Montreal Tech Watch

Gary Haran, currently a Rails developer for ziplocal, has sold wowdetox, and says he managed to get $3600 out of the website.

The story is interesting, because he went through the World Of Warcraft “addiction”, then created the website in 2 hours, to build a website to help those who spend way too much time in the role-playing video game for their own good. Blizzard has surpassed themselves in this game, with users playing as much as 12 hours per day in the game. Excerpts from the testimonials:

I recently quit playing wow after my wife threatened to leave me. I was playing at all hours of the day and night. I work full-time and would play as soon as I got home, my wife would go to bed alone and I would play until early morning. I would put on the TV to babysit my 4yo daughter so I could play. I havent played WOW for a little over a month, it feels good to have that monkey off my back, but I still feel the pull of the game. My wife and I are in counseling, trying to repair the disconnect and resentment created by my addiction to this game. I hope we can make it, she tells me its ok to keep playing, just limit it… I know I cant do it yet. It is truely an addiction, get your loved one help, just as you would for booze or drugs.

I’ve played World of Warcraft for a while now, and let me tell you guys, I regret buying that game. It has destroyed most of my Mental, Social, and Physical being. To those thinking about starting to play this game, let me just say that be prepared for the consequences ahead of you because this game is like a drug, once you start, you can’t stop. I, myself can’t stop playing constantly, its just too addicting. Should this game take ahold of you, you’ll regret it later.

If you ask me, $3600 is nice for 2 hours of work, but I guess the most valuable for him is the help and support the website gave to all players who wanted to get out of the game. I also think this is just the start of future help services for gamers. Blizzard, Ubisoft, EA, Microsoft, Sony Entertainement are all pushing the boundaries to get more people playing during more time. It’s easy to dismiss it if you never played a game like Battefield2 or World Of Warcraft, but I am sure future generations will need (and pay) for those services. Compute that with sales of virtual in-game objects, and you will get an entire section of the economy dedicated to video games.