this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2025
88 points (94.9% liked)

Ask Lemmy

35374 readers
1238 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] lightnsfw@reddthat.com 3 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

WOW helped me learn to cope with a lot of the social anxiety issues I have. I went from just doing shit by myself and not talking to anyone and being timid about getting on the mic to eventually getting running raid groups and getting elected to take over as GM of the 60+ member guild I was in.

Yes, I was way too addicted to it for a long time but a big part of that through the middle to the end of my time playing it was the socialization factor. It was a "safe" means of interacting with people and just have conversations where it was easy to escape or stand up for yourself if someone was an asshole. Unlike public school where I had to worry about physical violence so I avoided people as much as possible except my small friend group. I learned to talk to people and banter. I learned how to manage conflicts and organize events. I learned how to have constructive conversations with people who were falling short in raids. All these things which I was able to bring into real life. It also gave me more opportunities to talk to women platonically which I think contributed to me not becoming an incel because I definitely fit the demo of someone that should have happened to.

As I got more confident I eventually got a job and started doing more stuff in real life and that got me off WOW and video games as a whole are a much smaller part of my life now. Would it have been better to go to therapy? Maybe, but I didn't know where to begin with that. I really don't think I'd have turned out as well as I did without that game.