Issue 27: Casual Friday - One Fateful Semester

[The Escapist Staff]

Brian EastonAs a hobby, gaming isn't much more addictive than others, though gamers take more pleasure in the obsession. Sometimes this can be a bad thing. Brian Easton asks: Are you doing it for the pleasure of the game, or the distaste of something else?

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Mart

Good article, i think this is the kind of view that a lot of people miss when they talk about the terrors of addiction or many other forms of negative behavior.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: TM

You are practicly speaking directly to me!
I have recently realized after hitting a grade point low in university that I have a game adiction and I try to fight it now.
I find that the hardest part is that decision point between what you should do and the escapisim alternative, games.
If I get started on my work and it is interesting, it tends to be ok, the urge to game subsides. But If I start gaming it is very hard to stop.
On retrospection that sure sounds like adiction and it needs to stop.
In the larger scheme of things I think gaming adiction could become a very real problem on a lage scale, it may be somthing to keep an eye on.

"Later never Comes"

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Seasought

Nice article that I can relate to after having to cancel my EVE Online account cold turkey in order to bring some sort of order back to meatspace living.

Thanks for the article.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Brinstar
http://acidforblood.blogspot.com/
Great article. I certainly have had a few moments in the past whilst at university, where I played games a lot in order to avoid distasteful tasks, though I didn't allow it to get so bad that it jeopardised my academic career.

However, I have a friend that I worry about regarding gaming addiction, and it's not video games (it's LARP and table-top gaming). I've seen how LARP can consume people's lives, which is why when I went on to graduate school, I left the scene. The people there were too obsessed. It was insane. And now I see this happening to one of my friends... It bothers me, but I'm too far to do anything about it.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Munir

Yes. My experience was fairly typical too. Usually playing games till the early hours of the morning, and then deciding to stay up till the next day anyway 'cos it was too late(/early) to sleep! Eventually I started sleeping during the day time and at one point became completely nocturnal, sleeping from 8am and waking mid evening. This sucked mostly 'cos the shops were all closed and there was nobody to talk to! But also when I did need to be awake during the day, I'd be knackered.

Thinking about it now, I only got that way because playing games was just easier and far more fun than difficult university studies and everyday life. But I eventually realised that my student loan wouldn't last, and I needed work unless I started playing games professionally! And more than that, I would be useless to society, friends and myself if I chose games over work.

So now, I've relegated games to entertainment and appreciation, and I manage to sleep....at night!

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Munir

Oh and for me, it wasn't because I was doing something wrong in life, like studying the wrong subject. It was just that things were getting damned hard. But I'm in my 6th and final year now and I'm determined to get through!

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Handman

Great article. Articles are always better when writen from a personal perspective. Hope you get more work

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Mark

I've never really experienced obsessive gaming, except on the (numerous) instances where I stayed up a few hours later than I should have. Even so, an excellent article.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Matt

This article speaks to me as well. I enjoy games for the escapism, since the life i lead is quite dull.
Trying to balance gaming and a relationship is also a bit tricky. But my partner understands my enjoyment of games. We also have a rule about how, its just a game and you can *save* it and come back later.
I also do NOT go into MMORG's. I know myself well enough to know that if I started that, my life would be sucked into the computer.
I do like this magazine. Its intelligent. Not rant.
Yay

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Alex

Brian, what university did you go to? Given your reference to the Pittsburgh article, I am wondering if you happened to be at the exact same place I am going to now! Everything sounds exactly like it is here, same possible majors and everything...

Anyway, at this university now I'm caught in the same exact situation. And I fear it is exactly because I am not in a program I love, but I believe too, that it is in part because I believe I may end up with a career in some sort in the gaming industry (not necessarily coding). Excellent article. Again, The Escapist has had some of the greatest writing I have ever read.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Brian Easton

Alex:
I went to Pitt, if that is the univerity you are reffering to. There are several in the area

Everyone else:
Thanks for the comments. I hope to write some more stuff soon.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Alex

Ahhh close, I actually go to CMU... Very similar anyway.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Illu
http://intothespirit.com
nice article!
i'm looking at this topic exactly this way.
but there's one thing about my situation here thats making me think: i (shame on me!!!) introduced my "what-is-solitaire??"-girlfriend to world of warcraft. so this has been about 8 months ago, now she's having the full programm - teamspeak, sessions 12 hours or longer, forum activities, ... actually she's doing educational studies and she really loves studying this topic - she always gets good grades too. so - how should you explain this kind of addiction?

imho she's got quite another way of experiencing the mmorpg. as she never played anything before, for her it's really some kind of alternate reality, where everything and -body is nice (roleplaying server), colourful - a perfect world. she's pretty good also

just thought this fits in here.
keep on writing!

greetz from europe

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: AJ Mitchell

My worst incidence of 'overdoing it with serious detrimental consequences' other than just 'over doing it', was only two years ago when I had just bought GTA: San Andreas and my wife had gone to Singapore for a three day shopping trip with her mum. On the first night alone after getting the kids down, tudying the house up and doing some washing I sat down at 9pm and broke the plastic on my new game.

I knew I was screwed when I saw the light coming in the edges of the living room blinds and thought it was a helicopter or (I hoped) a meteor. It was 5:30am. I managed an hour and a half of sleep before three blonde things tapped me on the head and reminded me I had promised to take them to the park that morning. It felt like I had a bees nest in my head all day.

So that was the stupidest I've ever been with a game. Since then I have learned to ration myself, kinda.

 

[The Escapist Staff]

Original Comment by: Brandon

I really liked your article and feel that I too have started down that dark path but I lucked out. About three years ago I married a really special lady who knew what it meant to have an addiction. She is addicted to table top games as I am addicted to PC and console games so we hold each other to the fire once in a while to make sure that our lives together stay just that together! I look forward to reading more articles from you and the other talented writers of The Escapist.