Slashdot Mirror
First-Person Account Of Video Game Addiction
The Evil Couch writes "Jive Magazine, an entertainment magazine based in Atlanta, has just released a feature article that the editor has spent over a year investigating on gaming addiction. Starting from being on the outside of the gaming community, she has gone from being a somewhat normal person, to being one of the higher level characters in Anarchy Online. 'People have worse entertainment addictions than playing computer games. If I am going to be addicted to something, I would choose online gaming over drugs, bowling, gambling, television, or being a baseball fanatic easily. I don't have to wear ugly shoes, lose my hard earned money or do the wave next to someone I don't know and that just about makes it a no-brainer for me. It IS after all just a video game, like Neal describes in his great novel, Snow Crash. It is just another amusement park.' Sounds like a happy ending to me."
I once had the Everquest on my back, but I kicked. Believe me, these addictions do screw up real lives...
:wq
Ouch!
Karma: Censored (mostly affected by decency laws)
Game addiction is a serious problem, one that's almost as wretched, terrible, and harmful for loved ones than drug, sex, or gambling addictions.
Take, for example, the EverQuest Widows page. Their opening paragraph states simply that "EverQuest-Widows is a forum for partners, family, and friends of people who play EverQuest compulsively [who] turn to each other [for emotional support]".
So please catch yourselves before you joke about addiction. All addictions, not just ones related to drugs, are serious problems that must be solved before disaster strikes.
In conclusion, I urge you all to read this heart-wrenching essay in which Jeffrey Stark talks about how a video game ruined his young life.
Truly a sad story. Remember people: games are for fun/entertainment, and are not real life. Same goes with Slashdot!
If you celebrate Xmas, befriend me (538
I'm not advocating drug use or even sexual addiction, but just disagreeing on the issue of computer game addiction. I've gone through phases when I've spent a lot of time playing computer games, mostly offline but sometimes online, and the main benefit is the sense of escape, not skill development or interaction with others.
-- http://www.MarkWelch.com/ Pleasanton California
An old friend of mine was a MUD addict. He claimed it to be more addictive than crack. As a result of his MUD playing, he flunked a semester of school, since he wouldn't go to class, study, do his homework, etc.
Sounds pretty far fetched, but MUDs can be so damn enticing.
reech bee-yond ur clip-0n
After reading through the article, I fail to find what the first industry alluded to in that paragraph is. It doesn't seem to be gaming, or more correctly, online gaming. It does seem to be a "drug infested haven". Sounds like the U.S. Congress, or perhaps Big Business.
chmod 000 -R /usr/bin/games /usr/local/games
It worked for me.
And in our upcoming story about heroin addiction, we'll have an interactive special feature where you can enter your zip code and find the location for the dealer nearest you!
One might ask the same about birds. What ARE birds? We just don't know.
Having all my money going into arcade games was morale destroying. I believe that there is no difference between being addicted to video games and VLT's (slot machines).
It's not whether you win or lose, it's just that you have to keep playing. It's a vaguely sexual feeling -- that you might be found out, that you'll be "in trouble."
Profoundly depressing, actually. After a couple of years I managed to stop, but there was no self help groups back then, nobody to talk to (and who takes a 12 year old that's spending $50 a day on video games seriously anyway??)
If you're addicted, step back, do whatever, throw out the computer. Quit two, three, four times or as many as it takes to get it out of your life. And don't go back.
The baby's fine -- please stop sending business cards.
- Doesn't beat his wife.
- Doesn't drink.
- Doesn't do drugs.
- Doesn't sleep around.
But all he does do is sit in front of the TV and talk on Internet chat rooms. Just because you don't beat your wife doesn't mean you are a good person. And just because playing video games doesn't make you a bad person doesn't mean it is good for you.--Your sex
Sex - Find It
I remember this time last year i was just kicking my everquest addiction. I realized that it just wasn't fuffilling at all. My social life was trashed, except with my friend who also played. I wasn't even enjoying the time I did spend playing it. When I canceled my subscription it felt as if I risen to a new level of councousness.
Now I have a lot more friends, have lost 40 pounds and am much happier than I was before.
I still play video games some, but not a lot.
Also, please note the difference between a mental addiction and a chemical addiction. A mental addiction is all force of habbit, like video games or marajawana. A chemical addiction, to nicotine or alchahol is much different and a lit harder to kick.
Help I'm a rock.
While I agree that games are "better" being addicted to than most drugs (coffee, anyone?) I really can't agree with the conclusion of this article. Gaming addiction can be expensive as hell (especially if you're on dial-up and pay per minute, as we do in Sweden). I had a brush with this sort of behaviour when my brother was playing Ultima Online every day for about half a year -- although he eventually just got tired of it. Any activity which holds you from interactive with other people for a very long time is quite harmful to you, even if you don't actually *like* people.
and I am a Slashdotaholic.
Where's the line drawn between addiction and fandom? I've been hooked on Command and Conquer games since they first appeared. I've tried others in the genre like Starcraft, but they just haven't done it for me. I'm going through withdrawl waiting for Generals to finally make it to the shelves, annoying the piss out of the local software shop guys everytime I'm in the mall by asking them to give me the up to date release date.
When I do get a new C&C game, I normally spend the next 3 weeks playing that in my free time. I find myself staying up until 3 or 4 am, and my girlfriend gets hooked too, so that doesn't help things (is she an "enabler?"). After about 3 weeks, it doesn't give me as much of a "high" as it used to, so I don't play it as much. But then comes the expansion pack and another 3 weeks of my life.
So I ask you, when does this become an addiction and when is it just being a fan?
Friends help you move. Real friends help you move bodies.
These "people" are pathetic. They are simply people with zero self-esteem, zero drive, and who are intrinsically lazy. They have the willpower of a doorknob. I know this is gonna be modded "flamebait", but it's very simple. It's not a physical "addition" and it's insulting to people with real additions. These are just lazy fucking slobs who use "addiction" as a crutch so as they don't have to get their fat asses off of the sofa. Any serious problems that strike these people and their families are brought on by themselves. It's that simple.
It seems a bit irresponsible for her to dismiss gaming addiction as "just another amusement park". Clearly some people don't have the same willpower as she does, and for them gaming addiction is a real problem that causes them to become antisocial and lose touch with their friends, their jobs, their lives. The very word "addiction" means that the compulsion is stronger than the person's resistance. Any kind of behaviour which resists one's better judgement is damaging, IMHO.
...between online roleplaying and other games, even online ones is the amount of time needed to get "into the game" every time you play.
If I compare my Everquest addiction (which is over) to my Counter-Strike addiction (which is being revived) I'd say that I can pop in for a quick game of CS, but just as quickly log out again and go off to some social activity, whereas EQ would keep me tied to the screen.
The problem with EQ (and AO, DAoC, whatever) is that you need on average around an hour just to get going in the game. You need to get to some place where you can kill something, find a group, wait for friends, etc etc...
Once you enter the high level game in any online RPG you will have to sacrifice even more time. 24-hour non-stop playing sessions of a 50+ member guild for some rare item are not uncommon in the very high end game.
THAT's when your life starts going down the drain...
Question is, when're they going to start legislating games? I mean, if Evercrack and MUDs are the "hard" games, then what about so-called gateway games? Are they going to make Pacman illegal because it can lead to more severe game abuse? And they do have anecdotal evidence that video gaming can lead to violence and other crimes. Who knows, people might start committing armed robbery because they can't afford the next Evercrack expansion.
The above is not a comment on the "War on Drugs." If you take it as such, you're a low-down good-for-nothing hippie crack dealer terrorist who is against democracy and everything else the US stands for.
If not all sentients are human, couldn't it be possible that not all humans are sentient either?
Essentially, this woman just conveyed that she is an addict, but justifies her addiction as healthy, as she could be doing something worse...??!
Well, I'm glad I'm addicted to nicotine. Without cigarettes, I might be smoking crack! Thank god I found this addiction before I moved onto something more serious, like bowling or television.
-agent oranje.
I was a MUSH addict back in 1995. I'd play for hours at a time, instead of going out to look for work (I'd been laid off from an ISP before the internet REALLY boomed) or paying enough attention to my wife and new son. And I payed for it with a divorce and a lot of very hard times.
The addiction to EQ and MMORPG's is very similar. There is a sense of community that is often lacking in our 'real world' For me, it was emotional support that my wife didnt have the energy to give me while dealing with our child.
It's easy to call people who get addicted to games losers, or deride them for their lack of character. But in the end, it's about finding something there we dont find elsewhere. I was on the beta for Earth and Beyond, and even ran a fansite in the days before it was even beta... but I got out when I saw myself going down the same road I had in 95. Not everyone can do that... and the sooner people realise the fact that these games are addictive for a reason and make the effort to break the cycle, the sooner there will be less Everquest Widows.
Well lets see when was the last time one of your family members jumped in a car totally blitzed on EQ and rammed it into a three other cars?
That'd be never I'm guessing.
When was the last time your father had too much EQ and beat the crap out of your mother on a family vacation?
Again I'm guessing never.
When was the last time one of your family members had too much EQ and beat one of their kids with a golf club?
Again, I'm guessing never.
Don't compare the horror of alcohol addiction to a video game until you've lived through it. The entire notion that they're even remotely as damaging is insane.
I'm not saying that everyone will be affected this way... But I urge you all to be careful. You, in the Slashdot crowd, are easily the most susceptible... and I suspect that many of you are affected already.
Good luck to you all.
You have an excellent point that there are three different forms of addiction which should be regarded as very different:
Combined and Physical addictions tend to be narcotics-related and tend to be understood in a simplistic way by non-addicts. But the war on drugs hasn't had a new twist since the rise of ecstacy in North America; fighting drug addiction cannot hope to attract the funding or media attention it once did. So now purely psychological addictions are en vogue.
I'm not suggesting that some addictions should be left untreated, but it is important to keep their power in mind when making judgements about the sufferers. Right now the hot addiction in Canada is gambling. Should I feel as sorry for someone who goes through mood swings when they stop gambling as someone whose heart stops when they go off heroin? Should I wish the government to devote equally proportional tax dollars to each? Should I spend as much of my time worrying and learning about each?
Sounds like a pretty nice ending to me.
Yeah right. Just ask the two people I know who actually LOST THEIR JOBS because of game addictions. These statements are nothing but self-serving masturbation to give game addicts a false sense of security that they don't have a real problem.
Sure, game addiction isn't as bad as crack or alchohol, but I've seen it cause serious havoc in people's lives, including getting fired from their jobs, just like alchoholics and drug addicts.
Casual gaming is great, and maybe even constructive, just like social drinking. But when it becomes an addiction it can be as disruptive to your life as any other kind of addiction, and ignoring it or saying it is OK because it's not physically harmful like alchohol is doing a disservice to people with serious cases who may need help before they end up in the unemployment line.
I've never been into MMORPG, but I have had some marathon sessions with Sim City and Civilization and any good FPS. My trick to setting an alarm for myself is to ignore my bladder for as long as I can. Having created a competing need that escalates in realtime, I have an unavoidable time limit: going to the bathroom == turn the game off. At some point "just one more turn" no longer outweighs "I'm about to piss myself".
Anyone who loves or hates any language, platform, or manufacturer, doesn't know what they're talking about.
I remember that. And afterwards, didn't they take out their kidneys and sell them?
-Dave
If you stop and think about it for a second, your real life addiction is ruining your roleplaying life. You've already missed several quests, and your traveling partners have moved on to another part of the world. We really need something to break people's addiction to the "real" world, as it takes so many roleplaying lives, its an epidemic. "Social Interaction" has become like a drug to some roleplayers, and they are quickly flocking to this addiction. It is a proven fact, also, that 100% who exist in the real world eventually die. You heard me right! 100%! This is a terrible statistic, and we must do something about it! The "real" world addiction ends here!
For some of us there is nothing else.
:)
/.).
I've been a gamer since the age of six. Eighteen years later I'm still saving the world, slaying dragons, and rescuing princesses. What did you do today?
Seriously though, gaming is all I have ever known. A broken home didn't offer much stimulation. Interaction at home was practically nonexistant. Unless you're the aggressive type. I don't feed on it, so it never really interested me. My sister on the other hand, seems to crave it.
School was no sanctuary either. Of course, I was the geek. In the entire school there was maybe 6 of us. Yes we spent our time playing Dungeons and Dragons, Doom, and whatnot. But can you honestly sit here and tell me that these are bad addictions that cause me to be anti-social, lazy, and a unproductive member of society?
You obviously have no idea what gaming can be about. Have you ever thought to look into how much effort goes into preparing for a weekend of D&D? And how much fun you AND YOUR FRIENDS can have together. Social interaction is NOT necessarily defined by hanging out at the mall, or at work long hours with coworkers - it could be in the comfort of your own home with some close friends). A lot of gamers are recluses because of the way they are stereotyped. This thread is dripping with it.
I can only argue with the ignorant for so long before I realize it's futile (hence rarely posting on
Try talking to a hardcore gamer about games. You'd be surprised how much more there is to it. Talk about what interests you. I bet (s)he can twist whatever you do for fun into an 'addiction' too.
Is it really an addiction if this is the only thing life really has to offer that is stimulating? If the outside world is dull and bland, why be there? Maybe it's not so wrong if the person can't break from time to time to deal woth work and such. Maybe that person realizes that what he is doing is more important to him/her than going to that crappy job again. Let me assure you that work and relationships are not the end-all-be-all of this world. If they are for you, I'm sorry. You're going to need a lot of help.
Sure, some people are weak willed and are late for work, miss a payment, or whatever because they were playing a game. How many times have you come to work late because you were up late drinking? Or on a date the night beore? Or reading a book all night that you've been dying to read? Or even working late the previous evening? My point being, you can twist anything in to an addiction. Nothing in this world is healthy for you. You might as well do something you enjoy and ignore people that have nothing better to do that stroke their egos by telling you you're useless because you enjoy something they can't even begin to grasp.
Oh I'm sorry, It's not addiction if it's your thing, right? Didn't mean to point any fingers. But for the purposes of this article, stop thinking about fishing this weekend for a second, stop typing your lures, and take that ridiculous hat off. Oh, but fishing is productive... I forgot. Because you do it.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go to bed. I'm up 2 hours past my bedtime because I was playing Baldur's Gate : Dark Alliance. I enjoyed every minute of it. I'll still be enjoying it at work tonight while I have to put up with the boss. I'll be half asleep thinking to myself while he drones on about what a pitiful man he is, what a worthless existence we all are really living, and how I'm going to save the world or slay a dragon later tonight. No respect I tell ya...
We are all Gods unwanted children. Did you ever consider he may hate you too?
There's a tendency in talking about this to either a. defend the substance ("it's not the game's fault! It's the personality of the person/their lack of willpower/etc! Anything can be addictive!") or b. attack the substance ("won't someone think of the children..." etc.). Both are somewhat wrong-headed. It's naive to think that the game/whatever has nothing to do with it - some things are intrinsically more likely to be part of addictive behaviour than others. Some games are more addictive than others, and MMPORG's seem to lead the pack (there's a lot of possible reasons - their open structure, the psuedo-social aspect and the sense of competition and fear of getting "left behind", the enormity of the game-zone, etc.) MUDs and MOOs used to be the culprit, probably for similar reasons. (The whole "endorphins" explanation that gets tossed around, like the article has it, is really overextended. There are limbic systems far more extensive than that one at play, and it doesn't explain the nature of addiction any more than talking about the digestive system explains world hunger. And other, more 'neuroactive' games, don't show the same addictive effects as the frankly slower Everquest and company.
Even though many people play FPS's a lot, I haven't seen the sort of destructive fall-out from them that I've seen with other games - I don't know of anyone who failed out of school or became an antisocial shut-in because of Quake or Counterstrike.
In a sense, people who really like video games but would never let them interfere with the normal functioning of their lives (personal and professional) abuse the term "addiction" when they describe themselves as addicted to the games. I found the article underinformed and somewhat irresponsible - the realities of addiction are far more complex than a little controlled "experiment" will illuminate.
...but I think I'd enjoy a side-scrolling, third-person account of video game addiction more myself. Even Metroid is first-person now...
Green-voting, republican-registered, socialist-libertarian.
Yes, I play games, an awful lot. In the vernacular, I would be called a gaming addict. I've called myself that, and have no problem with it, so feel free. Whether it is a "real" addiction could be argued to death. I don't get the shivers when I'm not playing a game, but I certainly think about it often enough. It fills my time. I reject out of hand all accusations that I merely am rationalizing anything. I frankly don't see it as by default irrational in the first place, so there's no need to spin it to make it appear so.
Here's the real end of the story. People are responsible for the consequences of their own actions. Of the myriad positions made on this point, the ones that have been modded up appear to fall into one of two catagories.
1) These "gaming addicts" are worthless and spineless, without the self control the gods gave moths.
2) The games made me do it! I couldn't stop myself! They're dangerous! Keep away!
There is (at the very least) a third way to look at the whole "addiction" scenario. Maybe, just maybe, people have respsonsibly taken a look at the world around them, their lives, and sundry other things, and have chosen to spend a large portion of their time playing video games. Who gave any of you the right to pass judgement on another person's social situation? Hmm? I'm waiting. The world is a hellhole these days. Our government seems intent on passive-agressively stripping us of our rights, moving us inexorably toward the gods know what kind of war. People with a grudge against me because of a government I can't stand and have excercised my franchise against are out there looking to kill anyone who might happen to be around, and scare the fuck out of the rest of them. If you disagree with anyone, they want you marginalized or dead. I wouldn't wish this world on anyone. How can you be surprised that people would feel the need to form their own communities to try and insulate themselves. Why do you give a damn whether that community is online or person-to-person?
No one gets out of this alive, eh? So take a look at the log in your own eye before you worry about those around you. You techno-fetishistic, mysoginist, life-less circuit-heads. (Hit a little close to home? Good. No? Consider yourself suitably insulted, in whatever way fits.)
from the article: Three years ago at a nightclub I bumped into an old friend of mine who went by the nickname "Iggy". I was really amazed to see him because no one had seen nor heard from Iggy in over a year. Many of his friends had all wondered what happened to him.
Man, that is so 100% what happens to me about every two weeks. My answer is not "everquest", it's "girlfriend".
How we know is more important than what we know.
Here is my story
I started p;aying games back when I was about seven years old. It all started with my NES, and man did I love it. I played it hard for a while, about 3 or 4 hours a day. Not much longer, we got a computer, and I started playing Dune 2, I lost so much time to those games. By the time I got to high school, I was the biggest gamer in my school.
I remember back in grade eight, the teacher had us all write something nice about each of us on a piece of paper. Out of about 25 people, 15 or so all said either, he is good at nintendo or video games. I never realised that this was bad. I am naturally intelligent, and I did no homework or notes or studying for tests. I was able to pull about an eighty average, while playing these games.
Once I got to high school, I started to get more advanced games, I had an N64, SNES, and a powerful computer (heck, I am typing this on that computer) I was playing hardcore my Command and Conquer and zelda on the nintendos. My marks were slumping a bit, but I was not challenged by the classes and I didn't care. Then in grade eleven we got the internet. I started downloading so much junk, and playing online games like a crazed heiena on crystal meth. My marks were about eighty because I was "learning" so much from the internet. Then I discovered pokemon, Final Fantasy, and a few other games that I hardcore played.
I was logging on about eight hours a day on those things, that and downloading music. I never did any homework, all I was doing was playing games of half-life, and Total Annihilation. It was about halfway through my final year, and I started to really think about what I had been doing.
I was by far the most intelligent person in the school, but I wasn't going to get any scholorship because I did not work in the classes and that brought down my grades. (I ended up second in the class by about 1%) I have never had a girlfriend. I was drastically overweight. I had spent tons of money on games and internet connections. I had never learnt how to do homework or to study. My grammer and language skills were degrading and as were my skills in the real world.
After that I entered university, and I made a promise to myself. No more video games. I packed up my nintendos and my computer games and left them at home, while I went off to the university. Now in my second year, I am faced with the aftermath of my life I had when I was younger. I have already lost about 50 lbs in the last year and a half. I have made numerous friends. My self-esteem has skyrocketed. I will freely admit that I was addicted, but I have worked with it and now have it undercontrol.
Like all addictions, one never gets over it. I have on this computer very few games, like solitare, and I catch myself playing them, even though I try not to. I surf the web far to much, like right now, I am typing on slashdot instead of studing for my econ final tomorrow that is worth 100%. They are hard to deal with, and when I first stopped the games, I felt strange.
I still to this day have problems stemming from the games I played in my youth. I have poor workhabits, and at university that causes failure. I have never had a girlfriend. However, I do have some good things that came from the video games. I am a CS major, learning how to program in C++ probably inspired from all my computer games. I can hold my head up high and say to all my friends that I am a better game player than them. When I hear them talk about everquest, I laugh inside because I can see their addiction and they can't. They still get to beat thiers. I don't have the added wasted time here in universtiy of playing games, unlike some of them. I never watch TV, because I never got into it, and since I don't play games anymore, I have more free time than ever before. My work ethic is slowly growing better here in the University. My collection of video games it worth a lot.
True games have cost me alot, financally, physically, and mentally, but I have started to get out of the hole. I feel that I have had to face obsticals that have made me stronger overcoming them. I must say that instead of getting scholarships, but working for tuition has made me work harder at school.
Video games are addicting, but it is possible to get out from their grasp. The road to recovery is long and hard, but also fufilling and filled with rewards. The hardest step to take is the first one, to get rid of the games and work to be a better person.
Thanks Kendric
Phase 1: Leave for a vacation
You need to break the mental cycle. Everything in your mind and around you can draw you back in. Go somewhere interesting and different for a week and a half, and make sure it takes at least 8 hours to get there. You may bring a laptop, but have no games installed and avoid web browsing. Leave music at home, and avoid anything that will remind you of home.
Phase 2: Enjoy your vacation
While on vacation, treat yourself to something nice. Remember what it's like to feel alive. Take a tour. Start up some conversations (Especially if you're single). If you're shy, force yourself to talk to some people. Your brain is outside of your normal cycle. Thoughts will take new paths and flow more freely. Take some photos.
Phase 3: Examine your life
At the end of your vacation, spend some time thinking about your situation. Are you happy with your job/career? Do you feel secure at home? Have you accomplished or are working towards your dreams/life plans? Think about your age, how much time you expect to have left, and how you'd like to spend that time.
Phase 4: Getting home
Put a vacation photo on your desktop to help empower your mind. At this point you won't have a desire to play games. You can do one of two things:
a) Hard approach - Treat the games as mental parasitic poison. Uninstall all of them. Get out some scissors and destroy the CDs.
b) Moderate approach - Games are ok in small amounts but keep an eye on yourself. Spend a certain time each day evaluating yourself and how you want to seriously live life.
Either way, you will suddenly have an abundance of free time. Do not turn on the TV! Avoid too much music! Feels boring, doesn't it? That's the true nature of reality. Spend this time wisely. Avoid receiving the negative influences and criticism that got you in trouble before.
Congratulations! You are a new person.
I spent my entire Sunday playing Leisure Suit Larry 6. Sure, I could have been out flirting with real women all of that time... but the next time I have to light a cellulite burning lamp of knowledge to bone a chick with transparent pants in the penthouse I break into, I'll know that my zipper can be used as a match strike plate. I think it pays to devote a percentage of ones time to mastering the arts. It shows you care.
Are you sure gaming is everything life has to offer?
--
Internet Explorer (n): Another bug -- that is, a feature that can't be turned off -- in Windows.
Wow, so I guess your comment is meaningless because it wasn't given to me in person, therefore it's not "real".
Your viewpoint is very 80's.
Remember there's a world outside the MUD. That's easy to say, I know it, but there are a few easy techniques you can use to make sure you never forget that.
1. Every few hours, force yourself away from the computer, and go take a walk. Yes, I do mean outside. Yes, I am serious. Go now. You won't need to be away for THAT long, 20-30 minutes is how long I usually spend when trying to make sure that my passions for programming, knowledge (everything2 is as addictive as any MUD) and mudding don't develop into addictions. Sometimes, when you're feeling particularly reclusive, force yourself to take your walk in a populated area, just to make sure that your subconscious still has a fresh image of what people look like.
2. Remember that the values of the MUD world are not real. You may be the guild master, have a wizard character and a billion XP on your main mortal, but that shouldn't give you satisfaction enough that you forget real-world values. When was the last time you visited a friend? Are you neglecting your {girl|boy}friend? If you're having difficulties keeping these things in mind, a simple way to make sure you don't forget that XP can't give you a hug when you need one is to take a long mudding break every now and then. I mean at least a couple of weeks. When you get back, some of the competition may have climbed to a higher experience level than you, but you should be able to see that this is not the end of the world.
3. A weak mind is more prone to obsessive behaviour and addiction than a strong one. The mind lives in your brain, and your brain is part of the complex system that is the human body. If you're an anti-social gamer/MUDder/noder/coder, odds are you feed on a strict diet of sugar, starch, spice, caffeine and nicotine, and never get any exercise. I know you don't want to, but you really have to change this. Keep a bowl of fresh fruit nearby instead of the bag of chips. Get some daily exercise. Keep in mind that your body is a system of which your brain is a part. As a computer geek, you should know that overall performance is improved if you eliminate bottlenecks. A possible explanation for the silly old adage that a healthy soul lives in a healthy body is that the supply of blood (with fresh, life-giving oxygen and other goodness!) to your brain possibly becomes more efficient if you keep your body more efficient. This will remind you that you HAVE a body, something computer obsessions make you forget.
4. Make sure you have at least one hobby not related to computers, and make sure you maintain it with the same zeal that powers your computing hobby. Learn how to paint, learn how to play a musical instrument or use your voice as one, take up martial arts, whatever. The point is to make sure you don't forget that your mind can do other things than play MUDs / write e2 nodes / write C code. Aikido and playing the electric bass worked for me, your mileage may vary. This will also give a rich quality to your hobby life / voluntary skill development that you wouldn't have gotten on computers alone. Nowadays I'm as likely to spend a couple of hours honing my slap/pop technique or learning a scale as I am to spend them hacking away on the computer.
5. See people who don't play MUDs. Ideally, people who don't like computers at all. No, they're not lamers. No, they're not ignorant. They just have different interests than you, and "different" does not necessarily imply "superior" or "inferior". Go to your local heavy metal bar, or hang out with your newfound band or martial arts buddies, or whatever. This will help you remember that other people have interesting lives too, which in turn will help you remember that there is a vast and interesting world with billions of rooms and the most well-coded mobs you've ever seen, right in front of you!
An alcoholic / drug addict can never become a social drinker / casual user, but an obsessed gamer, programmer or e2 noder most certainly can develop sane computing habits. Give it a try. Learning to appreciate the real world trains your mind and makes computing more enjoyable, not less. You're a human being, your mind makes you able to do lots of interesting things instead of just focusing on one single skill. Specialization is for insects.
I speak as someone who has been through both an alcohol addiction and a period of obsessive MUDding.
Six sick
There are a number of fallacies being expressed in this thread.
The first is that, for some reason which is never explained, interaction with humans by going out and meeting them in the flesh is somehow good, while interacting with their chosen images in an online world is somehow bad. There are many reasons why this argument is threadbare, and there are even counterarguments to favor online interaction, but I'll point out just one fallacy that undermines it all: so-called "direct" interaction is actually nothing of the sort, it's just better-integrated electronic interaction with those people in your physical proximity. Your eyes and ears (both electronic signal interfaces) provide you with most of that alleged "direct" interaction unless you're in sexual contact, and that's no different online. The difference is primarily one of bandwidth and degree of integration with your senses; it's early days in that respect online, admittedly, but if your anti-online argument relies on those underdeveloped aspects of it then you have to admit that your argument will lose validity in the future as those things improve.
The second fallacy relates to bandwidth of interaction and its importance. The signals we receive are merely hints to our perceptual machinery, as our minds perform an immense amount of interpretation on the data that comes in. The extent of this internal processing is so collosal that we are easily immersed in virtual worlds when reading novels, and the bandwidth of incoming data there is absolutely minute, a tiny fraction of today's typical modem bandwidth. In a modern online MMRPG, the bandwidths involved are much closer to those in so-called "direct" interaction that those involved in reading, so the low-bandwidth argument is not convincing. In any case, I've yet to hear anyone trying to claim that reading is not worthwhile owing to low bandwidth compared to "direct" interaction with people.
And finally, since the topic of so many contributions has been addiction and loss of time that could better be spent in worthwhile personal development, it is worth pointing out an unstated or forgotten insincerity on the part of many people that criticize online worlds. Something like 85 percent of people in the developed world that come home after work or school and begin some form of entertainment (as opposed to more work), do so by turning on the television. This non-interactive medium spoon-feeds them brainless addictive pap for the masses for hours each day, almost entirely bypasses their intellectual machinery, wastes their time while creating nothing in which they can take pride, and certainly involves no worthwhile social interaction. The concept of a TV watcher somehow finding fault with people that inhabit an online world full to the brim with an intense interactive social fabric is so incongruous as to be funny.
PS. I come to this from the perspective of where things are going in a few decades' time. It wasn't so long ago that family and friends used to be puzzled by my inhabiting Internet communities like this one and many others --- "That's not real life, just gazing at a monitor, you shouldn't be wasting your time" was their (usually unstated) view. Now several of them use the Internet, and even inhabit their own online communities without any encouragement from me. Apparently there is "life" online as well, it turns out, haha. Well, it's early days still, I'll be the first to admit, but anyone that thinks of online worlds purely in terms of addiction and waste of time simply does not understand what the future holds.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra