Game addictions gone wrong AGAIN: divorce over World of Warcraft

[Hard core Rikki]

Ex-Blizzard Employee Divorces Husband Over WoW

A California resident who once worked briefly for Blizzard has recently divorced her husband of six years because according to her, his addiction to World of Warcraft ruined their marriage. Never having played the game herself, 28 year-old Jocelyn stated that her husband Peter’s crippling addiction to the game became more than she could handle.

“He would get home from work at 6:00, start playing at 6:30, and he’d play until three a.m. Weekends were worse — it was from morning straight through until the middle of the night. It took away all of our time that we spent together. I ceased to exist in his life.”

Having been friends with Peter since the age of 13 and married for six years, it only took a paltry nine months for the marriage to collapse after receiving the game as a gift from her.

“I bought the game for him for Christmas 2004, when it first came out. By May we had our first serious discussion about where our marriage was going, and by September I had moved out.”

Having had many discussions on the fact that WoW had taken over Peter’s life, Jocelyn tried to intervene and schedule “together” time with him - to no avail. On one such occasion, she had set aside 30 minutes to watch a favorite TV show together, but he refused because he was in the middle of a raid and could not understand why she was upset that he stood her up. Eventually, Peter’s domestic duties also began to suffer for the game as he stopped paying bills and refused to do his share of the housework.

Although a gamer herself Jocelyn has never played WoW because she recognized the fact that it was a game that would never end and therefore did not wish to play it. She also states that WoW was the sole catalyst for the divorce and is still highly emotional about its impact on her marriage.

“I’m real, and you’re giving me up for a fantasy land. You’re destroying your life, your six-year marriage, and you’re giving it up for something that isn’t even real. [Blizzard] build it in such a way that you have to keep putting more and more time into it to maintain your status. I remember thinking when I was married that it was downright exploitative to people who couldn’t control themselves in that way. It’s set up like a drug.”

Because of the emotional scars of the divorce and the reasons surrounding it, Jocelyn has stated that next time around, she will stay clear of gamers.

While this is indeed sad news for her and her ex-husband you cannot put the blame solely on WoW. Granted, it has proven to be a highly addictive game for some people, but you have to consider their personality and their choices. Someone like Peter more than likely has a mental issue and has a problem with addiction. Who is to say that he does not have some other forms of addiction as well? His addiction could as easily have been pot, liquor, porn or meth - if she were to have brought them into the house it would have been a different addiction instead of gaming. You have to go to the underlying source and peel back the layers. Was he unhappy in his marriage to begin with? Was he miserable at his job? Was he highly depressed? Was this form of escape a way to keep from coping with the living hell that his life had become? All of these plus family history can become contributing factors to any sort of addiction.

During her interview with Yahoo! Games, Joycelyn never stated or hinted around about counseling. Did the two of them ever discuss the possibility of therapy? Did she ever consider canceling their internet service, his Blizzard account and throwing his WoW disc in the trash? No one knows the full story of why their marriage collapsed or if anything was done to try and salvage it other than “together time” to watch TV. We may never know, but while this news is indeed sad for the both of them, I mostly feel sorry for Peter because he needs help before his life becomes a vicious cycle of self-loathing and addiction to something worse than a video game. Blaming it all on WoW is just ignorance.

Soo, given a choice, would you go with the game or the girl?

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[Paratech]

I'm not into MMORPGs, and I limit my web surfing from 8pm-1am.

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[PCXL-Fan]

Blizzard should implement a system where distressed spouses or family members can phone in and ask for a limit set on how much their loved one can play.

Why does this remind me of emuforums....? I love my ngcrack this game is awesome, I'm already on lvl5.

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[Squall-Leonhart]

What a Sook, instead of slapping him around and telling him to man-up she walks out.

its time these idiots took a look at what idiot moves like this is actually doing, broken famililes, suicidal kids. etc

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[skoreanime]

I'm a WoW player since beta and wow...some people need to allocate their time better, especially if you're married and/or have kids.

[Phil]

never played WoW, i like my RPG's to have an ending, thank you very much

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[Squall-Leonhart]

exactly Skore, if a person finds they need to escape life so much then its obvious there underlying problems.

probably not getting enough sex.

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[Linktothepast]

I agree with the article. If the guy was addicted that much with a game, he probably could have been addicted to something else also. Funny thing in the story is that she bought it for him .
And nothing gets in the way between myself and my women .

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[Squall-Leonhart]

indeed LTTP, any kind of escape will do for these sad noobs.

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[Cid Highwind]

I feel sorry for her. Though blaming Blizzard is just a Jack Thompson thing to do. It's not like Grolsch is to blame for my hangovers. It's the power of your own will that should make you stop, otherwise, if he doesn't respond when you put your boobs in his neck, you know it's time to divorce as well

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[galson]

Every woman will leave sooner or later if a man ceases to show his interest in her. But to allow a wife to leave over such a trivial thing is silly. Perhaps now he'll marry an Orc lady :>

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[DarkSamus]

That is just sad!
How can someone allow a game to control there lives like that.
I love my games, but admitedly hate RPG's but that is just crazy
I am sure if I could see a game was coming between myself and my life partner I would try and do something to fix the problem!
I had a girlfriend who was addicted to Pokemon real badly and it was taking time away from us, so one day I hid the cartridge and said that if things don't change you won't be getting the game back. It solved the prob for me but obviously that won't work for everyone.

Get a life mate and realise what you have lost. Life is about more then games, they won't love you back!!!!!

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Originally Posted by bobrocks95

The tits latch on to the female's body at the beginning of puberty and then continue to feed off her internal juices until it they grow to their full size. Then they officially take control of the host body.

[Cheesus]

All the above depends on one very important thing. How annoying/fugly was the lady?? If he despised her and felt that he could lose himself in the game, then I suppose he managed.

Personally I've played WoW for a bit... and while it was all good fun for about a week, it just got repetitive and boring after a while (Much like just about every other MMO).

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Originally Posted by TheCloudOfSmoke

"Save the balls, save the world."

[Kaiser Sigma]

Originally Posted by shadow1204

How can someone allow a game to control there lives like that.

The same way some people allow work to control their lives (workaholism)...or alcohol (alcoholism), or drugs (drugs addiction), or women/men (hedonism) amongst others.

There are no evil video games, just very stupid people. Unfortunately, we've yet to develop a way to carry on retroactive birth control on dumb bastards~.

Blame poor natural selection, not the videogames~.

[Coolsvilleman]

I think maybe the marriage had other problems if it collapsed after just nine months.

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[Radix865]

Originally Posted by Coolsvilleman

I think maybe the marriage had other problems if it collapsed after just nine months.

That's very likely, if everything was good between them I don't think someone would choose a game(any game) over a woman, but if all they did was argue its not that strange if he started just playing a game he likes and letting the girl scream around alone. But still its stupid, just not that strange...

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[Vanit]

I'm a hardcore wow player and I would choose the girl everytime.

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[Phil]

Originally Posted by Vanit

I'm a hardcore wow player and I would choose the girl everytime.

Cause your strait. that guy was obviously gay or had some serious mental problems

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