Question How can I disable World of Tanks PC game without uninstalling?

[wesc]

My brother is obsessed with this game and is ruining his social side because of it. We're a family of 5 brothers and want to help him out of it but we have to be careful it's not coming across as stopping him from enjoying what he wants to do.

Is there any way we can render the game useless, but without actually uninstalling it? (E.g make it look as if it's a system error and not manually done)

Appreciate any advice. thank you.

 

[Berious]

Won't say the obvious (talk to him etc) as I'm sure you have already exhausted these options and are doing your best to help.

Good luck with your brother! I'm sure he'll get over WoT in time.

It's a touchy subject but he might be actually addicted to the game https://www.webmd.com/mental-health/addiction/video-game-addiction#1

Have a very addictive personality myself and avoid drugs etc because I end up liking them way too much. WoT is a free to play game with microtransactions. Those types of games people can end up spending LOADS of money on. May want to check if he's having money trouble too.

 

[Oussebon]

If this is what's happening and you do find a way to block the game, you're missing the point. Which would quite possibly be, as above, addiction.

There are plenty of other games - or alternatives to games - to get addicted to. Blocking access to one doesn't fix that.

And if he figures out what's going on - i.e. that the IP addresses are blocked and that someone must have blocked them - your credibility with him will be utterly shot.

Which he might figure out e.g. by contacting the game support staff or using an online forum, like you are doing. If you can figure out how to do it, he'll be able to figure out how it was done.

This doesn't seem like a plan that will end well.

Also in terms of providing technical advice here, we should be careful as we don't know what the situation is. We're only presented with one side of it. This will sound harsh, but it's not directed at @wesc at all, rather at internet forum discussion in general. It's a common difficulty with giving advice that could be used against someone else - a bit like when someone says they've 'forgotten their password on a laptop, is there any way they can scan their laptop to get it back?' they're basically asking for advice on how to hack someone's password. Except here it's advice that is explicitly to be used to interfere with someone else's use of a computer.

I hope you all can work things out with your brother - it sounds like he is lucky to have a caring and observant family

 

[Berious]

There are plenty of other games - or alternatives to games - to get addicted to. Blocking access to one doesn't fix that.

And if he figures out what's going on - i.e. that the IP addresses are blocked and that someone must have blocked them - your credibility with him will be utterly shot.

Very good points. There are worse addictions than games & anything that can be done to computers can be undone by someone with enough time and determination. If you take away his game he'll have an abundance of both to get it back.

People with addictions are usually trying to escape/block some unhappiness. It's a form of self-medication really, a really destructive one. Best thing you can do is be there for him.