Game Obsession/Addiction

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-09-24 07:36pm

Has anyone ever truly experienced this? I'm not talking about just really getting into a game and maybe playing it for 10 hours straight one slow saturday, I am talking about playing 10 hours straight EVERY day. As some of you may have noticed in the OT forum, my room mate is obsessed with the game Counter Strike. So much so that he regularly stays up so late playing it that he misses class the next day because he sleeps through it. He sits over there playing it using the voice chat and gets so enthralled at it, that he forgets to answer the telephone and sometimes won't respond if you say something. It is like a whole other world. I have seen him study a total of two times this semster, and I know that he is going to regret wasting so much of his time on this game down the road. He was even wanting to go so far as to get the Half Life Lambda symbol tattoed on his hand. I figure that, unless he is some kind of super genius, this activity won't last when he finds his grades for next semester. His life is literally (In no particular order): Eat, Sleep, Class, Counter Strike (at times putting CS before the other three...).

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced or witnessed game obsession or addiction. I hear it is quite widespread in the world of Everquest.

The Kernel · Post by **The Kernel** » 2003-09-24 07:47pm

For about a year in middle school I was totally obsessed with X-COM, so I know a thing or two about game addiction. It sound like you are worried about the guy, but unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about it. My last roommate was like this (addicted to MUD's...ugggh) and he barely left his room, let alone the house. You just have to let people like this to snap out of it on their own.

thecreech · Post by **thecreech** » 2003-09-24 07:59pm

I have loved certain games before but have never obessed over them. My brother was like that with Phantasy Star Online. When we was playing that game he would come out of his room a total of two time a day. Once to go to work and once to get something to eat and go to the bathroom. That went on for about 3 months.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-09-24 08:05pm

The Kernel wrote:For about a year in middle school I was totally obsessed with X-COM, so I know a thing or two about game addiction. It sound like you are worried about the guy, but unfortunately, there isn't much you can do about it. My last roommate was like this (addicted to MUD's...ugggh) and he barely left his room, let alone the house. You just have to let people like this to snap out of it on their own.

I don't know if you would say I am necessarily worried, I mean, what he does with his time is his own business, but I also don't want to see him fail our his first year because he is playing a game that has absolutely NO effect on the real world. It also gets sort of annoying to me, him over there screaming at the game using voice chat and his staying up late nights playing the game, even without voice chat, isn't exactly conducive to sleep to me.

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2003-09-24 08:10pm

Hmm...while in school, that's pretty bad.
It'll be harsh, he'll feel it's unfair as would I in his position. You'll have to pull the plug on it. Stay on top of him and make him study. Once you leave he might not do any educational material and may bitch about having his game taken away from him.~Jason

I would play somewhat from 8 am all the way to 10 pm during the summer throughout. So i'm worse off as that's 14 hours heh. I think your bro's off worse cause he has school now as do I and I've stopped playing since all the school stuff has swamped me.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-09-24 08:13pm

sure. Ive done it with dungeon keeper, warcraft 2, diablo, tiberian sun, and alpha centrauri.

once I beat them, I never open them again.

Hotfoot · Post by **Hotfoot** » 2003-09-24 08:14pm

First year of college? That's a common ailment.

How is this any different from any other first year experience? Instead of going out to parties, getting drunk/stoned/laid constantly, hanging out all night with his "friends" from the bar, he's sitting at home playing counterstrike from a kickass campus connection and overindulging in his own way. This sort of thing happens all the time, it's not so much that he's obessed with the game, but he's obsessed with the fact that he can play it whenever he wants and nobody can tell him what to do. He'll either tone it down in coming years or face the consequences for his actions.

Once he realizes he'll be flunked out and sent back home if he can't keep up in class he should tone back the excessive gaming.

Also, if his playing late at night is making it hard for you to sleep, tell him that straight up. If he tries to be a dick about it, tell him you'll take it to the RA if you have to. You have to live together, and if there's going to be this much trouble at the beginning of the year, you NEED to sort it out now before it becomes a huge problem by the end of the year.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-09-24 08:49pm

Soontir C'boath wrote:Hmm...while in school, that's pretty bad.
It'll be harsh, he'll feel it's unfair as would I in his position. You'll have to pull the plug on it. Stay on top of him and make him study. Once you leave he might not do any educational material and may bitch about having his game taken away from him.~Jason

I would play somewhat from 8 am all the way to 10 pm during the summer throughout. So i'm worse off as that's 14 hours heh. I think your bro's off worse cause he has school now as do I and I've stopped playing since all the school stuff has swamped me.

My room mate, not my brother, heheh.

Soontir C'boath · Post by **Soontir C'boath** » 2003-09-24 08:51pm

Ok your roommate.~Jason

Same thing you need to watch him like a hawk and beat the crap out him if he differs. heh. Or you can give the customary 20 bucks a day to get his ass of the ground.

Or try anyway heh.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2003-09-24 08:53pm

Enforcer Talen wrote:sure. Ive done it with dungeon keeper, warcraft 2, diablo, tiberian sun, and alpha centrauri.

once I beat them, I never open them again.

Problem is that with Counter-Strike, there isn't a definate end to the game.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-09-24 09:10pm

He suffers from severe short-term thinking. My grades in school could have been a lot better if I wasn't spending all of my time with a certain leggy brunette, but at least I have something to show for that. What the fuck does anyone accomplish by playing videogames so obsessively?

He needs a cold, hard dose of reality. And he'll probably get it, unless he's taking some ridiculously easy major like Sociology.

Howedar · Post by **Howedar** » 2003-09-24 09:21pm

I've never spent more than a few hours a day on computer games regularly.

Post by **Ghost Rider** » 2003-09-24 09:23pm

Close on a couple occasions...but most of the time because I won money from them in tourneys and what not.

Nowadays...nowhere near anything that would hurt my work.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-09-24 10:55pm

Darth Wong wrote:He suffers from severe short-term thinking. My grades in school could have been a lot better if I wasn't spending all of my time with a certain leggy brunette, but at least I have something to show for that. What the fuck does anyone accomplish by playing videogames so obsessively?

He needs a cold, hard dose of reality. And he'll probably get it, unless he's taking some ridiculously easy major like Sociology.

Graphic Design, not much harder, although he does have a Calc 1 class which is no walk in the park.

Darth Garden Gnome · Post by **Darth Garden Gnome** » 2003-09-24 11:40pm

Diablo 2. Ugh, I curse that game for the two years of my short life it took from me. I'd come home and it was nothing but D2 from 3pm-3am if I could. Musta had at least twenty different tricked-out uber-leet charcters over those two years. Zons, sorcs, barbs, assasins, druids once even a necro.

After a while it got really boring and I quite. Haven't looked back since.

Nathan F · Post by **Nathan F** » 2003-09-24 11:49pm

If he does end up with the tattoo, I wonder what he is going to tell his kids 20 years from now...

"Daddy, what's that tattoo?"

"Oh, that's the symbol from a team game I used to play."

"You played sports?!"

"No, I played Counter Strike."

"You got the symbol for a computer game tattood on your hand?"

Utsanomiko · Post by **Utsanomiko** » 2003-09-25 12:32am

Y'know, I don't think I've ever been addicted, unless you count Christmas break '01-'02 where I played GTA3 most of the day for about two weeks.

But even now this month, when I'm between school, found out the place I really wanted to spend a year working at isn't hiring, and had my car break down, I haven't spent more than 4-6 hours in a day playing a game, and even then it's spread out over most of the day while I take breaks such as walking, surfing the web, puttering around in Photoshop, or working on my game design notes. For some reason games don't demand a very high priority in my freetime, or at least don't increase when my freetime does

For example, the last week and a half I haven't done much at all except take some photos, watch Transformers, and post on some Christian boards. I might have burned myself out by working on one of my photoshop projects a little too much ~60-70 hours in 5-6 days). I guess I get into little ruts like this every so often, and then I end up not doing much with my freetime for a week or so.

Enigma · Post by **Enigma** » 2003-09-25 12:34am

I don't quite have a game addiction. I mean if I'm playing a good game then the world around me vanishes and I'm totally immersed in the game. But if the game is iffy then I'm not stuck to it. But I can and have gone a few days without using the computer.

TrailerParkJawa · Post by **TrailerParkJawa** » 2003-09-25 12:55am

I was pretty addicted to Street Fighter II when it was popular. Had I made more money at the time, I dare say I would have played constantly.

Anarchist Bunny · Post by **Anarchist Bunny** » 2003-09-25 01:10am

Not while I was in school, during summer/christmas break for a year I would mostly play starcraft all day, unless I had to work for my mom. Sometimes a game will interfer with my better judgement of Play Game/Do Homework, but I'm smart enough to pull that off usually. Hell, I did a Common Ground assignment tonight while playing Civ3.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-09-25 01:13am

Addicted to EQ for three years, ruined my social life, my social skills, and I still don't know how to talk with girls. That game utterly destroyed my years of High School, and I've just barely begun to pick up the pieces. Ah, the joys of life

Spanky The Dolphin · Post by **Spanky The Dolphin** » 2003-09-25 01:32am

I personally don't see any problem with him wanting to get a tattoo of the Half Life lamda symbol on his hand.

Xon · Post by **Xon** » 2003-09-25 05:10am

Nathan F wrote:
Darth Wong wrote:He suffers from severe short-term thinking. My grades in school could have been a lot better if I wasn't spending all of my time with a certain leggy brunette, but at least I have something to show for that. What the fuck does anyone accomplish by playing videogames so obsessively?

He needs a cold, hard dose of reality. And he'll probably get it, unless he's taking some ridiculously easy major like Sociology.
Graphic Design, not much harder, although he does have a Calc 1 class which is no walk in the park.

Unless your Calc 1 is significantly harder than what I've done, it shouldnt be that hard. But then again, I dont think I've actually done any "easy" units yet

Post by **Vympel** » 2003-09-25 05:12am

How can you play a game 10 hours straight EVERY day? Like shit, I spend more than normal on the computer, but like ... shit.

And I'm in my final year of university.

MarkIX · Post by **MarkIX** » 2003-09-25 05:51am

I once spent roughly 36 hours straight playing JA2 but that was only unusual at the time because I didn't sleep when I normally would have, it was not unusual for me to play 30 hrs out of 48 at the time. That was the worst period of my life the playing of games was only the symptom of a bigger problem.