lol

I have a question about playing when you have spare moments....it is my understanding that kind of play gets you no where in this game...

I think if you took the tests, and indications are that you are addicted, you may want to start observing yourself, and start keeping hard figures of how much you are actually playing the game - have a note pad next to the computer and start keeping track of when you login and when you log off of the games. You may be surprised at what you see.

Many people, when they first came here, could not admit they were addicted, but they stuck around and were able to find better things to do with their lives than play the games.

How old are you?

Should you decide you want our support for anything, just let us know....we are here for you.

Keep coming back, and reading and sharing.....

Liz

We have so many people coming here that are in your age range! My son was 21.

That is just a tough age.

You are not longer children, but you are not adults, either.

During this time, you start learning what adulthood is like, and find out it is not as fun as you thought it was going to be, and can be actually frightening. And you are at the point, where you may decide you do not like adulthood, but you no longer have a choice - you cannot run back and stay a child.

This is where a lot of people decide they are going to escape into the game. This way, they are still adults by "age", but emotionally and mentally, they are trying to take some type of control of their lives, and this is an easy way. In the game, you can somewhat control your character.

In real life, taking control of your own life is not so easy. That is where step one comes in: 1. We admitted we were powerless over on-line gaming, and that our lives have become unmanageable.

The more you admit your "real" life is unmanageable, the easier it will be.

Things happen in real life, that no one asks for, and you need to learn how to "roll with the punches".

By escaping into the game, you do not learn how to cope in "real" life, because real life is not like that, as many a gamer has stated...

Kakumsi, I hope you have the courage to step into real life, and really experience it, and see it as an adventure - like the way you look at EQ. You can have real adventures, every day, without even going into the game. But you need to be there, to find them. And look at them as adventures, not as "horrible things happening" in your life.

Take care.

And thanks for reading and hearing and sharing.

Liz

Quote:
I have a question about playing when you have spare moments....it is my understanding that kind of play gets you no where in this game...

Not exactly true. I sometimes pop on for an hour or two after work. You can accomplish a great deal in the game in that time. Be it tradeskill related (now that tradeskills are a viable character advancement) or flagging quests in the PoP expansion, or simply exping.

The other night my guild ran a raid against a major mob PoP boss mob. Time from log in to log off with boss dead? 2 hours and 15 minutes.

People like to say the game REQUIRES you to play 15 hours straight to be successful. Usually these are people looking for reasons to justify their behavior. My guild is by no means the "uber" guild of our server, but we accomplish a great deal (NToV, Sleepers, PoP, etc) in a short amount of time. Given that the majority of our members are adults, with families, this might have more to do with it than for your average 16-23 year old. We simply don't have the time to tool around for 9 hours in game, so we become effective in short bursts, mostly on weekends and/or evening hours.

But to claim the game will not allow you to "win" if you don't devote endless hours to it is incorrect, and is mostly put forth, as I see it, by people who devote those hours and then would like to blame someone other then themselves for their inability to manage their time and their lives.

(btw, please do not misunderstand my intent. I have no desire to enter the "it's an addiction!" "no it's not!" debate. I think you can pretty clearly see above where I'd fall in that debate But I followed a link from somewhere and was browsing and I saw the above honest question not answered, and so I decided to offer my opinion. I wanted to add this after reading some other threads and seeing the BS you guys take on various topics from any and every troll that wanders through.....)

Edited by: rugen payne at: 2/5/03 2:04:28 am

I hate to say it, but it's easy to accomplish a LOT in EverQuest without dedicating huge amounts of time. It all depends on your goals.

Lisa

Yah, there are indeed many ways to play Everquest. It's almost as if it's 3 or 4 games in one. Have to be careful about generalizing, because people play it different ways.
There do seem to be several themes running through the tales of those who play compulsively, or who could say become "addicted":

1. Desire to "level up" a character. Although the levels come quickly at the beginning, they start to take longer and longer. If you start playing and have this burning desire to attain level 65, that desire may well lead you to excessive play. Those who don't play to excess often don't care how fast they level.

2. Desire to acquire certain items/weapons/armor. The 'most desirable' items etc. often take the longest to acquire, whether through questing, tradeskills, camping rare spawns and/or a combination of all of those. If you start really wanting those items, you may fall into excessive play.

3. Desire to see the "end game," meaning the highest level zones. This essentially can only be done in a high level guild that raids a lot. While it is not necessary for every player in such a guild to raid a lot, one usually has to have played a ton to even qualify to join such a guild.

4. Formation of VERY CLOSE "personal" relations in game, typically "romantic" interests with someone you meet in-game. This is rather common, and an additional source of stress, confusion and grief for the spouses of Everquest "addicts."

My excessive play pretty much came from #1 and #3. I wanted ALL of the bard songs, a lot of the bard aa abilities, and wanted to see the end game, and was in a guild that got very far into the end game part of each expansion. I wanted the armor and items and weapons that dropped from end-game mobs. The only thing I didn't do was tradeskills, or camping really rare spawns. I never developed the will to do that. I also never experienced #4, by absolute conscious decision. My kids knew my in-game friends, played with them and I never did anything that I'd not want them or my spouse to find out about.

Anyway, this is a long-winded discourse on a simple topic

Art by Culurien GoldleafEscaped from the Skinner Box 20 October 2002

Quote:

People like to say the game REQUIRES you to play 15 hours straight to be successful. Usually these are people looking for reasons to justify their behavior. My guild is by no means the "uber" guild of our server, but we accomplish a great deal (NToV, Sleepers, PoP, etc) in a short amount of time. That may be true once you've hit level 60 or so, but it does take a ton of hours to get to that point where you can start kicking back and doing short 2-hour raids. Go to any zone and you still see loads of players sitting on their butts medding until the mob pops for the 87th time that day...each person hoping to 'ding' before they log out for the day only to return tomorrow with the same group to do it all over again.

If you think about the structure of the game, it was designed to be socially oriented. So when people are camping the same thing for 8 hours straight, they fight for 60 seconds and then sit and wait for 17 more minutes, or 5 more, until the thing pops again. What is there to do for those 17 minutes other than shoot the breeze? Friendships and bonds are formed that way, and then when those friends 'ding', they move on and you feel left out if you haven't levelled yet, so you spend more time playing so you can keep up with them. You either keep up with your friends, or you fall behind and lose touch.

While it's true you don't have to play for 15 hours to be successful, there are countless reasons that people find to do so.

Skaar Tissue
Purveyor of Death

My only "goal" in EQ was to be able to stay at a lvl where I was able to continue to play with my game friends. I have been playing for about 3 years now, have one main character lvl 61...the rest are "babies" I rarely play as is obvious by thier low lvls. I have 6 aa points to my name and not concerned about how many I get. I have no trade skills, which can be a large time sink. I don't have all my spells and not a huge driving force to play just to get them.

Took me 3 years to get Hawk to 61. at 55 I could never see a lick of xp again and still be able to do what I want, though 60 helps. You can choose to play in spare time and still have fun...or you can choose to have multiple high lvl characters with trade skills, tons of aa and lotsa crap. Point is, you can choose to play a resonable amount of time and not go for everything yet still have fun in the game as a hobby.

Quote:That may be true once you've hit level 60 or so, but it does take a ton of hours to get to that point where you can start kicking back and doing short 2-hour raids. Go to any zone and you still see loads of players sitting on their butts medding until the mob pops for the 87th time that day...each person hoping to 'ding' before they log out for the day only to return tomorrow with the same group to do it all over again.

Took me 3 years to get to level 60. I still got there. PoP has been out for how long now? And I'm not even remotely worried about 65. Most of my xp comes from raids. I'm sure I'll see 65 sometime, and I'm content with that. You can see the high end content, you can do the end game, and you don't need to be logged in for 20 hours to do it. Heck, I think I have 4 AAs total

What you have said above is no different than what I said, which I quote

Quote:
People like to say the game REQUIRES you to play 15 hours straight to be successful. Usually these are people looking for reasons to justify their behavior.

You can be successful in the game without huge time requirements. People just like to say the game leaves them no choice, so they can feel better about their lack of time/life management. But it's not even remotely true. And if a game has laid out multiple paths to "winning", just because a majority take one path, does not mean it's the only path in the game. The fault then lies in the choice and the chooser.

(derogatory posts preceding this deleted-- Xandtar)

I have great respect for the A.A. program. I have seen many miracles happen there.

New subject - we are not here to debate views. Our organization has been around long enough, that we've been there, done that....it does nothing but take away from our mission....On-Line Gamers Anonymous is a fellowship of people sharing their experience, strengths and hope to help each other recover and heal from the problems resulting from compulsive game playing.

Edited by: Xandtar at: 5/31/05 18:34

Addicition not for me.

I study fulltime, coach, work and train, and I still play Everquest. I may play it a couple of hours a night if I am lucky but the maximum I would play any night would be 4 hours.

Although you may find Everquest an addictive game what about the millions of people that go home and sit on there arse for 6 or more hours watching TV, thats an addicition and it is worse and you just sit there like a vegetable and stare at a screen, while Everquest is a bit more than that plus you can chat to other people and what not.

Although I am not a "uber" player I still enjoy the game and juggle it with my life as a Student, Coach, Worker as well as a State and National representative in my sport.

Any yes I can still manage a social life aswell on weekends and after work or college.

For most it is not an addicition it is a fun past time, however like in society there are small minorities that get addicted or become obsessed but this is like evrything else in life people become obsessed with or "addicted" to:

TV
Food
Drugs
Sex
Smoking
Alchohol

I got more to say but I won't already said to much and no I am not looking at this from a Everquests players point of view.....bah stopping now

Malius A.K.A Sir Jello - Dark Elf Warrior
"You have two ears and one mouth, so listen twice as much as you talk"

You are right, Malius83.

And there are 12-step groups for all of those addictions, too.

Someone here suggested that Lizwool may be addicted to this board and posting, but I don't think so. Anyone know the 12th step? It is to go back and help others with the same problem. I think this board is her way of simply 'working the 12th step', and not an addiction. Granted this is a big drawback to the 12 step program, you are never 'cured'. But that is a different topic.

Someone else brought up the idea of why not sue alcohol brewers for making their product because people can get addicted to it. Good line of thinking, but there is a difference. Tobbaco makers were sued because they did things to make their product more addictive and because they markted to underage smokers (according to their documents). Alcohol brewers don't do things to make their product more addictive (to my knowldge). Therein lies the difference. If the courts decide that EQ is made to keep people addicted, then the lawsuit is justified in as much as the rulings against big tobbaco were. That is a matter of personal opinion though.

I think it is great when poeple are addicted to fun and can play responsibly, but some of us can't/couldn't. Thanks for your opinions to the contrary, but sharing is good for some of us. Enjoy the game if you can, if not, let it go and thanks for your patience with the rest of us.

(Many off-topic posts deleted-- Xandtar)

To bring this thread back on track to it's original post, a classical 'addiction' has 2 components, the way I see it. A physical/chemical addiction, and a compulsive/obsessive habit. If it didn't have the latter, people would never return to smoking after the chemicals left the body 3 weeks after quitting. But yet the majority of people return to smoking, even years later. Why? Because their brains have been programmed that stressful situations warrant smoking, or that a meal isn't really finished until the cig is smoked, or that you just can't wake up 'right' without the choking gag of 400 poisons surging through your bloodstream. This is the obsessive/compulsive side of smoking that gets pushed under the rug, but which is just as harmful as the chemical aspect.

That obsessive/compulsive behavior which becomes such a habit is what happens with online gamers when they've played so regularly for so long that their brain tell's them it's time to play when that certain time of day comes around, or the weekend, or holiday, or time when the spouse or parent is out of the house for a while.

Reprogramming that obsessive/compulsive behavior is how one returns to a state of normalcy with online gaming or how one ultimately quits smoking for good. That ultimately is where I think OLGA should be going, and the 12-Steps, whether one likes it or not, is really only one way to get there. It's just the way that was chosen for this particular organization.

Share your experiences here to help others and in doing so you'll ultimately help people become more responsible for their actions.

Ron

Edited by: Xandtar at: 5/31/05 18:48