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I’m going be vulnerable today by discussing my World of Warcraft addiction. I used to be very addicted to role-playing video games due to the nature of them. They allowed me to control fictional characters, go on quests, build fictional skills, and gain fictional levels, without a lot of risk. However, this was just an assumption. I had forgotten about the risk of time.

There was a point when I realized that I was spending more time playing video games like World of Warcraft than I was working on my own goals, personal skills, and milestones within my own life. This was a game-changing moment that ended up motivating me to the point where I was able to overcome my World of Warcraft addiction. I swung out of playing World of Warcraft and reflected. After reflection I saw that there were skills that carried over into my daily life: perseverance, specialization strategy, teamwork, need for seeing progress, etc.

This episode is about how I took something that was dominating my life, World of Warcraft and other role-playing video games, and pulled valuable lessons from them.

For the first time ever we have a guest on the show. Colin Smith joins us. He’s a computer engineer and co-worker of mine from Endsight. Both of us have a lot of experience playing video games.

This episode covers the following:004-Life-Beyond-World-of-Warcraft-Addiction-300x300.jpg

  • Practical learning from video games
  • Concepts of character development
  • Specialization
  • Strategy
  • Why I have my Twitter name
  • Team building lessons from video games

Colin and I both share various other insights as well. The interview with Colin is a casual conversation that stretches the limits that we as a society normally put on video games.

References mentioned

Reference #1

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (WoW) is a mass multiplayer online role-playing video game created in 2004 by Blizzard Entertainment.

Reference #2

Twitter account name: @pallysam [UPDATE 4-29-2015] I changed my Twitter handle to @SamuelPHatton.

Pally = Paladin. My twitter account name gives me motivation. It reminds me that I should aim to be like a paladin.

Reference #3

Life is a Play Podcast Episode 002 – How Motivating Thoughts Increase Willpower – The Power of Motivating Force

If you are currently suffering from video game addiction, World of Warcraft addiction or any addiction, this is a great resource about breaking habits.

What about you?

Have you ever learned something from a videogame that you were able to apply to your life? I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below. What game was it? What did you learn?

You are welcome to leave a comment on this blog post or let me know on Twitter (use #lifeisaplay). Thanks for reading and listening!

Best,

Samuel

 

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