I would consider myself to have a addictive personality. I get hooked on things very easily. I become obsessed, thoughts of whatever the newest thing is cloud my mind. To lose interest in one thing I become obsessed with another. It has never been anything illegal for me, such as drugs or alcohol, but games and more recently poker have been the subjects of my infatuation. I play tons of computer games, video games, online poker. It keeps me entertained. They're relatively cheap and online poker even provides me with some extra cash. I at this point have no probelm stopping at anytime. I have total control over myself, mostly because in the past year I have built willpower. Willpower is the main thing that decides wether you are in control or the addiction is in control.
A computer game addition is not only devistating to your life, but extremely embarrasing. If you are addicted to meth or alcohol you can tell your family and friends and they will get you help. If you are addicted to computer games they will laugh and just brush it off. People dont take gaming addiction seriously, even though people have died from sitting at the computer for too long. If your friends call you up and ask you to go somewhere and you turn them down because you have a raid in a few hours you sound ridiculous. But if you tell them your parents need help with something its perfectly accepatable, so you lie. All sorts of games have held me back from positive experiences I could have and should have had. WoW (World of Warcraft) which I mostly discussed in my first post was the biggest problem for me. Of course I never reached the extremes of peeing in bottles so that I dont miss a second of play time or drinking energy drinks so that I can play for 72 hours nonstop. I have though spent upwards of 12 hours playing with minor breaks in between, steup manitory play time schedules which I at the time believed to overrided all other responsibilities in my life.
The main goal in all of these MMORPG or any multiplayer game is to become that best that you can be. Wether that means collecting all of the best possible armor and weapons in mmorpg's or being unkillable in a first person shooter (FPS). One of the main hazards with the mmorpg is raiding. Raiding is a forming a large group of people anywhere from 10 to 40 people and trying to complete a dungeon together. The encounters in these dungeons are complex, they require coordination and practice before they can be mastered. A large dungeon will consist of 5-10 bosses which drop very disirable items when they die. To master one of these dungeons guilds (groups of people who form together that share a common goal) take on average a few weeks to master the fights and be able to complete all of the bosses. To do this schedules are setup. Often times a schedule will look like this -
Tuesday - 7:00pm - 12:00pm server time
Thursday - 7:00pm - 12:00pm server time
Saturday- 4:00pm - 12:00pm server time
Sunday- 1:00pm - 7:00pm server time
Good members of the guild make the times 95% of time, Casual members 80% of the time and below that you are kicked from the guild and deemed worthless. On top of this members are expected to "farm" materials to make potions for these runs. Farming consists if killing easy soloable monsters many times until the desired drop comes in a large enough quanity to create the potions required. Once a guild has learned all of the fights and has finished the dungeon (killing the final boss) the dungeon is then completed every week so that all of the members of the guild can gain all of the items that they desire from the dungeon. Players are also encouraged to PvP (Player versus player) Which allows the benfit of items and prestige. Prestige is the main goal in these games. People want to be the best they can be, and to do that more and more time playing is required. To be the best you can be you need to play more and more often, creating an addiction that wont let go. In one of these major raiding guild it is more or less required to play 30+ hours a week and if you are in any sort of leader position in your guild there are loads more responsiblities. WoW creates a unending cycle by creating better and better items that players must play more and more to get, which keeps players coming.
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2 comments:
This is brilliant! I can relate in the same way back in the days of CS (Counter-Strike). Joining clans and leagues like CAL-I and CAL-M, your time span shrinks because your focus and attention is glued tot he screen of the computer. I was fixed on shooting other people in the face at 3:40 in the morning. I did miss a lot of things at the time. I was sponsored with a few skateboarding companies and I did most of the video editing as well. I really brushed them all as well. I feel that my addiction made an impact even though it was over 5 years ago and my girlfriend left me as a ultimate loss in my freshman year of highschool. I seriously believe that to loose the addiction you have to like something else; to draw the attention to that rather than the previous "drug." For me this was cycling but it was not a social narcotic in which I lost people but I met more people and did a lot of physical activities rather than putting self-inflicted blindness in my eyes for 12 hours per day.
I know what you mean about World of Warcraft, it truly is an addictive game. Back in the day before the release of their expansion, I played often enough to make 100% of my raids in a high end guild while keeping competitive damage per second (dps), and also able to farm a decent Player verse Player (PvP) rank. On top of the 40+ hours a week I spent on the game, I had high school as well, although high school is laughable at best considering the amount of free time available. Though keep in mind that I watched no television during this period, and rigorously went to the gym 3 times a week 2 hours each of those days.
As I understand the power of becoming addicted to a video game, I also understand that a lot of people use this as their hobby instead of television, hanging out at bars, etc. Many people I played with are college graduates and have been in the work force for the last five to ten years. They play the game with their spouses and coworkers as a pastime, much in the way how people sit and watch television and sports from the time they get home to when they must go to sleep.
While video games, especially Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Games (MMORPG), are harmful to some people, they are also a way of life for others. It is probably the cheapest hobby there is when comparing it to subscribing to the complete sports package on television, or buying model kits and build, paint, and display some device. A hobby is a hobby, some people get wrapped up in it, and some are perfectly capable of organizing time around it.
Jeremy
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