Be mindful; freedom with moderation.

OneST8 · 11-29-06, 04:05 AM

Online gamers show the same signs of addiction as gamblers and drug addicts.

Lilswanwillow · 11-29-06, 04:49 AM

does it surprise you?
how many times have you-not done dishes, folded clothes, taken showers, made dinner (order pizza so you can sit an play instead)
you rush home from work to play, get headaches, can't stop thinking about that next quest, forego schoolwork, classes because of gaming...

soul101 · 11-29-06, 05:03 AM

skipped church...

ZeroVega · 11-29-06, 06:34 AM

Still haven't found that nice balance to my gaming yet. There was a time when I would spend more time on Layonara than I would on sports, with friends, and involved in my Youth Groups all put together. Now I'm barely here (though still here mind you!). I think I'm going to set up a little system for how often I should play. I mean, I'd hate to lose touch with Layonara. I've learned more here than I ever thought I would from online gamers (no offense er nuthin), but real life is kicking into gear and I guess it's time to get organized.

cbnicholson · 11-29-06, 07:16 AM

Self discipline is key. I've set aside game times that I don't let anything mess with , well other than my significant other pulling the main power breaker, but the same applies to times when you are not playing - gotta resist the urge to boot ...gah..*goes down screaming*

**Honora** · 11-29-06, 07:46 AM

We have two days a week that are spousal interaction time only; no computers. One family outing per week, and no Layo before 7 EDT (for me anyway) weekdays so I can concentrate on our little guy.

It's like anything else, select days you want to play and days you want to keep open for real life and stick to it.

jrizz · 11-29-06, 08:17 AM

Yup, I was telling my therapist that he had better study up on computer gaming and it addictive effects. In PnP we had the constraint of finding the times that everyone could get together in one location. Those sessions were long but we held them only once a week or so.

Chongo · 11-29-06, 10:22 AM

Schedules are key to not losing your life to this game. Write it down, follow through on it, and try not to spend over 50% of your waking hours in game.

It's surprisingly serious. I think two guys on LoA got divorces within the first year of it running. I've spoken to 3 people who have lost jobs because they kept on calling in sick so they could play instead. A lot of people drink while playing, some sort of potentiating effect possibly.

People wonder at the defensive outbursts of someone who's been called out for levelling too quickly? It's because someone's taking away from, or criticizing, their most major investment while the rest of their life is circling the drain because of that time investment. I dunno, slightly different tack to an age old argument.

Anyhow, I've been fighting to get a busier schedule set for myself. I look at my day today, and it's basically wake up and jump online, eat, check work emails a few times, and wait for my wife to get home. Then I'll jump back on after she goes to bed. The solution set I've come up with is a printed out schedule, mostly geared towards training. I think physical activities break the gaming rhythm pretty effectively.

For now I'm just going to blame it on the late ski season though. *grumble grumble*

lonnarin · 11-29-06, 08:45 PM

As a cold-turkey experiment of this study, I would have to agree. Now a new owner of a dead steaming heap of wiress and PCI peripherals, there are SEVERE withdrawal symptoms from Layonara upon the advent of PC warp core jettison. It begins as a chill deep down in the heart, as if the reaper himself played picalo with your intestines. The pain is numbing, enduring through these lands of blinding suns and available women. Through but will and beer alone can I construct the abjurative bubble of my life support.

Once one adjusts however, the benefits of this three dimensional plane are vastly understated.

Beware the beast of addiction, broaden your vices!

Stephen_Zuckerman · 11-29-06, 09:35 PM

People with addictive personalities (like myself) will always find SOMETHING to latch on to... Personally, I think a person could do far worse than a gaming addiction at Layonara... At the very least I have friends here who'll badger me into getting my schoolwork done.

It's better than drugs, hey. Making new neural pathways instead of destroying them, forging and honing interpersonal skills, instead of relying on a crutch to be social, playing D&D instead of... Playing... D&D...

That said, moderation is a very good idea; real life should come first. If you don't HAVE a life, then that's fine. *Chuckles, and halfheartedly wishes he didn't have a life again.*

DMOE · 11-29-06, 10:13 PM

Having lost my internet yesterday and not being able to play Layo I instead used the time to be creative and work on my story writing...
Yeah if I have nothing else to do I play Layo but RL does always come first...Kinda has to with 2 Kids....But having 2 kids I have very little life so have the time to play Layo

I have in my time played 5 different PnP games a week when my RL schedule allowed so I think I'm more a RP addict that a Layo addict as such....Layo just doesn't involve needing a babysitter and I can log out at my convience.
*laughs* Although I will admit that sometimes when something has taken longer than I expect I have manically tried to cook and play at the same time, sometimes with rather interesting culinary results

lonnarin · 11-30-06, 02:51 PM

I've been practically living in pelordaes' music studio meanwhile. Dwarven war opera, anyone? I've been influenced heavily by Wagner and Laibach, not to mention the Conan the Barbarian soundtracks, to get out of the electronica mindset and focus more on classical. Trying to get my skills up until I get the new gaming beastmachine assembled. Then I will likely lapse back into the opiate of online gaming again, though I aim to not spend quite so much of the schedule zombified. Too much left to do before the 2012 apocalypse.

Talan Va'lash · 11-30-06, 06:21 PM

Quote:

lonnarin - 11/30/2006 5:51 PM
Too much left to do before the 2012 apocalypse.

I thought it was 2036?

cbnicholson · 12-01-06, 05:51 AM

"Beware the beast of addiction, broaden your vices!"

I'm so using this!

lunchboxkilla · 12-01-06, 07:04 AM

I'll CUT YOU IF YOU TAKE MY PC!!!!!!!111

kidding

OneST8 · 12-01-06, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Talan Va'lash - 11/30/2006 11:21 PM

Quote:

lonnarin - 11/30/2006 5:51 PM
Too much left to do before the 2012 apocalypse.

I thought it was 2036?

Quoting the 2012 section of Mayan Calendar entry on Wikipedia...

Quote:

The end of the 13th b'ak'tun is conjectured to have been of great significance to the Maya, but does not necessarily mark the end of the world according to their beliefs, but a new beginning or time of re-birth. According to the Popol Vuh, a book compiling details of creation accounts known to the Quiché Maya of the colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fifth world. The Popol Vuh describes the first four creations that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fifth world where men were placed. The Maya believed that the fifth world would end in catastrophe and the sixth and final world would be created that would signal the end of mankind.

I've always been fascinated by the Mayans, Incas and Azteks. They've left not but echos for our time. It's a shame we know so little of their culture, so little of their understanding of the universe and and so little of their perspective on reality in general. Were they in communion with alien's? or was that just their religion? how much did they really know about the cosmos? how did they figure it out? how were they taught?

Yeah, sometimes I dream of being Indiana Jones tromping through South America in search of some mythical truth only known to the ancient Mayans. heh. Geek or what? *giggles*

Talan Va'lash · 12-01-06, 01:49 PM

Quote:

OneST8 - 12/1/2006 11:09 AM
Yeah, sometimes I dream of being Indiana Jones tromping through South America in search of some mythical truth only known to the ancient Mayans. heh. Geek or what? *giggles*

Not at all : )

Go for it!

by the way I was referring to this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unix_date_bug

Which I mistakenly referred to being in 2036, it's really 2038.

I think I acctually win the geek award on this one ;\

lonnarin · 12-01-06, 08:12 PM

I'm not quite certain that the world will end at all. Our reptilian overlords from Alpha Draconis have invested too much time and Quatloos to allow their genome space marine project go extinct. If we, their legions of Dragon Knights don't advance on the Rillexian front by 2017, then we may see an interstellar depression eroding the Empire like never before. That being said, we shall not be harvested until we obtain the One World Govt. New World Order of the PNAC's making, otherwise we would plunge extra-terrestrial populations into a civil war with all our silly freedoms and lack of conformity. Once all of the Earth hails one leader as their master, then it will be little problem for the Drakes to bribe the one they place in power to sign all of us over into the Empire's armies.