Yes, playing computer games 24-hours a day is very unhealthy. I was shocked to read the story in the paper about the girl who died of exhaustion after playing WarCraft for 2-3 days straight without sleeping – I didn’t even think it was possible to die that soon, she must not have eaten alot aswell. Her family has my sincere sympathies.
You also miss the beauty and colour in the real world when online. Fair enough, Eve is nice to look at, I like the constellations and the dust cloud in the Kassigainen system is gorgeous, but it can’t compare to Mother Nature. Even now, blogging on my pc, I can look to the right and outside my window I can see the stars twinkling away in a dark blue sky – it’s very calming. There’s also the fiery colour of leaves in Autumn – there are nice rows of trees near my work – and the sight of living, breathing wildlife. I also like the combination of man-made objects and nature: Glass buildings reflected in ponds surrounded by fresh green lawns=)
I still love playing games, but I can’t play all day – more for the physical reasons (Having to eat, relieve myself, and the stiffness I get from sitting and button-mashing for so long) than to do with the actual games themselves, although it has to be said there are only so many times I can die near the end on a level of Killzone before I get frustrated and have to abandon it for the day. It’s the same with Pro-Evolution Soccer 3 – if I’m repeatedly losing I get annoyed and end up losing more, but when I take a break and come back to it later *smile* France 5-1 Italy! (I think i’ve perfected the art of scoring from outside the 18-yard box with Trezeguet and Henry is almost unstoppable when dribbling.)
To further highlight how seriously people become involved in these online games – more so than in stand-alone games where the game literally ends when you put down the controller – I’m going to post a story. I think I posted this before on a previous website, and no doubt Falling has read part of it, so forgive me for repeating myself. It’s a story of a life in Eve – actually one of the first things that got me interested in Eve, that and an interview with the Eve team in a games magazine.
The story was written by a character called NightFreeze in his own words. I have not edited it in any way so I am not responsible for any spelling mistakes and/or insults.
<span style=”font-size:85%;color:#ff0000;”>**EDIT- I have since realised how much bad language is in there so i’ve replaced each with either a safer term or the word Censored – EDIT**</span>
His story highlights how money, even digital money, can be the root of all evil. It’s a cruel story but I found it fascinating because i’m weird like that=P
<span style=”font-size:85%;color:#ff0000;”>NOTE: I’m not sure if I can open a new blog in a new window and I don’t want to make another website just to host it so I’m just going to make a new post after this one – sorry for the confusion!</span>
December 1st, 2005 at 1:21 pm
I have to congratulate you on all that censoring and editing! It’s still a crap story though to be honest with you, the guy sounds really awful – especially his attitude towards women, overweight people (altho the censoring has changed that) and towards the world in general..he can’t have anything to live for much if he’s taking a game so seriously! I think it’s ridiculous how people been taken in by him – he also seemed to act as though his very life depended on pulling of the scam. To be honest, he can’t have been a very nice person in the first place to have decided all of a sudden to ruin the game for lots of people.
December 5th, 2005 at 8:31 am
Yeah, I know. You have to feel sorry for the people who did take the game so seriously as to get upset when he scammed them though. Sure enough if I lose at a game I get in a mood (I stormed out of my sister’s house when I was boasting about how good I was at FIFA and repeatedly lost when I tried to play on the haredest setting, lol) but I can usually take a deep breath and realise it doesn’t mean anything. Even if I own millions in Eve (I had 2 million at one point) it doesn’t actually mean anything, it doesn’t affect my real life unless I let it and that’s when it goes too far – when you let a game like Eve control your life.