Addicted to MMO's.

I'm completely out of control. I can't seem to live without playing these games. It's ok to begin with - a few hours here and there, but then i get obsessed quite quickly and want to play them all day. I've tried to stop myself countless of times, but the moment the pressure is on in the real world, i find myself trying to escape into the fantasy world. It makes me completely forget about my anxieties and concerns in real life, which is why i find it so difficult trying to get off them. i've tried deleting them countless times, but no matter what i do, i always find myself back playing them. I've tried limiting myself to an hour a day - but i always find some excuse to play for longer.

It's having a real detrimental effect on my real life as i rarely socialise and i'm missing lectures/seminars.

Please help, i'm slowly screwing my life up. :frown:

wtf is MMO?

Well you should really set yourself an alarm (let's say 3 hours) and when the alarm goes off you WILL stop playing. It will be hard at first but why don't you take a walk outside or something :smile:

You'll get used to it eventually.

Reply 3

GodspeedGehenna

3

MMOs > Life.

What game are you playing at the moment? I need a new MMO to play since Vanguard and SWG went down the pan.

Reply 4

GodspeedGehenna

3

enigma373

wtf is MMO?

Read the post. It doesn't take a genius to work it out.

Reply 5

Anonymous #2

Cold-turkey was the only way for me. Whenever I said "oh just an hour, two MAX" I'd end up playing god knows how many hours straight, from when I got home from school to 2 in the morning with just a break for dinner. I got my sister to change my password for me so I couldn't go on them anymore. It was **** at first, but I started to confront the real issues in my life, and things got better. Good luck to you!

Reply 6

LivingDeadly

Stands for Massive Multiplayer Online game.
I think it's stuff like World of Warcraft etc

As for my advice? Give yourself a wake up call, you can play games anytime in your life, but you only get certain times to do your work or socialise with friends. I know they're addictive, but here's some motivation for you...

My brother's friend was very addicted to MMO's and never put his work first. As a result, he graduated from Uni with a 2 and is currently working in a shop I believe. You will really regret it if you don't force yourself to take action now! How about seeing them as a reward? For example, if you finish an essay you can go on it for a couple of hours or something?

Also, look deeper into why you play these games. Are there areas of your life that were lacking before you started playing these games? Games do make you anti-social if you play them too much, make your friends force you to come out with them or something :smile:

Only you can help yourself, if you really want to stop playing these games then you will. Let yourself decide what you think is right.

Reply 7

snowfox

Sell your PC, get an average spec laptop. That way you can do work and not have a good enough machine to play games.

Reply 8

username158373

18

What realm are you on ?

:p:

Reply 9

psychocustard

18

I quite like the advice from the anonymous poster, with getting your password changed by someone. Or just go to change it, and slam your hand on the keyboard :p:

Reply 10

Jim-ie

14

I was absolutely addicted to FFXI, would play it constantly, had to cut it down so I only go on it now when I've a few hours spare before work or if I know I'm doing nothing that day, best way to go around it.

Reply 11

River85

17

enigma373

wtf is MMO?

MMO/MMOG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_game

Although when I first saw the thread titles I read it as MAOIs (a type of antidepressant) :o:

What do you feel is lacking in your life, OP and what are your concerns and anxieties? You can go around changing passwords/go cold turkey but it's pointless if you still have these concerns. The temptation to escape will aways remian. You need to tackle and learn to cope with these stresses and concerns.

Reply 12

username234673

17

Step 1: Log on to your home router
Step 2: Block the ports used by your PC to connect to online servers
Step 3: Get another family member to change the router's password

You've gotta deal with the real world head on. Tackle your problems as soon as they arrive, otherwise you end up permanently miserable.

Reply 13

Anonymous #1

OP

Anonymous

Cold-turkey was the only way for me. Whenever I said "oh just an hour, two MAX" I'd end up playing god knows how many hours straight, from when I got home from school to 2 in the morning with just a break for dinner. I got my sister to change my password for me so I couldn't go on them anymore. It was **** at first, but I started to confront the real issues in my life, and things got better. Good luck to you!

Thank you! I think this sounds like the only option i have available to me. I have struggled with my MMO addiction for so long - i've played EQ, EQ2, WoW and more recently LOTRO. I would play games obsessedly for months, then feel completely fed up and quit for a few months, but soon enough i'd start to feel the lure to play again, promising myself that i would play in a more 'controlled manner', which obviously never works. It's such a vicious cycle. I hate the person i've become. It's sad, pathetic and incredibly lonely.

Reply 14

Anonymous #1

OP

River85

MMO/MMOG

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massively_multiplayer_online_game

Although when I first saw the thread titles I read it as MAOIs (a type of antidepressant) :o:

What do you feel is lacking in your life, OP and what are your concerns and anxieties? You can go around changing passwords/go cold turkey but it's pointless if you still have these concerns. The temptation to escape will aways remian. You need to tackle and learn to cope with these stresses and concerns.

I know that's part of the problem. I had a very screwy family life - my mum was a untreated schizophrenic for 4 years when i was 10. It's a horrible affliction, and so many haunting memories are engrained into my psyche. She was never hostile like the ones you read about in the media, but just overly protective. I grew up being very scared of things - people, strangers particularly. I started playing because i wanted to forget about life and escape. Now, even though i'm out of that situation, i find myself resorting to that behaviour when i'm confronted with stress.

Reply 15

trm90

12

I had an addiction to WoW for 18 months from mid-year 10, and it was very difficult to quit. I ended up quitting when I realised that the game was more stressful than the real life problems I wasn't attending to. I detest MMOs and those 1.5 years of my life wasted and have never looked back - everything has only improved since then.

My advice is to consider the incentive. Imagine how much more you could get done when you're not playing MMOs. You can take up a new hobby, play sports, read great books, casually watch some television, start boosting your grades up, start seeing your friends more... the things out there in life that aren't MMOs are so much more worth it.

The whole 'give yourself a time limit'/'change your password'/'delete your account' thing is ****ing nonsense, really. It NEVER, EVER works for fighting gaming addictions. You can only quit the MMOs when you genuinely feel ready to give up and let go.

Reply 16

enigma373

8

GodspeedGehenna

Read the post. It doesn't take a genius to work it out.

all i got from the post is that its some sort of game and not what it stands for, you see those of us who actually step away from the computer every once in while might have never heard of this.

ps. eat a dick.

Reply 17

BaconDude

Anonymous

I know that's part of the problem. I had a very screwy family life - my mum was a untreated schizophrenic for 4 years when i was 10. It's a horrible affliction, and so many haunting memories are engrained into my psyche. She was never hostile like the ones you read about in the media, but just overly protective. I grew up being very scared of things - people, strangers particularly. I started playing because i wanted to forget about life and escape. Now, even though i'm out of that situation, i find myself resorting to that behaviour when i'm confronted with stress.

Try looking at therapy mate. Might help you a lot with the stress things and how you deal with it! Schizophrenia is something that can one day turn someone into a murderer.

Here's a case study: http://www.larryrobison.org/.

Reply 18

Anonymous #1

OP

BaconDude

Try looking at therapy mate. Might help you a lot with the stress things and how you deal with it! Schizophrenia is something that can one day turn someone into a murderer.

Here's a case study: http://www.larryrobison.org/.

Erm? How is this helpful? Firstly, my mum is schizophrenic and secondly she has been fine for many years now due to treatment. Schizophrenia isn't the issue i was asking for help on. It's my gaming addiction. For the record my mum was never violent whatsoever during 4 years of being untreated, sure there are cases where people do harm others, but this really isn't the case for the majority of schziophrenics.

Reply 19

enigma373

8

Go to rehab.

Addicted to MMO's.

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