Think about it...

[Farnis]

Do you actually think that playing DAoC with your mates is better than going out with your mates? Not a flame just a question...

Perhaps you need to get out more.....or go to the right places...or something.

 

[Elenah Lopez]

Saturnine: About the news, which is obviously directed to me Is it your true opinion that you can only be up-to-date when you watch the news on tele? I mean, there are more things like papers, radio, discussions with collegues...... why watch the images when you already know what you're going to see? For touristic reasons?

Farnis: No it's not better - it's equally good and fun, and yes we DO go out every friday and saturday


For the others going to reply on my post; OY, I didn't give you my life story here, that one little post isn't my whole being you know

 

[old.Xarr]

My question/suggestion had nothing to do with personal experience, it was just a bit of probing. I'm not going to elaborate on how brilliant and super-cool my social life is either.

My point is this tho: mmorpgs can be both social and addictive, but not necessarily destructive for your 'other' social life (that life outside your virtual existence).

 

[old.windforce]

a poison is only a matter of how much you take it.

55 grams of salt will kill you
0,5 gram makes your food taste better

I am an addict (see sig.) and everyone who has an level 50 character is: 25 days to get to 50 on an average = 600 hours ingame.

When the game affects your life like 55 grams of salt you should consider proffesional help. no pun intended

ps. i like my food salty

/em lighten up the admosphere http://www.list-o-links.com/

 

[Farnis]

Like I said Elenah - not a flame - just a question

btw Xarr - dont use hypotheticals like "go out - get pissed - have fight" as a trade off for playing a computer game, it doesnt really work like that. Its like saying you could go out and get knocked over by a bus so why leave your house...it is far less "destructive".

 

[geldor]

so ure point was we will be antisocial if we play to long ???

so first off define antisoscial an whats so bad about bein antisoscial ?

try an keep it simple an to a minimume of one paragraph cos ull confuse me other wise an be precise an to the point please

 

[lacroix]

My 2 cts worth


... actually, tried to abstain from commenting, but simply can't help myself :

I am not going into the "MMORPG are / are not addictive" issue itself, but wanted to add my personal view on a few "side issues":

1. Research: The article confirms what would be intuitively assumed by everyone with common sense; however, I would not necessarily draw any "political" or "moral" implications from it withouth having checked the statistical database and/or the design of questionnaire underlying it. It's easy to "misinterprete" statistics or draw "seemingly" causal conclusions which might not actually be valid.

This just as a caveat to all those ppl, who are not deeply immersed in science/academia/research who might feel that everything with a seemingly "scientific" label is gospel (mind you, I am not saying the research bits are not valid, only saying that I wouldn't take them automatically face value only because they APPEAR scientific and plausible).

2. Lifestyle: Personally, I always have an issue with "morality & lifestyle" arguments, myself - this in reference to those here, who seem to intrinsically assume that one form of activity is "superior" or "more healthy" to others. MMORPG's might be designed to "manipulate" you into one sort of behaviour or the other, but this pretty much applies to virtually everything else (sports, TV, shopping, pub-crawling, ...). Modern life has become very varied - it offers choice. With choice comes responsibility. At the end of the day, it's your life you're living, not someone elses. Do it, enjoy it, live with the consequences.... - be they positive or not. You feel you need help? Go and get it. You feel you don't? Well, be happy ... - just remember, it's up to YOU. (Main restraint: Categorical imperative ).

3. RL vs. game life? Well, does it matter? I am RL person engaging in a RL activity - gaming ...; I interact with ppl (or not) both face-2-face or via avatars, I do ingame things within a scope shaped by my RL personality .... - only the visualisation differs (unless I am getting so deluded to think that I, as my real self, can actually buff myself or my realm mates or nuke a troll - which actually never happens even ingame )
So, to me the distinction is already misleading ... (oops: one exception, of course: actual role-playing - that is a conscious deviation from RL, I agree) - but that's my personal view, so feel free to differ

Enjoy
Vardalimaae

 

[Elenah Lopez]

And it was only an answer Farnis /waves

In my humble opinion there's only a problem if you keep playing when you're absolutely not enjoying yourself. When you start yelling and bashing away on your keyboard because you are lagging, loosing xp, dying etc etc... I reckon this is just over the top. Why be upset or mad about it? Log and do something else.

If at that point you cannot do that and NEED TO GAIN BACK THE XP LOSS EVEN IF IT TAKES 48 HOURS!!!!!!!!! or you start calling your group members names - then there's something wrong if you ask me. After all, it's a game in which you win some and loose some, but you should always be able to keep smiling and having fun.

It's like everything else in life: do what you want to do within the set rules, but be happy about it !!

 

[Mjock]

D'oh, must apologise for that post I made, had ideas in my head and couldn't forge them into a coherent post

Lacroix hit the nail on the head there, in my honest opinion. Whereas I feel a bit (lots actually ) more strongly about people, be they psychologists or what have you, telling others what's good and right for them and what's not, be that based on science or what have you, than he does his points pretty much reflect those I tried to write down the first time

And I still think the worse part of "US crap" still is valid. Not meaning anything political directly, and if indirectly it will be purely unintentional, nor religious or what have you, just the way they take these kind of issues over-seas. Of course we have the ilk in europe also, but they're way ahead of us there

 

[Saturnine]

I didn't tell anyone to do anything, I didn't say anything was bad, I never mentioned morals.
I posted a link impyling mmorpgs could be as addictive as gambling or shopping, and left people to draw their own conclusions - and look what happened.

(admitably I got drawn into the argument myself - but if you look at my original post (very original, the albion-forum one) you'll see tentions rose and the for and against arguments just become more and more ludicrous).

It's also clear that people haven't been bothered to read the whole thing - however I don't really care anymore.

If mmorpg's are what you like then play them. If you get really good you can even proudly put "DAoC RoXxoR" under the "hobbies" part of your CV, or would you just say hillwalking and swimming.....


) I just had a funny image of a hill on a lead there - but back to the bickering...)

 

[old.0xygen]

As long as YOU have fun who cares? If its not fun anymore stop. If u cant stop your addicted.

I spend most of my free time on the computer, I do have friends but they all live so gawd damn far away I usually only see them in school, pop round to their houses from time to time.


The day I stop having fun is when I know its time to stop but at 16 hey I'm enjoying the ride so why stop?

 

[old.Tohtori]

To chesnor on the MMORPG research issue in his reply:

No i don't make MMORPG but i've heard more then enough inside speach about it and there is still a pattern in all the games. Sure, in consoles you have to make a game that can be played from 10 mins to 10 hours but still it has to have that, sticky appeal to it.

Towards "The US crap hitting the shores of Europe", let me clarify. I meant that soon in Europe, with this kind of thinking, we will have lawsuits against companies when you microwave your cat, or when your 10 year old kid jumps off the roof when he lost a bulb in DAoC. People will stop thinking with their own brains, and then blame others when something horrid happens. Moralistic crap on the way, and to those who couldn't care less, dig a hole and launch DAoC.

And finally a question to Saturnine: How much do you play? Are you an addict? Or are you just on a holy granny mission to purify the world? Is your mother proud of ya.

EDIT: Oh and btw, i'm not trying to flame anyone here, if you feel like it then too bad. I'm just giving somewhat a diffferent point of view in here as well, from the "Big Brother Company"

 

[Flanx]

Just a note.

I was one of the people involved in the research in the article
I filled out 4 different questionaires in the corse of the research.

Read the Article, Digest it, Read it again, then consider it


To Tohtori.
The Stop using there brains began a long time ago with intolerance to other views.

thats my tuppence.

Flame me if you want just consider all sides of every argument before engaging your fingers.

 

[old.tRoG]

i beleive i am addicted. I am on the internet (thats internet, not always DAOC) around 2 hours a night... which is too much, methinks.

but then, im a wise head on young shoulders

it was quite interesting, actually. there seems to be alot more people than i thought who are SERIOUSLY addicted. kind of brings home the point.

the closest addiction to MMORPGS would have to be gambling. It's addictive, you gain rewards, it is not physical, etc. etc.

-BUT, gambling is a more respected addiction. People addicted to gambling will get sympathy and help, people addicted to gaming will get called nerds .

 

[old.Tohtori]

Originally posted by Flinx_Blizzard
To Tohtori.
The Stop using there brains began a long time ago with intolerance to other views.

Don't know what the hell you just said there but if you are trying to say i simply throw aside others opinions then you seem to be twisting what i've been saying here. Read first what i post, then try to flame me. I never told you people were wrong, i simply stated that this kind of research is a perfect example f wasted time and resources.

EDIT: Meaning!..that if i started a reasearch on how banana is yellow and has a mushy center i would be called a loonie.

 

[Saturnine]

My mother is very proud.
I always get A's in tests.
I write essays with a 2-month deadline the day I find out about them.
I never play DAoC or any computer games because they are bad.
I have 6 glasses of water a day, eat ample fruit and watch my salt intake.
I brush my teath before I go out, even if it's to the shops.
I drive at 20miles/hour outside schools.
I go to Church every sunday.
I never go to bed without my coco.
All science is gospel and I love it very much.
I nurse sick animals back to health.
I watch Oprah - but all other daytime TV is trash.

I will only be able to sleep totally happily at night when the world is purifed in my new vision.

 

[old.Tohtori]

If that's true then there's no need in even arguing. Lost case anyway, yes, god himself said games are bad. In the bible, trust me.

All the same, games are made, played and planes will crash into buildings. Big whooping deal. That's life, and life is living.

Oh SAturnine...you forgot to say that Bonzaikittens.com is for real and it's an evul site

 

[Saturnine]

..not if I can help it


(can we go back to peoples comments on the actual post though please)

 

[Flanx]

Originally posted by old.Tohtori


Don't know what the hell you just said there but if you are trying to say i simply throw aside others opinions then you seem to be twisting what i've been saying here. Read first what i post, then try to flame me. I never told you people were wrong, i simply stated that this kind of research is a perfect example f wasted time and resources.

EDIT: Meaning!..that if i started a reasearch on how banana is yellow and has a mushy center i would be called a loonie.

Read what I said CAREFULLY.
then ask these questions.

Did I Attack You?
Did I Attack Your Post?
OR
Did I agree with you?
Did I agree with your post?

It all comes down to interpretation.
You interpreted it as an attack (From my reading)
so My view (Based on my reading) is that you are one of the Intolerant types.
i.e. you became defensive of your position.

What people say can have many meanings. and even more without body language to interpret what the real meaning is.

 

[old.Tohtori]

Originally posted by Flinx_Blizzard



It all comes down to interpretation.
You interpreted it as an attack (From my reading)
so My view (Based on my reading) is that you are one of the Intolerant types.
i.e. you became defensive of your position.

What people say can have many meanings. and even more without body language to interpret what the real meaning is.

Actually i didn't even know what the hell you were saying, as i posted "don't know what the hell he said". So really i had nothing to defend or as you so galantly put it, became defensive of my position.

What freaking position? I flamed noone, i offered another view.

Your view doesn't really count for much as it is wrong, but then again (from my reading) you are the professor type, always with a witty comeback to everything, always right and never wrong. God forbid you to not have the final word.

Don't we all just love people who analyse others.

I've had my share of this thread and i'm not going to go into "j00 m0mma sucks" competition here, my points were made and now, like chesnor so often said, i won't comment on this thread any more. So do feel free to flame yourself to boost up your ego 'cause i won't flame back. But do flame against the things i have posted here, which are:

Games are meant to be addictive.

The moral shit is floating towards europe from the us.

Pointing out the obvious like "games are addictive" is a waste of time and resources.

 

[old.Charonel]

well i'm kinda lucky in a way with daoc in that, right now, i have it exactly where i want it, i can play and enjoy it without NEEDING too anymore, when it first came out i was hooked beyond measure, addicted is exactly it, that carried on for months, racking up stupid amounts of hours each day etc..., yes i had a job, all that, but EVERYTHING else was daoc, didnt like it much but habits are habits afterall, and every now and then it WAS actually fun afterall

then my motherboard went BANG!, two capacitors broke, well, got another one a few days later, then realised that i may as well reformat while i was giving it all an overhaul too, thing is though, that the time off the game during when i couldnt play did something, not being in game at all just sort of broke the habit for me.

i didnt know it would or anything, but when it came time to reinstall daoc i realised that i couldnt actually see any reason to do so, i just felt nothing at all about the game, no wish to play, nothing, so i decided to just leave and get on with life, was quite happy too tbh, especially when i came to realise just HOW addicted i'd been.

anyway, a couple of months passed, hadnt really even thought about daoc, then one day i saw the box on the desk, so i had a look at it, leafed through the manual and started getting the old feelings coming back, well i wasnt THAT interested yet, but a week or so later i had a thought about it again, then decided that i'd reinstall it.

now i wasnt even remotely interested in actually getting into it fully like before, but i DID want to play it, but it felt different, whereas before i was playing every night simply because I PLAY EVERY NIGHT (ie, no particular reason, just habbit/addiction), i found that this time around i was playing it because i actually enjoyed it, when i got bored of it, or just didnt feel like it on a particular night i just didnt bother playing.

it's still like that now, although i enjoy the game a lot and play purely because of that (although of course, there are times when i play simply because there's a loose end i want to tie up in a bit of spare time before going out or something, getting crafting up to the next 100 points etc, i usually dont bother though, and mostly leave it till a time when i feel like playing instead), and play a fair bit too, i'm now in a position where it's not the all encompassing thing it was the first time around, i can spend a week out of game and this time, i can do it knowing full well that it wont bother me even slightly, and it's a LOT more comfortable

have to say, i enjoy the game a lot more for it too, it feels like a pendulum, first it went to the upper reaches of the right hand side, and i could do nothing but spend all time in game, then swung over to the upper reaches of the left hand side, and i coudlnt even consider logging in at all, yet now it's like it's rested, balanced, and i MUCH prefer it this way

my advice, if your REALLY addicted to this, uninstall the game one night and keep it that way for a week, just get on with life during this time, after that reinstall it and go back in, just see the difference in how it feels, it may well be quite surprising, and you may not even go back at all...

 

[old.Xarr]

Originally posted by Farnis
btw Xarr - dont use hypotheticals like "go out - get pissed - have fight" as a trade off for playing a computer game, it doesnt really work like that. Its like saying you could go out and get knocked over by a bus so why leave your house...it is far less "destructive".

Why not? It's a very common alternative for most norwegian teenagers in the weekends.

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

*starts a bitch fight with Xarr*

 

[old.Xarr]

rar!!

*goes into combat mode*

 

[Uncle Sick(tm)]

*smacks Xarr with his handbag*
Take this, fiend!

 

[Sharma]

Originally posted by old.Normengast
Some people are even addicted to the BW forums

You damn right!

 

[Flimgoblin]

Originally posted by Farnis
Do you actually think that playing DAoC with your mates is better than going out with your mates? Not a flame just a question...

Perhaps you need to get out more.....or go to the right places...or something.

wonder how many braincells playing DAoC kills compared to a sesh at the pub...

 

[old.Atrox]

Originally posted by Fingoniel


wonder how many braincells playing DAoC kills compared to a sesh at the pub...

wadda ya m34n ?
l1k3 pl4y1ng c0mput3r w0uld pwn br41n zels? omg lolroflmaoplz


serious thou.. some ppl need to get drunk, might put some brain functions in order again.

 

[old.Rei Ayanami]

I think people get addicted to the people in the game, not the game itself. Some people fall for a special type of game, and if you start playing one you'll find people that are alike you... who understand you. You see your own reflection in them... one you don't see in your irl friends (with some people). That's what keeps people in the game i think.

 

[Aule Valar]

"consider seeking the help of a professional counselor or therapist who is trained in addiction problems"
= pay meeeeee