bubbles

I Am A Recovering Addict of MMORPG Games - ShoeMoney®

This is probably the only post on his blog worth reading all the way through. Its long so I'll sum it up.

I used to do tech support
I started playing everquest
I got fat
I moved in with my parents
I moved in with my friend
I got my life somewhat together
I started playing WoW.
I had a moment of clarity.
I can no longer play games on teh interwebs
Sad Face
Teh End

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amanda11

He's a maggot for wasting his life writing that shit ... holy shit that's a long post.

dschus

After reading this, it made me feel even better that I am not Shoemoney.

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The_Stove

I have friends who have wasted hundreds of hours on that stuff. It's sad, because they're pretty bright people who could probably do some great things if they would that much time and effort towards something productive.

Albus Finch

Regardless of what you think about the guy, he knows how to write linkbait.

amanda11

His mother is a link bait

amanda11

Fuck that! I'm going to start playing Diablo 2 again.

Frank E

That made me LOL.



....ok back to work for me

ChrisS

God I hope he wrote that for linkbait. I was in a constant state of cringing as I read that.

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Netphase

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JamesH

^^ Haha was thinking the same thing.

emp

Actually, 2 of the best programmers I have known have succumbed to the same shit.

Escapism to the extreme, and I am not even kidding.
One lost his job and then spent the next half year living in WoW, pissing away his savings.
The other one was caught in a crappy job (same I was in, but I got out) and basically just decided to quit coming to work and spend his time boozed up, playing Lineage II.
Needless to say, they fired his sorry ass.

Both bright, highly intelligent people, but nothing would get through to them anymore. The MMORPGs got more important than anything else.

I do enjoy my games and yes, I have been lost to the world for some time as well. I cherish my escapism, to say the least.
But I have never crossed that line.

(And before you get all high and moral on me - don't kid yourself, escapism can be fueled by anything - books, movies, internet forums...waitasecond...)

::emp::

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gdubs12345

mmorpg addiction is the most pathetic thing i have ever heard of. If your gonna be addicted at least get high or something

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Drake

Starcraft addiction is ok right? I mean it is less lame at least.

MyOwnDemon

I love video games. I play them a lot. But I don't get completely lost in them. I am still able to come back to reality and function and get my work done, haha.

These people that get completely lost in these games are probably severely depressed and it's the only thing that gives them any joy.

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Deliguy

That was a great post for him to make. I"m sure he has quite a few readers with that same problem. Hopefully he put some perspective in their heads about it and what can happen. I'm one of the lucky bunch of nerds that has no patience for a game. I can play dice wars or spider solitaire for a couple minutes but thats pretty much it. Any game that takes more than 5 minutes to play gets on my nerves. Although that mobsters game on myspace is addicting as hell! It's the type of game that captures me because you only spend a couple seconds at a time on it throughout the day. It's like click click click you're done for a couple hours, but then a couple hours later you're like OH MAN I GOT TO DO MY CLICKS! haha

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BluuueJammm

There's a good reason it's nicknamed Warcrack. I've never been anywhere near as bad as that, but it's easy to waste faaaaar too much time on crap like that.

bb_wolfe

I'd also bet that some pretty high level stress or deeply rooted depression played a role. I was into online poker for a year, mostly the free shit, and literally played 10 hours a day, 7 working hours! I lost a grand total of $200 that year, which at the time, scared the shit out of me that I'd potentially be a gambling addict.

Of course, after being in Vegas for 10 days last month, I know I'm not an addict, I just really fucking suck at gambling!

They also had an Intervention (A&E Series in US) about a dude who was addicted to video games/gaming. Pretty deep stuff these folks get into.

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RockDiesel

A guy I knew got fired from his job and had to move back in with his parents because he was addicted to WoW.

When the latest expansion came out he didn't even sleep until he reached the level cap in like 4 days. All he wanted to do was setup Raids with his guild. This guy was definitely addicted.

barman

i can see why this happens to people. i used to be addicted to a few games back in the day.... just mild addiction, nothing like the had to quit my job addiction. When WoW came out i vowed not to play it, and have not played it to this day. Take that blizzard!

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Sawya

I can't play games. I get too impatient during the newb phase.

_poto_

when I was a teenager I got addicted to games for a while... used to play all day and night and shit... but then I met a girl and started getting some pussy...

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KSRothwell

Oh I play the fuck out of games and love it. I have had to quit playing MMOs though, because it's so easy to loose time. I could sit at my computer, fire up WoW then suddenly realize six hours went by and I hadn't done a thing.

I was addicted like crack to GTA4. But that was short lived addiction, it stopped after I beat the game. Once I beat it I stopped playing it. Same is true with Mass Effect and as well as a few others. Once the game is over, I’m done. I think this is why MMO's are so bad for me, there is no ending. There is nothing that tells me that I’ve won and I can quit.

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JamesH

I use to be addicted to Counter Strike a few years back. Only lasted a summer though. When you can't drive, none of your friends can drive, etc its easy to spend all day playing games. Couple that with the fact that you're the only kid in your neighborhood and it gets boring at home. But that was when I was in middle school. I realized that I was wasting time doing that shit, and thats when I started working online.

alexb

I played WoW for a bit (quit last October). Got my character to 70, did the raiding/PvP thing, etc. Overall the experience was 'meh'. I never really played for more than 2 hours a night (3-4 times a week), and it just got too damn boring towards the end.

Wasn't a complete waste though. My girlfriend had to go home for 3 months out of the year, and we played WoW together while she was gone. It was a nice way to keep doing stuff together.

But I digress. I know exactly what Shoe is talking about. My freshman year roommate got hooked, and it was like watching a building fall down in slow motion. Before WoW came out, he played a lot of Counter Strike, but he still went out to parties, went to class, etc. After WoW, he stopped going out with friends, never went to class (he played from 2 PM til 8 AM. Sleep a bit, repeat), and eventually he only left the room twice a day (to shower and run across the street for Subway). Tuesdays (when the servers were down), he'd just sit in front of his computer refreshing the server list (for hours), waiting for his server to come back up.

It was the most pathetic thing I've ever seen.

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Janaic

Halo III live kicks ass.

amanda11

The only video game worth playing is pac man or pong. You play that shit for 2 minutes, realize you're wasting your life away, then you go outside and play.

pacman0r

pacman ftw :x

HarveyJ

Hey, the same thing happened with The Sims when it first came out... People remember what SimHeads were like?
I knew a guy that played it for 40 hours straight and collapsed.

The real issue is that people simply can't deal with their own lives, so they make "better" ones online.
Emp said it best. It's escapism... But unlike a book or a movie, where there's a definite ending and you have to get back to your life when it's over, MMOs are designed to be open ended and never have to finish... So there's always one more thing to kill, one more item to collect, and one more quest to finish before everything's "perfect".

At least the addiction isn't the type that physically harms it users (unless you coun't obsessive twinkie consumption and complete lack of exercise... but that's just like weed anyway) or lead to higher crime stats for people looking for their next fix (except in really rare circumstances... like Korean LAN cafes)

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amanda11

Obviously video games is a form of entertainment. We're just occupying ourselves, forgetting that the clock is ticking before we grow old and die.

But hey! That's life