The control of a video game

Havent posted in a while, and I just wanted to comment on something sort of close to home.

Its about how video games can become a controlling factor in ones life.

Like any other addiction, you develop a need to have the fix. You find yourself saying, "Just one more minute, just one more hour". Pretty soon it consumes your life.

Obviously an addiction like gaming is far more healthier (or should I say healthier in the scope of its influence on society) then many addictions, since the destruction brought about by this particuliar addiction is just about 100% internal.

That said, that internal damage can be severe. Loss of job, loss of sleep, loss of appetite, even death has been recorded as being linked to obsessive video game participation.

I remember staying up all night until dawn in my younger years, when I had fewer responsibilities, playing Diablo II and Diablo II:LOD. It wasnt so big of problem then, I just transformed in to a night owl. Ive never really had friends so, its not like I was neglecting my social relationships, and I still mowed the lawn, went to school, and even worked full time when I got/had a job.

I bring this up, because the latest "I cant save this, so I have to finish now" game Ive ran into is Age of Empires III. This one is particuliarly bad, because, if you lose, you always want to redeem yourself before leaving the game for the night/day. If you lose a couple times in a row, this can easily turn in to a 5+ hour process.

Unfortunatley, I found myself in one of these situations last night. I started playing the game around 11:00 pm, and intending on being off by 12:30ish, I set to playing. Then it turned into waiting for my teammates to come on, then we played and lost to a cheater, so we had to play again, and we lost again, to unbalanced teams, but fair and square none the less. So I played a couple more, and fell victim to a strategy I hadnt seen before in two straight games. Before I knew it, it was 5:15 am, and I had to be at work in exactly 2.5 hours. I ended up with 1 hour of sleep to last me the day, and my eyes are closing as I write this at work.

Then I remember, this is a freaking game, what in the world am I doing. So now, I will be adhering to a strict no new game after 11pm rule, and if I go over again, I will simply stop playing altogether, even if it takes asking my wife to hide the game from me. ( I had to do this once with a baseball game for the XBOX because I got so pissed at it, I through it like a frisbee in to the wall.....by the way, check out the "Im an angry man" post to read more about my anger issues.)

So, if anyone else may be addicted to video gaming, this is an addiction that can be beat much easier then most, since there is no chemical dependence. Dont let yourself start missing work, or neglect other aspects of your real life, in favor of some BS electronic one.

Peace and happiness.

A little R and R....

So, I got 5 days of vacation to spend between Oct 06 and March 07, so I took 1 on "Black Friday", and the other 4 I took the 4 proceeding days after Christmas, to build a series of 10 straight days off from work. Apparently, from all the away messages, most of the office had the same idea.

Any way, I was completely stressed out, and the vacation came to slow and went to fast, but it was a great time.

It is an unbelievable feeling to sleep until 8am on a Wednesday.

I spent most of the week eating whatever I wanted and playing AOE 3 with various of my relatives, mostly my brother. It was pretty cool.

So now comes the most depressing day, December 26th, and the most depressing few weeks of the year. Could there be a bigger let down? What other time of year can you say follows such an extensive good time? I could say the day after my wedding was a pretty big let down, but it wasnt, because we were boarding for a cruise to the Bahamas. I cant think of anything else.

........the good news though, there is now 363 days until next Christmas and counting!