Epic Guide

I used to think I was addicted to video games; I have loved them my entire life.  Infact, I would venture to say that I have spent entire weekends playing video games. I have dicthed my friends to go play video games. I have even failed some classes due to video games.  But am I addicted today? 

Last night, I played Battlefield 2 over the internet with one of my buddies for about three hours.  Today, since I am back at home (woohoo…), my parents accused me of being addicted to video games.  I instantly responded with my standard reply for anything they ask: “nah.” But it got me thinking, am I addicted?  The answer came to me quickly: no.  But I still had to think, what would I be doing last night if I wasnt playing video games?  The answer, since it was a monday night and I had nothing to do, I would be watching TV; I would be doing something less mind consuming that playing videogames.  So, I then asked myself, how often do I play video games? The answer would be almost everyday.  But everytime I played video games fell under the same guidlines: I had nothing better to do, and its better than watching TV.  So I decided, I am not addicted; but just because I am not hook doesnt mean that video games aren’t virtual meth to others.

We all know at least one person who is hooked on gaming, typically the nerdy kids who spend all their time in their rooms with the door closed.  When I lived in the dorms, there were kids that I would only see very rarely on the way to the bathroom, the rest of their time was spent in hiding getting their virtual fix.  I have heard a story, maybe its an urban legend, of a guy that got so hooked on EverQuest that he lost his job, his wife took the kids and left him and he now works part-time just to support his gaming.  Right now, there are about four games that I really care about: Half Life 2 (which I don’t play right now because I am waiting for the expansion pack), Civilization III (I rarely play it, but I won’t give up on the game untill I conquer the French), Battlefield 2 (a fun game, but I usually play it with one of my friends [real life friends, for all you hardcore gamers wondering]), and World of Warcraft (a now pointless game that I  play in hopes that some day it will have a point).  Now the reason that I know that there are truely video game junkies is because as much as I play, I still do not compare to these people; here is a list why:  For one, they speak a language of acronyms that I can not begin to understand, and when I ask what they are saying, they make fun of me and call me a “noob.”  That of course makes me laugh, because what they are truely saying is that I am not a nerd.  For two, some of their best friends are online; I must admit that in warcraft, I do have a friends list of people I know only in the game.  I belong to a guild, and the other people my character in it.  But they all think I am a crack head because I dont give a crap about what they think, I act like a dumbass just to entertain myself, they are not real friends, they dont know anything about me. They only know me through a video game; it baffles me how someone could consider one of their best friends to be a level 60 gnome warlock named Balfazar and know nothing else about them.  For three, these people spend so much time on a game it loses its fun and becomes a repetitive motion.  Personally I play a game untill I beat it or untill I grow bored with it.  In Battlefield 2, there are players who spend the entire game in a jet flying in the same partern, dropping perfect bombs on people by doing the same thing every day for months.  What do they accomplish?  Nothing, there is no prize for it, there is no point for it.  I used to play Starcraft, when I played online against some hardcore gamers, the whole point was to see who could build the most guys the quickest then attack; it lost all its strategy and became a predetermend mechanical game of speed. Even worse is World of Warcraft.  My guild spends its friday and saturday nights running a dungeon called Molten Core which requires 40 men to do it.  I did this twice.  I have pledged not to waste my time in that manner ever again.  These hardcore gamers spend their entire night alone in there rooms wating for 39 other hardcore gamers who are also alone in their room to cooridinate an attack on one monster at a time.  The result is 3-5 hours of sitting around and 30 min of actual fighting for the mere hope of one of these monsters dropping a piece of armor for your specific class that you have to roll over against 4-8 other hardcore gamers of the same class, and the whole point of getting this piece of armor is so that you can be stronger for the next time you do the same dungeon with 39 other people; It isnt even fun at all.  When I played this dungeon, I quit half way through because I realized that I was giving up going to the bars socialize and hang out with real friends to play a game that makes Dungeons and Dragons look like a social event; at least you are in the same room with other people when you play Dungeons and Dragons instead of being a recluse.  That is when I realized that as much of a video game addict I may be, I am nothing in the slightest compaired to these hard core gamers.  The sad thing is, that there are a whole lot of them.