"Addict" or self-control?

Soldato
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I probably was in my 2nd/3rd year of uni. Sacked it in though, stopped playing so much after I started work. Also now I'd say I'm addicted to playing and learning piano. So I've traded in a hobby where I'm sitting down staring at a screen to one where I'm sitting down staring at sheet music. And that's why I've joined a gym too :p.
 
Soldato
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I was writing an album in winter 2017 and then PUBG took over my spare time and I totally fell out of music making in 2018. From there I started playing a lot of Insurgency and only now starting to get back into it my music. I regret some of the time I spent on games over the years, I had a good time with my friends but absolutely nothing to show for it now.

I'm off gaming at the moment which is great and totally back into music production which I think is a lot more healthy and satisfying. I just turned 40 and thinking about just quitting games altogether. Weirdly I listen to a gaming podcast every week but seeing what happens in the industry and hearing people review them is just as interesting as actually playing them for me now.

Games are easy that is the thing, other hobbies take effort for reward. Easy reward is never a good thing.
 
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Associate
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CS Source wrecked my Sixth Form education. Sports were always my priority though. Once I hit about 20 I discovered binge drinking and became more confident with the ladies so that took over. Now in my 30's, don't game so much and when I do I prefer a single player story than a twitchy FPS.
 
Soldato
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I've gamed all my life from 12 years old to my 40s. I currently play 6 hours a day, 7 days a week. I don't think its the amount of hours a person plays games. I think its when you obsess about it. If someone obsesses about anything then they have a problem.

I don't think kids these days have learned the life skills before they start gaming.

Throwing controllers, breaking keyboards, and smashing monitors and consoles is abnormal behaviour. Who wants to play or associate with someone who does that?
 
Soldato
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Closest to gaming being an addiction I ever had was when I was really, really into UT99. My mum got worried about me and sold my computer when I was about 15/16.

I don't really have a chance to play games for hours upon hours every night. I may get a few hours in as the other half watches some rubbish but that's it. No more all nighters for me.
 
Soldato
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I don't necessarily see a problem with people spending 5-6 hours a night gaming after work, as long as it doesn't impact their life in any meaningful way, people definitely shouldn't be losing sleep over it or flunk out of school or work. I know people who get home and sit in front of their tv's for the same lengths of time, never moving other than to make a cup of tea or get a snack. At least the people gaming are actually doing something that requires interaction, and often some level of socialising. I would say a lot of people (if not most) would see a vast improvement to their quality of life if they spent a couple of evenings a week at the gym or at a pool or something getting some solid exercise in over immediately going home and sitting down to barely move until the next days commute.

Becoming addicted to anything is unhealthy, unfortunately as a species we seem to be cable of becoming addicted to just about anything.
 
Soldato
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I work in the games industry, specifically eSports - we make probably the biggest title for competitive eSports at the moment, so I have *some* insight into it, but I wouldn't consider myself an expert on gaming addiction. But I obviously mix with people from all the big games studios, so I do learn a lot.

Personally I think gaming addiction has gotten worse over the years, but probably because it's a numbers game; more and more people are playing, combined with the fact that the games are designed to be fun and create quite a buzz when you win.

I think ranks and progression drive obsessive behaviour, large numbers of people take their ranks REALLY seriously. I know this from playing lots of CS and Overwatch - rank means everything to a lot of people, and they becoming obsessive about continuously ranking up. The way the ranking systems work is designed to always match-make players of a particular skill level together, so few people tend to improve much above their seeded skill level, so they embark on this quest to play and play and play and play. Unfortunately unless you're playing against people who are much better than you, you never really improve much. This is mainly because the system wants to provide you with a fun experience, rather than matching you with people who are 10x better than you, but the tradeoff is that you don't learn anything, some people do - but most stay within their seeded ranks.

An interesting trade-off of this, is the incredibly lucrative 'boosted accounts' business, where very high level players create new accounts from scratch, play their seeded matches then sell that new highly ranked account for $hundreds. A lot of 'pro players' are doing this to make money, but it does allow others to buy those accounts, and get seeded against much better players, and it's a very common problem in eSports but quite a fast way to improve, if you can hack it.

I think buying loot boxes for money is problematic, China created laws which force us to publish the drop rates of certain loot - which I don't disagree with, but then again china is pretty mental with the stuff we have to do for them.
 
Soldato
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Mildly addicted to fifa UT, will play 1-2 hours a day and up to 6 across the weekend. No way would i be going to bed beyond 11pm for it though, that's crazy.
 
Soldato
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Bristol
I guess if gaming has a negative impact on your life and you keep gaming anyway then it's an addiction.

I'm 43 and haven't played online FPS games for about 3-4 years now, I much prefer 1 player stealth or strategy games where you can control the speed and play as and when. About 2 hrs is my max gaming session duration nowadays.
 
Joined
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I love gaming, but I am not a teenager anymore (early 30s) and things such as seeing maintaining the house and chores, exercise, seeing family/friends and a full time job come first.
I love collecting for my old games consoles, but I talk about them 10x more than I play them.

It really is a sad state when people are willing to blame games for their lack of success in other areas of life. As an adult it is your responsibility to get to work on time etc. I did play WOW at one point too.
 
Soldato
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I played a lot of wolf et in the past, don't play anything anymore tho.

The amount of time I spent on Wolf:ET is pretty much why all my A Levels were a grade lower than they should have been. Was enough of a wake up call to pack it in and not screw up my time at Uni though.
 
Man of Honour
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Stoke on Trent
The last game I played and was addicted to was Kick Off 2 on the Atari ST.
I'd be on it all weekend and during the week from 5.30pm to 11.30pm and it lasted for over a year.
I can't remember what made me stop but I haven't played games since.
 
Soldato
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In the middle
I was heavily into flight sims a decade or so back, and could quite easily spend 8 hours a day playing them.When i wasn't playing them I was thinking about them, spending hours on games forums etc.Now, although I still have all the gear, and a couple of the games installed, I hardly ever play them.
 
Caporegime
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22 Oct 2002
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Boston, Lincolnshire
I played wow religiously for a period of 18 months to two years and it did get a bit out of hand but I was a kid so had nothing to do with my time. 15 years later and I have a wife and two kids. Wow classic comes around the corner and I hook up with my old guild mates. I played for a couple of days but realise I just cannot do what I did all those years ago. The surprise was just how many of my old guild mates still have no life..... Games like wow if left unchecked can be equally as damaging as drugs and alcohol.
 
Soldato
Joined
30 Apr 2006
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London
It's pretty much the reason i prefer single-player games and stay away from MMORPG's and Battle Royal games. They're repetitive to me. With single-player games, they typically don't last more than 20-30 hours (sometimes much less) and they're no different than watching a movie or TV series.
 
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