Addiction in Gaming - Discuss

[Kurayamino]

1. What is your age bracket:


21 - 25 (Nearly 22)


2. What is your definition of addiction in general?

when you wake up and switch your pc on, then sit infront of it till you fall asleep. <--- Me


3. How many hours a week on average do you play computer/video games?

31-40 See question 2 for more detail on my geekyness




4. Do you feel you play too much?

No there are not enough hours in the day for gaming. If I could make a living out of it I would.


5. What elements of a gaming do you think could make it addictive?

Escapism


6. Do you think genre could have any effect on how addictive a game is?

Not at all each to his own.


7. Could a games’ popularity effect its “addictiveness”?

Yes, sure it can if there is a good community.


8. In your opinion, what are the three most addictive games and why?

The Matrix Online - I quit and keep having to go back.
Battlefield 2142 - I can't explain why, I hate the bugs yet I just love fraggin'
Oblivion - Another one I went back too.



9. Do you think any addiction can be treated?

If it can I have no desire to have it treated


10. In your opinion, are there social problems created by excessive game playing?

Hmmm yes and no. There are a distinct lack of chavs in "my world". So thats a good thing, yet they're still there when I open my door

[gtech]

lol you definately need treatment for playing that godawful matrix online

[tigerboyce]

yep, must be one of the worst games ever

[IBM]

Man, I'm sooooo glad I kicked the habit....although i guess that's down to the fact that I just don't buy new games, so don't give myself the opportunity to get addicted. I used to be really into 'softcore' RPGs during my teens, and I didn't do any school work.

I remember telling my parents that I had my exams after the half term just because I wanted to play more when I should be revising. The downside was that I had to spend a lot of time taking revision during the half term for exams I'd already sat.

I bought Half Life 2, Doom 3, and Quake 4 (?) and played them through, but it took me months to complete because I'd only allow myself 30 mins every now and again. Now if I really need a fix I'll download a demo. Just did with Prey and FEAR, enjoyed them, then uninstalled them.

And kids have got it worse than I ever had it. I didn't get a computer (Commodore 16 - Oh yeah!) until I was past 10, and an actual console (Master System) until years later. Previous to this I did all the regular kids stuff, spending tonnes of time out with mates on our bikes. Kids are hooked a lot younger these days, and never get an opportunity to do all the outside stuff 'cause they're too buys saving the universe. TBH, the graphics and storyline are a lot better than anything their imaginations are capable of.

[idimmu]

i was addicted to wow for about 2 years, played a lot. would hate having to go to work and keeping thinking about it whilst at work, about what i was gonna do when i got in, where i was gonna go etc. i have stopped playing now but i still tihnk about it sometimes, as i still really enjoyed it, but it became a chore to play. i used to reject going out with my mates and stay in to play, go home from mates houses early if i did go out so i could log in, most of the time i wouldnt really do anything when i was.

wasnt the first game though, from cs1.3-.1.6 , and before i had my own computer i would wake up a little bit earlier on weekends so i could guarentee a few hours playing time before the day started.

im still only jsut ab out to turn 21, and still enjoy gaming, but this last week where i havent had my main computer (just this laptop) has really shown me that i only really play now for the sake of it, not because i enjoy it. i may go back to playing mmos again (they are the worst) or just play some css or bf2 or whatever in my spare evenings, but now im jsut trying to concentrate on earning money, and going out.

i would consider doing anything to go out of your play to play a game is an addiction. but as far as it goes its not the worst thing to be addicted too... however, my mums a school teacher and she has told me about a few of the kids she teaches (around the ages 12-15) who really quite obviously are being affected by playing games too much and staying up late.

the games i have been addicted to, in order of "severity"

wow
cs
rose online
zelda64

[prehensile]

i'm 33, i have one game that just consumes my interest and i play 20 or 30 hours a week at the moment, at times it has been 1-10 hours, but now it's 20 hours at least...

The real issue is that it prevents me from doing constructive work, programming audio programs, c64 emulator, programming all kinds of things, working on my house renovation, all that time, 20-30 hours could be spent doing useful things.

the game is Urban Terror, it's gameplay is kindof like a 3d mariokart crossed with sonic the hedgehog from the point of view of the movement, you have to calculate leaps like a pinball bouncing off corners to climb buildings etc, adn use that to outmanouvre enemies, like parkour, also combined with total FPS gameplay... It can be very mind consuming, like not a game for idling, you think very hard, calculate at least 60 seconds ahead while at the same time leaping across 3d structures at high speeds, controlling legs and looking all around for enemies, going as fast as possible, you can cover 30 meters in 3 seconds, and then kneel and do a power slide around a corner, it;s very fast.



I have played this game perhaps 1 hour a day on average for the pas 4 years, and i play abit of other games but they are not at all as cerebral. it;s like a total 3d platform game, you know in mario where you have to calculate your jumps exactly, it's the same in 3d.

i just want to have some discipline and finish some programming work that is supposed to make me some money, i am totally lazy. it's a waste of my mind, i could be doing all kinds of things, and i just lean back and jump into my 3d world, where everything dissapears and i leap around buildings and shoot legs and then heads with silencers, timed grenades, smoke regandes, mixed weapons, calculating all distances etc. it's comfortable, entirely reflex play, i dont have to actually use my brain to learn and discover, like i do when i program and solve mathematical puzzles. :/

[Pob255]

Excuse me for going a bit off topic here (but this is a bit of thread necromancy)
I was near addicted to Urban Terror back in 2002-2003

Urban Terror started off as a total conversion mod of quake3 and was great fun (beta 2 to 3) . . . then ID let people buy the Q3 engine license for very little and it became totally separate and changed.
Originally it wasn't very bouncy bouncy and sprinting was limited yet still was fun and fairly fast passed, which was why I liked it over Q3. (beta 1 was ok but was still a bit too much of the q3 in it with everyone constantly jumping, it was beta 2 when speed was reduced but a limited sprint and jumping added and shooting people in the legs to cripple their movement, that I really became hooked to it)
The maps where really good, full of choke points, camping spots and anti-camping spots (almost every camping spot was exposed in some way, so you could easily get the drop on a camper if you knew he was there.

There was also a lot of fun in getting into unexpected places, this could be done by pyramiding (if someone looked down and crouched then you could jump onto them and stand on their back allowing you to then jump up to an otherwise unreachable place and what more multiple people could do it forming a pyramid of players someone else could jump up letting people get onto normally totally unaccessible roof tops which made for great ambushes because no one expected a player to be there.

And being a Q3 mod it played really well on a 56k modem.

[prehensile]

Excuse me for going a bit off topic here (but this is a bit of thread necromancy)
Urban Terror started off as a total conversion mod of quake3 and was great fun (beta 2 to 3) . . . then ID let people buy the Q3 engine license for very little and it became totally separate and changed.

And being a Q3 mod it played really well on a 56k modem.

Yeah i know! there was a Urban Terror 2/3 also which already had the grenades, shooting people in the leg, hopping up all kinds of ledges and climbing areas to get to sniper hideouts and masses of tactics to creep up on flags and foes and run away very fast.

After playing UT, all the other games are quite sluggish and make me go to sleep, perhaps crysis 2 and some newer stuff can compete with it, but i should work rather than finding another addictive game... in the new UT versions, you can run very fast and cover 100 meters in 10 seconds, similar to real life, but in other games you have to jog everywhere like it's a fun run... ZZZ!

Do you know another Q3 mod from around 2003 which was just new characters, weapons and maps, it had Engineer mode so you could make defence stations in strategic positions that could take out a mass of foes prior to being blown up. alot of people used to play it but i cant remember it's name.

So now i have deleted urban terror from my HDD. tome to do DSP, art, music, and things that require more than 1 minute of forwards thinking.

[dbh]

I used to game ALOT back in the day. Thankfully cut it down quite a bit. These days probably around 1-10 hours a week. Odd thing though I am sat in front of the screen probably about the same amount of time. Just doing different things instead. Essentially anything 30+ hours a week is like doing a full time job. You guys should go pro and earn some money for your efforts

[prehensile]

I wish i was good enough to go pro! 1-10 hours is very reasonable.

I have deleted the executables to Urban Terror for 2 days and i am at a loss for what to do. I have spent hours reading about the geology of the Deccan plateu and gold and diamond mining, but now i need to FRAG SOME LAN GAMES!!! <--- withdrawal simptoms...

I am facing a strange sensation where i have to control and observe my conciousness for long periods of time rather than being enveloped by brain consuming 3d game. it's bizarre. i can hear aeroplanes and my flatmate playing music. my brain is in unkown terrain.

[dbh]

You know what might help. I did it earlier this week. Make a list of goals and objectives of what you want to achieve for yourself personally. Can put some easy ones on there... like get a new phone etc. For the bigger ones think about how you'll do it etc and try and motivate yourself. Time will soon pass by quickly if it engages your passion!

[Zadock]

You know what helps the most? Get a girlfriend! mine won't let me play games when she is there (unless she has an assignment or a hangover, knocks her out for two days that! I had a whole wknd of gaming last time heh heh!).

[dbh]

lol my mate did that but then trained her to be a gamer. I dunno how that happened. She was a proper girly girl and she actually liked WoW. I shuddered at the thought.

[cv1324]

my mate is so additicted to wow, i dont understand why..

[Jay]

I was addicted to gaming for a long time, I like boobies more so that helped me kick the gaming addiction.

This guy was the worst though

http://www.xfire.com/profile/pagan666/

looks like he either kicked gaming or kicked xfire. Good guy mind you.

[Macman]

lol'd at some of responses; but to be fair sounds like me.

I've been hooked on Counter-Strike; COD; Age of Empires; EVE Online and FM

Was in a relationship and calmed down in gaming altogether. Since I've split up back in December; I'm going back to my normal ways lol but I still have my balance right, with Work & Social life.