And then you realise...

[Strichev]

that for the past ten years you've been living for computer games only. That your weekends are fun not because you go out or anything, but because you have time to play games. That you have achieved less than your imaginary characters have.

In the end, though, comes the realisation that you do not even enjoy playing said games. You just have to . And eventually you find yourself staring at the desktop, or mindlessly delving through the forums, pressing a worn out F5 key, not knowing what game to play.

My fellow geeks and people of threadbare lives (I admit, I'm exaggerating) let's discuss this phenomenon.

[n00bl3t]

I think you need a break.

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Anything I say is not intended as offensive, and to try and deliberately misinterpret it as such would be an attempt at trolling via misrepresentation.

It's not a conspiracy, it's localised bias. They're not intelligent enough to form a conspiracy.

[Archie.Wanton]

If you're looking for an alternative way to pass time, which requires 0 pre-requisits to do, which will help you improve your life again: Sports. You can even start it in front of your computer, without moving a muscle at first. Start looking up gymnastic excercises and tips on healthy living. Start doing them alone, and when you're better trained, at public sport clubs or with co-workers.

[Narcotic]

I'm perfectly fine as long as my online addiction doesn't interfere with my alcohol addiction (aka SUFF). Jokes.

However, you're right - pathological gaming (and gambling) must be a pain, and I'd suggest anyone who's close to it, to consider a therapy. I know people who did it successfully and do now have a life worth living again.



(Speaking of it - I haven't been playing any game the last three weeks. What's wrong with me? Screw you springtime! :S)

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[Govedo13]

I have 2 simple rules that work for me:
First I have work time/study time/family time and private time.
Second I do hobbies only in private time and switch them frequently.
I do admit that I have a game addiction so I do other such addictive stuff too and it works for me. Seems that some people do need to have addictions in order to be happy.
I have months with heavy gaming (30+ hours in week) in my free time and months with no gaming at all.
First point is to set clear rules for yourself- time for work/study/family and then your private time.
It is bad if your private time is gaming only- you start to be zombie so the solution is to have couple of hobbies in order to change your addictions. I do ski/MTB/swimming and fishing together with hardware assembling/gaming. I just switch them often with each other so I does not zombie at single thing. Other helpful thing is to cutting the virtual game buddies to minimum because you together form some virtual society and you socialize with this people in the virtual world instead of socializing with real people in real world- this brings disaster. Play for the fun of playing- no clans no factions no long term commitments.

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€œ

Official faction players that are often accused of elitism, never deploy them and have those weird, immersion killing "fair fight/dueling" suicidal hobbies. (yes, i've seen enough of those lolduels, where house military with overwhelming force on the field willingly loses a pilot in a duel. ffs.)

[Irwin]

Man, I just try not to think about this. How depressing. q_q

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[Challenger]

That you have achieved less than your imaginary characters have.

Speak for yourself.

[Strichev]

As I've said, I'm exaggerating.

[Luke.]

That was me a few years ago. Best thing to do is just force yourself not to. Sit outside, ask a friend to come round, do some school/college work. Distract yourself. There's never much to do at home so I too spend most of my time in front of the computer but at the end of the day, productivity is possible while doing this.

I realise this thread isn't entirely serious but it does happen to people. It's just an addiction, one that can be easily broken.

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[Ursus]

yeah you have to budget your time the same way you budget money.

also try to set aside specific areas for hobby activity and dont mix it with other activities. like, dont game on your school/work computer, and dont do work on your gaming computer. these makes it a lot easier to keep discipline.

a physical hobby is good for you too. I tend to get sucked into gaming a lot during the winter when its too cold outside for other things, but I have outside hobbies for the rest of the year.

big thing to remember is that gaming is just another form of escapism. for some people its liquor by the gallon, for others its reading books everyday, for others its gaming. a counselor I knew used to say that if drinking leads to problems in real life, like making you late for work, or whatever, then you have a drinking problem--same is true for any kind of escapism..

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