Online gaming

This post is not meant to be inflammatory and there is no intent on of provoking readers, ACTUAL READERS into an emotional response not is directed at anyone so dont take it personal. There may be some mistakes with grammar and stuff. Unless you are perfect and never made a mistake, dont bother pointing it out unless you will like it done to you. From what it seems, when I do it' it's viewed in a negative light and viewed it the same way as I viewed, but prior when it was done to me, I was over reacting. Freaking hypocrites. Anyways, onwards.
(No disclaimer here although my gut feeling tells me I might regret it later.)




Like any addiction, if you go out and say, “Hey, from the looks of it, I’d say you are showing classic symptoms of an addiction.” Most of the time, well outside those one or two, they will absolutely deny any addiction and say their behavior is absolutely normal behavior. The more people try to convince an addict that they have a problem, the more they probably will deny it. This usually end the way it began. The addict will still be an addict and the person that pointed it out gets no closer to doing anything useful to get that addict to see the addiction, the unnatural and potentially, in some cases, dangerous behavior.

Video game addiction has not yet been classified as an official DSM-IV diagnosis and the AMA ( the American Medical Association ) has rejected to classify video game addiction as a mental disorder. In a sense, when someone that have a video game addiction says that they don’t have an addiction officially they can be considered somewhat right. Although the AMA did not say it was not an addiction anymore than they consider being addicted to ice cream or paper is an addiction. It is not a mental disorder as they believe that video game addiction is more of a symptom of other disorders that are classified as mental disorders.

What are the symptoms when a game is being taken too serious and until the point of addiction? Here a few signs and symptoms:

Feelings of anger and frustration when not allowed access to the video game.

On this forum, there has been classic display of this symptom. Since the game is shutting down, there has been a lot of anger over the upcoming time when they will not be allowed access to this game. Usually this symptom manifests itself when there is not access to this game. From the way some post here are worded and expressed, this symptom already manifested itself in many ways even while there is still access to the game as we speak. One can only wonder how much this symptom will be amplified and if there will be any real danger to the surrounding people that are already showing this symptom when the game lights do go out. I hope I don’t hear about someone going out and causing harm to another person over this anger after November 30th and or to themselves. Just breathe, relax, and remember it’s just a game. There are plenty of games out there and it’s not the end of the world. Remember to keep things into perspective and focus on things that are really important, like real life friends and family. Just because a game is going the way of the dodo doesn’t mean that a person cannot communicate with friends, regardless of the media used to meet them, and family regardless of what media they made the commitment to each other. Gaming is only one media and one activity that a person can socially enjoy friends and family. Unless gaming is the sole interest it should be easy to find other activities where the social life can continue and flourish.

Feeling depressed or anxious when not playing the game.

This is another symptom and kind of ties in with the first one as sometimes a person feels both at the same time. Since the announcement of shutdown, some people posted that they are depressed. Sometimes in this these cases, they may already have been depressed and the game was an escape from the feeling of that depression and triggers that occur in real life. Only way to deal with depression is to deal with it. Be honest, find the true cause of it, and go from there. Sometimes, it is best to visit a psychologist/psychiatrist if help is needed. What first must happen is that the person must realize that they should seek help and that it is ok to seek help. Seeking help doesn’t mean that something is wrong with that person or they are crazy or weak. Sometimes it isn’t easy to seek help and it is actually a sign of personal strength. So go ahead and seek help. A person do not even have to let anyone know that they are seeking help and anything said is and should be between the patient and the psychologist. Do not let the closing of a game affect the real life or carry over into real life. It is not healthy.

Excessive frustration or anxiety when "the server is down".

The reality of the matter right now and about the only hard facts that is available with this situation is that the servers will go down November 30th 2012. There is a slim chance that they may be up some time in the future, an even slimmer chance that they may not go out at all, but there is a greater chance that it may never return. One way to prevent this feeling to realize that the game, servers, and IP is NCSoft property. With ownership, it comes with the right to whatever they want with said property within legal means. While some players feel they invested time and money into the game and feel basically shafted, the reality of the matter is that the time and money put into it was not an investment that anyone with any semblance of reality in investing could expect and actual return on that investment besides the service that have been provided. The service that is provided is not actually bought and owned by the player regardless of how much money they put into it. It is more closely to being rented until the actual owner decides to do away or take back said property. When a person pays $15, that money goes towards the right to access and play the game on a month to month basis. It’s like a miniature lease and like most leases, there is a little section that states that the owner can cancel the lease at any point and usually also state that the renter will get their money back for the terms and or service not yet rendered. After that, and the money is returned and nothing else is owed to the player, then the owner of the property can do as they please with the said property even if they choose to not use it for whatever reason. It’s like buying a piece of land and just because a person did not build a house on it, doesn’t mean someone can just come and build a house on it. Of course, this would require the owner to take action in some fashion if they disagree with the unwanted house on their property or else then the other person’s actions may become valid. Here in this case, more than likely if one was to take it upon themselves and use the property that doesn’t belong to them and try to use it anyways, even for what they feel is for the greater good, then NCSoft will take action.

Aggression towards those who prevent or attempt to limit access to the video game.

From some posts here, there are clear signs of aggression against NCSoft for announcing they are closing out this game. Some seem to view NCSoft as trying to prevent them from playing or in some minds, taking their entire world away from them. It was a business decision. There will hardly ever be a case where everyone will agree with that business decision. Remember that the decision is not so shallow to the point where their sole purpose of killing the game is to tick players off. If that was the case then more than likely they would of did it a long time ago or when they bought it, probably would of immediately dismantled the game and hold on the IP rights with no intentions of ever using it. And even in that case, it still is a business decision. The business of a business is to make money. Sometimes in order to do that, beyond normal short term thinking, it requires trimming off the fat. In this case, the COX was the fat and had to be trimmed for a higher goal in the long term.


Less time spent with family and friends.


Some posts stated that here in this game was where their family and friends are as if they had no real life in the flesh friends and family. More than likely, there are friends and family that are still there ready to support that person and socialize with them if the person stop and realize that they are pushing them away while they focus more and more only on their virtual relationships. For some, the ending of this game will mean for the first time in a long time they will not have a spot to escape to prevent facing reality. Unfortunately and maybe fortunately for some, this will be like going cold turkey and may be scary to downright terrifying for them. After November 30th, most of these types probably will not know what to do with themselves. Some will travel to other games and only continue this symptom or some will eventually realize that there are some things more important than a game waiting for them such as real life friends and family and a healthy social life.

A loss of real world friends, but an increase in virtual world friends.


Usually this symptom is the result of the prior symptom. This is when a seemingly unending cycle and or circle are created. When the person loses more real life friends, they work to compensate that with virtual world friends. Eventually, they may find themselves with only virtual world friends. When something threatens this access to their friends, they feel like they are losing their social circle, friends, and their life is being taken away from them and thus they respond as if someone was taking all of this away in real life. They may grieve at the loss of the game because it means the end of their social life. No matter how long a person is away from real world social interactions, it’s not too late to grow healthy real life relationships and start having a healthy and active social life. At first it may seem impossible for someone who is used to the ease of making friends in the virtual world and may seem awkward to finally speaking to someone face to face, but a person can take their time and with practice they will find themselves with more real life friends then they thought they ever could achieve.


Blaming others.


A lot of people blame NCSoft for ruining their lives and social lives. Although NCSoft is merely taking back what is theirs, a person must realize they are responsible for their actions, decisions, and well being. NCSoft did not force anyone to invest their entire social life into the game and the people in it. People chose to do that without thinking that they are investing in something that can literally be there one day and gone the next. It is a twisted case of putting all of the eggs in one basket without owning the basket. While NCSoft is taking the game away that doesn’t mean the friendship has to go with it unless you allow them to take the “eggs” with the basket. The best thing to do if the virtual world friendship is wished to be continued is to take the relationship and make it work regardless of the media that it formed in. Friends can be friends regardless of the basket they met in. If a person cannot find a way to do this, then maybe the friendship was not really important in the first place, or too much emotion should have not been invested in it. Remember a person’s action is the under the control of that person and it’s up to them with the choice of what action to take. The healthier thing would be to socialize with actual people but for some, it is best to take it a step at a time. Keep in touch with virtual friend and these days there are a variety of choices of media to do that. It should hinge on the fact of whether or not a game exists or not as not many MMOs last forever and all are at the mercy of one business decision being made that could mean the end for that game.


An inability to see game playing as ‘just a game’ and tying in self worth to their success in a virtual world.


Some people may argue that this game is not “just a game” In reality it is just a game. Its game like any other game that is out there although with specific features that may or may not be found in many other games but in the end, it is just a game. Unfortunately some people put their entire self worth to the success of the virtual world. When they are popular on the game, well liked, with lots of friends, they get the similar feeling of someone that matches these characteristics in real life. Usually people that place their self worth into a game tend to have a low level of a social life, not popular, socially awkward, lack the inability to deal with social settings or interpersonal relationships, and thus find the game a way to escape. To some, popularity means power and many of those people believe they have no “power” in the real world. In game, these types are usually easy to spot yet cover a wide range of in game behaviors. Some that are bullied in real life turn to the game and bully people there. Some people, who feel they are judged as less intelligent, turn online and treat people they come across as unintelligent. Some people that lack the skills or ability to create and maintain a healthy social life and or interpersonal relationship do anything it takes to be the popular one even changing their behavior to fit with the crowd so that they are well liked. The problem becomes obvious when the media when this type of person finally gained the status that they seek in real life but lacked the ability to get and see it threatened by the closure of a game. The closing of the game means they will finally have to face their real life problems that they have been trying to run from, their popularity is going down the tube and their virtual popularity will be meaningless in the real world again, and they will no longer feel superior because they must return to a world where they feel they are inferior. Even the ones that may migrate to a different game usually react in the same manner because this means they must begin all over again on something that may have taken months to years to achieve. In game many of these people view themselves as the gods of the virtual world and when that is being taken away from them they tend to react with anger, depression, and other unhealthy emotions for a game as they see their power is going to be taken away. Just like real life people with power tend to want to keep that power. This game where they feel like they are someone and people respect the reality sinks in that they may have to face the real world where they might have no self worth.

Self worth is not something that can be given nor taken away but it shouldn’t be tied to the virtual world. Sometimes one must begrudgingly look at themselves in the mirror even if they may not like what they see or feel others don’t like what they see and realize they are a unique human being with feelings that bleed when cut, that have emotions and feelings, and this is who they are and the way they was created. There is nothing that can be done but might as well make the best of it regardless of what other people in the real world and or virtual world thinks. They should be able to hold their heads high and be proud of who they are even after the game ends.

Sometimes these people spent so much time tying their self worth to the virtual world that their self worth in the real world is all but dead. It is not too late to revive it. It is never too late as long as a person is breathing.



One way to build actual real world self worth, the important self worth, is to realize the power of the attitude towards yourself and the views about yourself.
Celebrate that you are equal to everyone else, a valuable person, and your talent and thoughts are worthy and unique regardless of what people say and tell you in the real world. It may be hard to get to the point that you value yourself but keep at it and don’t give up. It’s like a breaking a bad habit and this habit is tying your entire self worth into the virtual world to avoid dealing with the lack of self worth in the real world. The thoughts must change.

Trust your own feelings.


A person do not need a to feel that they only can feel valuable in a virtual world where they must agree with everyone to gain respect and or try to base their feelings and try to ensure those feelings are in line with everyone else. Understand that the virtual world is not the real world and in the real world you must trust your own feelings and do what is best for you. In the real world, some people cannot handle the pressure of the social life. When confronted with what they may view on a subject, they don’t know what to say, what to think, or what to do because unlike the virtual world, there are no postings that outline what most people think and thus it’s harder to automatically just agree to whatever opinion is popular at the time. In the virtual world, it’s easy to see and agree to whatever most people are posting just to build their virtual self worth. What many of these people forget is that eventually the lights may go out and they will have to face their actual true self worth. No matter how long or how deep into the virtual world on may try to escape the problem will not go away. They must face it and realize that the virtual self-worth regardless of how powerful and good makes them feel is not real self-worth. They must grow their real self worth and that starts with the actual thought process of how they view themselves.


Stop making your self-worth conditional on other people.

This is the most important aspect of building real life self worth. In the virtual world, people feel that they find a sense of belonging, the ease of building friends without using any actual real social skills, and don’t have to worry about their looks or what people will say about their appearance, stagger, what they wear, how they walk, how they talk, what they drive, what they do in real life. The best advice for this type of thinking is, STOP IT! The self worth should not be tied to what other people think. There is a reason it is called self-worth. It is what you feel you are worth to yourself. People will think whatever they think about another person and there is nothing that an outside person can really do about that and it should not affect anything unless that person lacks self worth. When self worth is tied to what others think about that particular person and they feel it’s is negative then their self-worth decreases. Sometimes it decreases to a point to where their entire self worth is tied to the virtual world as have been shown in some people’s posts on the forum. Realize that the self-worth is more important than virtual world acceptance or virtual respect. It will take some time to overcome that way of thinking that have been practiced for the past 8 years for some and maybe longer for others, but eventually it comes times when a person have to realize that they are worth something and go inside themselves to realize they matter in the real world too and they don’t have to use their popularity on the game or how skilled they are in the game as a tool to measure their self worth. As it has been shown recently, the game can be gone at any moment and with that is all that virtual power, virtual popularity, and virtual skills and if a person put their self worth with it then it is gone too. The best thing to do is to take this time to go out realize that you are important and surround yourself with people that will truly help you and care about you. This doesn’t mean a person have to go out and surround themselves with empty flatterers, but find meaningful real life relationships. Go out and have fun with friends in person for once. Go out and spend time with the family. Go out and get a breath of fresh air and realize that you are here, you are alive, and you are worth something and don’t need a game to depend and measure how valuable you are as a person.

For some it might be a scary thought after years of not talking to an actual person in any form of meaningful conversation to go out and actually talk to someone or socialize without having a character, avatar, or computer screen to hide behind. Some people may not know how to be themselves anymore in the real world because they created a popular and powerful personality online that everyone respected and it felt good and eventually found the virtual world more pleasing. The first step to finding a true social life sometimes is as easy as saying a simple “Hi” to someone. Sometimes the easiest thing to do is to say that although the in game character and feeling like a boss online is important, what truly matters is that you have family that loves you and friends that been trying to get you out the basement for years. Get out enjoy life, and damn what everyone thinks. What is important is what you think about yourself and you don’t need fake virtual popularity, power, or respect to measure your actual self-worth. Even with all that power, popularity, and respect, it did not stop the game from ending and taking all of that with it. That is the nature of false respect, fake popularity and respect that is worthless. It’s here one day, belongs to a corporation, and can be taken back at any moment. In the end it is up to that person to realize it’s just another game out of thousands and the important thing in life is life and how they feel about themselves in the real life. When it comes to things like this, there is only about two choice, one is sit there and waste away over a game that was bound to be gone anyways or get up stop whining and move on with life. That is a choice that no one can make for another person. It is up that person to make the choice.



http://www.techaddiction.ca/symptoms...addiction.html
http://www.myaddiction.com/video-game-addiction.html
http://www.wikihow.com/Build-Self-Worth

Quote:

Originally Posted by mauk2 Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words. "Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L!

ANOTHER!!

This thread and THE SAME from op is.......

So much for having me on ignoring me, SteelDominator. You know that you didnt have to lie about it. Unless you are a pathological liar and you might want to see someone for that. That is not a good look in real life society. It can get you in all kinds of trouble. Might want to get that under control before Nov. 30th when you will have no choice but to face the real world for the first time in your sorry excuse of a life.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mauk2 Evil_Legacy became one of my favorite posters with two words. "Kick Rocks." I laffed so hard. Never change, E_L!

If this game's cancelation is such a non-important event, why on earth do you waste so much time writing to convince others?

If there are more important things to do out there, why don't YOU go do them?

cool story bro

Am I the only one that remembers this song?

Here's another blast from the past.

Wow. I just forgot what the point of this thread was. Anyway, here's something that DOES make sense:

LONG LIVE THE COCKROACH EMPIRE!