When Does Gaming Become Unhealthy?

Note: This article first appeared over at our affiliates site http://www.brassknuckles.net. The original article can be found here

By: Archfiend

Why do people play online games? For fun right? But when does is it stop being fun and when does it start becoming a compulsion? Why would anyone keep playing a game when it's no longer "fun"?

I can tell you from personal experience that getting to a high level at any sport, game, occupation, etc takes a lot of work. There are certain people who may have genetic gifts, genius, whatever and may have to work less than others to get to the top, but even they have to work at it.

I recently read several things that made me think about my own experiences. The first was an interview I did with soso, a well known Starcraft player. He said that Starcraft wasn't fun to him. He didn't enjoy it. Now this is a guy who's obviously a great player at the game. He finished #3 in the world in the last Brood War Championships. So how could not enjoy the game? A lot of people couldn't understand that.

Then today at lunch I ran across a couple of other similar articles. First off was this piece by War 2 Confession: Childhood of Art Written by Constantin Losseliani on September 30, 1999. He talked about his experiences with the game Warcraft. How it changed from a game he played with one of his friends for fun to an all consuming obsession that caused him to bomb out in school.

Then while looking to promo my website on another gamepage (Utopia) I ran across a post in the general forums by a guy I had met once in chat. I knew the name and he was a good player. He said he was quitting the game because it was making him depressed. He said he didn't like the person he'd become and he felt his personality was warping. He was becoming more like his online personality and less like the real him. In fact he was saying he might end up in therapy over the game.

All of this made me think of my own days of being an elite Utopia player. I ran top 25 in the world in a game that was two months long and had 30,000 players. What started out as an enjoyable game to pass the time, became a near obsession. I literally spent 2 or 3 hours a day playing Utopia 7 days a week. I had a Utopia page on top of that. I spent better than an hour a day checking out and posting in the Utopia forums. The people I chatted with online were usually friends from Utopia and of course we chatted about...Utopia. No big surprise there.

Now if you're doing something and you enjoy doing it and are getting benefits out of it, it's great that you are constantly involved in it. For example, during college I took Southern Longfist Kung-Fu. I was very into it. I read books and magazines in my off time to try to add new moves. I practiced constantly. Anytime I had free time I would be popping off moves to try to improve my form. Once a roommate of mine walked in on me while I was stark naked (I just got out of the shower) and practicing one of my forms (I got ragged on about that for weeks :). I was so into it I would even regularly dream about the martial arts. In fact, if anyone got near me while I slept I would immediately hop from the bed and into a fighting stance before my eyes opened (I swear this is true).

Now was this so bad? Well, I was staying in very good physical shape from all the practice. It didn't cut into in any of the other activities I wanted to pursue. I was getting out and around real people. I was friends with the people from my classes. I had another group of friends I sparred with. All in all, this was fairly healthy.

Now compare this with my focus on Utopia. Did it encourage me to exercise? No, it encouraged me to sit in a chair. Did it encourage me to get out and meet people? No, it encouraged me to meet people online who were similarly into Utopia. Was I excited and happy to play the game? Was I even enjoying myself? No I wasn't. I got so that I felt like I was chained to the computer but I couldn't quit. But why not quit if it wasn't fun? I had a lot of online friends that played. It was part of my daily routine. I was really good at it. I had a website based on my participation. How could I quit? Eventually, the burden just became ridiculous. I was becoming unhappy in real life because I was playing too much of a game I didn't even like anymore. It wasn't an everyday thing but there were times I skipped going to the gym to play earlier. There were times I spent logging on during the day when I should have been working. There were times I planned a vacation around my Utopia time (taking the vacation inbetween games instead of earlier).

One day I just said enough and I quit the game. It was like a 50 pound weight being lifted off of my shoulders. I still hung around the Utopia forums. I rationalized that because I still ran a Utopia site. Then the Utopia bug bit me and I jumped in and started playing the next game. Then I quit once again a couple of weeks again. I continued to maintain my Utopia Page for another month or so and I was really done with the game.

So look at what you're doing, whether it's playing a game like Utopia or StarCraft, doing martial arts, or even collecting stamps and ask yourself some questions? Why did you start doing this activity? If it was for the fun of it, is it still fun? Is it negatively impacting you? If it's no longer fun and even is negaitve for you, why are you still playing, doing that activity? Should you continue? This applies to life in general. It's something you should ask yourself about jobs, relationships, and anything you're doing in life. Maybe if you started out playing basketball for fun and now you play for the Lakers making 10 million a year it's worth it even if it isn't fun anymore. But if you're playing an internet game is it really worth it if it's not fun? My answer is no, I hope you never have to seriously ask yourself the question....

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6.) When Does Gaming Become Unhealthy? - Archfiend