Best friend is having trouble...

Fantasy games can be horrible. Instead of dealing with real life problems, people turn to the fantasy gaming world to create their own world. This is the case when they actually are "living in their own little world".

For my cliche answer, you need to talk to your friend. Or write him a letter, telling him some if not most of the points you addressed above, and that you care for him as a friend, and you don't want to lose him.

It's alot better that you take some form of action to help him.

 

I've heard before that people become addicted to game like WoW because they are not happy with their own lives, so they turn to the game to become a whole new person.

Think about it, If your not happy with your life, the game can help you become someone else. You can have a new identity, have new friends, or really a new social circle, you can have special powers, a whole new you!

I've played WoW...and I've stopped, but I can see kinda...his view point. Like you said, he thinks he's worthless and sucks at everything, so the game offers a new view point, or identity.

Worst Case Scenario, or at least to me, is you cut him off from the game, and you (in his mind) will be cutting off his only source for living, which might lead to suicide.

I'm sorry but after thinking about it, I can't offer any advice, but to just not abandon him. Don't leave him to be all alone playing that game, even if you sit there next to him, that will be even worse.

Just my thoughts on it...Good Luck Man!!!

 

I've been there with your friend with that game. You can get a whole new social circle, and a whole new identity out of it...and you feel good.

I snapped out of it though. I got into high school...I got new friends, and I got out of it. I haven't played in...idk how long...and now that I look back, I should have quit wayyy before I did. I missed out on movies, hangouts...dude so much.

I know what your friend is thinking though...I guess my situation was unique though. I got into high school...met new people...new friends...and I realized that not everything sucked.

I'm sorry I can't give you an answer...or better advice...just stick with him, even if he shuts you out.

You leave him with that game, and you leave him alone in that WoW world he lives...it will be very worse.

Like I said, Good LUCK!!!
I'm here if you need to talk about this, I've been there before.

 

I don't think you can help your friend, you are too young and inexperienced to give him the heip he needs.

What he needs is to see a therapist, to talk through his problems and his underlying lack of confidence in himself. IF he can get this sorted out the problem with the game or rather 'alternative reality' will sort it's self out.

The problem is not the game, if it wasn't the game it might be alcohol or drugs or acting out... anything really. Without knowing it your friend is sending out a cry for help, it is only his mum who can do something. She needs to get him to a professional therapist who will work with him on his issues.

Can you talk to his mum? Other than that I really can't see what you can do.

 

I think you need to talk to him. If you need to, pull the plug on his computer or whatever, but you need to corner him and tell him what's up. If he won't see a counselor, it's up to you to prove to him that he's worth something.

 

being a video game "addict" myself, i can relate, its nice to not have someone yelling at you for doing bad, hell it feels good, like your accomplishing things. i have seen the WoW case several times and all i got to say is show him another way of having fun through VG's if that's what he's into. personally, calling a video game an addiction is stupid. unless you cannot function without it in a normal society and that is all you think about, if you choose to play a game rather than eat (not just notice you miss it an hour late but actually skip meals to play it) then you are an addict.

to me it sounds like your friend is just going through a rough time

 

Cutting is a practice that's obviously self-destructive, but ANYTHING, like a video game becomes destructive when it becomes an obsession. Food, alcohol, shopping, Marijuana, fame, cars, work can all be relatively healthy things under normal circumstances, but can destroy anyone if they take over their life. I've been Video-game obsessed myself, but sooner or later, we just wake up and shake it off...
Your friend needs to talk to a pro; a counselor who will listen to them freely and without judgment.They obviously like who they are in WoW better than who they think they are now...
I know a little about "roleplaying" too, ya know..
Good luck, you are a great friend.

 

I realized that when kids from maybe around 12-15 get depressed, sometimes they go to online games to try to be who they want to be.. Its really disapointing that they do this, but eventually something is probably going to happen and make everything worse... ( thats just my opinoin )

 

Dude I know what he is going through personally. lol that game WILL RUIN your LIFE! I've played it and me and my best friend and a few other friends would literally play that game all the time with each other and it lasted like 2 years because you can keep getting better at the game and they just keep releasing expansions. It's going to be extremely hard to get him to stop playing that game because of how addicting it is. I'm being dead serious.

What your friend seems like he might be doing is probably withdrawing from everyone and trying to escape everything else that is going on. What WoW is, is an exciting version of life. You create a character and level up and do all that stuff and he probably likes interacting with people online because he can be himself with out people yelling at him and teasing him constantly. I don't know if there is much you can do about the game and with what he's going through. But he probably should get some help or you should be really good friends and at least support him with whatever he does.

 

Yes - talk to his mom. Something like that can certainly take on a disproportionate meaning in a person's life - and they miss out on other aspects of life.

Sometimes it's a very difficult cycle to break. The worse his situation, the more he wants to 'escape' to the game, and the more time he spends on the game, the worse his situation (school, friends, etc.) will get. But the other thing they say about addiction is that nothing will change until the addict wants it to change. That sometimes requires 'hitting bottom' and finally waking up to the fact that what you've been doing is wrong and you need help. I'm not sure what that might look like for your friend. Perhaps losing you as a friend. Perhaps failing and having to repeat a year at school. I don't know.

Good luck though. He's fortunate to have someone that cares.

 

For me that was more of a phase. I played final fantasy 11 for 6 months before I gave it up for school. I suggest you give him something to replace WoW that will actually make him feel good, or that might be a more worthwhile use of his time. Honestly, if I were absolutely loaded rich, I would buy an awesome computer and probably play online game for the rest of my life. They really are that fun :O

 

Well... I was in this same boat at one time. I had become so addicted to Star Wars Galaxies when I was in college that I literally stopped going to classes, would leave my room once a day to eat and get coffee from starbucks and then I'd come right back and hop back on the computer. This was my average day for about 6 months, but I had been nearly as bad when i was in high school with the same game, and before that Morrowind. Needless to say, I did reasonably well first semester (3.75 GPA) , but after that I got so addicted and I flunked all 5 of my classes 2nd semester. Me and a buddy of mine who simply was tired of college (he was all gung-ho army, ROTC and everything) decided to hit up the recruiting station.

I needed a change in my life and I needed a job to pay back the loans for college. So, yeah, I enlisted in the army. (I still didn't identify as gay back then but was rather in denial, I wish I had been open - I've since found out 2 of my best friends in high-school are gay, and both had crushes on me, and me and then). But anyway, I'm in the military now deployed to Iraq. I'm not saying this is a good solution for anyone, but It worked for me. I still play SWG today, but I'm not addicted nor do I think I could ever be again. I assume your friend is nowhere near age for the army, but have you tried getting him involved with extracurricular activities or clubs in school? Something to do such as these might help.

 

about 4 years ago I had next to no friends as we had just moved with my family and I still had the same problems with identify who I was, I bought WoW myself and ever since I Became addicted to the game, for 2 years I played about 14+ hours a day, didnt have a goal in my life beside playing the game, I think it was perfect for me as I didnt have to deal with anything, i had friends that didnt care what I did or anything, they saw me as a good players and accepted me for that and nothing else, after 2 years i decided that I had to break away from that prison and moved back to ireland to finally find myself.

To be honest no one can know what is going on in your friend's mind at the moment talking to him might not even be a solution, the best i can suggest here is try and shake him up a little bit, wake him up dont make it sound like your trying to take the game away from him, truth is however as an ex addict to the game for the reasons I was, I dont have a clue what a good plan would be, there's nothing that could've been done to me back then .

 

I'd cancel his subription and take him to a club/bar or whatever and just show him that there's other fun stuff to do rather than fight orcs on his computer all the time.
But you're still pretty young for that =/ even if you were old enough you said he's blocking you out... Maybe when he's tired of being alone he'll explore what we call 'outside'.
He isn't old enough to pay for a WoW subsription, his mother should stop paying for that.

 

I had a horrible obsession with WoW and Final Fantasy 11 for the longest time. Eventually, I managed to get over it, like most people do. (I stress the word most...) I still play FFXI from time to time, just for fun, but otherwise I do random things lol.

One thing I wouldn't do is cancel his account. I went through some massive withdrawals the first time I stopped playing, and had to go back for a day just to satisfy that. (to the point I couldn't sleep, eat, or even answer natures call, if you catch my drift :/)

WoW is like a drug, you have to get off it slowly, or it can have harmful side effects for the person emotionally and physically. One thing that helps, just sit down and talk to him about it, and if he understands he's addicted, tell him you're willing to help. That's when you would change the password to something you know, and gradually change it back once a week or so, until you eventually don't need to, then cancel his account with his permission.

He may think it's not a good idea at first, but get him interested in something else. I got addicted to talking on forums, as unlike online games, the chats will always be there, and you can get off the computer whenever you need to do take care of your Real Life, unlike WoW, in which you tend to get so caught up in it, time goes by very fast.

I lost all of my high school time due to resorting to online game for comfort, as I was in the closet, with no one to talk to, but online I could tell without feeling bad. Are you sure he isn't on WoW just so he has someone to talk to that won't judge him for whatever reason he may be on there? As that's one of the leading causes of MMORPG addictions.

If I might suggest, talk to his parents, and tell them what you want to do, they will (hopefully) agree, and let you talk to him in their house, so he feels most comfortable, and possibly have his parents there for backup if needed, which may seem insane, but trust me, even if he isn't close with his parents, them being there will help a lot more.