A new email:
"I want to write to you... about myself. I am gamer, plainly put. As a kid, I would play my weekends away, or after homework on weekdays. The days were carefree, others, and myself, viewed my gaming as a hobby for any child, like playing with toys. I am near graduating high school now, and I now realize what I have done to myself... I've played my middle school and high school years away.
The more my childhood passed, the more I devoted free time to play online games. The games became a growing addiction, an electronic plague. First it was Starcraft, then Warcraft 3, now WoW. I currently play 14 hours on weekends, 8 hours on Fridays, and 3 hours Mon-Thurs (school nights), and I have enough homework from AP classes to lose a lot of sleep, especially if I played. I study the minimum I need to get a good grade, then I hit the games and play until my body strains, pleading for me to sleep. If on any given day I have no homework, I play all day. Believe me, I am an exceptional student, averaging above a 4.0. The tradegy is... I could have contributed more; I probably could have advanced straight to graduate school now if I had pushed with a 100% effort, and only I know that I had the capabilities to push way harder. I even threw away opportunities to participate in extracurriculars and sports. If my parents know my potential like I do, they would be furious, because I cheated myself.
Academics aside, I sacrificed a lot of friendships that I could have had to play by myself on weekends. I have even ignored the intentions of many girls who I could have had a decent relationship with. I left them waiting in the dust, left them as just friends. I want to cry just writing this; I wasted my life. A friend (girl) once called me a good guy, but wasted. I was young and stupid, and I ignored her. I swear, I hate the notion of gaming now. I am not unlike the poor souls who are addicted to drugs. Gaming is my weed. My life passed so fast that I don't anyone to cling onto anymore, only the games are there for me. Thus, I feel inclined to play more. My behavior is so compulsive that I play even with the knowledge of my own deterioration. I should quit playing now and remake friends fast, or else my sadness and emptiness will consume me."
6 Comments:
I read this email and its like it was me. Atleast you learned about it while you were a teenager, believe it or not there is still time to change your ways. I wasted my teens and twenties before I "saw the light" Quit those games now! You have come to the right conclusions now just carry through with them.
Mar 3, 2005, 8:30:00 PM
Oh brother, you have just perfectly described myself in my teen years. Not only was I antisocial, I was also the joke of my school. The geek as some would say. I almost got to the point of no return, fortunately the fact that I had non-gaming friends and that I prefered to play with company instead of alone kept me afloat.
Until I left my homecity, I had 1 good friend total. In the city I went to, I fell again into gaming because I had noone. This time I delved deeper into PnP RPGs and Card Games and thus became a little more social (a little mind you) but I also started getting out for a change. It took me 4 years to balance my gaming with the rest of my life. I still play games and even got into MMORPG but I know how to keep it in check now.
Best thing to do is get into a relationship. This will raise your self esteem and leave you craving for more.
Mar 3, 2005, 11:21:00 PM
Move onto college and start new. You will have a clean slate to do what ever you want and those memories will last for a long time.
Mar 8, 2005, 8:53:00 PM
'gaming is my weed'
Games do not equal the power of drug addiction. Period.
Have you guys ever seen a hit house?
A crack baby?
Have you seen someone kill another human being in cold blood for money?
Its a far cry to say that games are like drugs. Thats like calling OCD addiction.
Maybe you have OCD, or bipolar disorder, or something else. And you can seek and find effective treatment for that.
If you are an addict, and you have addiction, chances are you will end up dead, in jail, or using your entire life.
Trust me I know... lol
If I could have the years back (12 to 16) that I used, I would be playing in the NBA now. As it stands with 10 years clean I am in a ivy league university, have a kick ass job, work out 5 days a week, do well at school and my job, and you know what? I still have time for games.
Mar 9, 2005, 10:35:00 AM
I have seen tons of weed users who exist peacefully in the world, without having killed anyone (and it's illegal!). So why can't it be equated it to that?
What I am curious about is this: How many hours did/do you play on average per week? How many hours a week did you spend studying, keeping your place clean, surviving? You do not seem to understand that there are quite many people playing online games at the complete exclusion of everything else. If you play games every day for 8+ hours while going to school, chances are that you won't make it into an ivy school. If you play games every day for 4+ hours every night and 12+ hours on the weekends while working and having a family, chances are you will neither have a particularly successful career nor a loving family.
You sound like a person who has managed to balance his life. Good for you. Do you realize that that there are many who have not?
Whether computer games can be as addictive as drugs or not can be debated ad nauseum. What cannot be denied is that OBSESSIVE game playing will lead to a deterioration of quality of life (and everything associated with it). And unlike OCD and Bipolar Depression, obsessive game playing has yet to be diagnosed and therefore has little chance of being treated properly currently. (You cannot diagnose an obsessive gamer as OCD or any existing disorders - it really isn't the same)
Mar 9, 2005, 1:35:00 PM
Oh! Man, hardcore gamers can play 7 to 8 hours a day, and still have a life... Here's what I do if I don't have time to study, I get an IPAQ with a voice recorder, and study for 3 hours on my work, I play that over and over again hearing my own voice while I'm doin other things... Cleaning, fixing my car, biking around. Then when I'm done with that... I have more free time to play 5-6 hours on weekdays, and 7 hours on weekends.
Get yourself some an Audio IPAQ recorder, or cassette tape to help you study... Audio books help too.
If that doesn't help, then use some tricks that help you have more time to game... some people sacrifice TV for gaming.
I went to a MMORPG forum and this guy only watches the news on TV for an hour, and then gets free time to game for 6 hours and study for 3 and get things done.
So use some tricks.
Feb 28, 2006, 11:25:00 PM
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