How Can I get My Son Off World Of Warcraft?

Question

He is very addicted and I cant get him off this game. He is way to smart at computers. I stoped paying the wow bill, but he made a charecter on his friend's account. Then I stoped paying for the internet, but he has wireless and uses our neighbor's. Then I put parental control software on his computer to block world of warcraft but he cracked my password and deleted it. This has happend for every one I tried. ONE of the parental controls worked but he formated the computer and installed it again. I can't take the discs away because he downloads the game. I take his computer away but he goes nuts and screams and swears. He is tearing our family apart from this addiction and sadly I dont know what to do about it. Anybody have any ideas? Do you know anybody addicted to it or was?

Answer 1

Let him play Star Craft.

Answer 2

First myself i am 12 years old ive been playing WoW for a long time but i wasn't addicted, im lvl 64 in the game.well i play 2 -3 hours per day from 4 -7 and then i have homework , shower dinner and all regular stuff

i guess you just open his computer and take out the graphic card or the power supply so his computer wouldnt work and blame on him that he broke the computer by using the computer too much. or bust his wireless card dont give him allowance or money so he wouldnt save up and buy these things
burn his cd's and also maybe you should start playing world of warcraft in front his face so he will become so jelous so he dont even care about WoW any more

Answer 3

Well, here's a little information on what your son is 'addicted' on. The type of game he is addicted to is more commonly known as a MMORPG, which stands for massive multiplayer role playing game. Think of it as Dungeons and Dragons, except with a three dimensional enviroment and is more acceptable then Dungeons and Dragons. Surprisingly, I am pretty impressed with your sons knowledge of the computer, since it seems he doesn't have a family tie in with someone who knows computers. One thing I can say though is that, no offense, but when your own child SWEARS at you, something is wrong. I can only think of a few cases in which families let their children swear freely. Sure, they're not bad people for it but, if people let their children swear freely, what's to stop them from doing something horrid? I think it's not the thing they do that's wrong, it's more like sending a message, "Hey, if my parents let me swear freely unlike more then half of the other populace then I could probably get away with some other crap because they don't really care" and I use 'care' in the sense that the child thinks that you, the parent, does not mind that your child skips classes, or gets sub-par grades. Oh, and to the addicted part? I was actually addicted once, but to a different MMORPG, different game but it's the same concept, "Create a character and kill bad things". I would suggest, under these circumstances, to think," maybe the problem is not the addiction, but how 'power' is held in my household" because it seems like your own son has no respect for you. I conclude by saying, "That's all folks!" I mean, i'd love to give more suggestions but the question has limited information. i'm not asking for more information, i'm just hoping what i;ve provided you can hopefully guide you into correcting your problem and answering your question.

Answer 4

I was a World of Warcraft addict before. When i was hooked on that game, i just couldnt stop. i could play from the time i wake to the time i sleep. My parents did anything their lil techno-intolerent mind could but i easily out smarted them. so i kept playing through my senior year exams and didnt do very well. that was kinda one of the wake up calls. i also realised i had no social life at 17 and it was quite worrying. i knew i had to do something and it started with it.

Well, i had persuasion from my parents and relatives to stop playing. Had a few from friends but it was no use. I HAD TO STOP IT MYSELF.

Few ways to control: Blizzard has a parental control on each account. So u can limit the time that he plays if the user is like under a certain age. If it's damn serious, u should consult a psychologist cause computer gaming addiction is serious business. oh and btw, i hear there's an institute for computer game addicts in China where the kids get some serious get-back-to-real-life activities. The only way a person can stop is if he WANTS to and puts his mind to it.

Answer 5

You really have to do something. I myself am a recovering WoW addicted player. I had been playing for almost two years and I stopped about 2 months ago. I will tell you that after stopping my life has gotten a lot better. That game while, fun is too much of an addiction and is detrimental. Unless you are a working adult able to play the game with no repercussions to your life, this game should be avoided. Especially for young children.

Depending on your son's age he probably doesn't understand that he is addicted. I have known a lot of WoW players who constantly say "I'm not addicted. I can quit whenever I want." That is rarely the case with WoW. Those words are easier said that done.

I would strongly warn you to get your son off WoW as soon as possible. Going cold turkey off WoW, your son will probably feel withdrawal symptoms. I would suspect that is common but can't confirm that. You have to find a way for him to make it past this withdrawal stage. Try getting him interested in other things. After I stopped, I went back to playing my old PS2 when I was really craving some video game action and that too I stopped playing little by little. Now I no longer play video games and actually got into sports as a diversion.

PS...As a last resort(Use with caution) If you are really desperate, you could try to see if your son is in a guild and ask the guild leader to kick him out and ban him from rejoining. One of the important aspects of WoW is that it is a social game and you have to rely on people. If you are really, really desperate, tarnishing your son's characters' reputation would probably do the trick (Note: do not under any circumstances reveal real information about your son. It's the character or 'avatars' the he plays that you would be attempt to ruin not the person playing). Committing several acts of "Ninja looting" would probably get your son ostracized from the game. (Your son would probably hate you for these...proceed with caution)

Answer 6

First you have to put a stop to him using the neighbor's internet. If they are giving him permission, ask them to stop. If they aren't then you have to make it stop. Take the computer away, and keep it away. If you want him to have the computer some times, get a case for your computer that has a key lock for the power so you can turn it on and off for him.

If the addiction continues, take drastic measures. Try to learn his account and password and if after a reasonable amount of warning and bargaining he is still so out of control, go in and delete his characters. Although that will result in more screaming and swearing than you've imagined so far.

If this problem is as bad as you make it sound, it is intervention time.

Answer 7

I say you give him a taste of the real world. Screaming and swearing when you dont get your way as an adult will eventually lead you to jail. Limit his time, give him so many hours a day/week if he pays bill and does homework. If not tell him no. If throws a fit, ground him. In his room (which is stripped of all fun things) and let him come out for dinner and school. Start one day the first time, then two ,three, and so on. If that doesnt work, lock the computer in your room or sell it. Tell him in the real world if you act like that you will lose your job.... Welcome to reality.

Keep in mind this is coming from a woman with cats and not children. So I have no real world experience on this type of issue. But if it were my son, I would make sure he learned at a young age that temper tantrums don't work in the real world

Good luck,

Answer 8

Pay someone to hack his account and steal all his items/mess with his account.

haha, he doesn't seem that advanced...nothing too tough for an avg. user to do. Go ask your neighboors to install a lock/code on their wireless, He may get through that, but it's another thing to try.

If he breaks that, take a look at your neightboor's router. On the bottom, or back it should tell the frequency of their wireless signals. Then check your wireless home phone's frequency, it might be in big numbers on the top of it. Frequency is measured in Hrz. If the numbers are the same, then whenever he connects, make a home phone call, it'll scramble the wireless signals and he'll lose connection. Unless he has one of those wireless expanders made out of a pringles can or soemthing...I dunno if that'd work.

Just for laughs, go to www.youtube.com and search up "southPark WoW" VERY FUNNy episode, laughed so hard.

Other than that there're probably more ways, but I don't think making you his enemy (by you trying to stop him) will work. As a teen, I understand him being in open rebellion to you. I don't think your approach will work, at least if it does he'll be sore.

Answer 9

Well at first since you were paying the bill you could've limited your child's play time through Blizzard. Now that he is logging in through a friend that is tough. I say report him and his friend to Blizzard and they may get booted and that would solve your problem. And by addicted what to you mean? How much does he play and does it interfere with other activities that need to be done? Playing Warcraft for me is not an addiction it is done mostly out of boredom. Maybe if your son had more activities outside of the computer it would also help.

Answer 10

There are parental controls for accounts on WoW. What you could try is to have the persons account he's playing on set up some controls...i think that'll at least limit the amount of time he can spend on it.

The other thing you can do since he is running wireless is to take the wireless card away. Then he's kinda screwed on getting a connection. Otherwise you could tell you neighbors to password their wireless connection, or even limit the range of IP addresses that can get on their wireless connection. You'd have to consult your router maker to figure out how to do that (it's a lil different for each router).

Answer 11

You have, pretty much, lost positive control over you child. This has nothing to do with World of Warcraft nor would any technical solutions solve your underlying problem. If you are unable to lay down any ground rules with your child, if you have no control over what he does in YOUR house, then you have more serious problems then just getting him off of some video game.

The easy, simple answer would be to apply the "Board of Education" to the "Seat of Knowledge" (in other words, beat him and let the beating continue until morale improves). I, personally would take it a step further with a serious curtailing of ALL privileges (Television, Movies, Hanging with Friends, etc.). Reduce him to: Eat, Sleep, School, Homework and Chores, until his attitude improves. Then, slowly, return his privileges (let him watch a couple of hours of Television on the weekends, etc). The computer would be the last thing he gets back and with limited privacy at that (put his computer in a public place in your house so he can't do anything without everyone seeing it). If I were you, I would consider World of Warcraft done and gone, catch him even looking at it (let alone playing it) and he goes back to "Square One" with his loss of priviledges. Stand on that boy and stand tall. He may get mad, then that is just too bad, You just have to stand there and let him know that he does not have to like you, but he DOES have to do what you say.

As a parent, you are obligated to feed, house and see to his education, everything else is a priviledge, NOT a right. It is about time some of these kids learned that.

There is NO EXCUSE for your child to scream and swear at his parents (I was 23 before I even SAID a curse word in front of my parents). I play World of Warcraft myself, there is NOTHING about it that can be used as an excuse for this kind of behavior.