David Harbour says World of Warcraft 'ruined my life'

YouTube

Henry Cavill, star of The Witcher on Netflix, is beloved in our hearts as a unique blend of suave chat, Olympian physique, and true-blue PC gamer cred. During a Geeked Week livestream for another hit Netflix show, Stranger Things, we heard from the man who may well be the Anti-Henry: David Harbour, who regaled the audience with his own excellent but somewhat different experience with videogames.

Harbour's tale of woe begins around the 17-minute mark of the chat, when host Felicia Day mentions that she and Harbour had recently been talking about World of Warcraft. "Oh my god, the most embarrassing thing in my existence," Harbour says.

"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 videogame. I was a Night Elf warrior called Norad, and he was second tank of my whole guild."

Day, no stranger to WoW herself, asked if Harbour was a raider, and he quickly confirmed that he was, while his co-star Winona Ryder stared at him silently, with an intent look of concern fixed on her face. Harbour then explained that while World of Warcraft ruined his life, it took another, very different game to make him realize it.

"It's so funny, because I also played The Sims. You ever play The Sims?" he went on. "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. 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 videogames. And then I was like, whoa who whoa whoa, I had this vortex moment where I saw my life before my eyes."

David Harbour and Winona Ryder — (Image credit: Netflix)

"An actor playing that game could really mess with your head," Ryder interjected.

"That's what it did," Harbour said. "And that's why my life was ruined."

It clearly all worked out in the end, though. The recently-released fourth season of Stranger Things is setting records, and the show is now headed for its fifth (and final) season. Harbour also recently scored himself a place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the Soviet super-soldier Red Guardian.

"I came back!" he said, "I'm the comeback kid. I'm the Tyson Fury of acting."

Ryder, for her part, said she's just a huge movie fan: When she was a kid, her fantasy was to buy a movie theater and replace all the seats with a bed and a bathtub so she could watch movies all day, every day. "Yo Netflix, if you need your next reality show, all you need to do is buy a theater and a bathtub and a bed, and have Winona Ryder watch movies for her whole life," Harbour said. "I will watch that show. I will watch the shit out of that show!"

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.