Hello, my name is Brandon and I am addicted to MMOs (one month clean and counting).
I've read slashdot for 7 years now and have never been moved to post before, until now. It is ABSOLUTELY possible to become addicted to the internet.
I graduated 2nd in my class in high school, voted most likely to succeed, active social life, etc...
After a terrible traffic accident which resulted in the death of a young girl and me losing my driver's license in mid 2005 I became SEVERELY depressed. My new roommates for the semester were all babbling about how amazing this game was, so I gave it a shot. I spent the next 3 years online playing World of Warcraft, even to the point where I sold my character to fuel my addiction further. I lost my girlfriend of 5 years, lost contact with ALL my friends, and flunked out of college. I gave up basics like eating and showering, and am now in serious debt.
MMOs give you a world where the rules are fair (generally) and you can control your environment with much greater success than the real world. They also directly reward the time you invest (especially WoW with the old honor grind), and you have to invest insane amounts of time to achieve your goal. It didn't help that I took over a successful raiding guild. If I wasn't online I was offline watching videos of the game. IT CAN CONSUME YOUR ENTIRE LIFE.
I've delete WoW on three separate occasions, but ended up being drawn back each time. The problem is it's a social game, and the people I played with reinforced my addictive behavoir, pulling me back in each time. I cringe at how ridiculous I must have sounded as guild leader screaming at people to play every night for the sake of raid progress.
It's entirely possible to play casually, but my achievement ethic made me push myself to have that perfect shiny character. My first character was made in August 2005 and sold in May 2006. In that time I racked up 120+ days played, so almost a third of my ENTIRE LIFE was given to that game. And I sold that character for $1,500 USD. Could you look at someone with a straight face and say you weren't addicted if you dropped that kind of cash on a video game character?
Both my roommates who played managed to graduate and now have nice jobs and balanced lives. It doesn't affect everyone, but when it snags you it just consumes everything else. Just because YOU aren't addicted doesn't mean others aren't.
Slashdot Mirror
Hello, my name is Brandon and I am addicted to MMOs (one month clean and counting). I've read slashdot for 7 years now and have never been moved to post before, until now. It is ABSOLUTELY possible to become addicted to the internet. I graduated 2nd in my class in high school, voted most likely to succeed, active social life, etc... After a terrible traffic accident which resulted in the death of a young girl and me losing my driver's license in mid 2005 I became SEVERELY depressed. My new roommates for the semester were all babbling about how amazing this game was, so I gave it a shot. I spent the next 3 years online playing World of Warcraft, even to the point where I sold my character to fuel my addiction further. I lost my girlfriend of 5 years, lost contact with ALL my friends, and flunked out of college. I gave up basics like eating and showering, and am now in serious debt. MMOs give you a world where the rules are fair (generally) and you can control your environment with much greater success than the real world. They also directly reward the time you invest (especially WoW with the old honor grind), and you have to invest insane amounts of time to achieve your goal. It didn't help that I took over a successful raiding guild. If I wasn't online I was offline watching videos of the game. IT CAN CONSUME YOUR ENTIRE LIFE. I've delete WoW on three separate occasions, but ended up being drawn back each time. The problem is it's a social game, and the people I played with reinforced my addictive behavoir, pulling me back in each time. I cringe at how ridiculous I must have sounded as guild leader screaming at people to play every night for the sake of raid progress. It's entirely possible to play casually, but my achievement ethic made me push myself to have that perfect shiny character. My first character was made in August 2005 and sold in May 2006. In that time I racked up 120+ days played, so almost a third of my ENTIRE LIFE was given to that game. And I sold that character for $1,500 USD. Could you look at someone with a straight face and say you weren't addicted if you dropped that kind of cash on a video game character? Both my roommates who played managed to graduate and now have nice jobs and balanced lives. It doesn't affect everyone, but when it snags you it just consumes everything else. Just because YOU aren't addicted doesn't mean others aren't.