You guys had me busting out laughing. Great stories.
I have a friend who during vanilla lost his job because they would raid until very late in the evening. He was on a PvP server thus, as everyone knows, you must battle first to enter! Funny thing though, with my help and the help of another friend of ours he is now back at the same company and already said he will NOT play classic because it's worse than cocaine for him. xD
Me, in 2008 or so, when TBC was out and I rerolled druid, my relationship with my better half ended, so I decided to not renew my contract with my company and dropped out of college because I was very depressed. I played TBC from early morning until late at night, farmed the guilds consumables and we were very successful at raids. Talking to guild friends over voice brought me out of the sadness and then just binged the hell out of the game all the way until Cata was out, then I had to get another job 'cos out of savings. Despite not always eating super healthy, and doing dungeons with the help of a bottle of vodka at times, I managed to keep my place tidy and feeding my dog.
I also started playing at a young age (14-15) and during the holidays I literally played everyday until 4-5 AM, making myself some spaghetti every night around 3 AM. Those were the days man. Like literally all my friends were up this late, doing all kinds of stuff together in WoW.
I also remember covering up the space below my bedroom door, so my mother couldn't see the light coming out of my room in the middle of night.
Since she is deaf, I could keep making noise without her knowing :)
I don't have a lot to say about myselft, started playing in 2.3 and after 3 months I hit 40 at Westfall; after that I leveled faster to 60 thanks to a friend. Later I raided some in TBC and a lot in WotLK at ICC; dropped the game in Cataclysm.
But I'm here to tell the story of a friend of mine. This guy started his gaming trajectory in Starcraft, he became in one year one of the best players in Spain thanks to a no life / no school during one year (he faked being sick and his parents didn't know a lot on parenting). After that he left Starcraft. When WoW came out he started playing since korean beta, raided during vanilla until farming Naxx with a spanish guild on Spinebreaker, then on TBC went for pvp on 2vs2 and 3vs3, one of his mates was a warrior called ocelote. Afler winning 2vs2 and 3vs3 on EU he retired and now just plays other things from time to time. I've seen him deleting a gladiator mount because he had two of them and rejecting money for his account.
He wants to play when classic comes out, but I think his competitive personality in games is gonna be a no for me when chilling out while leveling.
I've been the worst when I was about 14-15 years old. My guild was progressing through MC and then BWL and I was in core team. I think we raided at least three times a week from 18:00 to 23:00. On other days I usually grinded gold and geared up (doing some dungeons). I've been neglecting my school a lot. I've never had great grades but at the time there was a risk I'd be repeating year. My parents tried to intervene so I started locking doors to my room. It lasted probably 2-3 months. Each day I got back from school, ate and locked myself to play WoW uninterrupted. I managed to pass to the next year at school but barely.
After these 2-3 months my parents did the talk with me. They told me they were worried I was doing drugs. Well, if you think about it, WoW kind of is a drug. That's when I decided to change things. I've stopped locking doors, spent more time with family and friends, lost weight. I sacrificed AQ40 progression completly. Some other guild took me when TBC was closing in and I did C'thun and first 2-3 bosses of Naxx (still wearing mostly T2). Ever since then I was casual. Never raided in TBC or WOTLK. I quit before Cata.
That's probably the most shameful story of my life. My parents are great people. They did everything for me and more. I never lacked and I let them down back then. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for them. Later on, I have graduated from university with pretty good grades (I think I was amongst top 10 students of my year), so I like to think I've repaid for my past and they can now be proud of me.
I skipped my best friends 21st birthday party to raid AQ40. We wiped all night on Twin Emps and I felt like a shit human being afterwards.
I basically failed 7th and 8th grade year of middle school because I was playing Vanilla and TBC.
edit: I played a prot warrior tank for a raiding guild from ages 11 to 14.
edit 2: I forgot to mention I lied about my age (I believe I said I was 18 because that was the requirement) and didn't use a microphone in ventrilo.
I worked in McDonalds for a couple of years before I went to university and suffered from depression pretty badly. When I wasn't working, I would be on WoW, living off bad food and very little sleep. Sometimes I would just RP in Silvermoon all day, with the occasional BG thrown in.
I remember the day that the South Park episode came on and put it on while I was playing. I saw the guy playing while holding a Rockstar in one hand and looked down and saw myself playing while holding a Rockstar in my hand. Sort of a come-to-Jesus moment for me.
At least it wasn't a can of NOS