So, gaming addiction...

[CrazyDiamond]

To be honest I've been experiencing the opposite. I've been feeling down and when I do I play for hours, and usually the longer I play the better I feel. Until I stop and everything hits back at once.

This bipolar stuff is kind of consuming.

 

[Nekot-The-Brave]

I normally feel pretty shit when I'm not playing games, but that's mainly due to my life being pretty shit (but with decent monies)

 

[Stormcrowfleet]

I feel quite the opposite actually. Lately I feel like I've grown out of games. I have a huge fucking respect for such masterpieces like PS:T, Thief, System Shock 1, you catch my drift - I can appreciate them, but I can't bring myself to play them anymore for more than 20 minutes.
Maybe it's just some kind of strange period of life.

Same goes with movies also.

Lately it's just been work, working on motorcycle and riding it.

Feels strange, bros

I feel your feel bro.

 

[Abhay]

I don't understand how can you experience "very high levels of stress" soon after you started playing the hardcore game?
It could be some other factors that lead to stress, and may be you weren't in the right mood for the type of game that you chose to play at that point in time.
In my case, I don't have any issues with regards to gaming addiction. I would say that I am more passionate for certain type of gaming experiences, like stealth, RPG, and open worlds. If I have the time and the mood with no stress nor any thing to break the interest level when playing, regardless of the time spend whether for few minutes or hours then I don't feel like I am facing any similar issues of getting addicted or other important things are being affected by gaming either.
Its somewhat hard to quit the game if I am totally invested into the experience. That's something I often find difficult to resist but otherwise I simply love gaming as much as I love other important things in life without letting anything become to dominant that it starts to derail the normal track of my focus towards the life and other responsibilities that are much more important than gaming.
Just enjoy the games. Don't treat them so important that it becomes an addiction.

 

[Correct_Carlo]

I mostly play video games to think about other stuff. I am rarely thinking about the video game when I'm playing it. My mind always wanders when I'm playing. It's been like that since I was a kid. Games are just something for me to do while I am doing something I'd rather be doing but couldn't without being occupied by a game (i.e. listening to music or working through stuff in my head. I often come up for ideas for essays and stuff while playing games).

I play a shit load of video games, but honestly I wouldn't say I enjoy video games all that much. Or not most of the ones I end up playing, anyway. I often will just play anything just to put myself in that head space.

 

[Daemongar]

I am very good at some FPS games, but can't really play them anymore. Too competitive and just don't enjoy them. Tough to jump online with friends when, even though you are doing good, you are angry and bitching the whole time. So I have started to try to relax when playing games. That's what I do with some of my free time.

It's easy to experience high levels of stress when playing. Try playing a game competitively or at higher difficulty and miss a saving throw vs. death eight. fucking. times. in. a. row. against a boss or a beholder. Not fun.

 

[Tel Velothi]

Between your studying and playing, too much time sedentary? I got into a rut a while back where I was on my ass for 90% of the day and any little intrusion or deviation from this (like getting a call for an interview) was anxiety inducing. The realization at the end of the day that I had sat around all day was also. But it became hard to do anything different.

I'm more inclined to be hooked on looking up information/news about games than actually playing them. I can waste a lot of time on here and looking up gameplay vids on YT. Playing them just seems like a major endeavor when I think about it. And so many modern games are designed so that the good shit is always ahead of you (and mostly superficial) and not in the moment, so why not just watch someone else who is at the good point for a few minutes?

Feels more or less the same

I've yet to finish Thief Gold and System Shock 1 for example, because I never feel the time is right, let me explain:

-well, right now I have a lot of work so I wouldn't be able to enjoy the game and fully dedicate myself into playing - I'll just wait a couple of weeks for some free time
-it's too sunny so I won't play it
-there's someone in the house so I won't play it, because interruptions
-for Thief, etc. it have to be night time
-I have to clean my room, wash floors, etc., because playing those games is such a fucking event (sounds autistic as fuck, I know) and it clears my mind and gets me in the mood
-I have to have everything kinda "sorted out" so no distractions while playing (like no stuff to do in near time, like exams, shopping, etc.)

As you can tell it's hard to meet all the criteria so I'm stuck in Thief on level Song of the Cavers for half a year and in System Shock 1 on 2nd level. Not to mention a lot of other games I've not started yet like Dark Reign and Day of the Tentacle.

Gawd, it feels good to be on 'dex where some people can understand this.

 

[Naraya]

snip

Are you me?

 

[Machocruz]

As you can tell it's hard to meet all the criteria so I'm stuck in Thief on level Song of the Cavers for half a year and in System Shock 1 on 2nd level. Not to mention a lot of other games I've not started yet like Dark Reign and Day of the Tentacle.

Gawd, it feels good to be on 'dex where some people can understand this.

I've been playing Wizardry 5 (SNES) over the course of 5+ years....just started the third floor last year. Might and Magic 6 for about 4 or more years. Yeah, I think I understand a little bit.

Part of my information addiction in lieu of an actual game addiction I think is me trying to find something, like Neo searching the net for something that is out there yet he cannot define. An ultimate game that hits a bunch of notes that have defined this hobby for me since I started. Part of it is chasing a New Nostalgia, which is futile. It's based on a kids' perspective during a very specific era. It's like trying to re enact a dream.

 

[Tel Velothi]

It's based on a kids' perspective during a very specific era. It's like trying to re enact a dream.

So maybe we should let go insted of forcing it so much? I remember as a kid (well, under 16 years old anyway) I could play games without this whole bullshit, I could just come back from school and play the game and actually immerse myself into this virtual world. Right now it feels like I want to be kid, but guess what, I'm not anymore, we have changed.

I don't know guys, I'm kind of at a loss here @this topic.

 

[Villagkouras]

I normally feel pretty shit when I'm not playing games, but that's mainly due to my life being pretty shit (but with decent monies)

You should check that, because gaming adds to/is one of the reasons of this feeling.

When I went for therapy, to counter this lack of joy I sometimes feel my therapist told me to: 1. Quit smoking weed and 2. Reduce the amount of time I play games. He explained why these too are not good. I'm still working on number 2.

 

[Grimlorn]

I don't understand how can you experience "very high levels of stress" soon after you started playing the hardcore game?

Depends on the game and how much energy you put into it. I think Awor was probably exaggerating a bit about the high levels of stress. But for instance it can be a bit stressful to play a RTS game at 200-300 apm. Or really any game where you can put that kind of energy into playing at a high pace.

 

[AArmanFV]

To be honest I've been experiencing the opposite. I've been feeling down and when I do I play for hours, and usually the longer I play the better I feel. Until I stop and everything hits back at once.

This bipolar stuff is kind of consuming.

I feel the same, but when I finish the game, then I start other and the feel is gone.

 

[Awor Szurkrarz]

I don't understand how can you experience "very high levels of stress" soon after you started playing the hardcore game?

Maybe I'm just triggered or something. Hard to say, I think it started around 1997 when I was playing Syndicate wars.
It seems that these games have some things in common - long missions, lots of tension, sci-fi, ambient music.

In my case, I don't have any issues with regards to gaming addiction. I would say that I am more passionate for certain type of gaming experiences, like stealth, RPG, and open worlds. If I have the time and the mood with no stress nor any thing to break the interest level when playing, regardless of the time spend whether for few minutes or hours then I don't feel like I am facing any similar issues of getting addicted or other important things are being affected by gaming either.
Its somewhat hard to quit the game if I am totally invested into the experience. That's something I often find difficult to resist but otherwise I simply love gaming as much as I love other important things in life without letting anything become to dominant that it starts to derail the normal track of my focus towards the life and other responsibilities that are much more important than gaming.
Just enjoy the games. Don't treat them so important that it becomes an addiction.

I think there are some games I enjoy and some that stress me out. I'm not sure if I can still enjoy cRPGs like I did when I was a teenager. I don't play much nowadays and I prefer games that could be played in a window. I recently played Torment for half an hour and never got back to it.

I had a lot of trouble in high school and later because I didn't have a habit of studying. So, even when making pauses from comp every 45 minutes, I wouldn't start studying. Back then I had perfectionist plans where I'd try to use willpower to learn on specific hours and stuff like that and it would always collapse.

But besides that when I'd play stressful games like Syndicate Wars and X-Com: TftD, I'd get to stressed out and obsessed to learn.
These games really throw me off balance.

 

[rado907]

I am very good at some FPS games, but can't really play them anymore. Too competitive and just don't enjoy them. Tough to jump online with friends when, even though you are doing good, you are angry and bitching the whole time.

I hear you, man. I used to try to avoid competitive games and just play single-player. About a year ago my brother got me into Dota2. It's brutal... The bitching, the whining, the addictiveness, the pressure, the adrenaline, the horrible losing streaks, the glorious winning streaks, the sleepless nights (just one more game...), the obsession (when you spend the whole day thinking about the strat you'll try in the evening) - it's gruelling.
Like you say, the single-player equivalent of ultra-competitive play would be hardcore/highest-difficulty.

 

[PeachPlumage]

Focus time on your drawing and post more of it on the codex!