The problem is that WoW is being compared to heroine.

 Yes, WoW can have negative consequences, but seriously. It's like comparing Bush to Hitler: sure, Bush is a bad President, but that's nothing but a grossly exaggerated statement intended to inflame. 

In short, yes, MMOs can have down sides. As can all games, because I pretty much played TFC and UT 24/7 before WoW. There not even close to heroine addiction, though, and I genuinely think it's insulting to actual heroine addicts to suggest that their problem is that superficial. 

Damn right about FFXI. Much better than that shitty cartoon game they call Warcrack. It's a true 'fantasy MMO,' and I got bored of WoW last year (played it for 2 weeks and I thought the game was crap; good thing it was a trial I played). I'd still say FFXI is more fun than WoW and has more mature themes that that cartoony crap.

Plus, you should meet my 'friends' from my old University. They live WoW 24/7, and annoyed the hell out of me. They spoke gibberish most of the time, were smelly and overweight.

If you do end up liking WoW, you should check out FF XI, Age of Conan, and Warhammer Online.

Man, I'm a bad influence. :)

I'd blame a lack of self control on yourself. I'm a firm believer in personal responsibility. There's no reason to blame something else for your own inability to control your actions. Even with the heroin thing, I'm sure there are people who can and have used it without becoming addicts. But to blame the drug because your actions led to an addiction is just looking for a way to shift responsibility off yourself.

This isn't really targeted  towards the posts that say the OP could become addicted since he very well could become addicted. It's towards people's overreaction to it. It's not an automatic addiction, and just because they or someone they knew couldn't play it responsibly, don't act like that's the game's fault. Sorry if it came off harsher than I intended. It just gets old hearing about the evils of Warcraft every time someone mentions buying it.

@Bod, I'm not sure you understand my post (or I don't understand your post). I'm not comparing WoW to heroin. I just used that as an exaggeration to illustrate my point (people overreact about WoW).

I played FFXI for awhile before Warcraft. There were too many gameplay issues I just couldn't stand. Having to exit an entire area if you aggro, having to get a party together to level (or do most things for that matter), leveling areas being packed, little variety in equipment, healing was beyond annoying, hard to earn money, hard to level professions, level cap quests, charging for extra characters, etc. I finally quit when I couldn't afford new spells and had no way of making money.

There were a lot of things I liked about it too, but those things just ruined the game for me.

It's a fun game and if you have good will power and everything you won't get a hard to get out of addiction. It just depends on if you are a person who can get addicted easily or not.

Being addicted to WoW isn't necessarily a bad thing though. I have several friends that are total WoW addicts but still behave normally and attend normal social events and stuff so its not like it will drastically affect your unless you aren't able to control yourself to stop playing when you have to do something such as go to work.

You know, we don't exist in a vacuum. If you want to argue that people that are obsessive-compulsive are choosing to be that way then fine. I wouldn't recommend that they start playing WoW to find out if they do have that condition. I don't know why you would even try to argue that the game isn't designed to get people hooked into playing, and to play as much as possible.

If you really believe that self control is a matter of choice it ignores the fact that decisions can be made without knowledge of the consequences. It would still be possible for a person with complete self control to make a bad decision based on imperfect knowledge. Or do you only do something when you have perfect knowledge of what the outcome will be?

 @Bod - Pulling the Hitler card so soon? But seriously, can you personally compare someone who's ruined their life through playing WoW and a person who's ruined their life through substance abuse?

 Bod - If that's a problem why did you quote my quote of the quote? Why not just quote the first quote? The quote I quoted was the first time in the thread heroin was mentioned. I was merely responding with a counter example to implicitly imply that the hyperbole was superfluous. 

Obsessive-compulsive? I wouldn't blame someone for an actual mental condition, but then again I never mentioned anything about obesessive-compulsive behavior. I guess if we're headed down this road, you can say all people are predisposed to a certain level of addiction potential beyond their control, but that's getting into too big a psychological and philosophical argument for a WoW thread. lol Still though, you should recognize your own potential for abuse and make decisions based off that when considering something addicting.

I know the game's addicting. I've said that many times while playing and have noticed all the little things they do to keep you going. I'm not trying to say it isn't. It's still your actions that led you there regardless of your original knowledge. Lacking knowledge shouldn't be an excuse. The game isn't forcing you to play. You can walk away at any time if you notice you're playing too much. If you choose to not walk away, that's your choice and you have to accept you made a bad decision yourself. You can play the game casually (a lot of people do), but if you decide to play it 10 hours a day, that decision is yours.