Wow, Lineage2 and similar games.
 

My friend is seriously addicted to Lineage2. He spends like 4-6hours daily for this game and doesn't care about real life as he used before playing this game. It seems that I'm losing my friend.

Anynone has any experiences with these life-simulating games?

I am going to start Gamaholics Anonymous.

Actually, I don't know why anyone would want to quit gaming. Games are almost harmless.

I just miss some good times that we used to have together.

A friend of mine has permantly damaged his marriage over his addiction to WoW. He recently sold his account and threw the game disk away but it looks like its going to be too late to save his relationship.

Oh man. I was stuck on it for about 6 months myself. Spent over $1000 to get someone to power level me. Very addicting stuff. I simply deleted it off my PC and threw the disks away. Closed my account. Haven't looked back. But I spent the same amount of time. As well as my whole weekends. Glad I got off it.

Wow, that's a severe addiction also. Why did you quit? Did you finally find it boring or why?

Our brains seems not to care a lot if the things around us are reality or just simulation. This may sound silly, but it seems to me, that these games is the first step to The Matrix. :upsidedow

Atleast I know when to put a game away.

Actually I've played many online games like Everquest, Everquest 2, Lineage 2, and World Of Warcraft. The longest was Everquest, I played it for 2 and a half years straight.

It's odd how you can play a game that you go to one area, go attack a creature, kill it, sit and either regenerate health or mana, then repeat. After you spend a couple of days and gain a couple of levels, you move to a new area with slightly tougher areas and repeat above.

It's the same old repetative processes, but it's hard to stay away, you just crave gaining a new level and power/spells, it's like crack.

What's funny though is that after many days/months of playing, you wake up and think "Why did I spend so much time playing this game ?!?!", so you stop playing until the next new online game comes out and you do it all over again, ha ha ha.

Any MMO (massive multiplayer online) will affect your social life and work in a negative way. I have lots of friends addicted to WOW or Lineage playing 8-10 hours/night, every night , 7 days /week. They are like zombies, they play during the night and sleep during the day. They don't do anything else but playing. Most of them live with their parents and have zero income. My advice is to STAY AWAY from MMOs cause it will only harm your life!