August 15, 2007 at 9:24 pm · Filed under Gaming Addiction
How did it happen?
I was never a big fan of Everquest when it was at the top of industry, and I can remember people telling me that I’m just not the type that could get hooked on gaming because of that. Despite the many hours I spent playing Diablo 2 on US East, and constant griping from my roommate’s girlfriend, that also seemed rather innocent because Ebaying game items was common at that time. It was almost a second job, but on the other hand I had heard stories about families being destroy because of online gaming, and I placed limits on myself with online habits. My business, my friends, and my life in general were enough to of a safety valve to prohibit any such behavior.
I moved back to
Sitting around waiting for bones to heal gave me time to plan out my life, get scholarship and GI bill paperwork in order, and get enrolled for freshman classes. I was pretty convinced that Nursing was the thing that would make me happy, and I breezed through my classes. Maybe I should have loaded on the max amount of courses to keep me busy, maybe I should have gotten involved with student organizations, but the truth was that being the oldest in most of my classes made me feel a little alienated, and it surely didn’t improve my social life.
A few days after my 28th birthday I bought myself Star Wars Galaxies, and it was strange because I remember being uneasy installing it. I liked the idea of a sci-fi multiplayer game, and I didn’t have a problem paying a monthly fee, but I was somewhat afraid that I wouldn’t have enough time for it. The game was a few months old, had very mixed reviews, and was still adding features that they promised at launch. In the end I thought that I needed a social life that I could pick up and put down at will, and this was going to meet all of the requirements. In my mind it was a step up from sitting on a bar stool for hours every night like the friends I had chose to do. I have to say that it was thrilling at first, and unlike any kind of online world that I had heard of at the time.