Gaming as isolating activity vs. gaming as a social activity

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Eliot
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Gaming as isolating activity vs. gaming as a social activity

I have been thinking a lot recently about the different kind of games that I like to play, how much I enjoy them when I am playing them, and what kind of actual fulfillment I derive from them. When I initially began addiction therapy, I told my therapist that I don't think I ever want to give up games completely, since as a gamer and amateur game developer I appreciate games as an art form. I think you will agree with me that some games are truly works of art, even if they are thought of in the mainstream as only for kids or 'lower' than other art. (The same was true for film when it was first beginning.)

However, I have come to perceive a great difference in the different kinds of games that I play. I'll break them down into four categories.

[list]
[*]Social games such as Mario Party, Guitar Hero, etc. These usually last around an hour and are played with 1-3 other friends in the same room. I find these fun and socially fufilling.
[*]Casual games such as Tetris, Picross, etc. These usually last around an hour or so and I generally use them to procrastinate when I should be working. These can be fun but usually they function more as a 'cure' for boredom or ignoring stuff I should be doing.
[*]Long singleplayer games such as Zelda, n, etc. These usually last from 20-40 hours total and might take a few weeks or more, often many hours a day spent alone in front of a console or computer. These can be very rewarding but also frustrating, and can interfere greatly with my ability to work and sleep patterns. In my experience these games cause me to isolate myself the most, and are the most absorbing.
[*]MMOs, where I feel that I have daily duties that I must fufill, whether this be farming, participating in special events, clan participation, etc.
[/list:u]

I will have to swear off MMOs. I was thinking about setting up a bot to farm automatically for me but I think ultimately this is a silly idea, and I will eventually have to give my assets to my clan or sell them and let my account expire. This thought pains me a bit, but as long as I leave it as something I can come back to, I think that I will probably still be thinking about the game, obsessing if you will. Luckily I have steered clear of most hardcore MMOs, my current obsession is the browser game Kingdom of Loathing which I've only been playing for about a month or two, with a total of maybe 40 hours of play and $10 in donations to the site for special items. Though the game can be fun and witty, and I have been able to use botting to keep my farming routine down to about an hour per day, I think this has to go.

As much as I love epic games like Zelda, I think I will have to swear them off as well. I'd like to think that some day, if I am far enough along in my recovery, I could still enjoy games like these if I can limit myself to an hour a day or something.

Social games, however, don't seem to be particularily harmful to me. (With perhaps the exception of games like Halo and Smash Bros. which get me very agitated. I have beat up a 3rd party gamecube controller pretty bad and have had to superglue the buttons back on several times, due to playing too much Melee. :P) However with stuff like mario party or just playing a little one-on-one Super Mario Bros. with my girlfriend on my Wii, I see it as a socially fufilling and fun activity and don't feel like giving it up just yet. It's hard for me to see the difference between that and, for instance, playing cards or a board game.

What are your experiences with this? Do you think that I will make my recovery more difficult if I continue to engage in social games?

Thanks,

Eliot

Xandtar
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Joined: 04/09/2003 - 7:42am
Re: Gaming as isolating activity vs. gaming as a social acti

I only know I can't play anything at all. If you can get off the "hard stuff" and do okay with milder stuff, well our cofounder Diggo would have encouraged you to do so. I simply advise keeping your eyes open and remaining self-aware, don't fall into the one-more-turn-all-night rut that I used to when I tried to use less-addicting games to replace the hard stuff. Good luck to you.

Leveling in Real Life

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