MMO & Game Addiction

[Outrider]

Just read a great piece on Kotaku about one of the writer's addiction to Everquest:

http://kotaku.com/5384643/i-kept-playing--the-costs-of-my-gaming-addiction

Worth a read. I've definitely had those days where I just didn't feel like doing anything but wasting time in a game, and I always hate that afterwards. I can't imagine how rough that must be when it consumes almost your entire life.

Does anybody know someone who has been in this situation before?

[Akaimizu]

I've had to deal with many game addictions. Not bad enough that it took many things away from my personal life; but more in the aspect of it killing my playtime of other games I had (and left incomplete). Even the typical pay structure kind of sets you up to keep playing this game, and forgo playing anything else.

Still, I generally find that I can walk away from said games. Cut off the subscription for a while, or whatever, so that I can play other games. I've been a member of a few in my time, but usually stop one to play another. For some time, Guild wars was the only one I was on, and the lack of a monthly pay structure made it easy for me to say "I'll play it on my own time. I don't have to get on everyday." So I could walk away from that for months, play all sorts of other things, and then pop back on for no extra cost.

However, if I ever felt like not doing other stuff, it not because of the game, but because I feel miserable that day. (ie. sick). In some cases, dabbling in that is the only thing I can really do in parts of that day. Problem is, I don't even play that too long if I'm sick. That usually means I'll doze off, and you can't really play and doze off at the same time. Not even in those.

That's when the only games I can play at the time are turn-based. "Chess", "Cards", "Strategy RPG". Where everything waits until you make a move.

My addiction warning came early. They prepared me for what could happen to you if you get too addicted. This was before MMOs. This was "Lemmings". That evil game by DMA design that had me stay up all night, through the morning, just to play another darn level. That was my warning that gaming addiction can be rather detrimental.

[Niered]

Fahey's stuff is usually pretty well written, and it's good to read from someone who's been there and seen how bad things can get.

It really is like any other hobby. Spending too much time doing any one thing is never a good idea, and one really needs to know themselves before they let that sort of thing get out of hand. I can honestly say that its no stretch that I could have fallen into a similar pitfall at the beginning of my college career if I hadn't had such great dormmates that were constantly pushing eachother to get better.

[Neith]

I recently took back up another long-dead hobby of mine, just to stop myself playing games so much. I'm out of work at the moment (though I start again within the next month or so), and most of my friends moved back to the south of the country or took up jobs in other countries, so gaming is one of the main things I have left.

During Uni I frequently got behind because of a mix of games and hating some of the lecturers I had. It's only because of my friends that I managed to pull my ass through the final year.

With Forza 3 releasing here on Friday though, it'll be hard not to get addicted again :disapprove:

[Outrider]

One of my friends actually wound up dropping out of college partly because he would often skip class to play WoW.

He's since gone back to school and just gotten a nursing degree, and oddly enough can't stand WoW anymore.

[joefro]

I've never been personally addicted to any games but one of my friends flunked out his first semester of college because of halo 2 / WoW. I'll admit that I play games quite often but I always know when it's time to stop. I love playing mmos but I don't see how people can get so addicted to them.

[BIG OLAF]

I wouldn't say I'm "addicted" to gaming, but it's practically all I do. I don't have a lot of friends, or a job, or really any sort of social life (don't make fun of me for these things, it's because of a mental issue I have), so I turn to video games for comfort (most notably, PSU).

[Volcompat321]

I wouldn't say I'm "addicted" to gaming, but it's practically all I do.

I would say I'm not addicted either.
I like games, but I don't play on a daily basis. Or even if I do, I don't obsess over it.
I probably play games 4 hours a day. (at most once, during the 1up cup 15 hours in one day...)
But, I was on vacation from work, and I had nothing else to do.
Plus, PSU was still new and awesome, so I wanted to play 24 hours if I could.

Online games are a nice way to meet awesome people.
As stated in other threads, I've made 3 really good friends which I talk to daily outside of PSU through text, the phone, or PSN.
It's a great thing.

[CupOfCoffee]

One of my friends actually wound up dropping out of college partly because he would often skip class to play WoW.

He's since gone back to school and just gotten a nursing degree, and oddly enough can't stand WoW anymore.

Same story here, almost. One of my best pals from back home almost ended up being kicked out of college for having let his grades dip so low due to WoW. He told me he would often stay inside of his apartment for days at a time, not leaving for any reason, and never turning off the game. For a while he got pretty skinny and grew an extremely creepy beard, so I was more than glad when he was put on academic probation and threatened with dismissal. He uninstalled the game, sold his Warlock, and... recently looked back. He's playing the game again now, but hopefully he remembers what happened before and won't let it take over his life like it did before. Got my fingers crossed for him, mos-def.

[Outrider]

He's playing the game again now, but hopefully he remembers what happened before and won't let it take over his life like it did before. Got my fingers crossed for him, mos-def.

Yeah, in the case of my friend, he also sold his character and then went back a few times (and sold a few more characters). It's never lasted very long, though, and he never played it like he used to. These days, he's pretty burnt out on the whole thing.

[Kent]

Ugh, it pains me to see people not taking college seriously.

Back when I started, I started with a group of about 19 students. With the way my school was structured, you'd pretty much stay with the same group of students throughout the classes pertaining to your major. A lot of them played WoW.

...But a good chunk of them would also play the game during class instead of working, which is bad enough on its own. By the time our third quarter rolled around and we were getting into actually doing anything in C++... Almost nobody in the class understood it. The root cause of this? Apparently, a large group of the students had decided it was a better use of their in-class time to use Glider and bot World of Warcraft instead of actually following along and practicing and participating in class.

The end result of this was a large majority of students dropping out entirely, with the number going from 19 down to 6. Granted, there were a few students who were actually struggling with programming (including one guy who actually hadn't had a PC before he got a laptop for school... what?), and I did my best to help out those that were willing to put forth the extra effort to learn, but there are some people that just can't be helped, if they refuse to take it seriously.

Probably the worst part about this, was that it was the teacher's first class they had taught at the school, and ended up getting dismissed because of the complaints from the WoW-botting students and the very high dropout percentage. :/ It was a pretty undeserved result, being that the few students who actually paid attention ended up learning quite a lot from the teacher.

[BIG OLAF]

Ugh, it pains me to see people not taking college seriously.

Back when I started, I started with a group of about 19 students. With the way my school was structured, you'd pretty much stay with the same group of students throughout the classes pertaining to your major. A lot of them played WoW.

...But a good chunk of them would also play the game during class instead of working, which is bad enough on its own. By the time our third quarter rolled around and we were getting into actually doing anything in C++... Almost nobody in the class understood it. The root cause of this? Apparently, a large group of the students had decided it was a better use of their in-class time to use Glider and bot World of Warcraft instead of actually following along and practicing and participating in class.

The end result of this was a large majority of students dropping out entirely, with the number going from 19 down to 6. Granted, there were a few students who were actually struggling with programming (including one guy who actually hadn't had a PC before he got a laptop for school... what?), and I did my best to help out those that were willing to put forth the extra effort to learn, but there are some people that just can't be helped, if they refuse to take it seriously.

Probably the worst part about this, was that it was the teacher's first class they had taught at the school, and ended up getting dismissed because of the complaints from the WoW-botting students and the very high dropout percentage. :/ It was a pretty undeserved result, being that the few students who actually paid attention ended up learning quite a lot from the teacher.


It's stories like this that keep me away from WoW. I've heard from innumerable sources that it feasts on your life force, and destroys your friendships/family ties. While that might be a little extreme, I believe it (for the most part). My friend Andrew is a recovered WoW-aholic, and he states that he'll never play the game again, because of what it did to him.

I've even heard stories of people divorcing their spouses/abandoning their families for WoW. I don't know how true those stories are, but it sounds scary.

[Akaimizu]

I think that's up to the individual. I would believe most people would easily listen to spouses, family members, over WoW. Then again, we are talking about a wide range of people. People who differ in many ways, including being able to catch an addiction strong enough to change their lifestyle that drastically.

Oddly enough, the first people I *really* heard about WoW from was an already-married couple who got into WoW. They got into that stuff together. Not sure if they're worse or better off. While I'm sure the game wont come between their marriage, I don't know what other relationships or life aspects they are missing out on. Perhaps while they love the game, they don't play it to that degree.

I guess I'm too physically active. If I do performances or shows, or get truly active in an outside social activity. The games (even though I have a ton of them) often sit by the wayside, during those periods.

[DreXxiN]

Wow, that is some deep stuff.


I mean, I absolutely love and ADORE gaming with a fiery passion, and something about it is just incredible, especially the variety of community you can meet whom you never thought you would otherwise...

But this..my God. I guess I'm glad me and my friends were very active and physically competitive.

[Kyrith_Ranger_Pso]

One of my friends actually wound up dropping out of college partly because he would often skip class to play WoW.

He's since gone back to school and just gotten a nursing degree, and oddly enough can't stand WoW anymore.

that's the biggest game addiction problem ever, WoW draws u in and u don't come out good thing it never happened to me (never actually got on the real servers just private servers). I completely believe those stories cuz my brothers friends who play WoW don't do anything else (I Don't really kno how they're friends, maybe they started playing after they met him or it's a school friendship).

i've never really had an addiction, altho there hav been a few times when i played 4 like 8 hours straight (but that only happens one time before my short attention span kicks in and i don't play the game again 4 like a month).

[Kent]

It's stories like this that keep me away from WoW. I've heard from innumerable sources that it feasts on your life force, and destroys your friendships/family ties. While that might be a little extreme, I believe it (for the most part). My friend Andrew is a recovered WoW-aholic, and he states that he'll never play the game again, because of what it did to him.

I've even heard stories of people divorcing their spouses/abandoning their families for WoW. I don't know how true those stories are, but it sounds scary.
It's more of a common personality disorder than it is an actual problem with World of Warcraft. During my last year and a half of college (continuing for about half a year afterward), I started playing - partially because a friend of mine (who actually plays responsibly, and was also freshly back from being in Germany for a year) wanted me to, and partially because I wanted to make sure people knew that the problem wasn't with WoW, it was with the people, themselves. Spoiler alert: I graduated valedictorian.

It's wrong to villianize a game simply because people like it. It's a successful game for a reason; but when a particular game is literally the most popular thing in the world... It becomes relatively-common for stories to come out about how it's "eating away lives" of individuals, simply because they get addicted. It stands to reason that the higher total population of people there are playing a single game, the higher the total number of those people will be "addicted" and made into unfortunate stories of addiction and negligence.

In my opinion, if you have a problem with addiction to games... You shouldn't really be playing them on your own. If you can't justify putting your real life first, then how can you justify living another one?

...Personally, though, I'd say a more valid reason for staying away from World of Warcraft would be how silly the difficulty level gets to be toward the end. They stray from the "make the fights harder" sort of challenge and drastically favor the "make the numbers bigger" sort.

[Delete]

Me and my friends are kinda addicted to Borderlands at the moment ( got to 30 in one day ). But that's because it's new and fun. I think the only game me and my friends have ever been addicted to for years was Psu but thankfully, that's starting to end : P

[KodiaX987]

A MMO is a second job you pay for.

And now's the selling point: it is much easier than your day job.

Of course we'd rather be doing raids in WoW than serving customers or coding stuff or moving boxes around in a warehouse. That's because it's easier. We get a reward for doing something that's usually fun and we're usually pretty damn good at it. You don't have a boss, you're free to join and leave guilds at any time, and you can stake out on your own with no problem. Given a choice, most people would rather play a MMO.