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Times you took your love for gaming too far
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My gamertag and yours share a chilling resemblance.
It's destiny.
I was looking at everything but that.
Imagine pre-Trammel (All PvP Zones) UO. I was living with a friend of mine and it was our current addiction. We were rolling out side of Vesper across the bank bridge on the east side (by the tailor shop) training on some blade spirits. A blue name pops up and checks us out. Of course we look like we’re macroing (because we were) but we’re at our computers. Long story short (too late) he takes off and he comes back with a buddy and starts attacking us. We quickly dispatch his friend and the instigator leaves. We chase him but he stays just out of range. A house pops up on our map and he jumps on the door step and logs out.
We hide just off his doorstep and equip our bows. After about five minutes later my roommate wants to bail and go back to training. ‘No,’ I say ‘this guy is probably going to go get some taco bell or some shit and come back. He’ll be thinking we’ll be long gone. We need to send him a message.’
Sure enough two and a half hours later the guy comes back. He unlocks his front door, two arrows hit him and he’s down. We loot the shit outta him and his house, but this isn’t about the loot.
So yeah, two plus hours completely hidden waiting for a guy to log back in so I can take revenge. Virtual revenge.
Yeah, I have a problem.
Edit: The two and half hours were filled with talk of 'when we should fire' and we settled on right after he opened his door. Mostly just talk of how we were going to 'better' our character builds after this episode was complete. I'm sure talk of Starcraft was in there as well.
did you have a tv by your monitors or where you doing anything else to pass time?
Though back in my 56k days I would stare blankly at a download bar for a video file for up to half an hour or more.
This addiction came to a head on the night before a term paper worth like 25% of a final grade was due. I had not taken a single step toward completing it. My studies had of course been suffering for the last few months, so I absolutely could not afford that kind of hit on my average. But I kept playing. As the night passed, I would continually justify putting off the project for just one more hour until it was finally 6:00 in the morning. I stopped playing to get in about 15 minutes of work before I finally admitted to myself that it was simply too late to do anything worthwhile. Then I just shrugged my shoulders and went right back to the game. When I got to school that morning, I made up a somewhat plausible story about data corruption or printer drivers or something, and since that teacher and I shared genuine mutual trust and respect, I got away with it. Obviously I felt like a complete piece of shit for lying, but the relief I felt from not failing far outweighed my guilt.
For some reason, on the day Half-Life 2 came out, I didn't get home until pretty late at night. My shift didn't start until 3:00 the next day, so I probably would have finished the game in one sitting had it not been for Steam's stupid bullshit and the dial-up connection that I was STILL using. By the time the game was ready, I was too tired to play.
As soon as I got to work the next day, my boss called me into his office. I had been abusing the company's tardiness policy for quite a while at that point, and Human Resources wanted to make an example of me. If it were up to them, security would have escorted me off property that day, but my boss protected my job because of my otherwise awesome performance.
However, as a formality, he had to suspend me for one day. We had a pretty serious discussion about my attendance habits, and he made it perfectly clear that I would be fired if I didn't correct them. There was a lot more to this conversation, but I'll be damned if I can remember any more of it because the only thing on my mind was the fact that I had the entire day off work to play Half-Life 2. I finished it that night in one sitting.
Some of the most horrifying stories of this nature come from MMO addiction, and while mine is tame in comparison to many of those here, it's still worth sharing. I started playing WoW in August of 2005. I quit in February of 2006 because I realized that my 30 days /played had actually been 1/6 of my life since I picked it up. My soul cries in terror at the thought of the expansion...
edit:
tl;dr: Starcraft took over my life in my senior year of high school, I was happy about being suspended from work because I could go play Half-Life 2, and WoW occupied 1/6 of a six month period of my life.
There's also the "did barely any homework or studying for the last two years of high school" thing, but that was more because of general procrastination and lack of motivation than it was my love of gaming.
I'm at a critical moment in my life and the stress and terror is growing more everyday. I entered a severe depression spring semester of last year and shirked off all all my homework and didn't even bother going to some tests. I didn't enroll for classes but I told my parents that I have. Last semester my loan bills start coming in and I tell my dad it's some mistake since I'm still in class. I go to enroll in classes this semester and I no longer exist in the school server. I've been wanting to go down to the school and see what's up. I have a fear though, and I don't want it to be confirmed so every day I push back when I will go to school. Meanwhile my dad thinks I'm in class. I'm so fucking terrified.
Wow... that sounds familiar... I didn't even sign up for University because I'm just so apathetic... no motivation or anything.
Do you have anyone on campus who can help you out, like, in a motivational sense?
i ahd a similar problem as well.
try to find someone to talk to on campus. because first, it gets harder to do anything the longer you wait.
also, even if you don't want to go to school, it'd be good to elave in good standing.
I'm sure you don't come to this forum for advice on something you are trying to ignore but I can't let someone go without some sort of help when I was in the same place last year.
If its worth anything, although this now seems stupid in comparison to anything. The first day I got my 360, I had gears, and finished the game in one sitting, through the night.
Even though I knew I had to participate in a soccer competition the next morning.
The red car's the one it's currently on, just as a reminder... let me know if you want a better (or daylight) pic of it. Also, the license plate frame is a Rayne quote from BloodRayne 2's ending.
I can't remember where, which state, or what type of car it was on, but one day (on the net) I found someone who was such a Final Fantasy VII fan his license plate was FFVII. That's actually where I got the idea.
Sounds good. :^:
Awesome. I love Retronauts, so Jeremy's cool with me. :^:
Steam | XBL
I never finish anyth
I personally must have logged 2000 hours into the Nintendo 64's 'Flying Dragons". If you've never played that game(which was pretty good thinking back) it had a RPG like item system where you could buy items to unlock stuff, and equip them on your characters, and stuff. BUT they didn't tell you HOW to unlock certain items(things like changing the timer settings, difficulty, etc) so I would spend hours just playing the matches over and over and over with slight variations(not blocking, not kicking, not punching) in hopes of finding a rare item. Never touched the adult mode too much either.
The real bad thing about Flying Dragons was it turns out, it had glitches so you COULDN'T get all the items.
I was wrong.
I played unhealthy amounts of counter strike before Source came out. There were a couple times when I punched the monitor in frustration. There were a few other games where I took things a little (way) too far. Monster Rancher 2 consumed my life for several months (not saying much since I never really had one.) and raised a monster with straight 9s in ever stat and taught it all it's attacks (Which is bloody tedious to begin with not counting all the items you have to gather beforehand to raise it. Those magic bananas are a pain in the ass and whoever made them should be drug out into the street and shot.) Logged 450 hours on Pokemon Gold. And almost 100%ed Ape Escape. (Which involves catching all the monkeys, all the spectre coins, and getting a gold medal in every time trial. I was at 98% when my card died.
Oh god yes. "GET OFF THE PHONE I'M PLAYING NUKEM!".
Steam | Live
When I was a little kid, my dad would take me to the arcade sometimes and play a game with me. It was really rare, but it became the highlight of any outings for me.
Our first home system was a Commodore Vic-20, and I would wait around 20-30 minutes for cassette tapes to load a pac-man clone. I taught myself how to program in basic as a very young boy to write games for that thing.
One Christmas, my grandmother sent my dad a NES package with Mario/Duckhunt and a zapper. When my brother's turn at Mario came, he snagged a star. I told him "You are invincible, you can run into anything. You can run right over holes!" My turn came really quickly, and he still gives me a hard time about that. Man, that was mean.
Anyway, needless to say I played it a great deal, and my parents did there best to curb my obsession. When I saw a golden Zelda box for sale at my local video rental store, I begged and promised that I would be the perfect boy if I got it. My parents had to insist that I ate meals with them until they took it away.
My parents were fairly strict; we didn't get many games or systems, so I would spend a great deal of time visiting kids who I didn't necessarily like. I remember playing SNES games at two different people's house through their bedroom window because they were grounded. Played a great deal of Super Punch Out and SMB2 that way. When some of them got weird (you don't want to know) I stopped visiting.
My grade and highschool years were always fraught with periods of my being forbidden to own game systems or being allowed to. I enjoyed being able to buy my own games and systems when I finally could. This allowed me to be in charge of when I got to use them! I spent a great deal of my highschool earnings on SNES carts, but I had a life.
We finally got a PC at home in about 1989. I would wait until everyone at my house was asleep and play Wolfenstein 3D in the dark on our 386 because my mom would have freaked. (You should hear what she said about playing RPGs at the time, she thought they were the "devil's tools" or something. Stupid media/"religious" pop-psychologist idiots had her brainwashed for a while there . . .) Throughout this period I had steady girlfriends, trucks, job, sports -I was a healthy kid with a hobby.
I was an excellent student. School was too easy for me though, and I found myself installing games on the school network after watching a teacher's fingers slowly input her password. I think we got caught -I don't remember. It was no big deal as I recall, although the sys admin for the school was not amused. I'm thinking I had to stay after school one time or something, or maybe he just gave me a stern talking to.
In college I was locked in at my campus (work, school, eat, sleep on campus with no car) and had a girlfriend who wasn't good for me for 2.5 years. I got depressed during my third and fourth semester and went from straight A's, Dean's list and Honors to picking a few classes to ignore and fail so that I could cram and pass the others when finals came. I spent most of this dark period in my life in my dorm room playing on my playstation or Warcraft 2/Diablo (roommate's computer) on our school network with friends. I would skip my morning classes regularly because I was so tired.
I dropped out of college, disillusioned and unsure of what I wanted to do with/in my life. I kept my job throughout this, and eventually ended up selling computers at a company called Future Shop. They went out of business and let us all go the day after I purchased EQ, my first MMORPG. What timing!
I didn't bother looking for a job, as I had made great money there and had unemployment benefits coming. Over the course of about three months I think that I had about two months game time. A friend came to me and basically did an intervention. Thank God for him.
I got a decent job, moved to a great one in tech support and moved in with another obsessive gamer. We spent a year of gaming bliss networked when we weren't working. I was unemployed for a few months due to bad decisions (got a new (better) job and quit, but didn't get a start date first and ended up waiting on the new job) and got deep into EQ again. Shortly before I met my wife I quit games for a while, started working out and got my life in order. Again, great timing!
I've still lapsed into some mmorpg addictions with FFXI, WoW, DAOC etc, but never like that again. It's a feast or famine thing for me, and I usually play them for a few months then quit cold. I've pretty much given up playing any MMORPG now, though I'll always be tempted and still think that they are great fun. I guess it's like being an alcoholic, but thankfully I wouldn't know.
I have my priorities straight now. I still love my games, but I stick to ones that don't consume my life. I've been married to a great woman for six years now. I've since gone back to the same college and finished my degree online. During my degree completion program my little boy, now age 2, was born. I've been at this job for 3 years, and 2.5 at the one before. I own about 100 games on all different systems, and get in a few hours a night usually, before bed. I'm a pretty happy guy, most of the time. I'm certainly very fortunate.
Of all of the games, I still miss WOW and the original EQ, but not enough to start again. There are people in my life that I can't ignore. My relationship with Jesus and some of the Christian people He has placed in my life are the only things that I can credit with helping me through some of those dark times. My friend that intervened on my behalf way back when is now a Pastor, which is certainly no coincidence. I don't usually talk about my faith online, but I'm not ashamed of it and I want to give credit where it is due.
TL:DR -I have always been fascinated by games, and at times in my life they have consumed me and cost me a great deal. I've matured and can now balance games and live a productive life, but I am still tempted by MMORPGs. I credit my relationship with Christ and Christians with my recovery from those addictions.
Registered member since '04, Lurking since '99!
What if you buy the Left Behind game?
Rock Band DLC | GW:OttW - arrcd | WLD - Thortar
Maybe you missed what I meant by that, but we are talking about /played time here, man. I LIVED EQ for three months. Does that not count? Am I not hardcore enough for you, with all my words and Jesus talk? I could describe my days of playing WoW both while at work and at home if you like.
Nevertheless, if you bothered to read all of that and still want more, I will attempt to satisfy you with a terrible tale:
I used to frequent a "friend" named Zachary. He lived in a big house about five neighbors away. His dad had some big-shot job and was single, and bought his son EVERYTHING he wanted. He had an atari, intellivision, commodore 64, NES, etc. If it was cool and he wanted it, he had it.
Now, as a child, I considered this grounds to overlook just about everything. Like the fact that he constantly whined, insisted on getting his way, and would cry and throw fits whenever he didn't. Hey, the games and food were good, and we could play all we wanted.
The last day that I ever went over to his house I was camped out on his couch playing some game when he got up to use the restroom. Over my furious gaming I heard him yell "Daddy! Daddy!". His dad yelled back "What?!" "Daddy come wipe me!" This kid was like age 11, mind you. I got up without saying a word, got the hell out of there and never went back.
Registered member since '04, Lurking since '99!
In that case I would hope that you would be kind and mercy kill me.
Registered member since '04, Lurking since '99!
I would've done the same.
@ShiftyPumpkin on the Twitterings. Book the Faces at [facebook.com/PerceptivePumpkinProductions]
Man, who says "daddy" past age 5?
Also the wiping? God damn.
I knew a person in elementary and middle school who constantly sucked his thumb. He also had hearing aids.
Granted, this arcade was two stories, had an entire section devoted to giant crane games with huge Sega (mostly Sonic) UFO plushes in them, DDR of all sorts, House of the Dead 4, and my personal favorite Konami shooting game, Terraburst. A game that I had played religiously in the Disney World resort we stayed in when I was nine, and a game I have not played in roughly ten years.
Also granted, we're no longer together (not because of this specific incident, but maybe some arguments were placed against me).
I tried to explain, "But, but Terraburst;" however, she would not listen.
I need a girlfriend who would join me in that arcade playing games instead of pulling me out of it at the end of the night by the ear.
XBL Michael Spencer || Wii 6007 6812 1605 7315 || PSN MichaelSpencerJr || Steam Michael_Spencer || Ham NOØK
QRZ || My last known GPS coordinates: FindU or APRS.fi (Car antenna feed line busted -- no ham radio for me X__X )
Awesome, thanks for the heads up.
But not as intense, and taking it as far, as Killer Instinct on the SNES. I would be pulling off rolls, fighting, doing combos, generally button mashing with the technical skill I had at that point... Only the SNES controller didn't like me.
I wore through 3 layers of my skin on my thumb. I'm not talking a blister. I mean it looked like someone had gone strip-mining on my thumb. The bottom layer was red.. and it hurt like hell to touch anything.
Ever since then, any time I play a d-pad based fighter on the SNES, I wear a glove or a band-aid to just offer a slight layer of protection.
Sometimes, when I speak, I say 'say' first.
Later, in high school I was in marching band. Final Fantasy IX was released the day before the huge U of A marching competition in Tucson. We had to be up and at school the next morning by 6:30 AM to catch the bus. My friend had his dad go pick up the game while we were in school, then drop us off at my house with it immediately afterwards. We then proceeded to play the game for roughly 17 hours straight, taking only pizza, drink, and bathroom breaks. We stopped playing and realized the sun was just cracking and we had to be at school in less than an hour. The bus ride was hell, the marching was hell, but god was FFIX worth it.
Story #3: My friends and I were also big into LAN parties in High School. One of my fondest memories was playing Call of Duty till the crack of dawn with a bunch of friends and realizing that there was no chance in hell I was going into work. I called on my cell phone and told my friends to shut up, I immediately put the sick voice on and talked to my manager (at 7am) Just as I was finishing explaining i wasn't feeling well my friends decided it'd be awesome to start shooting with their speakers up - the series of explosions and gun fire in the background made my manager pause: "You're not feeling well?" me: "No, all achy, nasty head ache, not good at all" her: "Oh, okay...what's all hat noise?" me(pausing to think): "History Channel" needless to say she accepted it reluctantly, but always made the joke to me that the history channel plays a lot of explosions at 7am.
Wow, good save!
Im sure there's plenty of posts on MMOs in this thread and the rest of the internets, but I never thought I would personally know someone so addicted. Two of my best friends in the first year of university were very bored - they weren't the party type, and they didn't want to do homework, and lived on campus.
WoW was played on their laptops in the library between classes, then immediately after classes until late at night. Sometimes DURING classes. Every weeknight at a certain time they took a break to get food, and get back to it.
Because they went home for the weekends, Thursday became a stay up all night playing WoW deal, first as a novelty then constantly (Library is open 24/7 during the week)
Thankfully they managed to squeeze out decent grades for what they wanted and their addiction was as largely attributed to overall boredom as anything else.
PSN/XBL: dragoniemx
The game was my religion, the manual my bible. Kane was Jesus, and the jerky poorly animated movements of vague sprites on the screen my holy icons.
Hell, one time when I was attending a family meet of sorts, I kept on pressuring my mom to go back to the car and get the manual...
We headed back, I whined...and ended up with her tearing it to pieces in front of me
In my apologetic rage (when I'm accused I have a bad habit of suggesting punishments and overapologizing), I ended up with TWO MONTHS of no computer in order to cure my addiction.
By the way, I made this post at 3:41 AM PST
And I'm playing CoH.
Wow, yea it's amazing how addicted one can get to a game. I knew a kid who stopped going to school after getting hooked on Ultima Online. The conversation went something like "Hey, where's Wes been?" "Playing UO" "Seriously? Is he coming back?" "I doubt it."
I'm glad your friends were able to get the grades though
This post makes me feel.. so old. I wasn't playing Warcraft 2 until 8th grade. =/
I would religiously play CS everyday for four years.