14 DAY TRIAL // World of Warcraft is one of the most successful MMORPGs, if not THE Game. It boasts over 10 million users worldwide and it is, for many people, their second life. Unfortunately, it also is a second life that interferes with the real one and it has some pretty bad side effects. One of them is the divorce itself - one marriage ruined by World of Warcraft.
Yahoo Games reports this sad and strange story about Jocelyn, a 28 year old Californian woman that had to divorce her husband after a six year-long marriage. And everything happened, according to her, because of the level of addiction her husband had for WoW. And you can guess how serious it was if you consider the fact that they knew each other since they were 13.
"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," she told Yahoo! Games in an interview. "It took away all of our time that we spent together. I ceased to exist in his life."
Part of the fault, if you can say it that way, was Joycelin: she worked for a brief period of time for Blizzard, but not on World of Warcraft. Still, she brought the game as a Christmas gift to her husband in 2004 and, since then, things started to get worse: nine months after the MMO entered their homes, they had the first discussion regarding the marriage. It was not only the thing that the man ignored Jocelyn, but he also started to ignore his domestic duties. And one thing leads to another...
"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," Jocelyn gets to the point. Asked if she would ever consider marrying a gamer again, she said: "That's actually one of my primary criteria now - I don't want to marry someone who is a gamer."
So, be really careful, you gamers out there! Always have in mind that no fantasy world could or should replace your real life. Your loved ones are still here, on Earth.