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Getting Off NetHack?
thetan asks: "Like a lot of Slashdot readers, I've played a little NetHack as a teenager. Alright, quite a lot - but it was no big deal and I just sort of grew out of it. Now I'm not proud of this, but I got my gf hooked and she's been using daily for a few years now. After she tired of the game, I tried sating the monkey on her back with new fixes like Angband and ADOM. Now, I no longer want be a party to her addiction and self-destruction. She acknowledges the problem but is not yet ready to take that first step. What can I do to help ween her off? Could interactive fiction act as a methadone - or does it result in just as much harm? What other strategies have users employed to get clean? Does anyone know of NetHack addiction support groups or a 12-step? I'm desperate to get her back!"
You must kill her.
Get a dog. Name him 'little-d'.
Dress yourself up as a giant '@' sign.
Approach your girlfriend and let the fun begin.
If she jumps your bones, all is well.
If she attacks you, don't worry, the dog will jump in and protect you.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
Break up with her. :D
She won't be able to cope with that coming from the man who introduced her to nethack.
Walk up to her, give her a long speech "...I simply can't stand you playing these games all the time. I have tried, God knows I have tried, but I can't take it anymore. As long as you continue doing this, to me, you are dead. Do you want your posessions identified?".
Dude, I *need* the bong hits if I know work are gonna phone, otherwise they will wonder why I only talk slurred at work !!
There are places where the networks are not touching,and there are places where they are-Boeing's Lori Gunter
No? Then no problem, your a geek and weren't going to get any anyway.
But if your desperate I suggest sneaking up on her when she is asleep and tying her to the bed and giving her more sex then a woman can handle. Let all the frustation of you years of being a geek virgin out and rock her boat.
Either it will give her a new appreciation of dating a geek (unlikely but you never know) or it will get you arrested and thrown in jail. Wich is still good since you at least lost your cherry and will soon loose another as you meet your new cell mate.
Anyone else thinks the chances of the original question being real are less then zero? Any real geek with a nethack addicted girlfriend would be to busy thanking god on his knees to post on /.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
You need to immediately switch her to a dworvak keyboard, preferably one that is ergonomic. It's tough love, but this will force her to pursue other entertainment sources and increase her typing speed.
If that doesn't work, your last option is to go keyboardless. I suggest a mac, with the single button mouse. Be gentle with her, this is not an easy habit to break.
If all else fails you have one last hope... CoreWars.
For example, find that flag that gets set if you eat your pet and turn it on at the beginning of the game. Turn up the odds on spontaneous monster creation, etc. Take scrolls of Remove Curse out of the game and crank up the odds on a water demon being created if you dip things in fountains...
She'll think she's lost her touch, and get disgusted, and quit. Of course, she may also smash your computer into little, eensy, weensy, tiny pieces first...
- "History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men" -- Blue Oyster Cult, 'Godzilla'
1) She has to recognize that she has a problem.
2) She has to realize, that her willpower alone isn't enough to overcome the problem.
3) She has to recognize that only Yendor has the power to solve her problem.
4-12) Play more Nethack.
Or, she will get even better at Nethack.
It's simple, the solution is to encourage the addiction.
Nethack is a wonderfully rich and complex game, but its depths are not infinite, just much greater than the norm. I don't play much Nethack anymore because, well, because I've ascended many of the character classes now, including the most challenging ones. That doesn't make the game less interesting, but ultimately you do start wanting something more, even from Nethack.
Once you finally learn the most relevent tricks, winning at Nethack isn't even hard. (Price IDing, strategies for early wishes, learning not to starve in the upper levels, figuring out how to make holy water and remembering to pray each help a lot.) So, point her to rec.games.roguelike.nethack, and to the many game spoiler sites on the Internet (in Nethack's case those sites are a lot more necessary to play than other games).
Then, once she's finally burnt out on the game, make sure she doesn't learn C and start adding onto the game herself. Then you might never get her back.
Your girlfriend is in a dark room. She is most likely being eaten by a grue.
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men. -Frederick Douglass
I'd be wary of Interactive Fiction written by a Nethack addict.
You are in a room. Exits lead north and east.
You can see a *.
Suddenly a D attacks you!
>_
or...
It is very dark. Better be careful or you might be eaten by a g.
Agreed, I find that sex life and MMORPG life are inversely perportional. Untill you get married and/or have a child. At which point both drop dramaticly.
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
Have you considered introducing her to Jack Thompson as a form of radical intervention?
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Well, hack up the sources for your local copy of Nethack to make it much much harder.
"There is another theory, which states that this has already happened..."
I believe posters are recognized by their sig. So I made one.
Leisure Suit Larry
But you have to act it out with her. She gets her fix, you get yours.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
Wtf is nethack
:)
Come on, we've all heard of NetHack, but...
wtf is a gf?