Anyone who has ever entered the online fantasy realm of Azeroth knows just how enthralling it can be. With a myriad of creatures, quests and paths to ultimate fame and fortune within the game it is no wonder World of Warcraft has become the most popular MMORPG ever created.
Many people find World of Warcraft so exciting and captivating that they just don't notice the time going by. The path to levelling up your character takes you through grinding and questing and leaves you wanting to continue moving up. Due to the enthralling nature of this game it is therefore somewhat addictive.
We have all little addictions and all get caught up in different activities where we feel we could keep going. Luckily for most of us though these do not become problem addictions that take over our lives.
Although most people are sensible with their time and play WoW moderately there are many players who spend large amounts of time wandering through the realm of Azeroth. This I snot surprising as there are 111,000,000 active players currently! This is less of a problem for kids than it is for adults due to the internal clock and parental controls that come as part of the game.
An internal timer in the game works with parental controls that allows any parent or guardian to restrict access to the game once a certain amount of time has been spent in the online world.
This is advisable as a typical gamer can spend approximately 24 hours in Azeroth every single week. More hard core gamers will spend much, much longer. In fact it has been reported that some people have spent 24 hours playing the game in just one sitting!
Obviously becoming so engrossed in a video game, no matter how good it is, is not desirable and will have immediate and long-term effects on almost every area of your life. People who develop unhealthy addictions to games like WoW often find themselves without a job and with no meaningful relationships. In severe cases people can lose the ability to function properly in the real world and end up living their lives online.
Although such extreme cases are very few in number there have been reports of a few connected to World of Warcraft. I should add that anyone who gets so caught up in an activity that they find it extremely difficult to stop it probably has an addictive personality and would most likely find another outlet for their addictive behaviour.
The truth is World of Warcraft is just a game - albeit a great game. However, unlike other Pc games this game has been shown to help people to learn real world, usable skills like team building, team work, leadership and many others.
The main thing to remember, if you decide to play world of warcraft, is to enjoy yourself and let the rest take care of itself.
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