Although best-selling online role-playing game World of Warcraft boasts over ten million subscribers, it's also leaving in its wake an increasing list of casualties.
Even though she's never played the game, 28 year-old Jocelyn is one of the fallen. A well-spoken California resident, she divorced her husband of six years after he developed a crippling addiction to the smash online RPG.
"He would get home from work at 6:00, start playing at 6:30, and he'd play until three a.m. Weekends were worse -- it was from morning straight through until the middle of the night," she told Yahoo! Games in an interview. "It took away all of our time that we spent together. I ceased to exist in his life."
Jocelyn had been friends with her ex-husband Peter since the age of 13, but it took only nine months for her marriage to collapse.
"I bought the game for him for Christmas 2004, when it first came out. By May we had our first serious discussion about where our marriage was going, and by September I had moved out," she said.
Jocelyn recalled one particular incident that was typical of Peter's habits. "I had set aside 30 minutes for us to watch a television show together, and he couldn't. He was stuck on a raid, and completely failed to understand why I was upset," she said.
Peter's domestic duties also suffered. He stopped paying bills, she says, and refused to do his share of the housework.
Jocelyn doesn't hesitate to cite Warcraft as the main reason for her divorce and remains emotional about its impact on her marriage. "I'm real, and you're giving me up for a fantasy land. You're destroying your life, your six-year marriage, and you're giving it up for something that isn't even real."
Despite their differences, the couple remains friends, and although Peter still plays World of Warcraft, Jocelyn says he made an effort to cut down after their split.
A gamer herself, Jocelyn briefly worked for World of Warcraft developer Blizzard Entertainment, although not on the title that proved so damaging to her relationship. "I recognized that this was a game that would never end, and that's why I chose not to play it," she said.
"They build it in such a way that you have to keep putting more and more time into it to maintain your status. I remember thinking when I was married that it was downright exploitative to people who couldn't control themselves in that way. It's set up like a drug."
Asked if she would consider marrying another Warcraft player, Jocelyn laughed. "That's actually one of my primary criteria now -- I don't want to marry someone who is a gamer."
