Addicted

What I went through, was much worst than I wish upon anyone. A couple of weeks ago, my girlfriend and I broke up. It really devastated me, and so I really turned my attention to other things. One of the things was Lord of the Rings online. Though in beta still, and I having my dialup, all I could do was read about it, which I did.

I read the forums I wasn't able to post in, I read the wiki's which I had no idea what most of the stuff up, like rolling or passing, etc etc.

Finally it's released, it's getting good reviews, and I had never played an MMO before. I decided to finally get broadband, which I did. It took several days to get the kinks out with my router and stuff but I finally got it working. Then, it was off to get the game. I purchased it from Best Buy for ~$50 and brought it home, installed it (which is no quick task) and strarted it up. It said it had to update the files, no problem I said to myself with my ultra-fast broadband internet which still blows my mind.

It updates, the game videos play, I watch, intriqued at the depth of the models. In the opening clip, Gandalf's beard blows with the wind. I thought it was very well done, and then I begin making my character. There were 7 different races to choose from. Being an avid LOTR reader (yes the books) I had always favored men over elves, dwarves, or hobbitses. So I created my man, and began the game.

The first thing is an instance to help familiarize you with the game. I really enjoyed this, it was a start to the storyline and introduced you into what was going on. Being my first MMO, and anyone can attest to this, the interface was very, very overwhelming at first. I didn't know what the bars at the bottom meant. I figured that my health bar was the one at the top. I didn't know how to equip weapons, or clothing.

But I passed the instance and then I got to move on and move to Archet. Wow! I have say that when it loaded I was amazed. I have a decent computer, speed, graphic card, and RAM wise, so it's on LOW but it still looks amazing! There's so much you can do there's no way anyone would ever be able to do all of it. There's NPC's that don't do anything but populate the world, their's blacksmits, armorsmiths, class trainers, jails, inns, trees, lakes, ponds, hunting lodges, everything!

It literally blew me away, I am forever changed by this game. It helps me get past my ex, and just fills my days with fun and joy. When I began playing, I planned on just 4-5 hours, but ended up 13 hours. When I wasn't playing, I was eating dinner in my living room watching LOTR: Return of the King. I hope it isn't to sad, but having Tolkein's world come alive is very good.

I finally went to bed around 4:00am and slept in to about 11:30. Now I'm off to play again, just wanted to share my experience and if anyone had any experience like this or similar.

Side note;
I play on the Nimrodel Server and my character's name is Challen if anyone plays and wants to play with me. Currently I'm a Level 9 Guardian but I hope to be 12 before the end of tonight.

Now I leave you with a screenshot of my character, still in Archet but switching between there and Combe.

www.chadmcrae.com/ScreenShot00000.jpg

Stop now, really it's not worth it.
Or suffer the consequences of a severe MMO addiction.

I stoppped cold turkey one year ago and still don't consider myself clean.

on a side note: does anybody else noticed the enormous overload of WoW TBC banners("It's not too late to resurrect") lately? I got the spooky feeling they're targeting me...

I'm never going back to WoW - I considered it the other day, and had to slap myself mentally to stop myself.

It wasn't a game, it was a way of life, and choosing that path caused me to lose / almost lose many friendships. It also nearly cost me my life because I developed a blood clot in my leg, which I only recovered fully from 6 months after.

So my advice is, stick to games you can play casually (shooters, offline RPGs) and avoid these MMORPGs - they'll ruin your life.

Ah, the sound of a new MMO addictee :D

I've been playing various games for quite a while, starting with Asheron's Call, which kept me hooked for quite a while (I think it was something like 3 years!) I tried a few others, with Planetside being another hook for a different take on large games.

Final one was WoW, which dragged me in quite badly (and probably introduced a few delays into Cobra.. Doh!), but I finally got bored with the grind after about a year..

LotR Online... I can understand the pull as your first MMO, Some hardened MMO vets are doing it down, but it has a good back story, and some nice dynamics, and looks like it's staying true to Tolkien ...

I've got it, but not played as much as I normally do with these games (too busy) but I feel it's got a good future, which will certainly be taking up some of my downtime :D

This is most unfair.

Lots of people advised me not to get LOTR online.

Now I want to play it too.

Seek help. Do this now.

Actually, thinking about how much time I've spent on them over the years.... I think FlameDuck has the best advice :D

Okay, I took a 5 hour break with no reconciliations or anything. I think I am not addicted but am definately drawn to it. Kind of like the ring itsself, I hear it calling but I can put it off, for now.

But when I'm in my room and I see the router lights shining at me, it draws me close to turn on the computer and play it.

I can resist it, but when I want to play I do, and when I don't, I don't.

puki, it's worth a try, it really is, you won't regret it if your a fan of Tolkien.

What do you do for living? If you're on your own, you've got a job, have to pay for your house, etc... then the danger is not as big as when you live with your parents. Cause then you have responsibilities that keep you from playing, there must be a balance :) I know i used to play computer games but now i have my own house i play less. Live aint fun all the times but when you face it and get over it you can learn a lot :-P

My last experience with City of Villains took up way too much of my time. Since then I've learn to avoid MMOPRGs completely.......

I think Graham just posts here so he can pimp Cobra in his sig...


Anywho, man all I can do is tell you to get out before it gets too bad. I played EQ for 4 years straight...almost every night...I was the top Paladin on my server for a year. I'm sure a lot of people here noticed that one day I just vanished. I wish I could get that time back and harness it... /cry

Wow guys. I play WoW and I have to try to entertain myself half the time. I like the game when it's fun, but there's a lot of boring lags in the gameplay where your just wandering around doing next to nothing. How can someone get addicted to that? I do like the game a lot, but I usually get bored after about 2 hours of playing.

I guess it all boils down to the type of gameplay you like. The only game that I've ever played that sucked up hours for me was the original xcom: ufo defence. That's definately a game that could bore a lot of people that aren't really excited by those kinds of games.

Plus, I hated the Lord of the Rings movies. I litterally fell asleep in the second one.

hi guys, I play WoW. Got a level 47 character. It does take up a lot of time, but I don't play it every day. I still go out, see friends, train in sports and go to the gym.

The only problem is how long it takes you to do anything. This is obviously to make you keep playing for months to keep charging you.

WoW endgame raiding is where the addiction kicks in, and people seem to get addicted to this bit. Up until that point... it's just another online game.

'Raiding' is an endless quest to find all the best bits of armour and weapons for your character that exist in the game. And it's verrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrry tedious. The reason it sucks you in is that you feel compelled to progress further, to battle with parts of the game that you haven't yet seen.

You have to work as a group to achieve this. The further you go, the more demanding it is. It can be a fun 'social' thing. But I would describe the social side of raiding as being like turning up at work in the morning - you feel guilty if you are late, or if don't show up, and if you don't put the effort in, people start to get angry with you. But you can still joke around with some of the group.

Basically, don't get stuck in the end game.

I sometimes play a few text based online rpgs on my DS before going to sleep, in the same way as reading a book in bed.
If I can get my hands on a better WiFi capable device suited to those things, I will be quite pleased :)

A visual online RPG would also be fine, but at the moment there isn't much - or anything - that would run on a small, book-sized device.

I think the things are rather cool, but I can also see how they invade time, which is why I go with that approach.

Err, I don't think I have a point to make here, so I will stop writing.

I'm not touching any games like that. I keep seeing an advert on TV for a Final Fantasy game on the DS and it MAKES me want to buy it because I became so addicted to FFX on PS" and that's not even an online game!

If you can post here you're not play it enough.

Actually I have to dispute that (I see no smiley), I post here because I've been an active member of this forum for a great deal longer than a lot of people here, released 3 games using Blitz, and have provided quite a bit of help to various blitz users over that time ...

But, back on subject..
I actually dropped WoW when my toons where in their 40's, so I'm quite glad I didn't get into raiding, if it's as addictive as it seems I would have had real problems.

You may have noticed that ppl pimping their wares in sigs is pretty popular around here, so why make that comment, I don't know. Turn sigs off if it bothers you that much.


Personally, I've never played a realtime online game. I can't see that situation changing any time soon, either, TBH.

I've been there, but I wasn't willing to admit to myself that I was addicted, so I didn't actually spend any money. Instead, I went through things like RuneScape (so bad), Puzzle Pirates (a bit slow), and Star Sonata (very glitchy, but fun, and demo version sucks). Then I realized that I was such a loser, because I wasn't even a nerd enough to buy a real game, so I stopped. Good riddance.

I played Wow, casually. Did pretty much everything that I could solo. Didn't group a whole lot. Joined a small 8 man guild, did a little dungeon crawling with them, just 5 or 6 of us. Got my Druid to 60th level, did all that I could before needing to do large raids and then quit.

I enjoyed it, was never really addicted and was able to just quit cold turkey the day there was nothign else I could do without needing a large group. That portion of it just isn't for me.

My brother continues to try and get me to play other MMORPGs, but I just don't really want to get started on another one unless I find another one I am going to be to enjoy. Tried EQ2 for about a month, boring... Requires grouping way too much.

I play WoW a lot these days. Now I joined in the competition at Caiman Free Games, where the goal is to make a game that involves cars, to try to also do something else besides playing WoW.

Yeah I plan to buy Blitz Max and use the scaling functions it offers to create a Pole Position type of racer. I saw a few short clips of Pole Position on youtube and was impressed by its smoothness, compared to the C64 version that I remember.

But, excuse me while I turn into a level 41 Tauren Warrior again and set sail to Booty Bay... :)

nasty little programmerzizz

Posting here is just fine, but advertising a product that directly competes with BlitzMax/Blitz3D in your sig on this forum is a bit disrespectful. I personally wouldn't do it but that's me. But you're not stupid. A lot of potential customers post here. Anyways, just pointing out the obvious. No reason to deny or justify it imo. Carry on.

Btw, don't confuse this with wishing you ill will. I'm glad you got Cobra done and wish you good fortune.

First: How is that disrespectful.
Second: How does it compete directly with BlitzMAX/Blitz3D.
Thirdly: I don't see any rule against it, and Graham has been nothing but courteous towards BRL, when discussion about his products pop-up.

Just FYI incidentally, not that I'm defending him or anything (although I would if I thought it was necessary).

aaa MMO's :D

This is what i disappeared into after blitzcoder closed and codersworkshop was a drastic failure, its been almost 2years now too that i've been playing World of Warcraft.

Am i addicted? hell yes i am, I play on US servers from the UK, im in a raiding guild which raids 4 out of 7 nights and the raids start at 1am for me, and continue on to 7-9am after which i still have a full day of my normal life to handle.

Do i regret it? god no, Find a good group of 50+ people, drop the silly text chat and take up voice comms. and its a hell of a lotta fun taking on new challenges and utterly owning them.

Im slowly coming out of my addiction as i really just cant get another character to 70 and really have nothing else todo outside the raiding times, which is a standard problem with MMO's. But with a massive patch due in the next few weeks from blizzard im sure i'll be sucked right back in totally.

The only warning i will give you is forcefully moderate your play time, its amazing how much can go wrong in your own body caused by sitting in front of one of these games for days on end. I didnt when blizz released TBC and i must have played 18-20 hours a day for a few weeks on end. LotR probably supply a cut off feature like WoW does, i completely recommend you take use of this feature.

Someone earlier in this thread said if you can post here you dont play enough, self confessed addict here posting, and the only reason i am posting is cos my HD crashed earlier today and im using a Kubuntu livecd while i wait on a spare being delivered.

to sum up my view on MMORPG's, Dont get sucked into the endgame. Make sure you keep a regular contact with people who DONT play the game, and please please if you are going to play for hours on end. GET UP AND WALK ABOUT A LOT! and when it stops being fun, dont continue just cos yer guild/clan/whoever needs you.

(yes, someone i knew briefly within WoW actually managed to kill himself because he stopped taking care of his physical self, and all i can say on the matter is "What an idiot")

FD, it's just a personal observation of mine. There's no rule against it AFAIK unless a mod deems it a foul. It's just inappropriate IMO.

I have never played an MMO because I know I would get addicted

I think it's fine to play an MMO as long as you set a limit for how long you get to play each day

Just finished with my 10 day trial friend pass for WoW... Didn't really see anything that would excite me enough to pay for it and play regularly.... Now where did I put my Full Throttle cd?...

I buy game cards for WoW now and then, but I can't really get fully into it. I'm not the type who can find pleasure in the 'level grind' or anything like that, so I just wander around and do small quests I can do on my own.

The social aspect of MMOs is what kills my interest in them. I like to play alone, bringing others in just complicates things and makes stuff take longer. As such, I could never really do instances (everyone always wants to organize some huge plan for them) or anything, and so the main draw of the game for me is essentially lost.

I liked PlanetSide though, it was pretty fun since I'm a big Tribes fan and it felt familiar. Didn't play for too long though, only messed with the trial. Had some good fun taking over bases like that.

Also, I have played Asheron's Call and Ultima Online, but those didn't really get me at all. Skies were nice in AC, but everything else was visually unappealing and I couldn't figure out what the heck I was supposed to do. Ultima, while bringing back fond memories of Ultima 7 (and Serpent Isle), wasn't really my type because of how difficult it was to get into.

Being a sort of casual gamer type (I really do not play that many games, and if I do get one I prefer it to be short, fun for a sitting, and then I'll go back to something like homework or writing) really makes it very hard to get into MMOs, so overall I'd say WoW was probably the most successful when it came to getting my interest. Sitting down and just fishing in it for a little while, just to see what I can catch, is pretty fun. Plus being able to go almost anywhere (even though I die frequently doing so) is nice, since I like to explore (I have Uru, actually, and I like to play it for that purpose -- shame the online feature was canned).

Well, back to Sudoku.

Meaning you're playing sudoku or programming a casual game about sudoku?

Former.

Well at least it's not a match 3!

/applause

I wrote a sudoku solver once. Mind numbingly easy when you've got the patterns to go through memorized.

I don't like all these online games, for me the whole point of a game is that you can finish it. Why start something if there is no end?

I remember playing City Of Heroes or whatever it was called at a mates house and spent an hour just jumping around in the super hero lobby like an imbecile and saying random nonsense, that was awesome. But the actual game itself is dead boring, especially when you join up souped up mega players who have no life play all day and thus nick all your kills.

No chance of me getting addicted :)