What Makes World of Warcraft So Addictive? 

I’m addicted to the game. I’m retired and live alone in a rural area. I just started in December of 2021. I spend most of my day playing. I don’t care. It’s fun and I love it c

For me its the graphics. The hand painted textures are amazing. The look of the game is very charming.

me and my mother have played wow on and off since 2005-2006 she met a Danish man on wow and eventually they got married, I moved to Denmark when i became an adult and have a life here now, all because of that game.. Its integrated into my life quite literally. Now when I play its almost like I'm chasing the feeling I once had when i played with my mother or any good moments that i had

the main thing that keeps me playng or coming back when i try to get into a different mmo is its fluidity of how it feels to actually play your character, every other mmo out there has some sort of clunk , and if in the rare case a new mmo feels fluid it lacks something repeatable, fun and also rewarding to do (for me in wow this is m+/pvp)

The horror stories I heard from my friends scared me away from WoW for good, never played it because I was too scared to. My roommate in college had carpal tunnel playing WoW when it first came out. Many times we'd be going out to dinner or to hang out and he wouldn't come with us because he had these raids. He always justified his excessive playing by telling us even worse stories - one of his friends would play WoW all day and all night and never leave his room, he would order food in and buy those big 2 liter soda bottles. Eventually he started peeing in those big soda bottles instead of going to the bathroom, and would not throw them out for days. So he often had all these 2L bottles of pee lined up against his bedroom wall. One day he knocked one over by accident, and the pee somehow spilled out onto the power strip and into his PC (they were all computer science majors so all their PC's were without the outer shell for easy access and modification), and the pee fried his PC. That was the most outrageous story I've ever heard about a computer game, and it scared me off of WoW forever.

I’m addicted to the game. I learned about this game thanks to my uncle, I was 10 years old and I was watching him tanking BWL last boss on his mighty warrior named Ramhmandin, i remember that stupid sound that ventrilo did back then. I was totally blown away by the game, I went to him more and more often to watch him play. I didn't have many friends and not even a dad to show me football or men's work, but my uncle made up for it a bit. Then it was Christmas and my family was in mourning because my grandfather died so the atmosphere wasn't very happy but when I unwrapped my present and saw the green box with the words World of Warcraft the Burning Crusade I was so much happy. My uncle paid me a monthly subscription and we played side by side, I created a Night Elf hunter called Razazki, I didn't understand much English back then so I had no idea what to do, I managed to do a few quests but otherwise I just killed mobs. Obsessed with the game, free time, no friends, bullied at school but I had an uncle and WoW and killing mobs continued, this is how I got to lvl 44 and I was in tanaris. I remember that my uncle pressured me when I would have max level so we could go raids together, I have no idea how much I had /played at that time, but it could have been maybe 30 days. So he decided that his friend would level me up to make it faster because i would be 70 on my own in like 1 year just grinding mobs lol 😂 And so i gave him a name and password (i know very bad idea) and in about a week my uncle called me saying that I could log in to the game. I signed up but I was a little disappointed my character was not max level, it was 61 but I was still very happy. It was chaos for me, I had scattered keys, many spells on the action bar, and a different pet than the one I was used to. I didn't know where to go or what to do, I was lost and I wasn't enjoying the game anymore. In December 2008, I received a gift from my uncle, I excitedly opened the gift, I saw a blue box of WoW Wrath of The Lich King. I was so happy that I went to install it the same day. My uncle was already lvl 80 playing unholy death knight. I wanted to play my hunter but it didn't work for me. So I made a new paladin character because uncle and his men needed a healer. But I didn't enjoy this class at all, maybe it was because I was a noob and I played in holy spec 😅 So I tried other classes, I had the whole list filled, I enjoyed something from each and I couldn't decide. I ended up making a death knight because I wanted to be as badass as my uncle. I enjoyed being the scourge of all living things, a creature under the will of the Lich King himself, sowing fear and hopelessness in all living things, a master of unholy, blood, and frost magic, a ghoul summoner. And I got to level 78 and where I also stopped playing for a while. Then Cataclysm came out, my uncle showed it to me and asked if I liked it and if I wanted it, I said it was up to him. I finally got it and installed it played for a while but never got to max level which is a shame because I wanted to play with my uncle, we would do everything PvP and PvE together. Then Pandaria came out, I asked my uncle if he still plays because I haven't seen him online for a long time, he said no because he doesn't have time for it anymore and because WoW isn't what it used to be. So I also stopped playing, firstly because my uncle stopped paying for my subscription and secondly, I didn't have the Pandaria upgrade. Two years later, my aunt, my uncle's wife, called me that my uncle had died by hanging. It later emerged that he had major depression and anxiety. I have never been so sad in my life. I tried Shadowlands and played my warrior, I tried PvP a few raids, torghast, it was a pretty good expansion but very unbalanced. I don't even know if I want to try Dragonflight anymore. So here I am in the private Wotlk servers, reliving the past all over again. I don't know if anyone will read this far 😅 But the memories are what keep us drawn to the game.

Ive played on and off since wotlk and i always somehow come back, its just a lot harder now than it was back in the day to sit here and genuinely enjoy it

You summed it up perfectly 1:20 seconds in. What made the game fun for me was wrath made it so easy to have a extreme social experience where vanilla, and TBC set you up for solo play due to the design of game progression. I also enjoy fast paced medium difficulty from dungeons and the harder difficulty from raids in wrath I also loved the way you could customize your character in your own way with the wrath talents and loot. I enjoyed making twinks at 19, joining level 60 only content guilds, and level 70 only content guilds. It required social raid groups to get transmog gear before it was actually called town gear. Easy to get alts into any content Pvp had unique looking gear with unique stats Pug able raids The weekly raid Wrath had so much social content it was nuts.

This was actually helpful life advice for me today, like not in regards to to wow because of don't play anymore, but just the part about not isolating oneself.

I believe it is because MMORPG games reveals how flaw our current society is. And to jump into a world where everything is unknown and the ability to explore and progress in a linear fashion is something we all deeply want. Our current society has force the majority of people in a state of endless handwork at a job but no progression or opportunity for growth. I could add more to this but yall know where im getting at. Its addictive because in a virtual world you are truly independent from other people and death itself.

It’s the nostalgia. Dont get me wrong for what it was vanilla-wotlk it was some good times, naive gaming and hours and hours just poured into the character progression. But it’s not the same anymore because gaming in general is different now. But the nostalgia for WoW is a very strong beast for some.

Every time I've quit, found a game that was just enough like WoW to keep me satisfied, I always think, "Why don't I just play WoW instead?" And here we are lol

This game has always been a big part of my life since I first started back in 2007. I'm not as much interested in retail WoW anymore compared to the past and while I loved the first version of Acti-Blizz's release of classic back in 2019. TBC classic and season of mastery don't draw me in to the same extent. Lately I've fallen in love with vanilla private servers. The past 6 months I've been just taking my sweet ass time in vanilla private servers just exploring every square inch of Azeroth, doing almost every single quest across multiple characters and exploring different talent builds.

"Why is Netflix so addictive"? "Why is fast food so addictive"? "Why are drugs and alcohol so addictive"? Dopamine my dude. Esp with my ADHD, I'm always chasing the dopamine and WoW just happens to do it 😂

i got 6month subscription and i love it cuz i love questing and exploring...even i met good people and they just helped me

Never had that problem with gaming addiction but I’ve had close friends deal with other kinds of addiction problems and it really is something to take seriously and seek help if you need to. But gaming can also be a great way to release some stress without spending lots of money or time leaving your house. Playing WoW during wrath with my best friends helped me get through some tough times back in the day and it’s always gonna have that nostalgic factor for me.

When classic first launched, I got to about lvl 20 and quit because I knew the game was going to be time consuming and I had a job and my physical health that I wanted to focus on. After some unfortunate circumstances I went to "fuck it" mode and put most of my time in classic and private servers. WoW isn't really addicting, it's what people pour their time into when they aren't happy to take part in the real world. Atleast in my case.

This game is 20 years old and the original version of the game still extremely successful and addictive. The guys at Blizzard at the time were truly geniuses. I fucking miss them so much.

To paraphrase Mark Twain: quitting WoW is easy. I've done it dozens of times.

thanks for putting into words how our comfort zone expands when we do new things! sometimes i hear it repeated over and over but sometimes i gotta know why, so i can have a goal. thanks

Very good points all of them. I have played WOW on and off since the beginning and I keep falling in love with it time and time again. I'm currently playing way too much and good with a healthy reminder from you. It should be a fun escape and not your life. Keep making this excellent content that you do.

For me it's like a D&D simulator. I always wanted to play D&D but I never had friends who would want to try it out or never knew anyone who played it so this is like my substitute. And it is good escapism to lose yourself in a fantasy world where the players are real and breathing and you can build friendships by just questing with some random stranger who is leveling and make rivalries with another faction who has the same goals as you.

This was a nice video. Been playing since 05 so I understand a bit. Thank you meta!

I quit WoW today, after almost 16 years of CONSTANT playing. I don't care if anybody reads this, I just wanted to make a statement and post it in the internet to relieve myslef. I am not going to read this post after writing nor edit it. I will just spit it out and don't really care. This will be my personal feelings ONLY. In WoW, I've been everywhere. Starting as a total noob playing on the 13" screen as a kid in Vanilla, becoming more "hardcore" in TBC, becoming very engaged in wotlk, cata, slowed a little bit in mists, wod to come back to hardcore again for Legion, BFA and Shadowlands. In meantime I had classic and SoM episodes (especially TBC classic). Was I addicted? Some would say yes, but I think I knew when to say STOP. Never was a butthurt dweller. What was keeping me, why I kept playing? A few things. Nostalgia, a very powerful feeling - it is mindbreaking for a human being. WoW was my safe space. I knew exactly what I can expect here, I had goals, things to achieve, to brag. Why I quit? I realized I lost the "fun" factor. For me, there is currently no fun in the game. It is bascially boost or get boosted and do your chores in between. Literally everythng in this game is wrong at this point. Retail? Gameplay is repetitive, lore is just BAD and people are toxic and elitist. Classic TBC? As mentioned - boost or get boosted. While the game is "good" the format is just not applicable to modern gaming. And come on, we all know it is not the same. I feel like players go for easy rewards. Remember BGs back then? No mass afking, no "ok go next" after losing Blacksmith fight or flag. Current WoW is a very bad parody, a satire. A shadow of it's glory. This is it. I feel better now.

I enjoyed your words on making sure this doesn't become an addiction.

You never quit Runescape, You only take breaks. Same with wow 👌🏻

Hand drawn graphics and silky smooth animations made me an addict back in the day of vanilla WoW. NO WAY photorealistic graphics can do this .

You never brought up the old school reason why.. community with your friends and also when rolling on items.. which used to double gambling addictions.. even as a teenager.. you had one roll... the drop.. got the heart pumping and the second roll the /roll.. nothing felt better then that double win.. i find myself not caring as much as an adult because I know.. ill get it when i get it after the hours are put in.. felt better / more addicting back in the day..

For me it’s the freedom of choice and the variation of said choices. You don’t have to adhere by any rules, you don’t have to be a hardcore raider or a mythic pug runner, you can enjoy the game in any form possible. Arguably you can have an amazing solo experience and do it at your own pace. Now granted BFA and Shadowlands had a lot of big lore holes and bad writing but Dragon-flight so far has been great and the fact that they have enabled replay ability via players option to choose any expansion bounce between them for the lore is what makes the game great. Been playing it for 12 years now and not planning to stop. Definitely was more addicted to it in my teens but now being an adult pushing 30 I’ve realized that I can always come back to it

You’re the man goblin! Have fun out there.

The excellent gameplay. Some people make fun of tab target combat systems, but a good one, or an excellent one like WoW's makes for an excellent game, couple that with excellent boss and enemy mechanics, great progression system and the fact that you get mechanics that you can only get in a MMO(big co-OP PVE group) and it's just an excellent experience. Then you make a few online buddies and now you want to comeback even more.

my relationship with my partner ended because of their addiction to wow, i can tolerate games as im a gamer myself but day after day after day they would isolate and give up on anything that didnt have to do with wow, eventually our relationship was next on the chopping block i still hope one day theyll wakeup and find happiness in things other than wow, i still sit here in disbelief and devastated that all our plans for life together, marriage, kids etc. its all just gone because they wanted to increase their gear score i still love them so so much, even when theyre not there anymore

that ravenblade rogue that had his energy regen WA over top of his unit frame had me so triggered lmao

I've played the game before but I never got addicted to it. The longest I've played is two hours at a time per day. I've heard of people who binge hours on end playing this game. I was for a fact prone to video game addiction as a kid, but being 36 years old now video games don't have the same pull on me as when I was a kid. Don't get me wrong. World of Warcraft is a really fun game and I liked it. But I tend to bounce around from game to game because I have a lot of them. I'm never on one game for too long.

I think the natural instinct to obtain higher status whether gold, gear or levels is similar to human life. We always want the most we can get and invest time into via work and other posessions like a nice car, house, toys etc.. We see the progress from our efforts and keep going..

Good video ! Hope you are doing well Meta 😄

thanks for talking about the very real and increasingly common issue of gaming addiction

MMO’s basically drip feed players dopamine hits. The more time gates and limitations put on players the more likely the playerbase has just become trained log in zombies more so than playing and actually having fun.

Variety is the spice of life.

played it once and never again

Can someone name me the soundtrack at 6:51, please?

Get out there meta!!! We will always be around

Mabinogi is the closest I've ever came to liking a MMO

It's those ignite procs bro!

great explanation

I'm on a big depression and WoW is one thing that helps me feel better. Maybe it's not healthy for me but it's keeping me alive atm. I hope next weeks i will be more ready to leave the game as I'm almost bis on my main and reaching what i want with my alt so I can continue with y life going on and justcasually raiding with my guildies instead of 24h thinking about the game. The depression does not relate with the gaming addiction.

Totally agree with you mate, have been addictive for 17+ years. And have Quit and coming back many times. Last time I Quit for 5 month lost 25kg got a nice GF, and now mini depression has me playing quite much again but in the end of April I'll Quit again as long as i can, during Spring/summer :)

I always viewed it as gambling, just like poker or a complex card game you have 9999999 ways to roll 9999999 dice at various points in the experience in order to progress and achieve the fun you desire which is a particular act be it pvp, pve, role playing, leveling toons, twinking etc. - it's kind of like real life, decisions and actions can yield progression in your task of choice.

9:27 PASS TIME TO RELAX so it DOES contribute something, mental ease and positive health if done in MODERATION. The game does produce many good things, but u need to use it right as with everything else in life. Everything can be abused, but everything can also contribute something positive and good in life

I never had any urge to go back to wow after wrath. But that tbc classic announcement got me all wet and gooey

It's called serotonin sir

I was addicted at the age of 12. IDK if WoW conditioned my reward system or I was always going to be like this but in my life I've been addicted to women, porn, alcohol, weed, vaping, and even healthy things like gym, nutrition, and being a workaholic. It's funny how the game relates to real life where people are able to do repetitive boring tasks just for anticipated reward or for progression. Today I have found a way to abstain from all my unhealthy addictions because I am in pursuit of perfection; I live like a monk. Nowadays I find most games are disgusting in the way that they take advantage of our monkey brains and dopamine system to make us addicted and waste our time and money.

I thought it was Barrens chat

7:23 haha that made me laugh

Progression is a double aged sword. When content comes out, its less about the content and more about the numbers...

funny how my phone recommended this video to me. uninstalled years ago, and never looked back.

Pack animal. We like to run our treadmills with other people. Quality (for 2004). WoW was smooth, with quality of life that was unheard of at the time. Momentum. Everyone else was playing it, so you should too. History. You and your friends were playing it for many years. You stick with them. That is, until BFA and SL delivered pain beyond a tolerable threshold, and for many of us the bonds of fellowship tore apart. The reasons we played no longer exist. It was a better game in 2008-2015.

Thanks man needed to hear this

Bro what do I do I’m so addicted to classic I just played 9 hours straight after work leveling mining. Sacrificing sleep before work and not eating. What do I do?

I Played wow for first Time when i was a Kid, maybe in 2006, Played on private server cuz mom didnt give ne money, i loved the game, characters, art Style , general feel etc, didnt Play game for like ten years, but see i suffer From chronic pain From years of injuries, so last year i buyed gaming PC for lols, just to have a Nice little painless hobby Hah, Played 60 full days last year and i still Love it, i like wow cuz you Can do anything, do high mythics , do chill content like farming mounts, or meet ppl, wow is great apart of Predatory systems

"Everything.."

It’s addictive because real life sucks and anything else is better lol

lookin for ppl to start a new toon on classic anyone else up?

The crux is meaningful rewards. WoW started with meaningful rewards, but later iterations seemed to be working as hard as possible to strip all meaning from rewards. I some times think this was intentional so as to not become the next plauge that brings down humanity. Although realistically, blizzard just had no idea why their game was so popular in the first place.

Honestly, the hardest I've ever laughed has been while raiding in WoW.

I used to play WoW like crazy back in the glory days of WoTLK after my school friends convinced me to give it a try. I was a subscriber until 5.2, and then quit because I had other obligations to do. Finally returned in BfA and SL, and I decided to cancel my subscription in January... Why? Well, first things first, I am not a teenager with a ton of time anymore. At the time I returned, I was studying and working at the same time, and I barely had any spare hours that I could dedicate to a game. Furthermore, when SL came out, I was personally feeling like the endgame grind was more of a chore, rather than an enjoyable experience. WoW still requires a massive time investment if you wanna keep up... I don't believe that is possible anymore, at least for myself, because, as I said, I grew up. I thought that I would stay with this game until the very end, but that wasn't possible. Azeroth is not a place for me any longer. I am sad to say that, but I can't afford the time for the game. With that said, I switched to World of Tanks, a game that allows me to get in, shoot until I blast, and then get out. See you on the battlefield

I never got addicted to WoW... I only raid logged and then would go play a different game afterwards.

I played WoW since Cataclysm. That's 2011, over 11 years of playing the game including WoW Classic where I earned every tier set for rogue and earned 20k gold on Grobbulus. After heavily prepping for TBC Classic and purchasing all gems I needed to be max JC at launch I quit. And I even had my character an in-game funeral with guild mates. But I never went back. Ill always miss WoW but I don't like what it has become.

It's a fantasy I want to live out. World of warcraft released when I was 13 years old😂 but I didn't get my first pc until I was 20-ish and I didn't try wow out til I was 30. I refuse to spend money on it for now. I love elderscrolls online. But I'm level 13/20 on WoW before subscription. I don't have the time to pay monthly and only get like 10-15 days of a month worth out of it if it's all I take time to play.

Playing FF14 made me realise what I appreciate with WoW. It’s the Zen meditative flow state from the music and atmosphere especially from the Classic era. I tried FF14 and it doesn’t have the same feel. It doesn’t feel like a Zen flow state while playing it. It always pulls you out of Zen and you have to read or pay attention to a story or an unlock. Its still a fantastic MMORPG, but it fits a different reason to play than WoW IMO.

its a sad wow was so addictive without trying now activley tries to make it addictive while making you want to quit

Subscribed

Good question, its not anymore.

As a player with more than 3 years of total playtime I will be honest. The alternatives suck. I do not play anymore but I really wish a new mmo came out.

the tears of pvers crying when you gank them is your answer.

The glands of the person playing it. That's what.

#MotivationGoblin :-D No seriorsly, nice one.

didnt expect to get any life tips while watching this video lol

Dope dope dope mine

I like cringy life advice MettaGoblin. Was thinking about getting back into WOW.

thanks for video, you talk a lot of truth

Wow as a kid can be an addiction , Wow as an adult is more of a hobby if you know how to manage. If your an adult and have OCD and play wow with a family then life never gets boring. Id say it depends on the person you are , not everyone is the same , some people play wow and work out others play wow and are shitty parents. Its life people are who they are but shi3t a little life views can some times help those who do feel like theyre stuck without an option. Therefore your message isnt a waste , it can actually be helping someone playing the game for so long they need to hear this or need that extra push and Im sure those people are thankful in their own ways.

wow was addictive when i was 11 years old, not anymore

nostalgia.... that is all.

Dopamine.

*made

Nope, haven't been back since the start of BFA and zero intention of returning. I am well and truly over WoW.

I actually feel Bad when i Play other games, like wow keep calling me xD

Sunk Cost Fallacy

The lore and the world feels lived in. Many small but interesting characters and groups. I do not get that feeling with other MMOs like Guild wars 2.

Same thing with politics. It becomes an obsession and brought me down a dark path

I've no longer looked at WOW as a game, but my life. What mog I have is who I am. But it doesn't even matter. No one cares. So I've decided to quit because of who I was becoming.

great vid

This boy Meta a gym rat and WoW god? Ladies watch out 😜

Don't you think you're a bit late with this video? Like 12 years or so.. especially now that people are massively quitting wow 😅

these types of games are set up to be as long and tedious as possible to suck your time away from you

YOU DID FORGOT YOUR PASSWORD AFTER A WEEK DONT LIE

Theirs nothing addictive about it like what???

Blizzard is were it is, bicose they have the money to take aut new content, it was the first game whith a subscrition, and the make new content just for money, thats the reason world of warcraf is not fun enimore, they don't care abaut the fans and the money the pay for his game, its a scam

didnt even watch the video but just wanted to stop in and say its not addictive. washed up content/transmog farm/mount farm. but then again i've only played for 3 months