Video Game Addiction

[idklol]

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

I have to disagree with this because i did exactly that and i would consider my self to have been addicted to FFXI.

I started off playing at the Xbox release with RL friends. The most of them all eventually got bored and moved onto something else whereas i was hooked. Like a most other people have posted, every spare minute i had i would put into FFXI. I would literally rush home from work at 5pm, eat my dinner and then be straight onto the game and that was me for the rest of the night. Every night and usually until 1-2am if not later. I kept that up for a good 2 years i'd guess at.

When i quit i wouldn't say for me the game was at it's peak but it wasn't far off and it was still giving me that 'buzz'. There was no burnout, i just quit and i owe it all down to a RL friend and ex co-worker.

He started working with me around 6 months before i quit. He was a big bloke who was really into bodybuilding and within no time he was constantly asking me to go with him. I point blank refused, it was laughable, me in a gym. This didn't stop him though and he never backed down and eventually i gave in. Pretty much exactly the same day as i started the gym i quit FFXI. At the time i was still putting in a good 6 hours every day too.

What changed? Well it's been a while so i don't exactly remember totally how i was feeling at the time but there was an opportunity there and i took it. I knew my addiction was bad and was ruining my life but i had never done anything about it before. Thanks to my friends persistence i had found something to focus on other than FFXI and i just went for it, it was all of nothing.

It wasn't easy but i stuck it out and i haven't played it 'hardcore' in nearly 4 years now. Every so often i do still get the urges to play but i know that it isn't the same game as it was before. I have been back to it several times but each time it just isn't the same. I can quite safely say that if i was to put it on now that i would enjoy it but within a month i would be bored and quit again. That and i would only put 2-3 hours at any one time.

TLDR;

I believe that everyone's addictions are unique and how they go about breaking them is too.

[idklol]

There's also the element of guilds/linkshells/whatever that have event schedules, which gives an addict a firm excuse to avoid making other commitments in advance. Also, even after people have essentially maxed out their character they may still feel compelled to help others, something that doesn't exist in any single-player game.

I agree with the social aspect to it. I used to find myself logging in, realsing there was nothing I wanted or had to do and ended up just standing in my mog house chatting with the linkshell and friends.

[thetruepandagod]

they may still feel compelled to help others, something that doesn't exist in any single-player game.

This a million times.

[Ratatapa]

I don't think that video games in general provide the type of stimulus necessary to form an addiction in most people. MMOs are different.

inb4 you can get addicted to anything

I have to agree, I can't see people missing work, school,dates or w/e to play FPS or Adventure games.

I can see them missing 1 day for beeing the OMG FIRST DAY OF THIS Game.

And the reason for me is that, in MMO you actually have progresseion, story line, gear lvs etc

In other games, if you progress to fast and you finish it, well it's over. And exemple FPS, exept climbing the leaderboards, there is nothibng to make you play 12h/day

[Callisto]

Yes and no to me. Yes because from '04 to '06, I was playing hardcore 12hrs + a day. When I first quit, I was depressed and deeply sad. So sad, like I just lost an important part of my life. No because those 12hrs a day were from monday to friday and during most of those 2 years, I didn't have a job. Everyone was at work or school and I simply had nothing else to do. Still went out on weekends and managed to pay for food, rent etc. Also no, because that sadness from /quit lasted one day and it wasn't about the game itself, but the people I met and the daily interaction with them.

Since then, I came back and quit a couple times before I finally decided to leave FFXI in '10. However, less dedicated and nowadays (playing GW2) an intense week is 3-4 evening of 2-3 hours and the weekend. Usually, it's 2 evenings and unscheduled hours during the weekend. There's no way I could endure that "hc" playstyle nowadays, nor that it would be possible at all. Still, given the choice, I wouldn't trade those days for anything because of the memories made.

IMO, once you have to adept your life to continue to play game X, some kind of addiction is present. How far you go down the rabbit hole depends entirely on you tho and that has nothing to do with any specific addiction.

Fighting games sort of offer the same kind of reward system though, only it's about your own personal skill improving instead of the gear you get, achievements you collect or the online social life you have. Plus most fighting games have their own insanely-developed communities, so you get the social aspect there too. But it's harder for the average joe to get addicted to fighting games vs MMOs, because fighting games take a measure of skill to be good at in the first place and if you don't have that/aren't interested in developing it and getting into the 'scene' then it's not gonna hook you.

Honestly the only non MMO games I can think of that I ever got close to addicted to are Skyrim (because of its near-endless content, over 100 hours logged and I still haven't done all the damn quests) and games like Diablo. A lot of times, I can play Diablo and many of its clones for hours and hours and hours and not get bored. Skyrim gave me an initial "omg can't put it down" rush but after that the novelty sort of wore off. Still enough to put over 100 hours of my life into it in a short period of time though XD

I was disagreeing with the idea that non-MMOs don't have what's needed to create addiction.

When I said 'different types of games' in my earlier post, I actually was actually specifically referencing fighting games. When I quit FFXI in 2010 I had originally replaced it with playing men's league ice hockey but have had some health issues that made it so I couldn't keep up with it(plus it's fucking expensive). For the last year and a half I've been doing competitive fighting games, and while I do log lots of time into it, I can say for sure that it's not remotely close to MMO addiction levels.

I go out about two nights a week to local gatherings to play, and log sessions of 3-6 hours 1-3 nights a week otherwise, I would say that it's something I'm very serious about. Just keeping up with the manual execution requires several hours of practice per week, but there's never really been a point where I've blown off work or friends to play FGs, discounting times that I've missed birthday parties or such because I was at a larger tournament(I also do the streaming of most of our major local events so it's somewhat of a job for me to attend). I've never pulled an all-nighter practicing or grinding online matches, I did numerous just farming Silk Threads or whatever the hell. It is much, much easier to create a definitive stopping point when it's time to handle responsibilities, there's not the 'just one more drop' feeling where I obsessively grind at a goal and ignore eating/going out/etc. for it. I think that anything you enjoy can be addictive to an extent, but I would not place it on the same level as MMOs at all, it's just not as immersive.

[RKenshin]

Mixed feelings/thoughts on this subject.

I don’t personally care or take offense either way in how I or others choose to classify it (haven’t played FF in 5+ years, or any MMO in 2+), but I don’t think I’d call it an addiction simply based off of play time. Addiction has a stronger meaning to me than simply ‘you did it a bunch.’

It’s certainly part of the picture... But the full picture likely includes other more significant factors, like your ability to walk away from it, how it affects the other priorities of your life, your emotional state and health both while partaking in it and when you’re not able to, or any other major potentially negative psychological/physical influences.

For me, personally, I definitely had some questionable points… but for the most part, on the other hand, I kept most of my priorities straight. I still had high grades, kept working (even in a 50-60/h week job at one point), applied for and partook in internships, stayed relatively active, kept a clean/organized living space, kept contact with some friends, etc. All of which were still less than perfect of course (some more than others), but most of which were pretty consistently the same before, during, and after the time playing MMOs; I mostly just shifted the free time I had between different areas at different points.

None of that is to understate the amount of time I played, cause it sure as hell was a lot, but I'd still say an addiction is more than just that.

[Tagus]

I definitely agree with the sentiments you guys are having. Long story short, the thing that showed me that I was addicted to ffxi was my mind's reaction whenever I lost internet access and couldn't get online. I started feeling pretty serious anxiety about not being able to play whenever my power went out or the internet went down. I still remember my wife driving me to the grocery store when the internet was out one night, and I was looking at the street lights in the rain, and it felt like I was on drugs... super light-headed, trails, the whole nine yards. I kept looking at the lights while we were driving down the street, and this recurring thought kept looping through my head, "Is this real? Is this the real world?"

So yeah. If that's not addiction, I don't want to know what addiction is.

[GoggleHead]

I got into this gig after graduating college. A whole bunch of free time and a shitty job market left me pouring a lot of time into FFXI, and it didn't really stop after I found a job. I've never been terribly social, but FFXI was in many ways an excuse to let that situation become even worse.

What finally broke my addiction was, ironically enough, the release of Skyrim. It let me get my head out of FFXI, even if it was just to stick it into another game, but it broke the rhythm I'd developed and that was enough. After putting a few hundred hours into Skyrim I limped back to FFXI and all its flaws became excruciatingly clear and aggravating beyond all belief. Every flaw enraged me and I slowly ended up playing less and less. Once Guild Wars 2 rolled around I pulled the plug on my subscription and never looked back.

I'm still hopping from game to game, but it's no longer as bad as FFXI. I used to find myself considering turning down friends' offers to hang out. I'd always catch myself thinking that and immediately going "no, I owe it to them because IRL friends are more important", but in the back of my head there was always that shameful knowledge that my initial response was to brush them off because I wanted to get back to the game. It still bothers me to this day even if I didn't act on it, it bothers me that it was even something that got considered for an instant.

More than the game or the friends, I think what kept me coming back year after year was the online community. The arena of the various forums were every bit as entertaining and engaging as the game itself. Arguing endlessly over the best way to do things or why the devs were pants-on-head-retarded was in some ways a more compelling experience than logging in. I think that's why a lot of us are still here even after we've quit FFXI. Arguing on the internet is just a lot of fun, and an MMO is a good backdrop for that to happen on.

[Marootsoobutsu]

There were definitely times I got into XI more than was healthy... on the other hand, though, I'm equally aware that other options I would have chosen were just as (and possibly more) destructive. I've never been socially active, I don't like parties, and any crowd of about 15 people or more begins to trigger panic attacks; university was absolute hell, especially the bus. I ruined my knee to the point where my favorite exercise (running), isn't really a possibility anymore. I can bike... but I'd do that while playing XI, anyway. While I skipped class and work and played, I never skipped *TO* play... I just really hated my job, and there were just too many college courses where the professors were basically reading out of the book; I graduated with high honors. When my kid was born, I scaled back, and didn't play when she was up, though I did vanish more on my wife than I should have. Never missed anything with my kid because of the game, and was never tempted to, so my priorities weren't *completely* screwed up... which all just feels like a justification. And it is. I was definitely addicted. I'd tell myself I wouldn't play, which would be amended "as much", and then amended "tomorrow." Always tomorrow. It reached a point where I wasn't playing because I wanted to, but because I felt I *had* to. I didn't walk away from the game, though I wasn't enjoying it; I ran out of money. It's been almost 2 years since I stopped playing, and even though I have the money to play now, I'm not, simply because I know what it'll do to me. I feel serious cravings for the game... not just for games in general, but for XI. If I didn't have my family, I'd probably jump right back into it and never come out.

All that said, I'm a pretty obsessive person. I played FFVI for hundreds upon hundreds of hours. Street Fighter II, too. Right now, I'm playing a lot of League of Legends. But none of them have anywhere *NEAR* the emotional, financial, or life investment of FFXI. I play them because they are fun, but I'm doing other things, too; it's not *necessary* for me to play. I don't get anxious if I'm not on LoL, and I don't have to force myself away from it to spend time with my family. While some people would probably call me addicted to video games still, I can say with absolute confidence that I'm not addicted to anything I'm playing. I don't need to justify reasons to play LoL; I went on vacation, and never thought about it. When I was still in FFXI, I took a vacation "to go camping." Yeah, I went camping. I spent 2 weeks obsessively camping Argus. When I simply had to sleep during his window, I got my wife to cover for me. Yeah, she's an enabler (I never did get that amulet... four consecutive force-pops went to Leech King, 2 Arguses I didn't claim, and went 0-fer on those I did claim. I bought a PCC with the money I made between windows killing the stuff in Argus' room).

I was a relatively responsible addict, but I honestly hate how much power I let that game have over my life. Every free moment was either on it, or reading about it, or planning for it. Other than a quick look at a champ in LoL, unless I'm playing the game, or watching a friend play, I pretty much don't think about it when I'm not on. And that, it seems, is the major difference.

[The Stig]

I seriously detest people that assume because I spend anywhere between 2-5 hours AFTER work in a virtual world I'm automatically sucked in/addicted.

Best example I can think of is a guy at work who at any given chance/moment when I decline events is to say "[he] goes on warcraft to kill orcs", although mainly as a jest, but can't seem to understand the whole aspect of that is a lot more deeper. I don't attempt to justify as it seems anything I tell him just bleeds out the other ear (I told him on many occasions I don't play WoW anymore), but that's 1 major misconception people have,

I wonder; I should start blogging a series of articles of misconceptions of a gamer (branching to addiction) and compare it to other similar events people do such as TV, or playing sports. For the educated ones, it's simply where you spend your time, in moderation. For the dumbasses, I hope I can send a message or 2 ...

---

On the subject of addiction, or playing heavily, I had a friend back in school who loved grinding to level 100 on FF8 before stepping out into the world map for the first time. There was something satisfying for him; I tried explaining to him even back then levels didn't matter, but he was convinced the game was easier (to be fair, bosses did have a level cap lol but still). He was never off school or anything, but did poorly (but got through); in general he just wasn't very smart.

--

I definitely agree with the sentiments you guys are having. Long story short, the thing that showed me that I was addicted to ffxi was my mind's reaction whenever I lost internet access and couldn't get online. I started feeling pretty serious anxiety about not being able to play whenever my power went out or the internet went down. I still remember my wife driving me to the grocery store when the internet was out one night, and I was looking at the street lights in the rain, and it felt like I was on drugs... super light-headed, trails, the whole nine yards. I kept looking at the lights while we were driving down the street, and this recurring thought kept looping through my head, "Is this real? Is this the real world?"

I remember feeling vaguely frustrated when my connection goes out, however at the same time, while I was active on FFXI I did have many periods of time where I went with no internet (6~10 weeks due to relocating in multiple places and UK ISPs are mega shit at getting you setup at a new home) and I survived them fine doing other things (But wished I had something better to do, like FFXI). Still, I guess I'd classify MMOs/games or FFXI in general as a cheap thrill and better than other alternatives.

[Restrat]

I definitely find I play the most when I'm not having problems in my real life. When I'm stressed out from work/school/etc., I just don't feel like spending time on something silly like a game.

When I'm generally in a good mood and not worried about stuff, I can enjoy playing.

[darkepyon]

I have mixed feelings about this subject also.

I'll definitely agree that playing something a lot =/= addiction.

As for my personal story, when I was a teenager I frequently ducked out of going out for meals or other family events to play games. I don't do this anywhere near as much anymore. A lot of people that I'd talk about gaming with in school started getting into sports, and I couldn't really relate to that. Moreover I was one of those guys who didn't really let you know him outside of school. My friday nights/weekends were of course spent in front of my TV, controller-in-hand, and I was happy.Moreover, we moved here to Florida when I was in 11th grade, and couldn't relate with 99% of my classmates. Basically they were "country and hip-hop" and I was "heavy metal". My grades did suffer though. When my family and I were stationed in Okinawa, the school would mail home notices if you were failing any class at any given time. Needless to say this happened quite a few times. I wasn't the school-skipping party-going type so if I got in trouble back then, 9 times out of 10 it was due to bad grades. I did however find something of a "balance" if you can call it that. My grades in college weren't "great" but I still made it through.

I did however live with a guy in college that constantly ditched classes to play online poker and Halo 2. He got another of our housemates (who was also a surfer) into the poker thing and they'd be shouting across the hall at 3-4AM when me and another guy had a 7:30 class the next morning. The surfer turned things around the next semester, but the poker guy ultimately flunked out. I think he had a bigger gambling problem than anything else.

[quannum]

dreams of Dune Widow showing up on the wide scan list

[Darkmagi]

I realized I was addicted when I went on an awesome vacation and was excited to be going home so I could play FFXI again. Was pretty bad.

[Nephlite]

I purposely didn't take any promotions in the Army and (subsequently) when I joined the D.C. police because my schedule was built around FFXI and I was scared I would miss out on LS events. I worked day work for awhile just because my LS did events 7-11pm Est. Then I switched to the evenings shift after I got promoted to the old clothes unit and that's what began the slow downward spiral to quitting FFXI.

I've always had a video game obsession. It started with simple games like Tecmobowl and Zelda. At the Children's Center, we had a Nintendo and a Sega Genesis that mostly went unplayed due to most of the kids coming and going and being adopted before they could get comfortable. Me and one other kid pretty much grew up there so we ruled the gaming area and used to stay up well past lights out kicking each others ass in Tecmobowl. I kept it simple and stayed away from Final Fantasy and other RPG's because back then, I didn't like that particular genre of game and liked competition games. Sonic the Hedgehog, Street Fighter, and Mortal Kombat all kept the obsession going.

Then in 1997, we were lucky enough to get donated a Playstation along with a couple dozen games. Off the top of my head we had Twisted Metal 1 and 2, Pandemonium!, Jet Moto, and maybe Need for Speed? At the bottom of the pile, I uncovered Final Fantasy VII. Ignored it for a few months until I read in a Game Informer that it was "Quite possibly the greatest game ever made." and decided to try it. Completely 100% addicted. I slept maybe (maybe) an hour a day. I literally played until I passed out at the controller and woke up to go to school. We couldn't "sick out" of school so I would just skip school and break in to the house and play. Didn't care if I got punished. I ate, drank, pissed, and lived the game. Same thing with VIII.

Then I had a decision to make. When I turned 18, the state didn't need to take care of me anymore and I was out on my own. Went out and joined the Army. As soon as I was out of boot, I had my own PSX, FFVII, and I was golden again. Then I needed to get a job. Shacked up with my girlfriend (now wife) and joined the DC Police. The money I got from there bought me a PS2, which got me started with FFXI. At first, didn't play that much and was off and on because work kept my downtime busy. Then I joined a LS which started hurting my social life. "Going to the bar?" Me - "Nah I got Kirin tonight." Them: "wut..?" Wife would scream at me (especially when she got pregnant). Her "Can you get me some icecream?" Me "Babe, the window is coming up and I have to spam to get this mob. If we don't get it then i'll go grab you some." Pop. Claim. "Can't go out babe we just got." Her "Fuck you!"

[Koul]

I would say I was addicted to FF11 back whenever I was in high school. I would leave early to play. I would neglect homework/studying to play. I wouldn't hang out with friends because I rather be playing FF11 (although, my friends were jackasses who I knew I would never talk to again after HS) on fridays I would play until I passed out sometime saturday. during the summer that's ALL I did. Like another person mentioned, if my internet cut out I would FREAK the fuck out. especially if I was in a good party or something. Just flip my lid. I remember being forced to go see my sister graduate in some state for a week. I was furious that my Dad didn't tell me or give me a warning or anything. If I could go back, I would slap the shit out of myself for being a shithead but meh

I'm not too sure when it happened but I realized I was treating it like a job and I just wasn't having fun anymore so I promised myself that if I ever treated a game like a job, I would stop playing.

Now, I have a full-time job and a relatively good social life. On my days off I might play the whole day but that's because none of my friends have thurs and friday off. I still do my errands, go to the gym 4-5 times a week. Cook my own food, take care of my dog. I might play 12 hours on those days but I wouldn't consider myself addicted.

Whenever I played housewife for my bf(now ex), that's what I would do is play video games all day. He didn't want me to have a job and I had no car and we lived in this shitty small town. So, I had NOTHING to do all day. He would get pissed at me all the time when he got home from work because all we did was play video games, I still cooked, cleaned and all that garbage. Not too sure what he expected from me. If I got into a relationship now I would tell the person I'm a heavy gamer, especially when a new game comes out that I'm looking forward to. I don't think I would neglect plans or anything but I would definitely communicate that I'm going to play my new game all day or something and if they had a problem with that, they can piss off or come over and be lame with me. Or do their own thing.

[The Stig]

Whenever I played housewife for my bf(now ex), that's what I would do is play video games all day. He didn't want me to have a job and I had no car and we lived in this shitty small town. So, I had NOTHING to do all day. He would get pissed at me all the time when he got home from work because all we did was play video games, I still cooked, cleaned and all that garbage. Not too sure what he expected from me. If I got into a relationship now I would tell the person I'm a heavy gamer, especially when a new game comes out that I'm looking forward to. I don't think I would neglect plans or anything but I would definitely communicate that I'm going to play my new game all day or something and if they had a problem with that, they can piss off or come over and be lame with me. Or do their own thing.

You sound perfect for me! Although I cannot understand why he didn't want you to have a job. Seems silly. Was he asian lol

---

Then in 1997, we were lucky enough to get donated a Playstation along with a couple dozen games. Off the top of my head we had Twisted Metal 1 and 2, Pandemonium!, Jet Moto, and maybe Need for Speed? At the bottom of the pile, I uncovered Final Fantasy VII. Ignored it for a few months until I read in a Game Informer that it was "Quite possibly the greatest game ever made." and decided to try it. Completely 100% addicted. I slept maybe (maybe) an hour a day. I literally played until I passed out at the controller and woke up to go to school. We couldn't "sick out" of school so I would just skip school and break in to the house and play. Didn't care if I got punished. I ate, drank, pissed, and lived the game. Same thing with VIII.

When FFVII came out I did something similar but on a strict scale. My parents were really strict with me and I was only allowed to play on the PS1 on Sunday. As a result, I would go to bed on Saturday at 10pm or so and wake up for 3~4am and play it until 10pm the following night (where I will be pushed to bed). My parents would lock away the PS1. For the rest of the week I would carry on my usual activities, but it was minorly frustrating that my friends in school were all playing it and I couldn't until the following sunday. Worst off is because my one was a US version (memory card/game) I was not able to bring my save to their houses to show them the stuff I maxed out.

[Grey Jorildyn]

So I've been meaning to read this thread for awhile now and finally got around to it today. I'm a clinician who regularly encounters addiction. I've even considered pursuing the CASAC to tack onto my credentials as a psychotherapist. I'll give a clinical standpoint on it in layman's terms as best I can.

For anything diagnosable we always consider if it causes "clinically significant distress". This includes in regular day-to-day living, occupational, or functional areas of your life. I always thought it was interesting that SE added the disclaimer they did to XI and XIV to "not forget your friends, your family, or your work" because what they're essentially saying is "don't become addicted". Some people just addictive personalities and get hooked easy on things that preoccupy their time or light up some part of their brain that they get pleasure from. People get addicted to all kinds of things, for all different reasons, at varying levels. AA and other disease models consider addictions permanent, incurable, yet treatable. If you forgot all those things SE told you not to, then chances are you were addicted to some degree. I've thought about research aspects of mental health in video games for my doctorate level work but I dunno. It's complicated and doesn't seem to integrate well into existing models of addiction which have greater or more easily measurable physiological effects. Video game addiction is in the same category of like shopping addiction or something. It's hard to say.

But I think it does exist. I know I've dealt with that before and it's why it interests me so much. With gaming becoming so mainstream (accessible), any relevance to addiction is becoming more blurred as the days pass. What you do on the train or bus on the way to work may be considered closer to a hobby or extreme hobby than an addiction and further study is definitely warranted in this area for sure. So what if you were "addicted to video games" though? Doesn't change who you are, and if you've been able to identify something like this in your life, you're already in a better place than most people were in the throes of FFXI all those years ago.

[Tagus]

I always thought it was interesting that SE added the disclaimer they did to XI and XIV to "not forget your friends, your family, or your work" because what they're essentially saying is "don't become addicted".

Interesting take on things. I think about this all the time as well... I always felt that the disclaimer was essentially SE admitting that the game was intentionally developed to be addictive for the monthly fees, and the statement was designed to abdicate them of liability in the event that the addiction became harmful to someone.

[archibaldcrane]

Had an FFXI dream last night because of this thread, did you know that the newest expansion in my dream world has 2 new jobs? I didn't either, because in my dream world I just now reupped and hadn't played in years.