Video Game Addiction

[Francisco]

I'm a bit curious about people's view on video game addiction here, and whether addictions can "go away" on their own - or whether they just go into a form of submission... This is partially related to a class I am taking in school.

I'll give two examples of (possible) video game addictions I've had in my life.

First, when I was around six years old, I was absolutely obsessed with the Legend of Zelda. I probably beat the first quest 50+ times by the time I was 7, but had a LOT of trouble getting past level 4 on the second quest. Stupid red skull things... Eventually, my mom took the Nintendo away because I played too much. Once it was gone, I did not care so much. Didn't have withdrawals or anything.

Second, was FFXI. If you asked me at any given time between say, 2003 and 2005 - then again during the height of ToAU - and again during Abyssea - I would probably admit to addiction. I camped Game Stop for expansions, I structured my work availability to coincide with LS events, wasted countless hours on marginal tasks, such as guard skill, throwing skill... made millions upon millions of gil the hard way - utilizing half-baked ideas I came up with... like going naked MNK/THF into Beadeaux, filling inventory with Quadav Helms, trading to the NPC for 900 gil apiece. Similar things done in Zi'Tah (blood from those bats), SSG (Sea Hog, Coffers, NMs, some sahagin drop)... etc...

Needless to say, I played way, way too much.

And yet - at times it just "shut off". I haven't logged into FFXI since sometime in fall 2012, and I haven't left Bastok since... I can't even remember. Spring 2012? Whenever Prov. Watcher was new.

The last time I played with any sense of regularity was the level 99 cap. Once I hit 99, there was not much else to do. So I stopped playing. Right now I can't be bothered to log in, but I do plan to try out SoA. This was not the first time I stopped playing FFXI. I stopped playing entirely from April 2009 until the launch of Abyssea. Game was boring, didn't feel like it.

So my questions are:

Was I really "addicted" to these games, considering I abruptly stopped playing both of them with no withdrawal issues? If it's a true addiction, can it simply "go away" by virtue of being tired of it? Or, am I perhaps still "addicted", and at risk of overplaying again if new content manages to snare me back in? Doesn't a true addiction require some sort of "treatment" to kick?

Even in my case, I didn't stop playing FFXI to beat an addiction, I stopped playing because I grew bored of it, and no longer saw what it had to offer as being worth my very limited free time.

I'm not denying addiction, just questioning whether this qualifie(d/s) as such.

[Ohemgee]

By Korean standards, no

[The Stig]

I view addiction as if when the game starts to affect the things you do in life (work/education/people) then yes you've got problems. You sound fine in comparison. You simply enjoy playing the game, but if you're not deteriating yourself, your environment or others as you're doing so then I see no harm.

[Seraph]

Everyone gets addicted to something. Most people just call it a 'hobby'. Like any addiction really, if it doesn't control your life, it generally isn't a problem. All things in moderation, self control, etc.

[Aristio]

[Abandon]

you're asking a number of people that did the exact thing you just described. Enjoy the answer you wanted to hear, and not the one you probably needed to hear

[Rhyis.]

See the sun once in a while neckbeard.

[archibaldcrane]

Think about playing when you're not playing, pass up social functions to play more, play obsessively for 12+ hours in a day and feel like it's totally "right", play to escape problems in your life...

Yeah, it's an addiction, and I'd bet many of the people on this board were addicted to FFXI at some point.

Regarding Legend of Zelda, probably not. Video games were the coolest shit ever when you're 7.

[nayaminfenrir]

you're asking a number of people that did the exact thing you just described. Enjoy the answer you wanted to hear, and not the one you probably needed to hear

So, so true. My ffxi story was very similar. My down times were usually right after I accomplished a difficult task that took a lot of work and time.

[Bregor]

OP, sounds like you were addicted, and could be addicted to XI/another game again pretty easily.

I was definitely addicted to XI for a while. All I did was go to work, play XI, sleep, repeat. I ignored my friends and my (now ex) girlfriend, and whenever I wasn't playing the game I was pretty miserable. When my girlfriend moved out and my XI friends' response was, "Well now you have even more time to play!" it was a pretty big wake-up call that I needed to quit cold turkey. It sucked for a while but I'm glad I quit when I did. I tinkered with WoW after that but I vowed never to get that deep into a video game again. I'm glad you feel like you can walk away when you're bored, but be careful it doesn't affect your work, family, relationships, etc.

[Cream Soda]

Yes and no.

yes because it does draw a lot of my time. No because if you took it away, I'd put something else in its slot and spend the same amount of time on that.

[hey]

That doesn't really sound like addiction to me, you just really liked it. Of course you didn't exactly give much info to work with, so who knows.Just spending all of your free time on something does not mean you are addicted. You played it when you enjoyed it, and stopped when you didn't.

[Kipling]

I think it's very possible to be addicted to something like FFXI, but you can do that with anything that gives you satisfaction really. This is just easier to break since there isn't a physical dependence, it's just a psychological one.

I was super active in FFXI from around mid 2004 until early 2010 (didn't get hardcore until around 2005 when I started HNM-ing etc), whereas when the game first came out I barely played and only logged on when my RL friends would. I played all throughout HS with RL friends, but then they all quit, and it was just me and my brother. Eventually my brother quit too, but none of my friends or my brother was into end game as hard as I was. Once I graduated I basically got kicked out of a university for not showing up to class/having bad grades because I was literally on FFXI whenever I was awake, and I'd even skip meals to make HNM camps and shit. I continued after I got kicked out and worked for awhile but only cause I wanted to keep playing. Around early 2010 I had an epiphany I guess you could call it, and I sold my account and fell out of FFXI. I came back in 2012 for a bit cause friends asked me to play with them, but it wasn't the same. Now that I was super serious about school I felt no drive to play unless all my friends were on and we were doing something, eventually I got bored and fell out of it again. However, I would say I was 100% addicted for a number of years there. I was able to recover and am back in school with a year left and a 3.9 GPA this time around, but I fucked up pretty bad when I was younger.

I define myself as addicted because I avoided friends, never wanted to do anything but play when I wasn't around my PC, and let RL shit go because I felt the game was more important. I don't classify people as addicted unless they let their RL suffer like I did, because I think that's what truly defines an addiction.

[Callisto]

I would definitely say at one point I had what I'd qualify as a pretty substantial addiction to FFXI. I blew off work, school, friends, and proper sleeping/eating habits for a couple of years before getting my shit together. I do suppose though that the game is designed to do that to you.

I still probably have an addiction to gaming, but I play different types of games that are easier to put down and go about the rest of life.

edit: fwiw this happened during my early 20's, and being at home playing XI every night substantially calmed down my drinking which was generally out of hand during the times when I was taking breaks from XI. If nothing else it probably saved me a ton of money in bar tabs.

[Galkaeater]

SSG (Sea Hog, Coffers, NMs, some sahagin drop)... etc...

I think I did that once
also did tiger fangs from carpenters landing
silk thread from crawlers in Buburimu Peninsula
spider webs outside rabao

[Cream Soda]

Went to CA for 3 months on my first summer of college. Left my grandma's house a total of 6 times. 1 to go eat a buffet with the fam, another to go to 7-11, once for a hair cut, once to buy a new controller when mine broke, and I think I actually went out the other two times.

Went a month and a half w/o as much as putting a pair of shoes on.

Do I qualify?

[Silenka]

I don't think addiction is measured by how often you leave the house or how much you play. Honestly if your life sucks and the game is more fun just play the game. As long as you can still take care of life stuff, who cares? It's true that the goals you reach in FFXI amount to literally nothing in the long run (unless your goal is to RMT all the gil, then you're probably just making oodles of real cash), but they give a sense of accomplishment. That, plus the fact that FFXI's social environment sort of imitates a real social environment (working with people to accomplish things, making friends in the meantime) are what addicts people to the game.

I was addicted for sure, I always wanted to reach the next imaginary goal, like capping a job or getting a piece of gear I wanted. And when you reach each of those goals, some harder than others to reach, there's always something that comes in to take its place, so it never ends. It is significantly more difficult to think up real concrete goals in real life, to the point where it's just tedious to do so. The game is easier. The game is more rewarding. The game welcomes you with open arms and doesn't judge you (well, your asshole online friends might judge you, but the game itself doesn't at least XD).

Honestly, I miss FFXI sorely, but it took three very good reasons all coinciding at once to make me quit: the first one is that I stopped playing as frequently due to burnout. Endgame linkshells are like having a second job, you have a schedule and you have to show up. I got tired of it.

The second one is that the game just changed way too much and somehow wasn't that fun anymore. This is when the level cap was raised to 80, the new magi weapons or w/e they were called came out, and suddenly I felt I had to pump even more time into getting all my jobs capped, at the same old haunts I was using for merit parties, which were also tedious and repetitive. I just got sort of disillusioned.

The third and probably most important factor is that I was going to college a few months from then and wouldn't have time to play like I used to - or probably at all. I recognized that it was a perfect time to stop, so I did.

After all that though, the decision to quit wasn't hard at all. But I do recognize I was addicted as hell to that game, or should I say, the social landscape and achievement rush in that game. Games are just easy to quit when you get burnt out on them because those achievements get harder and more annoying to complete, to the point where it's too much effort and not enough reward. Then the addiction subsides.

[Tajin]

I am still addicted to video games, I've just never let them take over work or personal commitments (though I did cut ties with the world at some point), I still spend money on shit that will sit on my closet forever before I play it.

[Tricen]

Those videos were very good, thanks for sharing those.

[Skyylya]

It's only an addiction if you can't walk away from it when you want to.

Doing something for long periods of time isn't necessarily a bad thing unless the reason you're spending a long time is because you can't stop.

Talk to someone who has a real addiction and ask them if they can step away from it on call when the activity doesn't offer anything of value for a period of time.