Are games Addicting? Are you Addicted?

I played WoW for years, but wasn't really "addicted" until the end. It was my first and last MMORPG. Initially, I played from the internal alpha until release. I quit because I didn't want to pay the monthly fee, but a friend got me a copy and sucked me back in.

I played a year of casual, which was fine. I could come and go, play whenever. It was the raiding that did me in. Almost two years of full time raiding in a top North American guild garnered me fame and fortune in-game, but playing 4+ nights a week for 5 or more hours at a time was kind of crazy in retrospect.

I wasn't addicted to the point that my schooling/social life suffered, but I'm sure I missed out on a few opportunities if you know what I mean.

When the expansion came out I realized that, while I enjoyed the social aspects of the game, the friends I had made etc., all the raiding I had done was basically wasted. Those fancy items I spent all those hours acquiring (and I had picked up pretty much everything my main needed, from several mainspec sets to full offspec setups just to screw around) were going to be useless glitter very quickly.

I played/hung around a bit more, but once I saw most new bosses/encounters as simply rehashes of old ones, the luster was gone. I quit pretty much cold turkey and haven't looked back since. I keep in touch with my closest friends from the game, but it's hard when they're all still addicted.

The freedom to do what I wanted, and not constantly worry about my raid schedule, is something I'll never forget

 

I found Everquest highly addictive, the fact you can never win, coupled with a decent social network under it, if I hadn't dropped it I likely would have been kicked out of college and working at Burger King. (I played 3 years, 8 or so hours a day ).

I think there are certain types of people that may find things more addicting than others. I am a perfectionist, and I always want to do everything - in mario that means every coin, I could careless about beating the game unless I got everything along the way - this mentality + open ended games is a bad matchup, because you will just keep chasing the carrot. But it is not just games, I program and do electronics. If left to myself I would work for days on end only pausing to sleep, and then waking up and walking right back to the desk.

For people like me, I just had to set limits and involve other people. Go bowling every thursday, or goto the gym periodically.

 

Yes.......

 

There was a time when I would play a little to much. I play about three hours a week now and most of that time is playing my sons over our home network. It's funny, because now that I've retired from the military, I have a job that allows me to do whatever I want at work unless there's an emergency and I rarely play during that time. The only games that ever brought me close to addiction were all the C&C games. I would play them quite abit until I completed them.

 

I can stop anytime I want too. Really.... Honestly... Lemme get a quick fix though....

How much I play depends. Some games like Civ 4 make time fly. Some good on-line games like BF2 had the same effect on me.

 

Yeah I completely agree with that, I used to be pretty addicted to CS.16/cz I played it whenever i could. Now having moved on to CSS, I just play it casually, and not having a internet connection being able to play CSS for the majority of the year helps too. I have gotten to the point where my skills are not dropping or improving, which is good, i could just play with out getting stressy, and just for a laugh.

 

Wow guys thanks didn't expect this much feedback at all. I thought about changing the wording Chaz but I truely just want to know about the hard core addicts who have lost opportunities and relationships I'm sure I've lost a few back in my WoW days.

Also I'm still open to a good game trailer for the intro to my speech any idea? I was thinking maybe halo...

 

I was addicted.. nowadays I would be addicted but I don't really have time to play that much anymore. I used to play certain mmorpg's, and now I just feel really stupid because of all that time I could have spent for something "real" if you know what I mean.

 

Sounds kind of like me!

Except I played WoW 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, dropped out of school and went to the only gaming rehab in the world.

 

I played 14 hours a day 7 days a week actually probably more then 14, but then I was forced by unseen circumstances to move and get a job. I think i'm going to use a Crysis Trailer and a Halo 3 Trailer.

The raiding is what got me too.

 

when i am not doing school work i look at the forms o play games but i can't play many new ones look at my sig

 

I actually did pvp and raiding, although as I got near to rank 13 I stopped raiding for a while even though I was in a PvE guild didn't go down too well

But yeah I did go over 14 hours as well, I remember once playing for 22 hours straight but I really didn't do that often I had a little bit of sense left...

 

Decided on the COD 4 Modern Warfare E3 trailer.

 

I remember their being a story about 6-7 years ago about a Wisconsin kid committing suicide over something that happened to his character in Everquest. His mother started and organization and web site/forum dedicated to battling video game addictions, not by bashing games, but helping those who get hooked. I remember it had a very large web community back in the day with a lot of tear jerker stories.

I can't remember the names or anything, but a google search should pull it up.

 

If someone would like me to email them the powerpoint I made, I'd be more then happy to, just keep in mind that it really isn't complete without me talking, didn't want to just read off the powerpoint you can get a pretty good idea though.

Edit- Speech went great. The E3 trailer of COD4 Modern Warfare was just perfect.

 

Ugh. More backlash against games. Why can't people (read politicians) just leave games alone. Don't they have something else to do like finding something new to tax... Some of those support groups can get annoying too in their quest against whatever they're against.

MMORPG's seem to be the most addictive. But I don't like 'em. Just can't get the hang of it.

 

I send you a PM

 

Hell no, I`m not addicted. I only game 25 hours a day.

 

I'm definitely addicted to WoW. 130+ days /played. 'Nuff said.

Thing is, I don't mind it. I've had much more destructive and expensive addictions in my lifetime.

Drugs, booze, television.. it will all **** you up more than gaming will.

What's the price we pay? The price of a fat gaming rig and a net connection?

And social life.. I've been a nerd all my life. Before computers I had books. So who cares. If you took away games I'd just find some other way to geek out.

Addicted? Oh hell yeah. Feeling guilty about it? **** no.

My dad will start giving me **** about my gaming when he stops drinking wine and watching 5+ hours of television a day... xD

 

Man, and I thought I had it bad. I feel a whole lot better now. On second thought, better head to my girlfriend`s

 

That is a very naive view and, if I may say so myself, completely wrong.

 

For my opinion I am not sure.

Some games don't get me addicted while some games gets me addicted.
(I am a fan of RPG games that has good storyline and great gameplay)
2 best are FF7 and Star Ocean:Till the end of time

 

Not really, many more people have been killed over drugs and alcohol than games (can't vouch for tv though). I mean, sorry you went to a clinic but not everybody does that to themselves.

 

CRYSIS INTROOOOO

Use sandbox 2 and make your own!

Its what im working on right now! Kind of... but it doesnt matter how I give the presentation... I am rather sure that im going to do a live presentation which may be easier...

But in my business class... a powerpoint or so may be a bit harder... and a video would be rather easy but capturing the footage and editing it right will be a pain

 

No... but sometimes... and I will make sure they will never ever do so

 

maybe not television, because television can equate to games. But drugs and alcohol WILL indeed do more damage to you than games will. No matter how much you sabotage your own social life playing WoW, drugs and alcohol will do more physical, permanent damage to you than games will. Games won't destroy your liver and kill you, and games won't hospitalize you. Also no matter how many games you play you won't overdose. So no it's not naive, it's the truth.

As for my answer: no I'm not addicted. I believe if you get to a point where you refuse to go to school, talk to people, get a job, or step outside your room because you might not be playing a game for 10 minutes in a row, you have some serious issues. I game.... hell I game A LOT. But I'd never let it interfere with the important things in my life. Sure I've decided to hold off on homework and such to play. But who hasn't? Yeah I've turned down offers to do things, but only because they would just be things I wouldn't want to do anyway. It's more of something I just enjoy and WANT to do, not something I *NEED* to do. If it's to the point where you *NEED* to play a game; that's when you have a problem.

 

My post has been edited to reflect what I actually meant at the time.

And fifafreak you obviously have no idea how an addiction starts, so save the ****

 

World of Warcraft

 

Not sure yet. Sometimes I can consider myself addicted like when I play for 5+ hours a day for a few days straight. But then other weeks I'll Play maybe a total of 2 or 3 hours during the whole week. It really varies for me so I don't know if that is an addiction.

 

I voted addicted.

I'm at a point where if I'm on a computer, I can't help but find myself firing up Counter-Strike or whatever . Even during school we used to LAN instead of do work (not anymore though, works too serious now).

However I can go without video games quite happily, it's just they are my preferred pastime.

 

One word - WOW...well maybe it's three cause thats an acronym...anyways ya, I had to quit playing WOW in college because I wasn't going to make it outta there if I didn't. Games like that are definetly a life style choice!

 

I used to be addicted to BF2. Would spend hours playing, and I mean hours.

There's plenty of other games too, Soldier of Fortune 2 multi-player was another I was hopelessly addicted to. These days though, after an hour or two of COD4 I find myself a bit bored- but I think that's more of me missing the whole teamwork thing (don't like BF2142, Quake Wars, or FFOW) as opposed to having 'matured'.

I blame COD4, it's so damn good, that despite me only being able to play it for 90 minutes at a time, BF2 just seems so incredibly primitive in comparison.

 

I don't know how I do it, but I gamed at least 3 hours a day every week and I still ended up with a 4.0 GPA every semester. I guess it's something to do with being asian. ^^ But no, gaming didn't get in the way of my social/educational life. I had plenty girlfriends, kicked my school's ass in grades, and gamed my booty off. CoD4 got boring after i reached lvl 55 (highest level in the game on pc version) because there's no prestige mode or anything. So...yeah. And TF2 is just awesome.

 

That line is win

 

video games can be very addicting... some "visual" people find their in game enviroment more refreshing/substantive than their actual "real" lives/social scene. They end up falling into an alternate reality that fills or coaxes their lives with a sense of meaning or false truths.

BTW good luck to all having problems with this issue..the best regards! As this is a VERY REAL threat!

 

I find myself reading forums more than playing games. Maybe that's an addiction.

 

Reading and posting... I'm with you bro..

 

mmm... <3 forums

 

I alternate between games, forums, music, tv shows, movies and OS instals :laugh:

 

Games are not addictive, simple fact.

A game encourages you to play by providing a reward, making you want to carry on to get to the ending or whatever and be rewarded. WOW is no different, it encourages you to play on for the better gear/social aspect. Addiction doesn't come into it, and if you say you're addicted you doing 1 of 2 things:

1. Saying you're addicted, because enjoying a game is pretty much a social taboo, and rabble rousing newspapers like The Sun and other tabloids reinforce this view in the general populace, making it more socially acceptable to be addicted then to enjoy a game, since then you can blame the 'evil companies'!

2. You believe you're addicted because you don't want to stop playing, you're not addicted, you want to carry on because you still being rewarded. If you no longer get enjoyment out of a game you stop playing, simple as that. Take for example WOW, if a hacker stole all your items and gold, a GM said there was no chance of getting it back, your guild kicked you out and no other guild on the server would take you, and you're refused transfer to a different realm. Would you keep playing? No, because you are no longer being rewarded for your work, and you no longer want to play.

Games are not addictive, since when you no longer get something out of it you stop playing and move onto a different game. Addiction is a phrase usually used to describe when someone is forced to take a substance/whatever against their will by their body/subconsciousness/etc. Games don't come into that, humans are basicly selfish beings, the moment we don't get something out of doing something, we stop.

 

When I'm into a game, I'm into it. No eating or break. Once I feel really tired then I just go to sleep and continue the next day. After finishing the game I return back to normal human state.

 

Spoken like a true addictive justifying his addiction :laugh:

 

rofl, Addiction to games doesn't exist. When I get bored of a game I stop playing. Addiction is playing/doing something despite not wanting to, and I play games because I want to, because it rewarding, fun and relaxing, if a game isn't any of those things for me, I stop playing. Thats not addiction, thats wanting to play a game because its fun...

 

you guys don't have alternative definitions in England? i believe the OP was referring to and everyone else inferring to the second definition as in devoting excessive amount of time into gaming.

 

That wasn't very necessary was it? Mind you you are speaking the English language. Not that I agree with the above poster, but that was a pretty silly comment considering you are speaking their language...

 

but then its not really addiction and can be just described as a hobby, i mean would anyone call football an addiction? No, even though I know people who will watch it for 8 hours a day, and call me addicted for playing PVK 2.0 for an hour or so...

 

Anyone who watches football for eight hours a day is probably addicted to watching football.

Taking a scientific approach to addiction...

When someone uses cocaine, they are blocking the reuptake of dopamine between their neurons. In laymen terms, they are forcing more dopamine to course through their brain. Dopamine is the 'pleasure' chemical, which is why it's described as a sexual rush when using cocaine. People who end up exercising at set times and get upset or even depressed when they can't exercise and miss a day are addicted to the endorphins (the natural opiate of the body) they get from it. The addiction comes from when those chemicals return to their natural state, then sink below it, because your body, sensing the overuse of the chemical in question, has stopped putting out as much. Then you're just trying to hit normal (leading cause of overdoses: when their drug of choice no longer supplies them with the same amount of pleasure due to this, and they take more to just reach normal). And it doesn't have to be chemical. Aside from endorphins, anything that forces any chemical to rise will tell your body to put out less of it.

Another form of addiction is when you still put out the same levels, almost entirely reserved for endorphins, but you want to reach that level of enjoyment again (i.e. exercise).

So, if you're addicted to games, you're addicted to the neurochemicals that are responsible for the pleasurable or enjoyable feelings you get from playing them. Endorphins, dopamine, or epinephrine (adrenaline) are all chemicals that play a role in it. That reward that you feel when you accomplish something in a game? It's likely dopamine mixed with epinephrine to create a rush through you. And when a game no longer offers the same sense of accomplishment (you get bored with it), you move along until you find your next 'fix': a new game that engages you. People who watch football likely are addicted to epinephrine, the surge they get when their team makes a long pass and a miracle touchdown. Or when the opposing team does the same. You can tell by their leaping and shouting at the television.

So yeah, if you play games, get bored and move onto another one to feel that 'reward' again, it's an addiction. Of course, not all addictions are bad: exercising is a wonderful addiction by itself. Keeps you fit and healthy, and it doesn't destroy your endocrine system. The problem with being addicted to games is it tends to ruin any possible social life if not done in moderation (though that would ruin the point of it being an addiction, wouldn't it?) and is much harder than exercise to break.

 

I am addicted to BF2142, however my college blocked the port for any online games and bittorrent, so I can't play it anyway

 

I don't know the mechanics of it but possibly port-forwarding would solve this?
http://portforward.com/

 

The firewall is managed by the school so he will need to ask his network admin to open a port for him... I know plenty of people who use xbl on campus. Port are blocked only on the wlan as you can locate who's using it.