But in the end, they're still nothing more than video games

[Sohjiro]

This is an article that my wife and I wrote together. It's from her point of view shows the addictiveness of online gaming. Check it out. Tell us what you think.

http://jivemagazine.com/content_articles.php?ID=104

[skybert]

You know, this is a very good article. As I read the article, I felt 'this is written by someone who knows stuff'.

Addiction. I try to not lie to myself about my addiction. I know I am. If it wasn't AO, it would have been something else. I know about the 'drugs' my body creates, and the way it makes me feel. I guess that's why I keep playing.



btw, thanks for writing/showing us the article. Kinda made me think.


btw, I still have my RL friends. They're about as hooked on games as I am

[______________Menlas]

This article is excellent...yes, probably the first i read about the subject, written by a player.

Yes, it is addiction. Better than most of others addition, but still it is one, which fights every day against RL and its issues

[Farmacist]

This is a great article! I guess you could say I am addicted, but i am a responcible addict: I still go to school, hang out with friends (although not as much as I used to) and spend time with my fiance. In fact playing AO is one of the ways my fiance and I spend time together. As we are in a long distance repationship, every time we long on to AO it gives us a sence of being together. Many times we may not be playing on the same team or even log on at the same time, but we still don't forget about each other. Both of us like to brag about how we play this game together and how we are engaged in real life. we also look out for each other ingame - if someone picks on me, he goes on to defend me , or if one of us finds an item that the other one will use for sure we let each other know. (But trust me in this long distance relationship AO is not the only way we spend quality time together: for instance we call each other on the phone every day)

oh well time for me to turn off the computer and go study for my STAT exam on monday.

[_____________Jhanarr]

Now that's good.

I used to use Anarchy Online as an escape when very ill, it was about all I could really do - use a keyboard and mouse - for several hours a day for six months, it gave me something to distract me from what was happening to me.

Thankfully I wasn't addicted though, I mean I quit the game three months ago and deleted my characters - including Jhanarr who you see in the signature below. When someone is addicted, to the extent you feel it's say your lover choosing between being with you or playing the game and you loose, then lots of people get hurt, you most of all.

Thanks for sharing that.

[ethernal3]

...a post I wrote here got deleted.. most odd.
~Chris

[____________mgbkurtz]

i was able to give up AO for about 3 weeks. it was probably some of the greatest times i've spent with friends and whatnot. when things changed however I retreated back to the game.

i guess you actually have to delete the game, toss the CDs out and vow never to touch it again. if i could my life would be alot more forfilling, i guarentee...

kurtz

[Xpie]

I almost didn't graduate high school because I was addicted to AO from January to late April this year. However, on the 28th of April, I logged off by the Trade statue, and didn't log on until almost 7 months later, on a spur-of-the-moment thing, lying, reading a book, all of a sudden seeing in my inner eye the vision of an atrox running around the backyard killing the fauna. So I logged back on, thrilled that my previous characters weren't deleted, and got back in the game, although with some temperance now. I work full time and as such only have 2-3 hours a day for playing, and mostly that is what I do.

I moved about 2 hours commute away from my friends, all of whom but one are in the military doing their compulsory tour.

The one friend who's not in the military is also the one with whom I am going to Australia to study in .. 41 days.

So in the meantime, I pass my days working and playing AO, bar the fridays/saturdays when I go drinking with colleagues/friends on leave.

In order to not let this great game corrode your real life, restrain yourself. When you get home, instead of thinking, "I'm gonna log on, and run a few team missions for xp", sit down, read a magazine, a book, make a cup of tea or an espresso, watch the birds, play with the cat, or just try to think of all the things you were meant to do but haven't yet due to AO

And *great* article by the way

[__________Maxtor 1-7]

Great article.

The first times I played AO at least every week was after I met a bunch of great people in my org., so I played atleast 5 hours per week during that period.
Over the summer, I mastered the 'art' (thinking about nothing and not noticing all the time that passes by) that every yoga person tries by just sitting around and doing absolutly nothing for 2+ hours per day (which was purely by accident, I am not a yoga fanatic by any stretch), and filled the rest with AO, TV, and the radio.
Now, I play AO on the weekends or the night before a test that I know as much as I can for (simply because it is relaxing and you can talk with people easily), but visit the forums often.

I'd say that the people in AO are more addictive than the game itself, but that's just my perspective.

[tenjikiito]

I want to everyone who read that very long article to the end and was even able to relate to it somewhat. When I wrote my article, I never realized how many people would find it relative, controversial, enlightening, informative, offensive, or just entertaining. So far, I have received hundreds of email and links to forums with threads of debate ongoing. They are from game developers, spouses, friends of gamers, gamers, school teachers, people who were thinking about playing MMORPGs and many others. They are about 95% positive and about 5% either offended or debative, interestingly enough.

This article was “slash dotted” (www.slashdot.com) and after we published it, over 60,000 people have hit it up on the web in just three days. It’s a bit overwhelming. I even received a wonderful letter from Funcom who thanked me for the article and are being very gracious to us.

All this response over what amounts to just one person’s subjective story about playing an MMORPG too much.

The story I recounted is not a strict science project and should not be seen as so. I called it “my little experiment” because that is all it is. I did not understand the lure or the obsession with online gaming at one time. Now I do, at least from my own point of view as well as from the point of view of other friends or people I know.

My story is not intended to take any side. I only wrote it honestly and from the heart. I wrote the article at the risk of being ridiculed and at the risk of being found guilty of what I once deemed a “ridiculous waste of time”. I also attempted to show that, although I admit I want to play the game more than what should be considered a healthy amount of time, my fiancé and I lead productive and busy lives, with many friends and associates in the real world as well as in the game.

I just wanted to present my belief as objectively as I could that it is possible to live, love, work and be “heavily immersed”, “addicted”, “involved”, “obsessed”, or however it should be defined, to an MMORPG. These are just words and everyone has their own definitions of what they mean.

My fiancé and I think we are addicted. Others may not think so. Other people may find it offensive that I can put the words gaming addiction and alcoholism into the same category. Unfortunately, I have seen or heard of people destroyed by both, so I will stand by my opinion here. A person who has experienced alcoholism will find what I say insensitive to how destructive alcoholism is. A person who is addicted to video games will find it offensive to be lumped in with alcoholism.

I wanted show a point of view from someone who thought it couldn’t happen to them… the obsession. It did happen to me and this surprised me. I do not have health or social issues, nor am I an introvert. Any stereotypical attribute of the geeky obsessed gamer one thinks of could not really ever apply to me. This is why I was inspired to write my story. It’s a story I could not find written anywhere else before.

I would have to contend that the 2% of the people that found the article a bit offensive completely misread the article, believing I was bashing gamers in some way. To those people, I suggested they go back and reread my statements which set out to prove that a "normal" productive member of society can get caught up in game playing. I am exhibit "A". I have also given another example with Solories, who does not appear to have any problems aside in the real world.

I did not try disrespect nor did I intend to glorify the people who play video games. I am actually straddling the fence, unsure of how this all plays out. My personal conclusion is that I am happy with the game I play and I am happy with my life and intend to keep playing. According to the responses I have received, many of the people who read the article can relate to it. A happy ending? Maybe yes…maybe not. I am just satisfied that the subject is thought provoking.