Here's our bowl... When you are ready, take that step, break your CDs, Write your name and date on the back of them, and send them in to the address below. It's only one step, but it's a step in the right direction. Olganon PO Box 67, Osceola, WI 54020
[IMG]http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b530/lizwool/eb827220-f305-4484-8f38...
[IMG]http://i1290.photobucket.com/albums/b530/lizwool/16ee3076-8d60-4b93-a078...
Ok, so what's this gamebowl thing all about? Well let me explain. But first, let me ask you...How's your credit? Mine's ok now. I still don't pay my bills on time always, but the only debt to my name is about $100 on a credit card and my mortgage payment. From about 1994 to 1999 I somehow managed to pay off about $18,000 of debt including a new car loan and a bunch of high interest credit cards. During those 6 years, I learned alot about collection agencies...just how vicious they can be and I learned about my rights as a consumer. I also learned how to fight back against some of them. But having gone through that once, I am never going to go through that again.
Oh...what does that have to do with CD Breaking? Well, just like with EQ...my break from my bills all began with a fishbowl. In the midst of my consumer debt misery, I broke down and called Consumer Credit Counseling Services for help with creating a budget and learning how to handle my finances better. I never really learned before and so I was really embarrassed when I went to my first appointment, thinking of how pathetic I was. Certainly there could be no one as bad in debt as I was. When the elevator door opened that day on the fourth floor of the building where the Consumer Credit Counseling office was, I walked down the hallway toward the door feeling depressed, but hopeful that I was taking steps to control my debt. When I opened the door to the office, I checked in at the window and had a seat in the waiting room, quite nervous as to what was going to happen.
The first thing I noticed when I sat down, next to the door that took you back to their offices was a 40 gallon fish tank. Now fish tanks were nothing new to offices and office buildings, but this tank had a different type of fish. This large, 40 gallon fish tank was about 2/3 full of cut up credit cards. Every color of credit card you could imagine was in there. There had to be thousands of holograms on cards representing every credit card distributor in the world. At least it seemed that way.
When I first saw this fishtank, it touched something very deep inside of me. First, and most importantly, it showed that I was not alone and that there were thousands of others who were in just as bad a shape as I was.
Second, it showed me that these people did something that I was terrified of doing...they cut up their credit cards...their security...the one thing to help them out in case their car broke down, or they needed to buy something, or needed emergency cash. I sat and stared at the fish tank for almost 20 minutes before my name was called. And as I stood up and walked toward the door, my eyes were fixated on this mass of plastic up until the second that the door closed behind me and I was led into the counselor's office. There, she introduced herself and we sat and talked a bit about their debt management program, my spending habits, the amount of my debt and my feelings about the money I had been spending that I didn't have and my credit cards.
When she was finally done explaning, it was now up to me to decide whether or not I wanted to take part in the program. Realizing I had no choice, I said "Yes" and she promptly reached into the drawer of her desk and pulled out the biggest pair of scissors I had ever seen. She asked me to take out every credit card in my wallet and set them on the desk. I immediately panicked, thinking that these cards which were my security, but also my ball and chain, would soon be cut up by this woman. But I was wrong. I was the one who was instructed to cut up my credit cards. After thinking about this a minute, I grabbed the scissors and one-by-one cut up the credit cards.
All I can say is that during that whole process, that 60 seconds was one of the most powerful minutes of my life. Because as I cut each card in two, I felt a bit stronger knowing that I was now in control, and that I was now taking the steps I needed to get control back in my life from my poor spending habits.
By the time the appointment was done, the last thing I did before I hit the elevator to return to my car, was to take my pile of cut up credit cards and place them into the fishbowl with all the others. When I did that, I knew immediately that I was on my way and this was proof, because I never could have cut those in half on my own before.
Now when I became involved with OLGA and Liz asked me to cut up my CD's, I had a flashback to this day at Consumer Credit Counseling 8 years earlier. And when I broke my CDs, the same feeling of power and self-control went through me again. I decided that this would be a good thing to incorporate into OLGA and so the idea of filling the fish bowl was alive once again. So, that is the story of the breaking of the CDs to fill the gamebowl.
To those in denial of their excessive and compulsive playing and who feel the need to defend an inanimate computer game to your last dying breath, I say you can't possibly understand the power that breaking your CDs can give you...until you decide to do it for yourself. You can easily borrow CDs from a friend and make copies. The 2 cent per CD-R won't break anyone. But there is something about breaking one's original game CDs that takes more courage than most realize or can comprehend.
It's not because of the breaking of the CDs itself, it's because of the implications that YOU associate with the breaking of the CDs. It's because of the importance that you have, either consciously or unconsciously associated with the game in your life. It's because of those inner fears you have that the breaking of the CDs might imply that the game is being taken away. It's because facing those feelings just might make you realize once and for all that you are NOT in control.
Now before you start flaming, understand that those statements are not meant to apply to everyone, and in fact they apply to a small percentage of players. But I will always contend that if you feel any anger or hatred toward any group or anyone who might have adverse opinions about a computer game that you play, then that is a sign that you should really consider WHY you have such strong feelings. It is NOT what others say...but how and why YOU react to what others say that's the REAL issue here. Keep that in mind, because from now on, every post out of anger is going to be answered with that statement above.
So one more time, the breaking of the CDs is only meant to be a symbolic gesture of the individual to himself of his taking control of his excessive and/or compulsive gaming problem. It is NOT meant to be an attack or criticism of EQ, of Sony, or of any other game or game manufacturer or player of those games.
So...that's the story! Ron
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002
I received your CD's Rocker and Sarah. I will add them to the bowl! Thanks for sending them in...
Liz
Liz Woolley
I dont think breaking a CD has anything to do with quitting EverQuest or breaking an addiction.
Installing EverQuest takes a good 30 minutes and its not like you wont have time to reconsider (if its a big deal to you)
I also dont think this forum should advocate CD breaking as if you break a cd by bending it, sharp bits of information could fly out and stab your eye.
Kill the Irish with a wooden club and a green hat
(Police can't hurt you when you wear the hat).
Quote:I also dont think this forum should advocate CD breaking as if you break a cd by bending it, sharp bits of information could fly out and stab your eye. That's why you should wear your green hat when you break your CDs. CD shards can't hurt you when you wear your green hat
Diggo
Ron Jaffe AKA Diggo McDiggity
Discussion Board Administrator
Everquest player from July, 1999 to April, 2002
Over 4,900 Hours Played
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002
Don't break those CDs!
Send them to me.
Just send me the Cds, and your account info too.
Wouldn't it be like...better or something...to E-bay your character instead...because...like...you could use the money you get to...umm...help get you started again in the real world....yeah, thats it.
Oh yeah! Mrs. Wooly, would you condone someone sending a letterbomb to John Smeldy, since he has ruined countless lives and its obviously tainted by ebil? I'm sure someone would like to martyr themselves as a soldier of OLGA
Edited by: DakkainXXX at: 6/6/03 3:14 pm
hey, I see an aol CD in the fishbowl!
Are you inflating the number of CDs you've got in in that picture? Tsk tsk!
Can you blame ANYONE for breaking an AOL CD?
Kudos.
I like to light up a candle and hold it under the CD and watch it slowly begin to melt. It's really cool.
I get about 10 of those AOL CDs a month through the mail...and I see em everywhere, The theater, fast food joints, health clubs.
Diggo, I would encourage sending broken AOL CDs in as well.
Oops. Didn't mean to further de-rail the thread. Good story, btw.
--Merid--
And to think, we just threw ours away! Into the landfill went:
4 Original CDs -- including 2 free ones from magazines.
2 Kunark CDs.
2 Velious CDs.
One Trilogy set -- 2 CDs.
5 (count them up, 5!) 3-disc sets of the Luclin expansion -- 15 CDs.
and 2 more sets of Planes of Power for another 4 CDs.
-- and that's not counting the two copies each of Anarchy Online and Dark Age of Camelot we have, or the various Ultima Online disks still floating around here. But AO and DAoC were never habit-forming for us, and UO has been out of the picture for years now, so I don't know if they would count anyway.
The fishbowl idea sounds good to me.
~*~
Mia.
Kensha,
Can you go dig them out, and send them in?
Liz
Liz Woolley
The EQ disks are long gone, but I would be happy to send in the UO disks, etc.. That was a serious addiction for my husband in its time (before EQ) and, you know, I have never thought about why we keep the other disks around until I found the Anarchy Online disk on my desk yesterday and started thinking that I wanted to keep it "just in case".
Just in case of what? What am I thinking? I know that there was a time when I could sit down to play that game for a few minutes and it turned into more than a few hours, and the only reason I didn't play it more was that it cut into my EQ time. I have to wonder if keeping the disks around isn't some sort of security measure for me-- just keeping them, just in case I don't make it in the real world?
I will see what I can do. I certainly don't need the temptation lying around. I am just awful at time management as it is, without risking disaster.
~*~
Mia.
"Let your heart know what's on your mind..."
Kensha,
I will be happy to add them to our collection.
I look forward to receiving them.
Thank you for your contribution!
Liz
Edited by: lizwool at: 9/7/05 10:09
Liz Woolley
Geez I threw mine in the first garbage can I saw.
If I knew better i would of sent mine. I had a nice collection from BF2, Battlefield crap 1942, Call of duty etc.
Anyway sry to have missed the fish bowl.
Maybe the trash can is not picked yet but I donno how I would feel to crawl into a garbage can container to get garbage?
Anyway I just lost a good opportunity there.
Geez maybe I will. Have all night to think about it, the thrash can is just in front of where I work. Hmmmmm
This is tempting and would be liberating then just throwing things away.
Might hear from my cd's
PhilippeD = nitestalker
Got all the cd broken up:
3 cd's from battlefield 2
2 cd's from Call of dudy
5 cd's from battlefield 1942 (3 the extension packs)
3 cd's from promo games
1 cd from civilisation 3
3 cd's from battlefield vietnam
1 cd from red alert
3 cd's from battlefield Star Wars
2 cd's from Medal of Honor
2 cd's from Call of duty United offencive
I did'nt had a cd for eve online or Guild wars. I had the game downloaded from their website and the cd keys are gone to trash can from 3 weeks ago. I can still install their games from my email adress. I cant really do nothing about it since it's my main email adress from my internet provider.
Maybe there are some more cd's I lost the count somewhere. They are in a special international envelope and will he shipped to the U.S.A. today or tomorrow.
hooray ... bet it was fun to break them ... was sure fun for me when I did it, though shipping them to the USA was a bit too costly for me...
------------------
What you think, you create. What you say, you produce. What you do, you call forth more of.
Maxim and Philippe,
I can refund the cost of your money, for shipping your CD's over ...Let me know how much it is, and include your return address.
Liz
Liz Woolley
I would be happy to add to the fish bowl.
I searched around and cut up all the games I could go online with. Sent Wow, Red Alert, Counter Strike, Mech Warriors and probly a few others. If I find more I will send them too.
My shipping software sent tracking to olga@olganon.org
Thanks for having this site!!!
Addicted2Wow
Hello Randy,
I received your CD's! Thank you SO much for sending them.
I will re-post the picture so you can see them in the fishbowl!
(Does anyone here know how to post a picture?)
Liz
Liz Woolley
Breaking CD's isnt healthy, Would an alcoholic break a whiskey bottle to quit drinking? Maybe in a barfight but I just don't two gamers going at it with "CDs at ten paces"!
I broke lotA's of CDA's. And it has been very healthy for me, although you are right. It was not healthy for the CDA's
------------------
What you think, you create. What you say, you produce. What you do, you call forth more of.
Did you read the beginning post, as to how this came about?
I thought it made sense....
When you break your CD's, you are physically making a step, and showing yourself, that you are serious about your commitment to leave the games.
It is a very powerful, symbolic gesture.
It also gives you more time to change your mind, if you decide you want to start gaming again, because you are going to have to take a lot more steps to start again, if you have to go out and buy the games again.
Liz
Liz Woolley
My CDs:
Half Life 2: 5 discs
Half Life: 1 disc
Counterstrike: Condition Zero: 2 discs
Star Wars Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast: 1 disc
Death Rally: 1 disc
Starcraft: 1 disc
Starcraft: Brood War: 1 disc
Doom 3: 3 discs
Doom: Collectors Edition: 1 disc
The Ultimate Doom 1 disc
Diablo 1, 2, and expansions: 6 discs
Jedi Knight and expansion: 3 discs
These are all the CD's of the games that have ever worsened my problem. 26 CDs, 3 of which are priceless and quite valuble. The worst two games I have ever had problems with do not use CD's, Counterstrike and Runescaspe. Runescape is played via java aplet in a browser, and Counterstrike is readily available for download as long as you have an email address and a Steam account.
I'll try to work up the willpower to break them but that's a lot of money lol.
Edited by: GhostofCS at: 11/17/06 4:38
Its only a lot of money if you plan to replace them.
Otherwise the money is long gone, they're just plastic disks now.
Good for coasters I suppose, but otherwise useless.
Leveling in Real Life
they make great bird reflectors, umm replace them for clay pigeons if you go shooting... ummm
I've thought about this long and hard... HA HA
"This is the end...." The Doors
Hi Jacob,
I look forward to getting those CD's and putting them in our fishbowl!
Your life is worth more than those, trust me.
Liz
Liz Woolley
I'll break them, I just have to wait till I can get a box to put the shards in. Allthough it is a lot of monetary value, you are right. My life is vastly more important to me then plastic discs.
Jacob,
Here is another example of how you can break the CD's to avoid injury from the flying shards - www.olganon.org/Gamer/Recovery/Break_CDs_/break_cds_.html
I look forward to meeting you.
Liz
Liz Woolley
Oh, it's not the flying shards I'm worried about. I've broken CDs before lol. It's the mess I'm worried about.
EzCode Parsing Error: face=comic sans ms color=black]EzCode Parsing Error: color=black]"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it" --Voltaire
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity. I'm not sure about the former." Albert Einstein
Counterstrike
over 4,000 hours played
Runescape
over 7,000 hours p[/font]
Edited by: GhostofCS at: 11/18/06 2:02
Lol stupid signature...
"I may disagree with what you have to say, but I shall defend to the death your right to say it" --Voltaire
"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity. I'm not sure about the former." Albert Einstein
Counterstrike
over 4,000 hours played
Runescape
over 7,000 hours played
I'll send you a box!
"This is the end...." The Doors
Hi Chris, I received your broken CD's today, and have added them to the fishbowl. It is almost full now. Thank you for sending them. I hope your recovery is doing well. Liz
Liz Woolley
Yippee! I'm glad they've found a nice home for their retirement. Thanks for creating a place for them to go to. It was a very empowering experience. -Chris
[size=14]I had read a comment in one of the threads early on when I first came to this site about breaking CD's. I thought about it and went and started breaking my EQ CD's. I broke two cd's and had so many CD shards flying around the room that I just said hell with it and threw all the CD's in the trash whole. I had not read this thread yet, and now I am sorry I did not mail them in :( It did feel good to break those first two and they were the most recent disks that contained the entire game + expansions to date on those two DVDs so I guess I did "break" the most "important" disks as it were.[/size]
" ... don't question it just go" "... where the body goes the mind will follow"
.
Borrowed from "Desire to Stop"
I am going to send mine in after my exams! Maybe not all of them, or it might take too long to break all of them. I think I will trash the less played ones. But ones such as Wow, AoE, UO and of course Civ II to name a few, best be broken. Interestingly, almost exactly ten years ago, in a frenzy of guilt over addiction, I broke a set of Civ II discs. Then two weeks later, I went out and spent another $80 worth to buy a new set back. This time, I will make sure 'history' do not repeat itself!
I think I bought 3 AOE II disk. Addiction sure does have a dark side.
I think I purchased Warcraft3 4 times all in all ... but the last time is definately going to be the last time I ever did that. I just Broke my CD yesterday (deinstalled 8 days ago, but couldnt break the cd until yesterday. you know the "just in case" kind of thoughts), but unfortunately I didnt know about the bowl ... and I tell you that much : Im not going to buy wc3 just to break it and send it to you ... it was the last time I ever bought that game!!!
When I was to the ukraine, I bought 3 russian games that I had wanted to play for a long time. After impulsively buying the first one I had the really strong urge to just throw it away but could not bring myself to do it because I had already invested money (warped addict logic at play here) I ended up playing them a little in the Ukraine and 2 whole days after I came back to Germany, so into the trash they went. There are some games - Jagged Alliance 2 comes to my mind - that I have bought 4 or 5 times in total. Just destroyed the last instance of that game this morning as I spent half a day yesterday on it while I have much better things to do. They go streight into the trash, canA't be bothered to send them to the US, just to feed the fishbowl, so here is the memorial pic :) [img]http://img523.imageshack.us/img523/1343/image106vv0.th.jpg[/img] Edit: It was long overdue, this is my vintage collection of old games and memories, each disk with a nice cut to make it unworkable. Was thinking about selling them, but cutting them up and throwing them away felt right to me. [img]http://img502.imageshack.us/img502/6453/image112ik3.th.jpg[/img] Did not feel much doing it, it just had to be done, otherwise I still sometimes fell to the temptation to relive some "good old times"
Great job. I was thinking of selling mine, but it seemed cruel to sell to a kid so they could possibly have issues later.
The money would of been nice, but the reality of them gone is much nicer.