Online Gamers Anonymous
by Alphaville Herald on 06/01/05 at 10:46 am
Thanks to humdog for bringing this one to my attention. A website is advertising an organization called Online Gamers Anonymous. For all I know this is a hoax, but if it is its a good one. From the site:
Welcome fellow gamers to the page just for us. On-Line Gamers Anonymous is a fellowship of, by, and for on-line gaming addicts. You may be a gamer curious about your level of addiction, or you may know you need help and are seeking recovery. For people who compulsively play on-line games, and finally acknowledged that their lives had become unmanageable, we do offer support and referrals.
They even have a 12 step program! Next week we have an intervention for AJ planned.
Cocoanut
Jan 7th, 2005
You must have spent very little time looking at this site. It is quite real, and very interesting.
coco
urizenus
Jan 7th, 2005
You going to join? “My name is Coco and I’m a simsaholic.”
Cocoanut
Jan 8th, 2005
Well, it’s interesting. Some of what I read does have reflections in my own life – for instance, my kids get aggravated if they can’t get my full and immediate attention when I’m playing and I happen to be in the middle of something important. (Kids being 15 and 17.) On the other hand, they also get aggravated if they can’t get my full and immediate attention right when I’m watching the climax of a movie, or I’m on the phone to someone else, or something like that. Other than that, most of the symptoms don’t seem to apply to me. Maybe that is because TSO is more of a real-life chatting activity than something which requires going on hunts, or whatever they call those group activities in other games.
What I find most interesting is the stories from the wives and husbands having problems – to the point of divorce, often – with a spouse who basically lives in some online game. Their stories about how that spouse will “marry” someone in their game, and spend all their time with that person, talking with that person outside the game for hours, even on the phone – those stories remind me of some of the “marriages” I have seen in Sims, where the people involved are actually married irl to someone else. I’ve often wondered how that can possibly be so healthy as they act like it is. I’m sure in some cases it’s mainly playful, but I also think that in many, I am just seeing the ingame side of what all those rl spouses on this site say is ruining their families.
Lots of them end up running off irl with their in-game partner, and I have definitely seen that happen in TSO. Oddly, though, one complained that her spouse had “actually gone across country to meet players from the game” when she could remember when he would not even tell his real-life name to anyone.
I thought that was kind of funny, because although I don’t tell my real life name to people either, I have met quite a few online friends irl, though only two of them from a game, that game being TSO. And there are others from TSO I would feel no qualms about meeting. (WITH my rl family along, always.) In fact, I just invited a long-tome TSO friend from Sweden to visit us when she comes to the U.S. That sort of thing is beneficial to me and to my family.
Everquest – which a friend of mine quit and calls “Evercrack” – seems to be indeed the worst of the lot, from what I’ve heard before and all I’ve read on this site.
But I don’t think I in any way qualify for addict status. I play TSO – that is, I visit with friends there – probably an average of 2-3 hours a night, most nights. That is about the amount of time I used to watch TV most nights. Now I just watch TV and play at the same time, lol.
Well, I’m off to bed now. My girl who just turned 15 today is having a slumber party tonight, and it seems to have quieted down.
coco