You might be a CoH addict if...

...at least one time a week you hear a phrase and say "that would be a great name for a new alt".

...if, when asked on a job application if you have any leadership/management experience you give serious consideration to listing any trials, task forces, holiday events and/or super groups that you have taken charge of

(sadly guilty of that one and may have only resisted the urge because I doubted that whoever might read it would have any idea what I was talking about lol)

...if you have ever wished for real life badge titles (i.e. Bachelor of Fine Arts, Master of Taking Out the Trash, etc.)

...if you seriously build super groups and their bases for 'fun'

...you change your appearance in game more than in real life.

if this thread has been an eye opening experience. You now understand what all those NPCs walking around you in RL meant all these months. This thread has helped you decide to spend more time AFK perhaps visiting friends and family. You are gonna go to the park and enjoy the breeze. You might read a book. You are finally gonna do all the thinks you keep putting off. Because of this thread you are gonna rejoin society!!!!




Oh look the next round of trials are starting and you are one Very Rary from your last T4.

...spend 4 hours researching and writing your last term paper, and 4 days on a forum entry explaining how you want the Rikti Mother Ship Raid run.

...you are able to give out wedding packs to your wedding party (as thank you gifts) because they all play the game too.

...lost over 10 lbs in the last two weeks because it was inconvenient for you to go AFK and make food. Thank goodness I have to go to work, otherwise, I might starve to death.

...installed a caffeine drip specifically so you can now pull all night sessions with your friends overseas.

...your computer room is starting to look more and more like a human-sized hamster cage, complete with water bottles, newspapers on the floor, and a treadmill for exercising between trials.

...you have CoH installed on your work computer.

... u are talking with a friend about flashlights, and he tells me that my Maglite is also a PPD. Looking at him strange wondering "Paragon Police Department or Praetorian Police Department?" He sees my confuzzled look and says: "Personal Protection Device."

True story:

They put up a new bulliten board in the break room, some intrepid soul posted the first note on it reading "This is a test." I spent the rest of the work day resisting the urge to post "C-" next to it.

Uhmm.. Ullie.... I think that all these posts are based on true events. :P

Statements of the form: "You might be X if Y" do not imply that condition Y is true, merely that the truthfulness of X will correlate to some degree with the truthfullness of Y.

Example: If you smell smoke, your house might be on fire. On would not conclude from this that one does in fact smell smoke.

Honestly the strength of that argument fried my brain so much that I am now always smelling smoke. Thanks Ulli.

I believe that Omega had originally intended/hoped all the post would be actually anecdotes, reflecting how trully addicted to the game we are.

Unfortunately, he gave the example of using "You might be a Redneck" jokes, where the emphasis and humor is really on the absurdity of being the Redneck. With Redneck jokes (or any joke about a group of people), you have some level of truth to the statement (usually the stereotype). Do we really think all Rednecks are dumb and call their drunk wifes loaded dishwashers? I hope not. It just wouldn't sound as funny to say..."You might be a Redneck...if you have live in a trailer park on 100 W Birch Drive in Kansas."

Granted...to some degree, we can say we have done some of our addictive behaviors (thinking sprinkler heads at the park were exploration badge markers, for example, is something that happened to me once. Removing the mention of "once", makes it sound like an addictive habit as if I always see sprinkler heads as markers now). For me, I've basically taken something that is a normal everyday occurance for me the game (like obsessing over day-badges), apply it to an everyday occurance in daily life (work), and if needed, take it to the extreme (applying the behavior of standing in the lobby of a building at work to get a reward, when in reality, I would be fired). In the vein of Redneck jokes, I've also taken things that I find annoying about the game, like posing in cutscenes, and try to point out the absurdity of doing that behavior by commenting that addicts do that in real life too.

I must give Omega credit for this one, but a convo we were having brought it on. I am a new Boy Scout Merit Badge guru...there are 127 different badges A Boy Scout can do. I am going to be in charge of about 40 different ones. That's right ladies and gentleman.. VIXEN can approve badges.. OH and yeah.. BUG HUNTER is one of them (insect study!) ;-)

ANYHOW...

You may be a CoH addict when you pass by a Boy Scout Troop and think..I'VE got more badges than they do!