When a game takes away your life

[bradclark1]

Caution: Its a Skybird length article :)

http://soulkerfuffle.blogspot.com/2006/10/view-from-top.html

[WutWuzDat]

Wow... It is amazing how much time I do spend playing games. While it is all good fun, I have to remember to keep it down some times.

[fredbass]

I did the WoW thing for a while so I know where the guy was coming from. Once you get sucked into a guild, you start to feel like you have to play more and more to keep up and do the things that everybody else is doing, while not letting them down. There certainly is pressure to survive, get your skill level up and help your team win.

[kiwi_2005]

Im addicted to the mmorpg game Guildwars more than any other game ive ever played in my life. I dont want to admitt that the game has a hold on me - yet i know it does, some days i will play GW all day straight and if i want to lvl up my character to 20 i will play a good 30hrs without sleep - fact is when playing these mmorpgs you seem to find the energy, somehow your body is buggered yet your mind is racing its the new drug of this time. 25 30 hrs into the game and theirs no hint of tiredness im wide awake and making plans on my next mission. Unbelievable. Only when i force myself to go to bed and lay down then i notice how exhausted my body is i fall asleep in 2 seconds :lol: Will sleep maybe 5hrs get up and back into it again.

One of the main reasons why im changing to broadband soon is because i want to play World of Warcraft. I know what to expect have a couple of friends that play this game one has just ended a 7 yr relationship with his girlfriend because of this game. Do you think hes worried? Nope all hes worried about is getting his Mage character up lvls and becoming leader of a guild. Mmorpgs are very addictive.

Actually i wouldn't be surprise if we read one day of officals trying to band WOW or all mmorpgs. Hope not!

[The Noob]

Begin a Gamer changed my life.

I now leave the bed in 5 'o Clock and go to bed in 23:00. Usually. Sometimes i hang infront of the PC the whole night and sleep at day, but thats only sometimes. Because i play multiple games i plan every hour of my day so that everything fits, including 6 Hours of PC time. Forums excluded. From 5 to 13:00 i do Computer stuff, and from 16:00 to 20:00.

I could be what you call a "Gamer-Freak".

I have 2 Gaming friends wich you could consider strange too. Zermetzler and Jogi. jogi plays WoW often, Zermetzler is a Day of Defeat elite player.

And i Play DoD, CS, SH3, and a few more.

@WutWuzDat

I know what you are talking about...sometimes i have to force me to stop for at least that bit real life that i still have left...:lol:

[HunterICX]

:smug: I used play a lot...but now I,m busy with other things my max hours are 3 - 4 hours (weekends and wheater may increase it a bit). and sometimes I dont even turn it on :up:

and the game WoW sucks...lost a couple of mates because of that stupid life wasting game.
the only RPG I play and ever played is diablo 2.

Its actually freaking ridiculious what people do with these games, they pay everymonth to play online sometimes they buy a very expensive system just to play THAT game.
I dont upgrade my Pc untill I find it necesary, I have changed my PC of a total 2 times
my own Pentium 2 1997 and my current Pentium 4 2004, now in the house we have 2 other Pc's but they are not mine to touch , they are from my dads work and I,m only allowed to touch it when the Pc needs a good clean up.

Now I see people on some Forum are planning to buy a next gen system to play the next gen game....so they are about to waste over a 2000 € system to play a game... and I ask them you spend that much money to play a game? thats a waste.

And just see the things they put in games...something that is addiction.
WoW and other RPG already has it. the urge to become the strongest char on the server.

In BF2 it was the award system. I saw in the rankings that people spended over 6000 hours on that game. to proof it http://bf2s.com/player/47185201/


now just to do the maths he spend a full 263 days playing that game.
isnt that a waste?

[Rose]

DAMN, this article makes me feel better about my game-playing habits. I went on my xfire profile and calculated that I've only spent about 2.5 weeks over the past 3 years playing computer games, and only about 3 hours this week. That's pretty good for someone who has 10 games installed.

[TteFAboB]

I've played Anarchy Online and Dark Ages of Camelot.

Currently I have WWIIOL installed, it's a MMORPG First Person Shooter/Tanker/Flyer/Skipper, so no "leveling"/time-sink crap. Just on the beginning as you need to "rank up" to be able to "spawn in" all the good stuff but that doesn't take long at all. The average playing session is from 1 hour to 4 hours. Flying takes more time than fighting on the ground since you have to travel in Real-Time and WW2 planes don't do Mach 2.

Anyway, Dark Age of Camelot did it for me. Anarchy Online, I dedicated plenty of time to it, I remember trying to eat while playing a few times but moved on into DAoC. Pure non-sense, it's all a waste of life unless you are retired and have nothing to do all day long. But I don't plan to ever retire, so...

One day, I got fed-up with Dark Age of Camelot, and that's not a difficult game to reach the "best levels" at for the fanatical standards. But I wasn't fanatical enough. It seems WoW is far more insane than it. When I got tired of the grind, I decided to buy myself the top level. I paid ~70$ on eBay to a leveling "company" and they took me to the max level in a few days plus left me with millions of virtual money looted in the process. With the money, I purchased good equipment plus financed my Alchemy craft, spent all the points on my character and proceeded to the Realm vs Realm arenas to enjoy my moment of glory.

It took all the addiction away. When you have a level 50 character handed over to you, and when you spend all the skill points and stuff in one go, the real essence of the game turns out to you: empty virtual accomplishment. The experience of leveling isn't worth anything. What do you learn? Not self-restraint, not self-control, you learn to be anxious, you learn names of monsters, you learn caves and dungeons. The opportunity of meeting interesting people is the only worth reason to play these things. But guess what, you don't need an online game to meet new interesting friends.

You see my point? Spending months playing 12 hours a day is as rewarding as figuring a way to get 70$ back in real-life to buy the whole 12 daily hours package, it's equal! If you spend 12 hours a day at a good-paying job or use it to get money however else, you can simply skip the 12 hours a day for so many months and get the good stuff.

My advice is this. Go do something to do with money in real-life for 12 hours a day and then buy yourself your character. Addiction solved.

Obviously, I'm out of this crazyness as I have far better things to spend money on and especially save. But if it means so much to you, if you truly want that skill so much, the sound investment is in real-life where you can get money to skip days of playing and get that level quicker. Come to think of it, just don't sell your house or your wife's kidneys for it, okay? :arrgh!:

By the way, you might be thinking that the 70$ wasn't worth it since I no longer play DAOC and as I've said don't have any enlightening experience learned from it to share. Well, that's true, but in the end it turned out to be no waste at all: I sold the character on eBay for 150$. :)

[kiwi_2005]

I sold the character on eBay for 150$. :)

I have brought Green weapons on an NZ trading site for Guildwars many times, green weapons are the best you can get then its gold, then purple etc., just recently i brought 200k (200,000 Gold) online :lol:
Of course i could find them myself in the game if i farm more often but sometimes ya need that 50+ damage weap straight away!

[ASWnut101]

oh god! I hear already too much about WoW! enough!!!!Stop!!!AGRHHHHHHHH!!:cool: :doh: :88) :dead:

[The Noob]

Whats ye problem ASW? Drank gasoline again? :lol: ;)

[Iceman]

You guys are not alone...I played Asheron's Call for a few years and dragged my son along with me for like 2 yrs almost maybe...it got very tideous and boring and I have another interest which is web building etc graphics and web based stuff so finally found a good company and took the $120 bucks I would have spent on an online game and spend it for my own domain and web space so I can do all the things now with it that I always wanted too..and actually spend alot less time on the gaming...if we game now it is only free not subscription based...I just finished Doom3 with my new system and it was awesome..I play Americas Army which I find pretty cool to kill some time and hang with the guys for a while but I can lay it down and move on to other things ....my son plays Runescape which I think is toataly lame but I see how it is trying to draw him into the same trap...but if he doesnt make honor roll no computer....his grades this period slipped to 3 A's and 2 C's...wifie cut him off of the computer...:) during the weekdays to re-focus on school.

I watched the trailers for the WOW game and almost got drawn into but from my past experiences with it, it wastes way too much time and we are all allocated only so much of that anyways...:arrgh!:

[Wim Libaers]

Hmm... I started on Anarchy Online when they made it free. Walked around a bit, killed some creatures, leveled up a bit. After a few hours, I was thinking, OK, so now I leveled up because I killed a few rats, next step is to level up again by killing some more slightly stronger rats. So I uninstalled it.

That conclusion might have been easier because I didn't pay for it, and therefore had no reason to fool myself into believing I had not just thrown money away. But still, it makes me wonder why, among all games available, so many people seem to choose MMORPG games for their addiction. I mean, if you really have to become addicted, can't you try Dangerous Waters or Falcon 4 or something like that instead?

[HunterICX]

Hmm... I started on Anarchy Online when they made it free. Walked around a bit, killed some creatures, leveled up a bit. After a few hours, I was thinking, OK, so now I leveled up because I killed a few rats, next step is to level up again by killing some more slightly stronger rats. So I uninstalled it.

That conclusion might have been easier because I didn't pay for it, and therefore had no reason to fool myself into believing I had not just thrown money away. But still, it makes me wonder why, among all games available, so many people seem to choose MMORPG games for their addiction. I mean, if you really have to become addicted, can't you try Dangerous Waters or Falcon 4 or something like that instead?

:hmm: MMORPG is so famous amongst the gamers because:
1. you create ur own character, you make him ur own style. who doesnt like that hoh.
2. also the game is 1 big cock fight whois the strongest.
3. dont forget the Items you can find and trade ... ow god...some fokes trade all time...
4. And who doesnt like to achieve victory by beating up a big bad ass huge monster..that makes u feel a real hero doesnt it
5. Why play outside with friend or go out with them, while all that is in 1 game...you play Outside in an virtual wonderfull world and you grab a beer and burp along Ventrillo or Teamspeak.
6. And on a bad mood day...you can insult everyone of using Hacks/cheats. and chop of a few heads. well at least its better then beating ur sister again.
7. and who doesnt like Person versus person fight. hey! you can insult him on the harders ways...you kill the poor fella. Dont get into a Bar fight though, in real life there are no spells avaible and the clothes ur wearing dont work as the Angelic Gothic Armore Plate ur char has

I dont play it...and never will.

[kiwi_2005]

Hmm... I started on Anarchy Online when they made it free. Walked around a bit, killed some creatures, leveled up a bit. After a few hours, I was thinking, OK, so now I leveled up because I killed a few rats, next step is to level up again by killing some more slightly stronger rats. So I uninstalled it.

That conclusion might have been easier because I didn't pay for it, and therefore had no reason to fool myself into believing I had not just thrown money away. But still, it makes me wonder why, among all games available, so many people seem to choose MMORPG games for their addiction. I mean, if you really have to become addicted, can't you try Dangerous Waters or Falcon 4 or something like that instead?

:hmm: MMORPG is so famous amongst the gamers because:
1. you create ur own character, you make him ur own style. who doesnt like that hoh.
2. also the game is 1 big cock fight whois the strongest.
3. dont forget the Items you can find and trade ... ow god...some fokes trade all time...
4. And who doesnt like to achieve victory by beating up a big bad ass huge monster..that makes u feel a real hero doesnt it
5. Why play outside with friend or go out with them, while all that is in 1 game...you play Outside in an virtual wonderfull world and you grab a beer and burp along Ventrillo or Teamspeak.
6. And on a bad mood day...you can insult everyone of using Hacks/cheats. and chop of a few heads. well at least its better then beating ur sister again.
7. and who doesnt like Person versus person fight. hey! you can insult him on the harders ways...you kill the poor fella. Dont get into a Bar fight though, in real life there are no spells avaible and the clothes ur wearing dont work as the Angelic Gothic Armore Plate ur char has

I dont play it...and never will.

Play hard, fight dirty, only way to live:arrgh!: