I will not comment on my views about online gaming, I will not question the fact that religion is a large part of OLGA's battle plan, nor will I comment on addiction. I will simply ask a couple of questions.
How many of the people who created, run and maintain this board, and the olganon.org website have tried playing online games? If yes, how long? Did it bring you any pleasure? When is it, in your opinions, "safe" to play an online game?
Quote:I will not comment on my views about online gaming, I will not question the fact that religion is a large part of OLGA's battle plan,Sorry, again that is incorrect. I am one of the founders of this board and decidedly Pagan in my spiritual beliefs. Merry Meet.Quote:How many of the people who created, run and maintain this board, and the olganon.org website have tried playing online games? If yes, how long? Did it bring you any pleasure? When is it, in your opinions, "safe" to play an online game? I played EQ for a total of over 3 years with a 1 year break in between. When I was on 'hiatus', I played Return to Castle Wolfenstein multiplayer and before EQ, I ran a Quake Clan for 3 years. I played Dark Age of Camelot for about a year when it came out, at the same time I was an officer of and eventually a leader of a large EQ guild. To this day, I continue to try various online games but am basically trying to keep my RL as a priority now.
Did it give me pleasure? Sure it did. I think EQ, while now quite dated, is the most fantastic game I've ever played. But in the final year I played, the high end game became more and more frustrating.
When is it safe to play online games? I think when the game remains as just a pastime in one's life instead of an activity that occupies the majority of one's waking hours. I think it's safe as long as one's personal, physical and mental health are not sacrificed and as long as one's relationships with his friends and family are not affected. This has little to do with the number of hours that one plays as much as it does how his playing affects those things.
Those of us who have played excessively and/or compulsively have seen some or all of the above things suffer as a result with disastrous consequences.
Ron
Ron Jaffe AKA Diggo McDiggity
Discussion Board Administrator
On-Line Gamers Anonymous
Co-Founder of OLGA and member since 2002
Quote:When is it, in your opinions, "safe" to play an online game?
When you're not playing in a self destructive manner?
Oh, and I've been around EQ since a little after beta, although my own account is only two years old.... but I'm kind of a SWG junkie now.
It's painfully easy to find out the answers to the question by just reading the posts on this board.
Personally, I played Everquest on average of 45 hours per week from December of 1999 to October of 2002.
I used to play 36-48 hours a week for the past two years... now I play a little bit less, and it's SWG instead of EQ