** Moderator Note **
The post below was posted by Houdini as part of another thread. I have pulled that original post and subsequent replies and moved them to this new thread at Houdini's request.
-Diggo
** Note End **
Ya know everyone in this board uses the word addict or addicted so loosely. Being an addict or addicted to something means to become physiologically or psychologically dependent on a habit-forming substance or activity to the point where you BELIEVE you cannot further function without it. 90% of the posters here aren't even addicts to EQ. I definitely agree with Kalie. EQ or any other game is a choice...a choice of wanting something over another.
And here's something to think about...a couple of years ago I had a friend...he was soooooo seclusive. All he did was computer programming and was basically a hermit. Never talked, hung out maybe once every three months. Keep in mind he was like this BEFORE EQ. Then I introduced the game to him, he played it, and it helped him become more social. Why? Because its easier to talk to people sometimes when you're not physically in front of them. Its less intimidating for someone who is shy to type what you feel and think. After awhile, he even met and made friends through EQ. Now he's alot more talkative, socialable, and even hangs out more. From what I've seen most people who play EQ become very social, I mean who else will fly to other states to visit someone or meet someone to hang out? To develop friendships? To meet people from accross the world and accross all cultures?
Comeon guys and gals. Don't use that word "addict" or "addicted" so loosely because I've seen what that can really do to someone. The truth of the matter is 90% of the people here who post you'll notice they all recognize they had a choice, they just simply choosed to play EQ over doing something else...a true addict BELIEVES he/she has no choice, much like a cocaine addict. Not that he wanted to choose between two things. So stop trying to blame EQ, TV, UO, Playstation, Nintendo, bla bla bla for all our own faults. Just take the truth and that is we simply made a decision to play games over doing other things and for some of us, that was a bad decision. I'm not gonna blame EQ or anyone else. I simply blame myself for making poor decisions.
Huodini Nukingfurby
Edited by: Diggo McDiggity at: 11/19/02 9:47:47 am
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002
Thanks for the welcome and that's a good point, but using the second definition i think just about everything we do is "addicting" then. How many hours of work do you do? In the U.S. we have 8 hour work days and the highest amount of overtime. The next country even coming close is Japan. According to that definition we're all addicts of labor. But I don't think many people would consider work to be addicting. Its a choice, you can either work to gain income, or become without income and live with those consequences. Like I said its a choice.
"Dangerous?" you apply that word to EQ as if it was exclusive. Its also dangerous when you watch too much TV, surf this message board too much, stare at the wall for long hours, take showers for too long, etc etc. Anything can be "dangerous" when done excessively. So was Atari for those who even remember it lol. The only thing dangerous is people not owning up to the decisions they've made in their lives. That's the problem in American culture these days. You see a puddle of water in a fast food joint, why walk around it? Walk over it like an idiot, trip and point the blame at the fastfood joint. Play video games, go too far, and its oh no, "I was addicted". Gotta love it, an excuse for everything, except the real one. The one that says, man I made some bad decisions now I gotta face up to the consequences.
PS - Can you please move this into a new topic under the general discussion forum? I accidently posted this here, but was really thinking posting it under a new topic. Thanks.
Huodini Nukingfurby
Edited by: Diggo McDiggity at: 11/19/02 9:49:05 am
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002
Quote:--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
All he did was computer programming and was basically a hermit. Never talked, hung out maybe once every three months. Keep in mind he was like this BEFORE EQ.
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Lot's of people become secluded hermits AFTER they begin playing. I've no doubt that EQ can help some who have problems with social interaction. But EQ is a double-edged sword in that it can also take people who were previously very social, and slowly help them turn into reclusive hermits.
Over time as these people begin to cut off relations with the friends and family they had previously, they naturally gravitate toward the only ones they now share this common interest with...their EQ-mates. I know at least a couple people who were quite social before EQ and who turned down invitations from their local friends over and over until their friends just said, "forget it." Now these people rarely socialize outside their EQ circle. Their local real life friends eventually reach the point where they don't bother asking the player to go do things anymore, because that person usually says "no" or makes an excuse of somekind, when the friend knows that all the person wants to do is play EQ.
There are friends, and there are true friends. Friends who you played with will not go out of their way to keep in contact with you once you leave EQ for good. TRUE friends on the other hand, are rarer than the rumored grappling hook that the Runnyeye Goblins supposedly have and which the Zorro guards of Rivervale have been searching for since Beta. The friendship of these true friends, transcends the game and even when you quit the game for good, they will remain loyal and caring and will keep in regular contact with you, regardless of how far away you are from each other.
Unfortunately, you do not realize which category each of your guildmates fits into until you have left. Then it becomes clear, very quickly.
Diggo
Ron Jaffe AKA Diggo McDiggity
eMail: eqaddict@cfl.rr.com
Discussion Board Administrator
Addicted to Everquest from July, 1999 to April, 2002
Over 4,900 Hours Played
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002
I agree Huoudini that pretty much everything out there when done excessively can be dangerous. But we aren't talking about everything, we are talking about online gaming specifically. The reason I said EQ was dangerous is because in my opinion (note just my opinion not OLGA's), the game can have a negative impact on a person psychologically. I don't think this happens to everybody, but if you play the game obsessively and compusively, it can disrupt you psychologically. Not to mention what it can do to your family and social life. I have seen this happen to too many people and I thank my lucky stars that I saw what it was doing to me in time to get out.
I agree with you that a person playing EQ to the point of it being dangerous is a bad decision and eventually that person has to own up to what they have done to themselves and to those around them. If they don't they will never recover in my opinion. But I don't think any one of us went into this game thinking that we were ever going to get to this point. It was just a really cool game at the beginning, but at some point it changed for a lot of us and became a major compulsion in our lives.
On your request to move this to a new topic, um Diggo will have to help ya out there. Not sure I know how to do that.
But thanks for your opinions, I like to read others opinions on the subject.
Tosha
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002
-In Response to Tosha's last post-
I agree that it can change you psychologically. For good and of course for the worst. And thank you for acknowledging that the person playing must take responsibility for his or her actions. Because that is exactly what happened. It shouldn't be that "it made me do this, it made me reject my family, it made me reject my friends"...it should be "I rejected my family, I rejected my friends, I hurt my family, I hurt myself." It didn't make any of us type in our passwords, it didn't make any of us play for 8 hours straight, it didn't make any of us stay at home and become hermits. It didn't make us do anything we didn't want at the time. WE did that, I did that.
I don't think any of us think to willingly go into anything that is going to cause us to become "addicted". We only say that in hindsight.
I wanna thank you though for using the word "compulsion". I can see you have an open mind and tried to see things from my perspective as I have tried to view in other perspectives as well. I like that word, I think its a better way to describe the experience with EQ and video games, a compulsion.
Huodini Nukingfurby
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002
-In Response To Diggo-
Anyone remember Tamaguchis? Those little electronic toys a few years ago and that was a big craze. The point of it was to nurture a virtual animal, like say a baby chick. There were times where you had to feed it, bathe it, play with it, stuff like that. Well, it became so popular and people went so nuts over it that some committed suicide when the virtual pet died (it can also do that). My point is that anything CAN become as extreme as any other "addiction". It has always a chance or instance of death. Some though can become more wide spread than others.
We made a decision to play, we weighed the pros and cons. Do I play tonight or go to a movie with friends? Well I think I'll enjoy playing more tonight so that's what I'll do. The DECISION maybe irrational, but the process by which you make that decision is rational because you weighed what was more important to you. So we can't blame anything else other than ourselves if we aren't happy with our decision.
I'd have to admit gambling is an extreme compulsion. Addiction would definitely be an appropriate word in terms of excessive gambling because there are people who simply do not believe they have any other choice other than to gamble every day, minute, second.
When we're really into something we have a passion about it and it can consume alot of our time. But that doesn't mean you're in denial. Try doing some research on the effects of TV when it was first introduced and to present date. In the U.S. alone, stats say that "Every week, the average kid between 2 and 11 watches 1,197 minutes of TV and spends 39 minutes talking with his or her parents." www.action4mediaed.org/ju...facts.html
I'd think that TV has a lot worse impact than EQ. Yet, people understand TV is a decision. Let's say I watch Friends, over doing homework sometimes. Well, when its time to turn in the assignment, I'm not going to say, professor...TV made me not do it. I'll simply say I made a bad decision to not complete my work and suffer the consequences.
Huodini Nukingfurby
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002