Serendip is an independent site partnering with faculty at multiple colleges and universities around the world. Happy exploring!

Reply to comment

Daily's picture

gaming addiction

I'm 27 and have played MMORPGs for nearly 5 years.

For the last 2 years I've slowly added more game time and decreased real life social time.

Currently, I have no friends other than my online friends and even those are few because my natural personality (I believe) is to have a small and very close few for friends.

At this point I am no longer in college, my boyfriend supports my household financially and I spend my entire day around my computer. I sit no place else.

I have played every MMO released for play.
I become very easily burnt out with games since I play so much, but I am constantly downloading something new...even if I know I won't play it long.

I have nothing else to talk about.
Every conversation I have with boyfriend or an occasional family member has a gaming reference. It embarasses me and I never admit to anyone that I do absolutely nothing else besides gaming.

Sadly, these wonderful experiences in-game create a depression that I try my hardest to suppress. I sleep more often than usual and I shamefully neglect personal hygeine for days because of the time it will take away from my computer.

I know that I have a problem and the more I type this out, the more real it becomes. I don't know what I'm going to do about it. To end my gaming would be ending a daily life that I've had for years. Who could do that?

There is no 'blame' here other than my own.
I'm an adult and I make a decision to play games.
This has snow-balled into a problem, but the only real problem is my will-power.

Believe me, this is not a horribly sad story for me.
I've had plenty of incredible days of gaming and I wouldn't change that for anything. It is a wonderful hobby. It feels great to make progress and build a character with grand weapons that saves the universe.
I just should have taken a few days off from playing savior.

I hope that others will realise their problem sooner...if only to keep them from limiting their lives like I have.
There IS more to life.
Games are great, but real relationships are needed.

Reply

To prevent automated spam submissions leave this field empty.
1 + 9 =
Solve this simple math problem and enter the result. E.g. for 1+3, enter 4.