War Trauma Recovery through World of Warcraft

[Bjorgan]

Hello everyone! I'm very excited to be here. I have been watching videos from different sources and creating my own process to develop a cycle of accelerating returns for almost two years now. That being said, a little over two years ago I decided to stop my lifelong habit of playing World of Warcraft and "Get serious about my life". After two years of not playing, however, I found that the quality of my life had actually DECLINED, most likely due to the fact that I had actively denied the process that was most authentic to me. 

 

I decided to return to the game, seeing as how I have spent the 10,000 hours already that is generally required for anyone to master any sort of craft and tried finding a space where my knowledge, skills and passion for the game could make a healing impact on the lives of others. I quickly found a community dedicated to organized, massive scale world PvP (player versus player) content and quickly found myself hooked and sustained in a need for connection and community that I had been severely lacking throughout the course of my entire life.

 

I was quickly welcomed into the fold of the organization (with over 20,000 members!), which is held together by an academic hierarchy of practical and applicable knowledge relative to the game. If you understand the basics of how to bring the army in to spread across the map and capture objectives, you gain a rank. If you can teach others this process, you gain the next rank. If you can write documents or teach practical skills, you move up again. And so on.

 

After talking with our community organizer who invests a lot into the upkeep of the community (there is a community funded social framework which is voluntary to support), I learned that the organization - which has been around since the days of Warhammer Online and precedes even World of Warcraft - will be moving its focus over to creating an environment of play, connection, epic storytelling and higher learning so as to create a recovery environment for veterans who may be in need of a structure that allows them to return to a place within themselves where they may be struggling to integrate.

 

I am here on the forums to ask for any insight and knowledge anyone can provide - in this venture, I will be investing my knowledge of community organizing and trauma recovery to be the best advocate for these people's healing that I can be, but of course I do not have every perspective.

 

Thanks,

Bjorgan.

A.K.A. Bjorncé

A.K.A. The Mandabjorian

A.K.A. The Dragonbjorn

[Jonac]

36 minutes ago, Bjorgan said:

I decided to return to the game, seeing as how I have spent the 10,000 hours already

Wow, you should be really good at that game

[Bjorgan]

26 minutes ago, Jonac said:

Wow, you should be really good at that game

I've been playing since I was 12. I'm 27. You might say i was bjorn for this. Thankfully I'm not bjored of it yet.

Edited January 28, 2020 by Bjorgan

[Pallero]

Do you mean to say that these veterans would be given the opportunity to integrate trauma through gameplaying?

[Bjorgan]

 

8 hours ago, Pallero said:

Do you mean to say that these veterans would be given the opportunity to integrate trauma through gameplaying?

That's exactly it! The social framework and gameplay style allows them to enter the emotional states where the trauma lies while simultaneously tapping into their childlike nature by invoking play. We also aim to tackle social isolation and disconnection - a lot of folks that play with us are physically disabled or severely agorophobic, so they struggle to get the connection they need.

Edited January 29, 2020 by Bjorgan

[Bjorgan]

I'm aware that there are limitations to the types of personal growth that one can achieve within such a space, but when you're trapped in your house, afraid, alone and hurting it's a great place to start.

[purerogue]

Thank you for trying to make people life better.

As I understand you want to lead people into discovering positive life again and you can't really ask of them to do any practice, which would mean your leaders must very talented in understanding personality of member from indirect communication,judge best approach to get person inside states of healing, you must be very good with moving people into right direction without them even noticing it, it alone is skill.

What I am getting at is that first focus should be leaders, as they are pillar of community , if leader is good one day and having breakdown another day it can cause distrust for long time, so people in charge should be positive,fair and doing their best at all times, if he does not feel good and there is some event , or anything really, he should probably take day off, or use another account for that period.

To give any opinion on methods I would first need to know how your system works,what you do , what is your approach. 

 

Edited January 30, 2020 by purerogue

[Leo Gura]

On 1/28/2020 at 0:24 PM, Bjorgan said:

I decided to return to the game, seeing as how I have spent the 10,000 hours already

That's super unhealthy.

It's going to become your crutch.

If you want to seriously overcome war trauma and flourish, psychedelics are the way.

You haven't lived yet. But I totally understand the appeal of online games. I played many of them.

[Pallero]

13 hours ago, Bjorgan said:

 

That's exactly it! The social framework and gameplay style allows them to enter the emotional states where the trauma lies while simultaneously tapping into their childlike nature by invoking play. We also aim to tackle social isolation and disconnection - a lot of folks that play with us are physically disabled or severely agorophobic, so they struggle to get the connection they need.

Okay. I don't know what "play" stands for here, but it might be useful to consider that when a person's trauma memory is triggered, they might not be in a very playful mood. The people will have to be provided with validation and comfort, a safe space to process the trauma.

[Bjorgan]

@Leo Gura

I'm well aware of your nerd cred. Bioshock dev! Super cool. I think there's also some miscommunications happening here. I am personally not a veteran. I only seek to use my experience within the format of the game to offer context on trauma and integration. It is not the highest consciousness resource available, granted. However, as an individual open to psychedelic work I know I have a potential to be a light in the darkness here.

Many of the people opting into the gaming experience will choose alcohol or some other substance/behavior to perpetuate their cycle of addiction. My intent is to develop a personal process of growth that I can share within a community based on the deconstruction of social archetypes within the game as a shared community experience of Self (capital S, as you say) exploration. Hopefully the game itself will serve as an alternative to these sorts of abuses while opening the door for expansion.

For instance, the Priest archetype offers 3 unique denominations of gameplay. Shadow, Discipline and Holy. I am currently digging into the shadow archetype and finding that the archetypal framework rests a lot on Jungian theory and poetically integrates parallels to the psychological dynamics of projection and ego dynamics. Mastering the priest in full will require the player to invest in understanding this archetypal framework, which hopefully will lead them to an interest in shadow work! Stan Lee had similar practices in Marvel comics integrating scientific concepts to inspire the modern nerd.

I am being pragmatic about my skillset while constructing a process of personal development from the angle I enjoy most. Eventually I hope to push the limits of growth within the space to its highest boundaries. From there, my brother and I plan to make games of our own. 

It will take years, but I am also interested in the prospect of creating a game that integrates the growing seed of the field of "technodelics" and simulating extradimensional experiences and phenomena to offer a holistic exploration through the sensory experience of gaming.

So much love for you and what you do, my friend!!! I'm grateful for any more insight or thoughts you have to offer. And yes, I'm aware there's a level to which my ego is challenging and rationalizing this, but I feel extremely passionate about investing into this possibility, if not simply to exhaust it and move forward elsewhere.

Edited February 3, 2020 by Bjorgan

[Bazooka Jesus]

@Bjorgan I think it's amazing that you are actively trying to help other people to overcome their hardships in your own unique way -- which is more than probably 90% of all the guys who post here can honestly say about themselves, myself included. And I love your positive attitude.

Not everyone needs to preach world renounciation from a lofty mountain top; sometimes it's better to meet people at their own level. Keep doing your thing and spread the love, my friend!