By his own admission, professional Twitch streamer Asmongold has spent 13 years playing one game: Activision Blizzard’s World of Warcraft. With the recent release of WOW Classic, his passion for the game has been rejuvenated, and this has already led him to spend countless hours reaching the MMORPG’s level cap of 60, an impressive feat for which he was thrown an in-game homecoming parade.
As glamorous as that may initially seem, there is a darker side to committing oneself to such a busy WoW Classic regiment. Last year, gaming addiction became an officially recognized disorder by the World Health Organization (WHO), revealing the potential severity of problem video game consumption.
Judging by the messy state of the room where Asmongold does his gaming, which he recently showed off to horrified onlookers via a Twitch livestream, it seems likely that the game might be sapping so much of his time as to cause him to neglect a degree of personal care. Coupled with the comments that Asmon made with regards to WoW Classic holding the potential to “ruin your life,” it seems as though taking his sage advice at face value might be worthy of consideration.
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The World of Warcraft veteran told players to “quit right now” and “stop playing this game” in reference to WoW Classic. “If you get to [level] 60 and you get to experience the game, you’re gonna hate all of those other games” he continued. Evidencing this fact he asserts that players that hit the max level will “be like [him], playing one game for 13 years.”
He then reiterates: “Don’t get to 60. Don’t do that.” Perhaps most indicative of his thoughts on the matter, and also the most illustrative to those outside the WoW Classic bubble, are Asmongold’s closing comments that “you’re gonna ruin your life and you’re gonna love it.”
Seemingly a tacit admission that the streamer believes Activision Blizzard’s MMO has ruined his life, it’s telling that even in this knowledge he can’t stop playing and apparently enjoying himself. With Asmon having made a successful career out of playing WoW, you have to wonder how many players might feel the same way, or presumably worse, with no form of income tied to the time they spend playing the game.
