Strange request: sabotaging World of Warcraft?

Johnny Girth · 22 Nov 2008 at 12:58

Bit of a strange one this. Can anyone think of a way to make someone's World of Warcraft run badly without actually making it stop altogether? A friend's family want to get him off the game as it's taking over his life and stopping him getting a job.

I thought of maybe throttling the internet connection but that would make everyone else's internet slow. I'm not sure what the bandwidth requirements of WoW are anyway.

Any other thoughts?

LeJosh · 22 Nov 2008 at 12:59

Take the graphics card out and hide it.

Sp00n · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:00

LOL.

Uninstall it.

ins0mn1ac · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:00

Delete his characters. Seriously. And WoW doesn't require much of an internet connection so it wouldn't do much good, without removing it totally.

scorza · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:02

If he's genuinely addicted then they should seek medical advice and help - there are a growing number of groups that deal with this.

Werewolf · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:03

iirc there are programmes you can get which make it appear that you've got bad lag/packet loss on a local machine (one of the UO devs mentioned he uses such a programme to test how the Ultima client works under a variety of different connection conditions).

If he's on a wireless connection turn the microwave on

Barrybear · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:06

if he doesnt know anything about computers should be easy to put something like net limiter on let everyone else know to turn it off, something dumb like that or change something in his pc that he wouldnt notice

TriedandTested · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:10

Could you swap his current graphics card out for something that couldn't handle WoW? I know it's not that demanding but chucking in an OLD GPU would surely make it struggle.

Tombstone · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:12

Speaking as a parent myself, why not just delete the game from their harddrive and tell them to stop playing or else. So many parents these days are far too soft on their kids, wanting to be their friends rather than their parents. Set boundaries for your kids and give them repercussions for crossing those boundaries.

Forget about limiters, and throttlers. Just delete the game from their drive, remove their CDs and tell them flatout that they need to get their lives in order and concentrate on what matters instead of spending all that time on the computer.

Darg · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:16

Tombstone said:
Speaking as a parent myself, why not just delete the game from their harddrive and tell them to stop playing or else. So many parents these days are far too soft on their kids, wanting to be their friends rather than their parents. Set boundaries for your kids and give them repercussions for crossing those boundaries.

Forget about limiters, and throttlers. Just delete the game from their drive, remove their CDs and tell them flatout that they need to get their lives in order and concentrate on what matters instead of spending all that time on the computer.

this tbh

scorza · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:22

Tombstone said:
Speaking as a parent myself, why not just delete the game from their harddrive and tell them to stop playing or else. So many parents these days are far too soft on their kids, wanting to be their friends rather than their parents. Set boundaries for your kids and give them repercussions for crossing those boundaries.

Forget about limiters, and throttlers. Just delete the game from their drive, remove their CDs and tell them flatout that they need to get their lives in order and concentrate on what matters instead of spending all that time on the computer.

As a parent - would you consider using the parental controls available on World of Warcraft?

I assumed the OP was talking about an adult, hence the need to sabotage rather than simply instruct.

Tombstone · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:25

scorza said:
As a parent - would you consider using the parental controls available on World of Warcraft?

I assumed the OP was talking about an adult, hence the need to sabotage rather than simply instruct.

I guess I assumed it was a teenager. If its an adult then they should be more receptive to a good talk and might be able to just be talked out of it. If that doesnt work then the same applies, just delete it from their drive. No need to pussyfoot around.

Bassmansam · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:26

Take the fuse out.

Tute · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:30

Tombstone said:
Speaking as a parent myself, why not just delete the game from their harddrive and tell them to stop playing or else. So many parents these days are far too soft on their kids, wanting to be their friends rather than their parents. Set boundaries for your kids and give them repercussions for crossing those boundaries.

Forget about limiters, and throttlers. Just delete the game from their drive, remove their CDs and tell them flatout that they need to get their lives in order and concentrate on what matters instead of spending all that time on the computer.

This.

Goldfingers · 22 Nov 2008 at 13:59

It's often not as simple as deleting it, take the drugs away from a drug addict he'll just go to where he can get the drugs.

He needs to realise himself that he has a serious problem, he's using the game to substitute for real life and needs to develop a strong desire to sort himself out.

blix · 22 Nov 2008 at 14:02

Take his CPU out, poo in the socket then put it back.

LeJosh · 22 Nov 2008 at 14:03

Goldfingers said:
It's often not as simple as deleting it, take the drugs away from a drug addict he'll just go to where he can get the drugs.

He needs to realise himself that he has a serious problem, he's using the game to substitute for real life and needs to develop a strong desire to sort himself out.

Or maybe he just likes the game? Doesn't have to escapism or have mental problems. In all honesty, just restrict the amount he plays. Cold turkey just makes unneccasary fights.

reflux · 22 Nov 2008 at 14:25

blix said:
Take his CPU out, poo in the socket then put it back.

^^this

Tombstone · 22 Nov 2008 at 14:30

Goldfingers said:
It's often not as simple as deleting it, take the drugs away from a drug addict he'll just go to where he can get the drugs.

He needs to realise himself that he has a serious problem, he's using the game to substitute for real life and needs to develop a strong desire to sort himself out.

So what you are saying is that if WoW was deleted from his machine, they would just go around a friends house and play WoW there all the time???

How old is the person in question by the way?

ojste · 22 Nov 2008 at 15:12

get his parents to make chars and follow him around and spam him

no seriously though, if you make it run bad then hes probs just gonna find a way to fix it... i assume you've tried talking to him so i guess next step is to take action. delete the game or if you really wanna finish it, delete his characters >.<