My Life As An Online Gamer

The BBC is running a story featuring several interviews with hard-core online gamers. The article is in response to China's time limit restriction it plans to put into effect for MMOGs. From a very confused man interviewed in the article: " I think I am addicted. I've got to the stage where I feel that without gaming, I have nothing interesting to do. On weekdays, I game for about five to seven hours a day and in the weekends I will spend 15 hours a day gaming online. I once spent 48 hours in one go at a game. It's crazy, I know. I was at university then and full of energy. "

Comments

Escape?

[AutopsyReport]

Gaming helps me escape from whatever happens to be bothering me. It's a great stress reliever, a safe outlet to pursue some of my more aggressive tendencies.

This is something I've never understood. I've heard many people refer to their need to play games as a means to release from life, but I've never experienced this. I seriously do not think people play games to escape the hardships of life. In fact, if you can play a videogame for fifteen hours a day, it's pretty apparent there's no such things as hardships in your life. But beyond this, I've been playing games off and on for years, but never once used it to relieve stress. No, I played for fun.

I'm tending to think that people call their gaming needs as an avenue of relief, probably as a justification to them spending so much time playing. Instead of wasting so much time playing, a better suggestion would be to work on the problems that are apparantely 'causing' you to play so much. If the brutalities of life are weighing in, then a videogame is no substitute for paying attention to your issues.

Re:We should ask instead...

[grumpygrodyguy]

what personal problems do these people have that make them want to spend so much time in gaming?

Want them to stop playing? Get them a psychologist. Addiction is only a symptom.

OK, I'll be completely honest about my situation... though it will probably make for some unpleasant reading.

I've been diagnosed as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and social anxiety. Most of the time when I'm in public I'm so uncomfortable that I can only be in crowds for an hour or so. Throughout my life I've just naturally migrated towards computers because it allows me to socialize in very limited and safe ways...through forums like these, IRC, online games, etc. I can always bail out of the situation, noone can see my facial expression or body language.

Unfortunately this is a physical problem that cannot be solved through counceling. I've tried a number of medications but they all produce horrible side-effects, feels like being perpetually sick with a cold. Many people suffer from this and other conditions which make face-to-face human interaction beyond challenging, and more like constant failure. I have the few friends and family who know me and still love me despite all of my problems, and prefer to go online when I need more social interaction than they can provide. I'm sure thousands of obese, disfigured, blind, and deaf people are online for similar reasons.