Jump to content

FL vs. Social Life.


Grim_Reefer

Recommended Posts

Okay, so I am a young, hip, rock and roll guitarist... and I have infinite opportunities to go live it up, go chase girlies, party, and what all that nonsense... well liked in my community, popular in high school... I am just bragging now, but anyways... I straight up would rather sit at home, EDITED and play FL as opposed to anything else out of the events listed above. I constantly turn down doing things just to play FL.... Am I alone? Am I crazy? Is the game just that addicting? Who can I talk to for help if this is a problem? :(

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Man don't worry, I feel you. Basically being the same way, I know how it is. But it's just because other crap isn't as interesting. I mean, unless your goint to amsterdam or 6 flags it feels like crap isn't even worth trying. And trust me, I live in one of the most boring towns in the homeland. All I have to look fowards to is family day in parris island. hah! You'll get through it, there is a time to stop FLing, have you tried getting full looted, always helps for me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sometimes you just have to straight up cold turkey quit for a while. I felt the same way a while back, found myself turning down social opportunities to play FL. Soon that turned into turning down academic opportunities and then you have to say to yourself, whats REALLY important here. So I quit for what, a year? At the time is was sort of easy because Viri had JUST left and he was my fav IMM plus I got the impression admin was in shambles, seems to be all cleared up now.

I just want serious RP plots plus decent PK :D If you're at least not getting those, QUIT. DONT delete your chars. Just delete your client, dont check the forums etc. And then, when the dust settles IRL, you can go back i.e. I have my last undergradute exam this afternoon and then i'm an engineer yikes! probably a bad idea to rank until 2 in the morning.

So over the summer I'll have some spare time, but i'm going to try and limit myself. I can sense it starting to take over already. .. must study for exam ... must rank ... must train ... must finish my darn restring app before i hit 50 lol ... ahhh!!!

EDIT: actually lets dive a little deeper. Why play FL? At the end of the day, its an escape from reality. You have (near) complete control of someone else whom you can mold into whatever you want. Not only that but if you screw up, you can start all over again. Something you generally can't do IRL so it's comforting knowing that. So you have have to ask yourself WHY are you mudding so much? Maybe you enjoy being creative and in control. Maybe you need to escape from reality for a while to relieve stress.

Those are reasons are OK, but I feel that if theres ever a point where you would rather mud all day than "deal with reality" then you have a problem. Its pretty much become the same as a drug addiction. You have some basic, uncontrollable need for escape (depression, low self-esteem, social anxiety, family or academic stresses etc etc), FL provides an easy (and FREE) way to immerse your mind in non-reality so you don't have to think or deal with those issues. I'll admit, I've hit this point and its a test of self-control. I'll also admit I have piss poor self control (i.e. writing this when my exam is in a couple hours!!) so FL has in fact taken away quite a few RL oppotunities (socially and academically). Bad sign. I needed to quit, got things in order, IRL issues delt with, band made a CD (www.tripthelight.net) accepted to Grad school :D now I'm back.

Moral of the story. MUD addicts, if you find you're in the "I need 24/7 escape via FL" mode just ask yourself the TRUE reasons you mud. Be honest. Don't be afriad to admit its a problem and try to at least talk to someone you trust (parent, peer, counsellor, doctor etc.) about it.

Friends don't let friends MUD 24/7 (or roll bards).

;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had to take a ban to get me on track. I still read the forums, I still talk to several people on the phone that play, but I can not play myself. This has helped me alot since I am in school so much, and I can guarantee you, I am back as teachers pet (not that I try to get there, I always just end there) getting 4.0 again and I actually have time to spend with my two kids and other family. Its great!

FL held so much appeal for me since all the crap I had going on in my life for the last five or six years of my life, it was an escape from the pain. But I ended up finding out, you can only escape so long before it catches up to you and you will end up realizing to much escape will transfer your pain to the ones you love. Not everyone escapes to FL to get rid of pain but there is a reason there. It holds an addiction -because- it is an escape. Just like drinking, illegal drugs. They are all an escape of some form.

I think I have been listening to my councilor too much, I'm starting to sound like him.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Some days I spend most of my time in game, other weeks I don't even sign in at all. I get a lot of flak from people I know about the amount of time I spend in FL and other games, admitidly more other games as of late, but everyone does something like this. My friends absolutely suck at fishing, they haven't caught one in two months, I cant stand fishing, to me there is a fine line between fisihing and standing on the shore like an idiot, especially if you don't catch something, but four days a week at five am they are out there doing it.

As long as you are having fun when your logged in, it's all good. When Fl starts feeling like work, that's when you have a problem... or if you're logged for more than, say, ten hours a day.

Anyway, if you stay in character, isn't fl a psuedo social life?

WC

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Reminds me of when I was in high school. I was in a band for 5 years, most of the time I'd rather play mud than practice with my band. I recall even when we were recording our little record, I was playing mud when it wasn't my turn to lay down a track. High school? What was that? I slept during high school so I could be up all night and day playing mud. That was years ago.

Since then I've learned that I have to pay bills and make money, so no more playing FL all the time. But I still play! I feel much more comfortable sitting here at home than I do going out to bars, clubs, and other places where 'cool' people go my age. They are all the same anyways.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What's this outside people keep talking about? :P Try getting some more stuff to do. Between work, school, family crisis, and filming, I don't even have time to sleep somedays, much less spend time playing games. Really though, its all about priorites. If you enjoy it, is it a waste of time? I don't think so. You may only live once, but as long as you enjoy it, fsck what everyone else thinks.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

As in, if you read it, you get 200-400 hours of bad luck. :D

The FL vs. Social Life thing never really bothered me. I really enjoy playing FL, however, I really enjoy other things too, mostly enjoy them more than I do MUDding so if I spent all of my spare time playing FL I'd be neglecting other activities that I enjoy, like playing guitar, reading, going out dancing & drinking, and whatever. I'm of the opinion that something is only worth doing if you enjoy it, or if there is a greater purpose/reason behind it that you want. So if you feel your life is taken over by MUD (which is essentially a game) it would definately be time to reconsider a few priorities. Unless of course, it had negative impact in some way (which in my view, it would for all people, because a healthy social life is a must). Just in my opinion in anyway. And what I'm talking about above isn't people who like to play a lot. I'm talking people who actually obsess over it. And I don't think (I hope) that there is anyone here who is like that.

****' date=' i have been adicting as you have... Every second i'm not playing i felt deprived and owuld have withdrawls.[/quote']

Perhaps I spoke too soon. ;) However, I'm obsessed with music/guitar. But, well, I don't care that I am. :D And there's nothing you can do about it.

Dey

EDIT: And I've just learnt what Psycho's hex-sig says. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...