I Stopped Playing World of Warcraft

Today I said goodbye to my World of Warcraft characters. Probably forever.

It makes me quite sad. I started playing Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPGs) in 1998, when my husband introduced me to Ultima Online. That was a fun game... I still remember the music, exploring the world, my cute little character. I had a little house that I decorated. I had a treasure hunter who would get treasure maps, go find the coordinates, and dig up treasure. I had a miner that would go out into the mountains and mine gold and other ores. I had a tailor that would make clothes. I even had a character named Jesus Christ who dressed in robes and was a carpenter.

Then we started playing Dark Age of Camelot when we lived in Italy. Since we lived overseas, we had my mother-in-law pick the game up and ship it to us international express mail so I could get the character names I wanted. We had a great time playing this game as well... most of my Ultima Online friends played this game with me as well.

I was planning on not playing any more MMORPGs after this, until my husband started playing World of Warcraft. I initially didn't play this game, but then he really wanted to play with me so he offered to buy me the game. So I tried it. Again, it was a lot of fun. I loved exploring the world, getting to level 70 with one of my characters, going into the dungeons and getting great armor...

So what made me stop? That darned conscience of mine. The whole witchcraft aspect. In Warcraft they have a Warlock class, who can have a pet known as a succubus... an S&M type demon character that helps fight for you. I never had one of those as I saw the obvious parallels to demons with that one. And I didn't really play a rogue, as I thought it was wrong to play a character that glorifies stealing.

Almost every class involved some sort of magic. Mages cast spells as their main source of damage. Clerics and priests cast both healing and damage spells. Hunters cast trap spells and spells to heal their pets. The warriors didn't really cast any spells, but they would drink potions and use spell scrolls to make themselves stronger.

Then there's the whole killing aspect. You had to kill to get treasure, to gain experience. Most of the creatures that you killed were monstrous, but then you'd go out and kill wolves or bears for some quests as well. That aspect struck me as well.

So I was going to not get involved in any more MMORPGs. But then I thought about the game some more... and I got scared. Could playing this game, knowing that there was witchcraft involved, be seen by God as sinful? Was my refusal to give this up a sin that I was not willing to repent of?

Most Christians know that adultery is a sin. But Jesus says that if you look at someone that you are not married to with lust, that is the same thing as committing adultery. Most Christians also know that witchcraft is a sin. The Bible says:

Now the works of the flesh are clearly revealed, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lustfulness, idolatry, sorcery, hatreds, fightings, jealousies, angers, rivalries, divisions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkennesses, revelings, and things like these; of which I tell you before, as I also said before, that they who do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.