I've finally quit WoW after 5 years

My story started when my daughter was born (I already had a 4 year old son). She slept well but it changed our social life, with the wife and I going out rarely.

I started playing Matrix Online just to while away some of the evenings whilst the missus watched Eastenders and the like....

A friend then introducced me to WoW, we used to quest together, chatted online and made some new friends. Fridays down the pub with friends changed to Friday night gaming... well it was a lot cheaper than buying several rounds of drink.. and better for my health... and the wife knew where I was... (sound familiar?)

Some 5 years on the pattern was the same, except worse. I'd get home from work tired, and switch on the PC to 'unwind' and take out the stresses of the day by killing mobs and doing my dailies. I'd then get called for tea and usually turn up late just as my family were finishing. I'd be a bit grumpy cos I didn't quite finish what i was doing. After tea I'd make an excuse to go back upstairs and run the kids bath (putting it on nice and slow of course). I could fit in a couple of random instances if I was quick. Once the kids were in bed the evening was mine... I could often get a good 3-4 hours in and maybe get another epic or two before I crashed out around midnight.

I'd rinse and repeat this every night.

I'd tried several times to cut down, but was still spending most of my spare time on Saturdays & Sundays grinding emblems or running instances. Nothing I tried worked and each time a new part of the game came out I just had to keep up with the other guys in my Guild.

By the end I had 10 level 80s on the same server, one of each class and all geared for raiding.

I'd lie awake at night worrying about the effect on my family. My kids kept asking if I'd do things with them, and my answer was usually "just let me finish this" or "I'll be 5 minutes", and of course I never spent time with them. If my wife went out during the day, my kids would be left watching TV and playing their own games without me.

I've had to see an Osteopath recently to sort out severe cramps and seizures in my neck and shoulders and my hands have started to hurt. I have a beer belly now (although I don't drink beer) and my posture looks like I'm always sitting at a pc.

I've worked out I've been spending best part of 4-6 hours a day playing WoW and I'm now 42 years old. That means probably 1-2 years of my life has gone. My duagther is 6 and I love her to pieces but I'm not really the dad I want to be. What will she remember me for? That bloke sitting at his computer.

Then this morning, about 4am, I lay there thinking about all these things. It was hard realising this to myself. I felt guilty, unhappy and trapped. I threatened to quit WoW lots of times and always talked myself out of it. My wife is understanding and patient (maybe too much soo), and she doesn't mind me playing in the evenings.

I broke out into yet another cld sweat as I thought about stopping playing again.

Then at 4.30am I woke my wife and told her I was quitting for good. I explained all of the above, about how I was missing my children growing up and what a bad influence I was on them - surely they would copy me. I started my pc and then one by one I deleted my characters - all ten of them. The first was really hard, the others easier, but the last (my first character) was a real wrench. Should I just keep the one and only play that one I thought?!

As I typed the final word 'delete' and hit return I gave a big sigh. 5 years of effort wiped out in 5 minutes.

I logged onto the Battlenet site, cancelled my subscription, found the WoW folders on the PC and deleted them, thank god they were too big for the recycle bin. I found the game boxes and cut through the disks.

It was done.

I went back to bed, my wife telling me how proud she was of me.

It's now 5.20pm the following day, just about the time I'd start playing. I've been out with my family today and it's been fun. I'm finding it very hard now, especially when I've run out of other things to do, but I know it's the right thing for me.

I've stopped justifying it to myself, stopped making excuses, and writing this is helping a lot. I'm looking forward to not feeling guilty, getting my health back and helping my children grow up as they should.

If a hard-line raider like me can bite the bullet, then I'm sure you can too.

(13 hours and counting)