Video Games Addiction

Well, the word "addiction" in itself has a negative connotation. So if we visit VFDC alot, does not mean we're addicted to it. It becomes an addiction when it turns destructive and obtrusive to things that are "important."

 

VF addiction is good.

VF online addiction is bad. Combine this with excessive GG thread posting and you might get rectal cancer.

Jokes aside, I don't see the bad thing about having a hobby you invest a lot of passion in. People who don't are usually boring fucks and/or salesmen. The same kind of people who probably think your hobby is gay, but if you would make big money on it they'd kiss your ass.

 

Passion does not addiction make /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif

If you were to switch addicted to passionate bordering on overly passionate, I would agree with you post.

 

This thread is a recipe for leveraging into a conversation about how "tongue in cheek" we are using the term addiction.

In a fun "hey i'm addicted to VF, i can't get enough of this game and even when i get mad and put it down i can't stay away" sorta way, i think we all are generally the same. I can attest to this, SDS overfiend can attest to this-i'm sure tho i don't mean to speak for him.

But in a true life addiction sort of way, no. And to say so is a slight against anyone who has struggled with addiction. Big props and mad ups to anyone who has overcome real life addictions. I'm not writing this to demean anyone's posts, comments or opinions, or to come off as some holier than thou sort. Really my only point in this was to give respect to the members who posted about thier personal battles. And to anyone else who has dealt with this wether they posted about it or not. Respect and support.
/forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

 

I agree. Excellent points. And i think it's hiliarious that you said you could be trying to learn something on Wikipedia. LOL. Or you know, trying to learn something from an accurate website instead. But i know what you mean, and i agree.

 

Not aimed at Tfam, whom i've always gotten along with. But his description did sound a little like me and made me think:
I draw satisfaction/fun from getting continually better and whetting my competitiveness. I know this comes across as too serious sometimes. I do try and put in the work on my and effort it takes too standout, but i won't let my social obligations suffer on account of vf5, and that sometimes hinder me. Well, i do sacrifice sleep for vf5 (and the combination other reasons, don't like my job, spend x amount of hours speaking to my GF a night, like my spare time more than sleep, etc), but if it wasn't for vf it would be for something else. Basically vf5 has become a fun and accessible way for me to exprss myself. For those this has rubbed the wrong way, sorry if it has caused you any distress.

 

Actually wikipedia browsing can be an addiction /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazy.gif

 

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Video games, work, exercise, jerking off.</div></div>

Sounds like an awesome day!

 

I sincerely am moved by your decision to approach the difficult subject of video game addiction and create this, Matteo. Having only recently stumbled upon the thread today by sheer chance, I feel I am mostly in agreement with what many are saying already. I do not know if my comment here will be of any use - to you or to anyone - but if there can be derived but the slightest trace of something helpful, somehow, the guilt to have written at the seemingly indulgent length I fear is inevitable will be assuaged enough. Just the same, I will be truly sorry if the opposite proves true, if what I have written here amounts to nothing more than a meaningless waste of someone else's good time that they would have better spent elsewhere.

...

I do not personally consider myself to be a video game addict at the moment – though I can imagine myself wanting to do so under the right circumstance (more on that later) –, but I have been close recipient to an experience of something similar to it firsthand. Perhaps I have misinterpreted the situation in question to have meant something entirely different than was the reality. But I would still like to think that its certain events in my life have not been in vain to have served some purpose, even if I am misinformed, if indeed I am, by however much. I will say now that if no one cares regarding what I have to say, it’s okay; I’m not writing this from want of any attention, only the impetus that it may be holistic if I am so fortunate. If nothing else, this will at least feel therapeutic for me to write. I need that much.

Well… enough prevaricating.

I used to have "friends" who were video game addicts back in junior high. My school was fairly small because it was in a more rural part of town so there weren't a lot of gamers, and those who were open about their passion kept mainly to one clique. It was this clique I used to be a part of, though I was never fully accepted. Looking back now, they weren't really friends of mine, but at the time I desperately wanted to believe they were… and went to great lengths to maintain that delusion. I don't know if schoolchildren today are any different, but there was an unspoken social stigma for openness about being a gamer where I grew up. Because, as young students, we were all so naïve to let our hobbies keep us isolated from other individuals, other cliques, I had only this gamer clique to feel I was with. It was either siding with them, taking up sports alongside students who were more athletically inclined (unlikely), somehow becoming popular enough to spend time with those admired for their good looks (very unlikely), or being alone and staying that way (very likely). As I said, our school was small.

I was introduced to video games later than my peers because my parents never owned any systems. By the time I got a PlayStation 1, for example, it was in 2000, the same year when the PS2 had already come out. Before getting into video games I used to be the quiet person who always sat by himself and read at school for leisure as I had at home (I didn't have any neighbors to do anything with, which certainly didn’t help things, either). Overhearing a conversation from the gamer clique one day, and inspired by how cool they all seemed, I thought that getting a Gameboy would be my first ticket to new friends who would accept me and cherish my company. In the beginning until the end, it would be the approval of my gamer "friends" I was constantly yearning for, and it was their approval which I never seemed to get. When at last I did get a Gameboy Color and the same games they had talked about, they initially welcomed me, but then gradually grew dissatisfied that I was not putting in the same amount of dedication into gaming as they did. They would all agree to come to school at around five o'clock in the morning to play their Gameboys until the school gates opened at seven, and would play until eight when classes began. They would devote the complete duration of recesses and lunch breaks to playing, neglecting to eat entirely and refusing to socialize with – let alone acknowledge – anyone who was outside their group. I would see them playing after school for as long as they could; because I got picked up by my parents as early as when classes finished, I could never join them to play as late as possible to get a few more hours in, nor could I convince my father or mother to take me in earlier than seven for reasons they felt were absurd.

The clique’s resentment of me, a casual player in their midst, wasn't so bad at first, but because it became increasingly apparent I might never become as hardcore a gamer as they were, the clique eventually used the games as a means for bullying me at my expense... to which I was complicit, wanting... no, dreaming to fit in. They would quiz me before class started or during lunch or recess to see how much I knew about a game in question, out of sight from any teachers, and if I answered incorrectly, they would each... well, hit me, harder and harder, for every consecutive wrong answer I gave. It was usually a punch in the stomach, chest, back or my shoulders. They weren’t beating me up completely per se, but it was still successive enough to hurt. Once they – perhaps accidentally – hit my jaw and my mouth drew blood; I was afraid that I’d lost a tooth but was relieved I had only bit my lip in reflex... they said it was my own fault and I, with my masochistic personality, readily agreed with them and voiced no objection. If it wasn't hitting in places inadvertent or otherwise intended, they would call me stupid names, or run away to another location in our school that only they knew about when I would attempt to approach them for conversation. If it wasn't those, then it would be some kind of unpleasant dare I'd have to do unless I "wanted" to be hit and taunted or have them run away from me again. No one saw the bruises but me; no one felt the bruises but me-- but I didn't complain to my teachers or parents because I felt my punishment was the natural thing for not reaching the clique's level of gaming prowess and mastery, though I tried my hardest to get near. It was as if no matter what, I was always behind them in the games somehow, and because I continually could not invest as much time as they did to playing I continually accepted their actions as something I deserved-- for failing to reach a level they did, learn about a new move or part of the game, get a new character, etc. When they weren't talking about video games (which was rare, if I even have to say so), it was about something on television I couldn't answer either because my family did not own cable-- another source for their "amusement". Eventually they realized just how much of a fucking pushover I truly was and began to ask for money to defer the assured punishment I was routinely getting... and soon I would never eat a school lunch again (at first because I did give them my lunch money, then, in a rare display of backbone, because I later just brought lunch from home instead) for the rest of the year. But it always returned to me that I could never please my gamer "friends" in whatever games we all decided to play; I was always the black sheep, always the odd man out for... what... having a more balanced life? But I kept taking what they did to me. I didn't want to go back to reading by myself because then it would be lonely and I couldn't (or at least so I felt) spend time with the other students who defined themselves by separate cliques because I was now one of the "gaming nerds" who I owed loyalty to. That was probably the worst part: I cared about them no matter what they did.

And... somehow I still do.

...

None of this was/is made up, but I guess something so pathetic speaks for itself to be real. If any of you reading (haha, I'm talking to no one) think I’ve exaggerated anything, screw you; it might appear one-sided but I tried to stay objective.

After junior high I saw but never associated with the clique again (and it was never "my clique"). I realize I was a stupid doormat back then, but a disgusting part of me still wishes I could have belonged, and still misses them. I continue to play video games to this day, obviously why I am here, but have vowed to never let them consume me so deeply that I hurt other people in any way, shape, or form. I don't think of myself as addicted, but the experience has still affected me because I find myself self-deprecating and wanting to please others. I said earlier I could imagine being a video game addict. I think that, because presently I get painfully lonely and have an inability to meaningfully connect with others socially on a typical basis offline, if I was pushed hard enough for any means of escapism, I could let Virtua Fighter be the distraction from reality I'd need. (Sometimes I wonder if someone like Akira, whom I am somewhat ashamed to admit I consider a personal hero of mine, actually existed in real life, if he would want to be my friend… Shows how, even if not necessarily addicted, unquestionably pathetic I am, huh?) I don't have any gamer friends at present, really… they are more likely acquaintances… but I really hope, one day, to have a buddy who really cares about me to be the gamer friend I never had and have always wanted.

That is my lame anecdote and if no one reads it, so be it; it still felt good to write. Thank you Matteo for allowing me this opportunity to speak my feelings, and I hope everyone here is having fun with Virtua Fighter and most of all, with each other.

Take care, guys.


Sorry for sounding sappy,
Airaku

 

Hahaha, thanks guys. I read some of your posts just now and it gave me a much needed laugh.
Sanjuro, maybe not in that order, lol, but I gotta agree, that sounds like an awesome day. Even better if you can replace the jerking off part with having sex with a woman rather than yourself /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif

Seriously though, I agree with the whole "substance" debate. It is harder to give up something that causes you real actual pain when you can't get your hands on it BUT I have seen and heard about gambling addicts who have lost everything bc of their addiction and there is no substance in gambling.

That first part cracked me up, Jeneric /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif
One thing that kinda bothered me was whenever I would hint that I was addicted to video games and people would laugh and crack jokes about it but when one of our co-workers got addicted to playing Poker, THAT was serious /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/confused.gif
They're both games. Yes, one addiction is more about winning and losing money but still, they're both games.

Mad respect to anybody who has overcome an addiction, I know what it's like, I used to be an alcoholic. One of the things that helped me move on from alcohol without any help was that I picked up a new addiction: women. It was such a thrill for me to go out and get phone numbers and take it all the way. I would flirt and try to engage in convo with any good-looking girl I would see. The thrill I would feel when I would get a phone # was great but when I sealed the deal was the ultimate rush for me. Plus, I had competition from a lot of womanizing friends and that made it even more fun.
Now, I got VF. It keeps me out of trouble (std's and health problems). It helps me save money (both women and booze are expensive). And best of all: I don't hurt anybody.

VF is def on my top 10 list of things that I enjoy but I feel that it is a legit addiction. Here's a few things that I think may tell if you're addicted:
1. If you've called in sick to work to play VF.
2. If you've passed up on having sex with a chick to play VF (old stuff not new stuff, I'm not crazy /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/crazy.gif)
3. If you passed up on visiting loved ones just to go to a VF gathering (won't do it this year though /forums/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/laugh.gif )

 

oh shit man.

I take back what I said, I think I was speaking in black and white, and that's something I don't like to do either. I figure if you do something alot, you're addicted. I think going into extreme cases like what you brought up in your post, is what addiction really is, or atleast should be.

Damn, here I was though, thinking that me playing video games on average like 2 1/2 hours or so each day, was being an addict. I think maybe I was wrong.

 

I wouldn't say I'm addicted to videogames, but I def do enjoy them, and sometimes I don't. VF has turned into less of a hobby and more of a trade in the past year, which REALLY sucks for me cuz I wonder if VF int. has invested in a good life insurance policy.