Asperger Syndrome vs. World of Warcraft

How my college roommate failed out of UCLA

In 2010, I was asked to write about my freshman year experience at UCLA, when I discovered that my roommate, Jimmy, had Asperger Syndrome.

Jimmy was a brilliant Computer Science student in high school — and he became one of the highest ranked World of Warcraft players in the world while we lived together at UCLA.

We literally had people calling our landline from every continent, hoping to speak with Jimmy to discuss World of Warcraft strategy.

During our 3rd quarter at UCLA, World of Warcraft took over Jimmy’s entire life — to the point where he failed to attend a single class.

My story below was included in a collection of stories exploring Asperger Syndrome called Growing Up on The Spectrum, published by Penguin Books.

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My freshman-year roommate at UCLA never really showered. California droughts and a liberal campus — I guess this made sense.

Unfortunately, Jimmy never had a friend or family member around to give him feedback on his body odor.

As far I could tell, Jimmy had no friends at UCLA— and quite often, he went days without leaving our dorm room.

At the time, I knew little about AS and only diagnosed Jimmy’s condition after noticing an Asperger’s self-help book on his desk.

His quirks and social particularities started to make more sense, and I started to understand why Jimmy never left our shoebox of a room.