of us do actually have great parents. Also if you are 18 or older your parents don’t have the same “control” over your life as they had when you were younger, which in turn makes it completely stupid to blame the parenting skills.
As for the people who blame music or or video games for their actions, YOU always have the choice to change your ways. Your life is what you make it.
As the guy who made this great documentary, he completely stopped. Good for him.
I say Fuck You to you James. Or at the very least, get some perspective.
Keep hiding behind those excuses buddy…I’m sure they bring you comfort.
Dude, I had/have a ‘single mom’ whom kicked my ass.
I was outside the house my entire childhood. I had a TV with 3 channels and a Gameboy that’s it.
But I still started playing World of Warcraft as an adult and wasted about 300 days of my life in that game. It wasn’t as bad as that guy and I still had a social life, but besides the fun it made, that time was really wasted.
So stop blaming bad parenting.
If you think it’s easy to just stop playing you’re a retard.
The trick is, to not start playing in the first way.
It works just like any normal drug… but instead it even has competition.
Through out the whole game you get small and huge feelings of success, giving your brain small and bigger amounts of dopamine.
Which is pretty much the same as training a dog with giving him a treat after he has done something right.
If you even start raiding competitively, you’ll get double the excitement and double the problems.
On the one hand you get the most overwhelming feeling of success killing a End-game boss as the first in your realm/country/continent/world; then you get the excitement of getting the best gear on the server (for example); and then you have the third problem… to stay the with the best you have to play even more!
It’s just that simple. Plus, if you knew what you’re talking about, you’d also know that EVERYTHING in the game is ment to steal your time! I bet, of all the 300 days I played, I probably just played activiley like half of the time, because you have to wait for every kind of shit; OR you’re just standing around online, because you’re allready used to being online instead of doing something usefull IRL.
I’m so happy that the second Addon (Wrath of the Lich King) sucked ass so bad, I just stopped playing from one day to another – which also saved my bachelor degree which I was going to ruin because of the game.
So please just accept it as a kind of drug. I bet you wouldn’t be able to stop Heroin if you just tried it, only difference to World of Warcraft is, it’s well known for being addictive and harmfull and WoW just seems like a ordinary Computer game. (Btw. I never smoked, drank alcohol or used any other drug; If there would have been someone who warned that harsh from WoW, I wouldn’t have tried it either)
I kinda agree.
If it’s a young kid that’s supposedly addicted, just fuckin get rid of the computer or cancel the internet connection. Simple as hell.
But if a teen or adult is question, then I don’t blame the parents. At this point, one should be able to realize how fuckin stupid it is to be that old and wasting so much time on a damn video game. f you’re retarded enough to get addicted to something that’s harmful or makes you into a complete lazy cunt in terms of productivity, then fuck you. Quit being useless and leave the house for once.
Exactly. I’m glad there are still people out there that don’t hide behind all the hand-holding & ‘take your happy pills and everything will be okay’ BS.
Addicted to a video game my ass…
I hope that you will have kids one day, and see what it is like to take away something from someone that you love unconditionally. To feel the sadness of removing joy from that person is similar to cutting out your heart.
Parents are loving. Good parents will guide and support.
I highly suggest that we learn more about child psychology and the psychology of addictions before making assumptions that simply removing the object of desire is going to help someone.
A person desires something for a reason, there is a real problem to deal with if someone is indulged into a fantasy world that gives them a sense of power, community, and pride. Maybe that person is not getting those things IN THEIR REAL LIFE. Maybe once those things are provided, that person wouldn’t need to indulge in that fantasy world anymore.
Please be more considerate as to what your words can project.
The video that has been presented here tells a story of how someone decided to change his life for the better, it’s a testament for people to understand that habits can be created and changed.
I do have kids…and when they are bad or don’t listen you’re damn rights I’m gonna take away things they like. It’s called punishment. It’s how you correct the behavior of people and animals alike. If you don’t show your kids the consequences for their actions then they grow up blaming everything and everybody else but themselves for those actions.
You can NOT be addicted to a video game, however you can be brought up in such a way as to fall in to a pattern of behavior that may emulate some addictive traits. Then those people call it addiction so they don’t have to blame themselves for acting that way. They can sit back, stop working and paying their bills or loving their loved ones and just say; “it’s not my fault…I’m just addicted. It’s the game makers fault.”
I have to agree. That spectral tiger is really sweet.
I used to WoW it up for a few years and though it never consumed me to this degree I would fully call it an addiction because when I think about the game (or even watch this video) even after 3 years of not playing at all, it still makes me crave it so hard. Similar to a cigarette craving. Is it a legitimate addiction? I might say only in the way marijuana can be addicting. I think it is a psycho-social thing, not physical, but still very real.
I just know based on how much I loved that game I should never play it again.
I’m not advocating hours spent on this game by any means but I feel like you shouldn’t blame a game just because you have a highly addictive personality when it comes to games. I have played over the years casually and I will probably continue to, mainly because it’s a great game and something fun for my husband and I to do when we have downtime. This is the key, playing casually…when we have downtime. We are gamers but we also have lives that we enjoy a great deal more than staying on a game all day every day. We may not be the most “leet” players but as I’m seeing those “leet” players are probably the ones having to swear it off for life because they couldn’t put it down. It’s a personal responsiblity thing, I have children and other things I have to get done, so WoW or any game is going to come last. Otherwise you end up like this dude.
I did not play wow, but I did waste time on UO…so silly