Stranger Things Star David Harbour Says WoW Ruined His Life For A Year

Stranger Things actor David Harbour has said playing World of Warcraft was the "most embarrassing thing" in his life and that playing the game so intensely "ruined my life for like a year."

"In 2005 I played the shit out of this game! It ruined my life for like a year. I mean, I was like out of my mind. I was wildly addicted to this video game. I was a Night Elf warrior called Norad, and he was second tank of my whole guild," Harbour said in Stranger Things video for Netflix (via PC Gamer).

The actor went on to say he also played The Sims quite a lot, and he had one profound experience in the game that changed his real life.

"It's so funny, because I also played The Sims. You could be an actor on the Sims. You can progress in your career, but what you have to do is, like, work on things. You have to work on your speech and on your body, right? I remember my avatar got to a certain level in his career, and I kept trying to get him to work on his speech," Harbour said. "He was like a supporting player, but I wanted him to work on his speech and his body, and all he wanted to do was sit around and play video games. And then I was like, whoa who whoa whoa, I had this vortex moment where I saw my life before my eyes."

Harbour's Stranger Things co-star Winona Ryder said a real-life actor playing The Sims could "really mess with your head," and Harbour agreed. "That's what it did," Harbour said. "And that's why my life was ruined."

WoW launched in 2004 and is still going strong today, with a new expansion--Dragonflight--in the works for release as the game's ninth expansion.

The first batch of Stranger Things Season 4 episodes are out now, with the remaining installments set to come in July. After that, Netflix will produce one more season and then the show will end.