Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 9670

Addiction

I've never been addicted to anything in my life. Until now.

It seems trivial at first after all I'm not addicted to hard drugs, sex or socially unhealthy activities.

Its this computer game which I've religiously played over and over and over for months now. It got to the point where I would blow my friends out for a night in playing this game. Its in game culture was huge with trading and actual money to be made from selling virtual items on ebay. I even managed to sell enough to make the rent one month so I figured this loner activity was fine since it positively impacted my finances. "Wow getting paid to play a game is cool."

I started out by buying some goods to make me better at finding more items and selling them online. The parallels between a drug pusher selling gear to feed his own habit are quite scarey now that I have come to think about it. I would work, go home, ignore my family, duties, housework etc and logon to the game straight away. Play until the wee small hours and goto work the next day with a chip on my shoulder coz I had to be at work tired from the night before.

I've uninstalled the game now. I've unsubscribed from the related newsgroups. I've sold the last of my game accounts with all the items I accumulated. This is me breaking free from the monster that was consuming my life. This behavior bothers me because I've always reckoned myself to be a strong person who doesnt let this kinda shit happen. Maybe I'm stronger now because I've kicked this habit, and its good to know I'm able to do that. I cant imagine being dependent on say drugs or anything like that coz I've never had an addiction like this before. I think it would be harder due to the physical dependency as well as the psychological one but perhaps there isnt much in it coz its all about the temptation factor.

I hope I never find out.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35962

I trust, then, that you will be able to come out for a drink on Wednesday evening with goatboy and lightbulb?

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 9670

quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
I trust, then, that you will be able to come out for a drink on Wednesday evening with goatboy and lightbulb?

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Cool by me. Where we getting drunk? Hey wait! Drinking is bad to! As ever goat you're trying to corrupt me.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
Posts: 35962

quote:

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Originally posted by Dacarlo


Cool by me. Where we getting drunk? Hey wait! Drinking is bad to! As ever goat you're trying to corrupt me.

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Registered: May 2002
Location: No. California
Posts: 4175

I know what you mean. We unhooked the satellite and had the account shut down. No more TV. It's actually not as bad as I thought it would be. Its been six weeks now, and the cravings for particular shows has dwindled to where I only think about them once in awhile.

We used TV as chewing gum for our eyes. It was a steady reassuring background noise that went on first thing in the morning and off before we hit the sack. It was the commercials and news that did it.

They don't tell you the news any more. You're supposed to guess now. "Why is this woman eating a fence? Find out tonight at 10!!!" or "Thousands stranded tonight near death!!! Could it happen to you? Bill Watson with the news at 10!!!"

Oh, fuck that. I really hated the way they took credit for every event; "We brought you Princess Di's funeral and the Enron whitewash. When George W. choked on a pretzel, we were there!!"

And commercials... shit. Unfuckingbelievable, aren't they? What really made us want to shut the fucker down was watching Robin Williams' "Good Morning Vietnam" on TBS. Ironically, I had the tape in the VCR when the movie came on. I thought it would be a hoot to watch the tape and the movie in the little picture-in-picture screen.

Guess what, gang? They butcher the bastard. They cut huge chunks out of the movie to fit in even more commercials. They're sneaky shits, too. They don't do it all at once. The first half-hour had one commercial break, that lasted five minutes. When the movie came back on and I started the tape, they had cut a good ten minutes out of the goddamn movie! It just got worse. The second hour was seven minutes of movie and then 12 MINUTES of commercials! And when it came back from commercials they had chucked another couple of minutes of the movie to squeeze in more ads.

I was livid. Irate. There was no way you could follow that movie. The plot was basically pared down to Robin Williams' best lines and everything else was just butchered. Fuck this. We pulled the plug the next day, and I handwrote a letter to TBS telling them that I knew what they were up to.

Not that it'll do any good, but it made me feel better. My wife and I actually played some Boggle the other night. First time in years. I'm writing letters and working on my book again. We're taking walks with the dogs, and have discovered other rooms in our house. We bought some really nice patio furniture and sit out there and watch the sunset. (We live at the beach, so that's just a natural thing to do anyway.)

The subliminal stuff is pretty weird. You don't realize how deeply ingrained some of that stuff is, until you walk down the grocery aisles and things don't scream at you anymore. We renewed our subscription for the daily paper, and listen to the radio and CDs.

I don't think we'll be going back, but if we ever do it certainly won't be to 500+ channels of crap you actually feel obligated to watch because you're paying so fucking much for it.

I miss the Discover and Learning channels. I don't miss anorexic teenagers spazzing out trying to sell me sweatshop clothes, or sitcoms that create the illusion of comedy with laugh tracks that merely indicate where you're supposed to be entertained (if there was actually entertainment there, of course).

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: NYC
Posts: 3598

*twitch* nyeaahhehehehe did someone say diablo2 *twitch* *drool* geeheheeeee

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 4851

Real men get addicted to Everquest.

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Registered: Jul 2001
Location: Shaolin, China
Posts: 12140

Video games never interested me, and Just watch PBS!

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 15427

quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git


http://www.asylumnation.com/asylum/...&threadid=25749 has it in, but basically Moon Underwater at around 6pm, I think.

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 9670

quote:

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Originally posted by shyloh
*twitch* nyeaahhehehehe did someone say diablo2 *twitch* *drool* geeheheeeee

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 10618

Everquest is ghey. i was seriously addicted to Ultima Online for a couple years, thank god i got over that. i can't believe how much time i blew on that stupid game, often 10-14 hours/day.

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Registered: Sep 2001
Location: ........
Posts: 15427

From........

quote:

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Originally posted by Dacarlo

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....1375423492&rd=1

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 9670

quote:

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Originally posted by Peter_Torque
*snip* I don't think we'll be going back, but if we ever do it certainly won't be to 500+ channels of crap you actually feel obligated to watch because you're paying so fucking much for it.
*snip*

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 9670

quote:

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Originally posted by skalie
From........



Puss spitter? Is that cats or yellow stuff?

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Registered: Oct 2000
Location:
Posts: 9670

quote:

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Originally posted by Peter_Torque
I know what you mean. We unhooked the satellite and had the account shut down. No more TV.

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 4851

quote:

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Originally posted by Dingle
Everquest is ghey.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: NYC
Posts: 3598

quote:

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Originally posted by Dacarlo

I'll sell you my silence collosus blade for $10 if you want.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....1375423492&rd=1

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 17517

I play diablo too. I lurve it. I had too many characters so I deleted some after I went into newbie games and gave them my stuff.
I just play my assassin, sorc and necro. Mostly my assassin but my sorc is my mf whore. I need tal rashas armor for her though to complete the set
That is such a cool fucking game.

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Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 10618

quote:

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Originally posted by macker


You died repeatedly as a Wood Elf in Kelethin didn't you? Either that or you got lost in Tox Forest as a night blind Erudite.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: NYC
Posts: 3598

quote:

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Originally posted by euphorbia
I just play my assassin, sorc and necro. Mostly my assassin but my sorc is my mf whore.

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Registered: Nov 2000
Location: UK
Posts: 4851

quote:

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Originally posted by Dingle
no, its just that i failed to find any enjoyment in camping a spawn with 15 other dorks, and wait your turn only to have some idiot steal your kill, repeat 1000 times until you level.

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Registered: Apr 2001
Location:
Posts: 17517

quote:

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Originally posted by shyloh


The assassin and amazon are my faves.....amazon mostly because she doesn't need to do much aiming with that "strafe" spell hehe. My laziness is scary.

The sorc i find lags my game big time for some reason....?? After she reaches a certain level like 20+ all my sorc characters i ever had started to get sluggish....it's weird. Never noticed it with any other char...

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My druid did the same thing when I called on the hurricane and had all my animal fighters with me. The frozen orb on the sorc does it to me sometimes esp if I have lightening storm on...my necro is still a lower level but Im sure when he is stronger it will do the same. Splat went and got a video card to try out before he buys one off ebay and he finally got off my puter so Im going to go play a bit now. I played a bit last night and did the secret cow level a few times and the cows kinda had a green aura around them, I dont know if thats how its supposed to be or if it was fucking up. Anyway, I’m off to play. Let me know if you want to quest or you need items or mule help.

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Registered: Aug 2000
Location: NYC
Posts: 3598

quote:

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Originally posted by euphorbia

I played a bit last night and did the secret cow level a few times and the cows kinda had a green aura around them, I dont know if thats how its supposed to be or if it was fucking up.

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Yeah i find sometimes i can "tell" when there are monsters in the next room/area because they have weird colours around them.....the blizzard support site says it's a vidcard problem. But this card im using is supposedly loads better than the one i used to use, so i dunno I'm not complaining though because i like knowing when there are monsters nearby.

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