My question here is simply this: Does anyone here at Giantbomb have any stories of gaming addiction they know of? It seems to be a very touchy topic that isn't posted on much anywhere, and I think it really is an issue that needs to be dealt with.
I recently watched the Extra Credits episode on Youtube, the new one this week. For the link, it's here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/ExtraCreditz#p/a/u/2/00SvIIualUw
After all the parts, it totals up to nearly half an hour, so watch it in bits if you need to. But I definitely recommend watching it, especially if you don't get out of the house much. It's not necessary for this thread, but please watch it. At least the first part.
Also, I know they call it compulsion in the episode but I'm sticking with the word addiction because more people will get what I mean.
The following is my story of being addicted to games; it isn't particularly compelling but I'd feel hypocritical without posting it; it isn't necessary reading for this thread, but again, please do:
I can't say that I've ever been addicted to the point of completely losing touch with reality. But I've gotten close. Surprisingly, I've never stayed up too late on a school night or any day when I need to get up early, but often I'll drag myself in bed at 3 or 4 in the morning if nothing special is going on the next day. Up until this point I've passed off on anything that I don't specifically need to do in order to play more games. Never MMO's, for fear of falling even further, but I've still skipped out on social events, some college classes, and doing other things that I want to do but never have due to too many games. It was actually a huge variety of things - unlike a lot of stories about gaming addiction, the games I played were single player. Sometimes multiplayer shooters, mostly Halo Reach and MW2, but I mostly found myself in front of single player shooters and open world games. My second semester of college is when this hit its highest peak. Oh, I had a job - it was a do-nothing student worker job where I sat at the IT Help Desk at my job from 4-7PM every other day. Guess what I did after everyone else left me to my lonesome? Played Halo online on my laptop. I did do some work, but that's mostly what I would do. As for classes, I often skipped them due to lack of sleep from thinking about gaming. Even in class, I would think about gaming or anime. Because of it, my grades dropped dramatically and I nearly made no B's. Passed everything, but just barely.
Luckily, I managed to procure a summer help job at the very same IT Help Desk. Also luckily, it was an 8-5 job and I couldn't bring my laptop at all due to being supervised. And I found myself working my ass off. And it felt good to do something else. I still played a lot, but I couldn't do it all the time and got some responsibility. Now that the new semester's starting, I've got to get on the ball and do what I can to make excellent grades and get a life. I also hope to get back on writing a novel (something which I've started many times over my life but never finished, save for once a long time ago). By the way, that will definitely go through a whole lot more editing than this post full of horrid run on sentences and the probable grammar errors.
So, I'm only just now pulling out of this gaming addiction. If you've read this far, then what about those of you that have dealt with it? Do you still play video games? How often? How well do you manage it? What's your story of figuring out that you need to get out of it?
Gaming Addiction - Have you been there?
This would've been a much more interesting read had you mentioned what games you played whenever you missed out on a social event or got distracted at work. There's a huge difference between someone addicted to making XP in Blops, and someone who's actually playing somewhat deep video games and spending hours upon hours of their lives building empires or leading armies or going through a long story-driven RPG experience instead of putting efforts into shaping their real lives
I think there's a difference between addiction and lack of priorities. I am not entirely sure where I stand, probably somewhere in the middle. I'll some day stress over a feeling of not having time to get better at Starcraft or finishing some games, yet I probably have opportunity and/or play games during most of my spare time. My girlfriend has complained about my habits more than once and I just chalk it up to her not having any hobbies of her own and I lack time to give her that much because I have so much to do. But it's probably a lot of me not prioritizing the spare time I have enough, and end up wasting a lot of that time I could put towards finishing a game by not playing those games or simply stand around looking at my collection for half an hour trying to decide what to play.
On top of that, I seem to buy games for the sake of buying games at times, creating that backlog. Much like I eat unhealthy because I can. But that's probably the kid in me trying to get things he couldn't when he was younger and the adult in me isn't always in control.
As for the social aspect, I did once reschedule with a friend due to GTA IV arriving in my mailbox. It was a dick move and while we met up just a day later or so, I still wonder till this day what the hell I was thinking. Especially since he now moved out of town and we see each other maybe a few times per year at most. And sleep is something I've gotten more of as of late both in due to my girlfriend insisting on me sleeping but also because I'm realizing life is a little bit easier if you don't try to work on 3-4 hours of sleep per night and stay up all night gaming.
I read somewhere that you know you do something too much when you ask yourself if you should take some time off. And I've recently thought about taking some time off all things entertainment technology.. such as gaming, internet (aside from possibly podcasts for work), tv/movies and so on. See what I would do with my time if I didn't have those things around on a daily basis. Would I get to the gym more? Take trips somewhere? Read my backlog of books? (I don't count this into entertainment as I rarely do it and I have a lot of factual books I'd like to get to) Get my photography going? Or just sleep my time away? -- Only time will tell.
I kinda had a problem with Diablo 2 after Highschool.
Also I took like a year and a half away from gaming and only got back into it a few months ago. And I'm really not gonna go into why I quit.
I was hugely addicted to Counter Strike while I was still in school, to the point that I would skip school and blow off seeing friends so I could hang in net cafes.
The upshot was that I became pretty damn good at CS. The downside is that it's very difficult to function as a 16 year old when you NEED to play CS for hours upon hours per day, or you start getting jittery.
To be fair, I was having a lot of personal issues at the time, from the mundane ("omg I'm the only teenager ever to hate school!") to the more serious, including living I'm a household with a dad suffering from severe depression and PTS, and my own descent into drug and alcohol abuse as I fell in with some bad people.
Thankfully, I pulled myself out of it eventually and realised that winning 8 hours a day Of CS wars while drinking a bottle of vodka and taking bong rips wasn't really all that conducive to a full life, and I got myself back on track by the time I hit 19, especially with the help of my now-fiancee.
Anyway, like most addiction, I think that it is usually a symptom of something more fundamental being wrong in your life, and that you won't be able to conquer the symptom until you've fixed the underlying issues.
Knights of the old Republic.
Me and my dad were playing it at the same time. My end save time was 42hrs. That was like 2 or 3 weeks since I had school and to SHARE with my dad.
I was playing it and getting realy into to it first day. So after two hours i hand it off to my dad for his two hours. We switch like this for the rest of the day.
Next day we start doing four hours stints. Some effects of not getting to play for 4 hours were actual withdrawl symptoms. So I end up back at school the entire day I cant stop thinking about it. I get home and my dads had the entire day so he is sated. I play for 5 or 6 hours. Then leave my dad to it and go to bed.
I get up go to school i had to keep my mind of it or i would start shakeing and feeling a strong urge to play it. I get home and my dads needing to finish up. I am realy feeling withdrawl. As soon as i lay my hands on the controller I feel better.
Over the week it got worse. I completed it set down my controller finished the credits or what not.......I stood up. I exclaimed to my dad " I feel better now...I dont feel the need to play it now." my dad replied "Yeah i know what you mean. Ive been getting withdrawl sypmtons myself from it....from a computer game....thats fucked up!"
If i do get addicted to a game its real playing it as much as possible till I burn it out. I did that with Dynasty warriors Gundam 3 last week. I played every possible hour. Until I kick the habit. I dont get bad but its of note.
My parents would never let me do that growing up, I usually didn't even get to play during the weekdays. I just started college and moved out for the first time, so I guess it might happen soon but I really haven't played that much. I have a lot of free time so I'll play like an hour or two a day, but that's usually all I feel like playing.
I'm pretty addicted to gaming. Not any particular game or anything, but ill literally spend every second I can consuming interactive media. It's always gotten in the way of any sort of social life (i once broke up with a great girlfriend because she got in the way of me and gaming all the time) and it definitely got in the way of my education. Luckily, ever since I got a job and bills to pay, ive achieved more of a balance out of sheer necessity.
I can get a bit like this when I dont have shit to do, like in the summer, but I never let it affect my life. I never missed work, class, or passed up hanging with my friends or girlfriend because of it. I do have long sessions about 2 times a month where i'll literally spend the whole day playing games, but that is more of a way of getting away from everything else.
There were some periods in high school where I played a shit ton of call of duty 2. Everyday I would come home from school and play until dinner, then sometimes until I went to sleep if I didn't have any homework to do. I was going through a time where I didn't like the people my friends were becoming, so I kind of separated myself from them. So I spent my new time just playing games. I guess you can't say I was addicted or like anyone in these videos because I always prioritized and knew when to not play, but I put away a lot of time to games.
WOW basically took 2 years of my life away from me. Whenever I wasn't working I was raiding or farming for raiding flasks/enchants. I would literally wake up at 7 in the morning and play until 3 or 4 the next morning only stopping for bathroom breaks or to grab something to eat. My friends would call me and I would blow them off due to my raiding schedule. I would also spend countless hours on elitistjerks reading about class
Mechanics and how to becomes a better player. The only time I would go outside was to go to work or smoke pot to make the game more tolerable. I was without a doubt addicted and I haven't played in over a year. I'll never go back.
I've defnitely had food burn while I got sucked into some TF2 or F2P shooters. It's hard to admit an addiction, and I wouldn't say I'm "addicted" per se, but I do have a dependency. I'd love to be a responsible member of society, but that would require going off the video game drip for a while, and I don't think I can do that. The most I can do is set a timer... and then hit snooze.
Yes and quite badly. This was while ago on Star Wars Galaxies, before they dumbed it down. This was my first ever MMORPG and at the time I was unemployed. Not a good combo. I was supposed to search for jobs during the days, but instead I slept till noon and started playing SWG. When my girlfriend came home from work I pretty much ignored her. After going to bed I would always sneak back to my PC and continue gaming til 4-5. This lasted for 6 months or so. I remember one time when it was really bad. We were hosting a party one evening. My brother who came early had to do cleaning and while my gf was cooking. Strangely she didn't leave me because of this. Although we did split few years later. Addiction resolved by us moving and me getting a job. That was a time I don't look fondly back. I know better now that it won't ever happen again. For one, I don't plan to play a MMO ever again. Not because I am afraid getting addicted again. I've played some other MMO's after this already (ATITD, WoW and EVE) and had no such problems. Being a family man doesn't leave much time for MMO's anymore.
Good lord yes. Hand me a video game and I would have played it for ten hours straight rather than see my friends or leave the house even as recently as a few years ago.
They weren't even good games as well. I look back at the amount of time I put into games like Dynasty Warriors 3, or Prototype, or PES5 and it makes me wonder how I did it since I barely get excited for those kind of games anymore.
I still feel the occasional twinge when I'm feeling down or whatever; that compulsion to sit down and forget the world exists and just dive into another one where I can just be. But I'm old enough and wise enough to know that this constitutes the worst kind of escapism (note: there are also great kinds of escapism) and is only detrimental to yourself and those around you. Also my girlfriend absolutely would not allow me to do that anymore (except for when Skyrim and Mass Effect 3 come out. Then I'm locking myself in my room for a month).
Go go gadget short hand answer!
No.
Extra Credits is literally the most pretentious thing on the internet.
Jesus fucking christ, I can't stand it.
No and I'm not convinced it actually exists. I remember when Borderlands came out I'd wake up in the middle of the night and want to play that game. What I realized is that I wanted to see it through since once the credits rolled, I felt no need to go back. I dind't feel an absolute need to play that game to satisphy some kind of benigne thirst. I've these kinds of reactions with books (Shutter Island and Harry Potter are a good example where I'd refuse human interaction until I'd read EVERY LAST PAGE) and Lost (this is my Lost time, don't bother me). Video games aren't addicting, they're compelling some more than others.
Not a "really bad" case of gaming addiction like you see in certain WoW player circles (I still had a lot of real life friends) but I used to play an obsessive amount of Counter-Strike back when it was released during my College years. I stayed with it for almost two years (Beta 0.1 - 6.5) and played in a clan. Then from one day to the next I just decided I don't want to waste my life like this and broke off contact to any "CS friends".
I also made it a principle of mine to never ever touch any mmo-style games; you know ...games that don't have an ending and the sole purpose is to show of your avatar, the highly addictive and time-consuming shit. Instead I'm focussing on great Single-Player experiences and the occasional coop game. I just get more out of that than from the rinse-and-repeat cycles of games like CS, WoW, etc.
I think I was lucky that I learned this lesson about my potential vulnerability to gaming addiction so early on so I never even came close to touching the real hard drugs like WoW.
@Yanngc33 said:
No and I'm not convinced it actually exists. I remember when Borderlands came out I'd wake up in the middle of the night and want to play that game. What I realized is that I wanted to see it through since once the credits rolled, I felt no need to go back. I dind't feel an absolute need to play that game to satisphy some kind of benigne thirst. I've these kinds of reactions with books (Shutter Island and Harry Potter are a good example where I'd refuse human interaction until I'd read EVERY LAST PAGE) and Lost (this is my Lost time, don't bother me). Video games aren't addicting, they're compelling some more than others.
Video gaming addiction is defnitely real. Just because you don't suffer from it doesn't mean it doesn't exist.
No, not really.
I had a little spell when I was just killing Crawmerax in Borderlands over and over again for no reason whatsoever. Well, to get a good gun ... but just for the sake of getting it really, there is nothing left to use it on at that point. This was mainly because I had nothing else to play though, and it's over now because I had to delete the DLC to make some room on my shitty small 20g HDD.
No, I am still convinced addiction shows mental weakness.
It really isn't hard to tell ones self "NO".
@TotalEklypse said:
No, I am still convinced addiction shows mental weakness. It really isn't hard to tell ones self "NO".
That's just ignorant and shows zero understanding of what an addiction actually is. Many factors can contribute to an addiction problem. It's not as easy as just saying "no".
Im not afraid to share my gaming addiction stores, ill say the times i was most addicted was 4 years ago for about 2 years, i just got the ps3 and resistance (my first online game) and fell in love with it, it was also one of my first FPS's and i loved that too. Met a bunch of cool people, got into their clan, and when cod4 released, we all migrated to that. Then it got real bad, id come home from school play for 2 hours as soon as i got home, eat dinner, play for another 2 hours, scribble down my homework, and play untill about 11 at night and repeat the cycle over and over. Then for my birthday my sister bout World of Warcraft, what a mistake that was... i played from february all through the summer and at september i quite because i couldnt balance be addicted to WoW and being addicted to CoD, however each summer id get addicted to WoW again and stop as school rolled by. First i shook of WoW, it just stopped being interesting to me, and i realized what a financial burden it was becoming (for the amount of time i was using it). Nowadays i rarely even get on my ps3, ive almost abandoned video gaming, if i do play its almost always single-player and usually a big game ive been waiting for like Uncharted or such. Im glad ive stopped, my homework has gotten better (as have my grades for it) and i picked up a hobby in boxing which occupies enough of my time.
IT is as simple as that. The only exception is chemical addiction(IE drugs and such which directly effect a balance held by the body naturally). Being addicted to a video game, or books, or any of that.. is garbage. I don't discount they are in fact addicted to it. But they are weak minded to fall into that.@TotalEklypse said:
No, I am still convinced addiction shows mental weakness. It really isn't hard to tell ones self "NO".That's just ignorant and shows zero understanding of what an addiction actually is. Many factors can contribute to an addiction problem. It's not as easy as just saying "no".
Escapist, at best... Mentally feeble at worst.
In my opinion making them out to be some victim is ignorant. Do you like to go around making excuses for everyone (rhetorical)? I'm sorry I don't share your bleeding heart towards humanity, so eager to make excuses for behavior and offer a nice warm hug. Being addicted to a video game to the point of destroying your real life is a bad joke. Or did they figure out a way to grind a game up and inject it into your veins?
PSO for the Dreamcast back in 2001. Had to end it, before it ended me!
@TotalEklypse said:
@CptBedlam said:IT is as simple as that. The only exception is chemical addiction(IE drugs and such which directly effect a balance held by the body naturally). Being addicted to a video game, or books, or any of that.. is garbage. I don't discount they are in fact addicted to it. But they are weak minded to fall into that. Escapist, at best... Mentally feeble at worst. In my opinion making them out to be some victim is ignorant. Do you like to go around making excuses for everyone (rhetorical)? I'm sorry I don't share your bleeding heart towards humanity, so eager to make excuses for behavior and offer a nice warm hug. Being addicted to a video game to the point of destroying your real life is a bad joke. Or did they figure out a way to grind a game up and inject it into your veins?@TotalEklypse said:
No, I am still convinced addiction shows mental weakness. It really isn't hard to tell ones self "NO".That's just ignorant and shows zero understanding of what an addiction actually is. Many factors can contribute to an addiction problem. It's not as easy as just saying "no".
Sorry, but you are a clueless ignorant. I have nothing else to say to you except that talking about gaming addiction is not making excuses. You do realize that there are actual hospitals that focus on gaming addiction, right? Expect these to become much more widespread within the next few decades.
I guess very real medical conditions like Depression are also just a myths to you that you could just say "no" to? Please get some information. Just like with for example Depression there actual chemical brain processes becoming dysfunctional when suffering from things like gaming addiction.
@TotalEklypse said:
But they are weak minded to fall into that.
This here is the worst part. As I said: many factors can push people into becoming addicted to games. It's usually the same stuff that can contribute to Depression. In fact I am convinced that one can lead to the other and both conditions are closely related.
Actually those "hospitals" focus on what they can do to make a profit, go ahead and find examples where they aren't charging a large amount for the treatment they claim helps the subject without getting said funds from the patient/family/governents. It is the same as drug companies inventing disease so they can sell a drug to treat it. I see it is easier for you to verbally attack someone than it is to make an actual point worth debate. I agree with you, that you shouldn't comment further, since it seems so hard for you to come up with any real evidence other than what you are told.@TotalEklypse said:
@CptBedlam said:IT is as simple as that. The only exception is chemical addiction(IE drugs and such which directly effect a balance held by the body naturally). Being addicted to a video game, or books, or any of that.. is garbage. I don't discount they are in fact addicted to it. But they are weak minded to fall into that. Escapist, at best... Mentally feeble at worst. In my opinion making them out to be some victim is ignorant. Do you like to go around making excuses for everyone (rhetorical)? I'm sorry I don't share your bleeding heart towards humanity, so eager to make excuses for behavior and offer a nice warm hug. Being addicted to a video game to the point of destroying your real life is a bad joke. Or did they figure out a way to grind a game up and inject it into your veins?@TotalEklypse said:
No, I am still convinced addiction shows mental weakness. It really isn't hard to tell ones self "NO".That's just ignorant and shows zero understanding of what an addiction actually is. Many factors can contribute to an addiction problem. It's not as easy as just saying "no".
Sorry, but you are a clueless ignorant. I have nothing else to say to you except that talking about gaming addiction is not making excuses. You do realize that there are actual hospitals that focus on gaming addiction, right? Expect these to become much more widespread within the next few decades.
I guess very real medical conditions like Depression are also just a myths to you that you could just say "no" to? Please get some information. Just like with for example Depression there actual chemical brain processes becoming dysfunctional when suffering from things like gaming addiction.
It just proves the point when you would go on to throw real problems such as depression into it. Those are in fact real problems. If you can't pull yourself away from CS long enough to have a beer with real friends then you are just escaping real life. I would say look at YOUR life and fix it. I guess it is easier for someone to hope that another person will come along and fix the problem.
I routinely pass on social events and instead end up at home playing a video game. The difference is that I'm introverted now. I know I don't like people. I'm comfortable with it. For a long time I felt like something was wrong. Obviously I should be hanging out with friends as much as possible right? Wrong. My spare time is spent how I want to, and frankly, I'm finally comfortable with it.
So if addiction is defined as passing up social activities, sure I am. I never miss school or work though.
I thought I was addicted to games in 2007 when I first got my 360. Up to this point I didn't play much games, I had a WII but there weren't enough games on it that got me excited. When I got the 360 though it was in September and as we know thats when all the new games come out so I was buying games every week. I couldn't stop. I thought it was some sort of sickness. But as Winter approahed the game releases slowed down and now in retrospect I just had started gaming right at the game rush time. Every year from sep-november i still buy a shit-ton of games though.
My attention span is too short to get addicted to anything.
My experience with gaming addiction is similar to other addictions I've had in my life. Like the familiar story you've heard a million times, the narcotic of choice was "World of Warcraft". It wasn't my first MMO, but it was the first one I really enjoyed. I'd play it every day for 6 or more hours. Double that on weekends. The times I couldn't get online due to internet connection problems left me feeling lost and unsure of how to use my free time. Now, it didn't affect my job or anything like that, but my social life was diminished. My goal was always to get better and the help others get better. That was the pull. It provided a sense of being needed and I took some pride in building the reputation of being a reliable healer on my server. I was far from the best, but I was a well seasoned player. I felt bad when I couldn't play because it felt like I was letting my guild down. Of course, this was all an illusion, but it was real enough for me at the time. Anyway, Lich King came out and I played it solid for a couple of months. I got some lower-level heroic gear and was settling into the same routine that I had with Burning Crusade. Then one day, I looked around the floating town in Lich King and said to myself, "this isn't fun anymore." I logged off without a word to my guildmates and never returned. For a while I felt bad about that, but the game was so emotionally tedious. When I shed my WOW addition, I never looked back. I still continue to game and will play for 6 or 8 hours on the infrequent times that I do, but nothing pulls me like WOW did and for that I am grateful.
So that's my gaming addiction story. Oddly enough, if WOW was a better game, I might still be playing today.
I have a strange gaming addiction story. I essentially traded in one addiction for a gaming addiction. I have been a gamer all of my life but never to the extreme I was during this time. Starts off as classic story, boy meets girl, boy falls for girl, they are together for 4 years, girl rips out boys heart and eats it. Well after that I was obviously pretty bummed and turned to excessive drinking and partying. Going out every night drinking, smoking, whoring. It got to the point where I was burning out and running out of money. I had played a little final fantasy 11 previously and decided to get back in to that to distract me from the party life. I knew I had a problem with the game once I actually turned down a booty call because I was in the middle of a god run... I think I played it hardcore for about 3 years but off and on really for an extra year after that. Ended up selling my character for $600 to sever the ties.
There have two times in my life where my love for gaming had turned into addiction. I have been fortunate enough to realize what was happening and made the VERY difficult decision to walk away. It also helps to have a support group that you can confide in as I did on both occasions.
Addiction is funny in that you completely stop enjoying the game and start becoming obsessed. For me it started with Quake 3 and Counter strike in High School, I'll save you the gory details as we've all pulled all nighters here and neglected friends, family, etc etc. Instead I'll share how I kicked it. I hadn't slept for 40 some odd hours, I looked at my desk which was covered in junk food and empty soda cans, and I realized I had to do something. During a match in Counter strike, I literally yanked the power plug right out of my PC, picked it up and locked it in my closet. I ran upstairs into my parents room where they were sleeping, woke them up and told them I had a problem. I slept on a small cot in their room for the next two weeks, and didn't touch my PC or a game console for nearly two years. It wasn't until I was able to identify WHY I was addicted to those games, that i was able to buy a PS2 and start slowly playing again.
I had a similar bout of crazy addiction a few months ago with Civ 5. Only this time, I knew what the feeling was and just stopped before it got out of hand. I think I played Civ 5 for 30 hours straight or something ridiculous like that. My live in lady friend was away for the weekend visiting her family and I was left all alone with Civ 5 and the cat, haha not a good combo. In the end, It was really my fear of my girlfriend coming home and seeing me sitting at my PC looking like a complete piece of shit that prompted me to nuke every single civ on the map and turn the game off! I took a shower, went for a run and haven't played Civ since.
There's a difference between, I want to play this game all night! (and you do) and actual addiction. It's a completely different feeling and anyone who has ever been truly addicted can attest to that.
I use to crush up copies of the red cartridge version of Maximum Carnage and snort them back in the early 90's.
I'll add my opinion in here, but that I used to hear about some of my old classmates that would stay home and miss out on their education and social interaction when they would stay home and play halo alot, but to do this and miss a big part or chunk or certain point is someone's choice. We got to start talking about choices when it comes to addictions I guess, I personally have never had one to video games, but just heard about friends that I used to hang out with.
No, I don't think I have. I will certainly play games for really long stretches during breaks from school and boring weekends, but no. I consider myself an enthusiast, nothing more.
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