The Six Most Soul-Sucking Video Games

3) Starcraft

starcraft

It’s more exciting than it looks, I promise.

You might be noticing a pattern here with Blizzard games, a company that might be compared with Phillip Morris soon enough. I also loved Starcraft, but was never dangerously obsessed with it. Unfortunately that can’t be said for those else where, especially overseas.

In Korea, Starcraft is like a religion, and one player, Lee Seung Seop sacrificed everything for it. He sat down at a PC internet café to play Starcraft, fifty hours later, he was dead. During the marathon session he didn’t sleep, barely ate or drank, and his body simply gave out. And so we have our first video game induced death, unfortunately, there are more to come.

2) Everquest

everquest

Um, who needs real girls when you can have this? Hello?

Before World of Warcraft, there was Everquest, which became so addictive it was renamed “Evercrack” by the faithful. At it’s peak over 400,000 players were online, numbers that now seem relatively low compared to WoW’s numbers today. But at the time it was just as dangerous, held responsible for claiming at least two lives.

One is a Tampa, FL case where a father was so obsessed with the game that he neglected his infant and it died. The second is the tragic suicide of 21 year-old Shawn Wooley, who was playing the game up until a few minutes before he shot himself. His mother claimed he was playing twelve hours a day, and because he was epileptic, the game often caused him to suffer seizures. She recognized his addiction to it, and although she sought him help, there was nothing to be done.

“It’s like any other addiction,” Elizabeth Woolley. “Either you die, go insane or you quit. My son died.”

Everquest fully opened up the MMORPG philosophy of “games without an end,” which some argue almost unfairly hooks people to play until their lives are in shambles. Everquest paved the way for the final game on our list, which should be no surprise to anyone:

1) World of Warcraft

warcraft

Why?

Ten million players currently subscribe to World of Warcraft, blowing Everquest’s old numbers out of the water. The game is currently at the height of its popularity, and the release of its latest Lich King expansion was the inspiration for this post. The game has truly perfected the art of the neverending game, with players sacrificing marriages, jobs and friends in pursuit of …what exactly?

There are many sad tales of WoW addiction spread across the internet. In Korea, a couple was charged with manslaughter after they lost track of time during a marathon WoW session and left their infant alone who accidentally suffocated. Another story involves two gamers who died a few years ago training for a difficult quest for days at a time. An online WoW memorial service was held for them, like they were soldiers fallen in battle. A screenshot of the funeral is below:

online funeral

How about in their memory, go outside.

But many will claim that these deadly incidents are isolated, and it’s true, there aren’t tons of cases where people actually die from playing the game (although the fact that there are even some should be a bit jarring). However, the real results can be seen as more widespread, across average people who have seen their lives consumed by the game. And with 10M players in a game that requires and enormous time commitment, you can bet these cases are much more prevalent. I suggest you read this post called “My Boyfriend Won’t Quit World of Warcraft” if you want to see the kind of thing I’m talking about.

I’ve stayed far away from WoW thus far. Not just because my computer is steam-powered and couldn’t run it if I tried, but because of my brief stint of addiction to an “endless” game like Diablo, I wouldn’t trust myself near it.

I know there are perfectly fun and safe ways to play games like World of Warcraft, but just be careful it doesn’t become more than a game. The same is true for all of these games, including some I’ve undoubtedly missed. Hell, I’m sure Tetris can rule your life if you play it enough. Remember, if you’re doing ANYthing for 10 hours a day, it’s probably not good for you.

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195 Comments

  1. You left out the King of Soul-Sucking Games: Ultima Online.
    I’ve seen ruined families and careers, sleep deprivation, crazy obsession.
    When you weren’t in front of your PC moving at least TWO players at the same time (or three or more), you left the damn game online “macroing” your skills.
    Ten years before WoW.

  2. After reading this, I wonder how many hours and quarters kids in the old 1980’s arcades spent mastering Pacman or Donkey Kong. I remember going to arcades and seeing ppl, who were definitely outside the house, were never willing to put themselves in any “social” situation. Just quarter after quarter after quarter, hour after hour after hour of Pacman.

  3. Wow great article. I’m not surprised WoW is top on the list. It sucked my soul for 3 years. I suggest deleting or selling your account (going cold turkey) as I did to end the addiction.

  4. WoW is addicting but after you raid for like 20 hours every weekend for over a year and have hundreds of days played.. it gets a bit boring. I’m trying to hard to get back into the game but more than 20 minutes of playing and im zzz’ing!

  5. From the looks of it, a lot of people commenting are able to balance their addiction without ruining their lives. Anything could be an addiction if done in excess and without restraint (eating? OBESITY!)

  6. For me, it was the original Baldur’s Gate.

    I literally had to remove it from my computer in 1999 in order finish my Master’s thesis. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten the bloody thing done. 4 to 5 hour a day addiction.

  7. Meh i remember the days when Street Fighter and the original Mortal Kombat was out in the arcades. I spent hours upon hours with hundreds of other kids putting in quarter after quarter. Games nowadays are cheaper and you do not have to get out of your room to play. Anybody else think the internet (games and myspace) have taken the TV’s place as the new babysitter?

  8. I too am not suprised that WoW is at the top. That ****ing game took 3 years of my life and 2 wonderful girlfriends. Man, if i could just go back and see myself….I would probably beat the shit out of myself!! I would say “hey, fatty! Get up and have sex with your gf!” LOL

  9. I just read that real mastery takes around 10000 hours of practice. I logged around 9500 hours of “Elite” for the amiga500….so almost the zenmaster of elite 🙂

  10. Wow is a shame. They could be playing something better like counter strike..

    Apparently playing a game for more than a day means it’s an addiction. Maybe they like to play this game and enter tournaments? Outside is over-rated.

    Yes I know it looks like. Yes video games > sex.

  11. EQ 5 years
    WoW 3 years
    Lineage 2 1.5 years
    FF XI 0.5 years
    Diablo 2: LoD @ 7 years off and on
    Counter Strike (All versions), CoD 4, Battlefield (1942 and 2)
    Many many others

    Do I consider myself addicted? no
    I am currently paying back multiple loans and I figure playing a game for $15 a month is a cheaper form of entertainment then, say, going out to the bar once a week, or going to see a movie, etc.
    Will I quit? No, I like to game. Its a fun thing to do and I will never give that up. I will slow it down once I get my loans paid off in order to socialize, and possibly find one of the fairer sex to play the biggest RPG(Role-Playing Game) ever, real life.

  12. Um, honestly, You really should have mentioned the “Elder Scrolls” series here. I think I played “Morrowind” for about 18 hours straight once. And “Oblivion” has suckered many an 8-hour session out of me.
    Hubby spent an entire day on “Fallout 3”.

    When you have an entire world to explore, very little limitation as to where you can go (Once in a while, a dungeon is locked b/c it’s quest related), fully customizable classes and appearances, and the lure of loot and killing things for long hours…it can sucker you in like any other mega RPG.

  13. to all you that say “you’ll never get laid” and other jazz about Wow players and never having sex, being a virgin forever…there are those of us less hardcore players who are married and have sex frequently with our wives…or husbands if your a female player…so…stfu

  14. I think WoW really helped the genre actually with it’s focus on casual play, probably motivated by the negative publicity that games like Everquest got. Seriously, WoW is much less time consuming then Everquest when you consider the amount of time sinks in both games.

  15. How much wow did i play this weekend? Not fucking enough! Does it effect my life in a negative way, no. People have choice over there actions whatever excuse they apply to what they do. This is another fluff article pointing the finger at something that is only a symptom and not a source of some peoples personal choices of there un productive to society reality.

    Video games in the American education system it is a un-used tool. I mean come on the army has been using them for years and they are looking for ways to do it better everyday.

  16. MMO’s just suck. I don’t see how people can get into them. You just spend money on a monthly basis to meet people and walk around in these virtual worlds. Big f’n wow. Play shooters or other games.

  17. Dwarf Fortress is starting to do it for me. When the internet in general isn’t being addictive…I’m hungry for lunch and I’m still just surfing away, looking at articles, instead of eating.

  18. That kid is such a manipulative whiner. I would never have accepted that from either of my daughters and my parents would never have accepted that from me. You do not attempt to “reason” with a child like that, you tell them “this is what is going to happen” and you make it happen. You pull the plug and send them to their room, period. No argument, no discussion, no debating. They have evidently been very poor parents who have been disengaged emotionally from their children and, when crisis time hits, they have all the wrong tools at their disposal. They do not know how to parent.

  19. I play wow all the time and love it. I’m married, 2 kids and full time job/mortgage and a huge property to take care of. I simply don’t watch any tv and manage my game play.

    I know lots of people that don’t play wow but they’re glued to 4-5 tv shows a day on top of DVD’s they watch and time they spend on facebook, myspace and surfing the web.

    So with that said, wow is a soul sucking game, but choose your vice. Some people watch tv, some people play games. How that impacts your life is up to you.

  20. My addiction was AO (don’t laugh) I played 12 hrs straight every chance I could get. It ended up costing me my marriage. So let this be a lesson to those of you who have not had the benefit of my experience. Don’t be stupid! RL is more important than a game. That being said, I still game and will never stop. I’ve just learned to limit the time I play so that my new female counterpart gets what she needs. Guys; pay attention to the ladies. -Peace

  21. WoW completely consumed my life when the open beta came out. Thank God I was in college at the time and had tons of free time. From that experience, I refuse to buy the game now.

    The latest succubus I’ve dealt with is Fallout 3. Man oh man. Massive and awesome.

  22. Hmm…What about Morrowind? Or any of the Final Fantasy games (especially if you try to get 100% and all that good stuff). Or Snood? Seriously, I think my grandmother has logged more hours in Snood than I have gaming my entire life. Haha.

  23. I’ve played games in excess of 12 hours (like a lot of people). I’ve also gone out on wild weekends that lasted five days. But when those activities take over the rest of your life, it’s time to stop. Just like when you go to a club and you see that guy who used to be a madman on the dancefloor but is now just a hopeless cokehead who hasn’t eaten in three days and can’t last five minutes without snorting something, there’s the guy you used to have marathon sessions of soul calibur with who hasnt spoken to his baby’s mother in two years and thinks the real world is on his computer. Sad.

  24. The thing about WoW is either you become completely obsessed with it, or you become easily bored by it. Thankfully, I’m in the latter camp. While I like the idea of the game, it has never held my attention for more than 20 levels.

  25. Agree with the poster a few posts above:

    Those parents were going down the path about 30 seconds into the video – that child wasn’t going to learn anything by those lame ass attempts to reason with him. You command him, you yank the computer, and then you beat him. While listening to German goth music. And wearing leather.

    Somehow I got off track there.

  26. I simply do not see the appeal of MMORPGs. Oh boy, grinding: Doing boring everyday life jobs or some form of labor that you wouldn’t even want to do in real life – sounds fun.

    Hey, let’s grab some pick axes and hit rocks for an hour. Maybe we can pick some berries too. Oh and after we double-click the fuck out of some wolves to level up we can do some more farming before we go to sleep in-game! Yay, virtually doing chores is fun! Quick, let’s go roam the empty and excruciatingly boring virtual countryside of an MMORPG!

  27. I agree, doing anything for 10 hours a day is probably bad for you…Makes you wonder why I’m at work, when I periodically have to work 10 or 11 hour shifts. Curiouser and curiouser.

  28. Thanks to those who post their horror stories. It helps me to keep perspective on what could happen if I don’t keep myself out of possibly addictive situations. About 3 years ago I decided never to play a game with no ending again. Great decision. Now I have to work on not anal-retentively doing every last thing in a game, stretching its gameplay out beyond what’s good for my social/constructive free time…and I will.

    To those posting about how you game and it’s not a problem, what, you want a cookie? Good for you. But what does that have to do with anything? This article is not about you then (even if it is, and you just don’t know it).

  29. Sims!!

    I almost dropped out of college and lost my 2 jobs!

    Then the expansions starting coming out….
    Sleep 3-4 hours a night. Maybe.

    The one kid playing Halo … I wonder if his parents ever showed him what he looks like cursing and throwing tantrums!!!

    And how’d they get that audio of the kid whining?!

  30. I’m playing the WoW trial right now, I had to play it out of curiosity. It’s really fun game, but once my trial is over that’s it for me. I’ve played other games like Ultima Online and Diablo II on and off, but rarely ever got obssessed with them. I however really wanted to play WoW when It first came out but I didn’t because I didn’t want to risk it interefering with my college studies.

    It was one of my best decisions i’ve made in my life because I just graduated college with two degrees and a certificate, but I earned one of those degrees by a thin thread. I got exactly a 2.75 for that degree (Which was exactly the bare minimum to earn that degree). Had any of my test, reports, or term paper grades had been any tad lower, I would have not earned that degree. Also the way my studies, schedual, and everything had to work out perfect, almost to the very last hour before I took my last test.

    Knowing me, have I had begun playing WoW years before, even just playing very little as possible at the time when my degree was in jeoprady (because somtiems I log in these types of games, even just to do one little thing for a minute, then something happens so it turns into 10 minutes, I think, “oh, just 10 minutes, maybe 20, actually 45 minutes won’t hurt, well 2 hours isn’t going to kill me, etc…) , It would have probably still interfered enough that I would not have that degree right now.

  31. I can’t believe no one has mentioned NeverWinter Nights here!!! although its predecessor Baldurs Gate was mentioned. I played Diablo II regularly for about 2-3 years and then switched to NWN which has a community of people who on their own free time, design wonderful modules and great stories, so the game never gets boring (and each module does have an ending). I have been a gamer since I bought my first Apple II in 1981!!! (yeah I am over 50 yrs old), and do concur with those who said it sure beats watching TV every night. Somehow I also manage to read over 50 books a year as well.

    Having said all that, I have wrestled with the thoughts about time wasted and addictions… then go right back to playing again 😮

  32. Starcraft isn’t the first video game induced death. That honor goes to the early-80s coin-op arcade classic Berzerk, which claimed the lives of 19-year-old Jeff Daily in ’81 and 18-year-old Peter Burkowski in October of ’82.

  33. Eve Online is ridiculously addictive, and I only ever had the free 14- day trial. I probably played the original call of duty online more in three years than i will play video games for the rest of my life.

  34. u got Conquer missed on the list , they changeing cars for heroes selling bikes for orbs or whatever thats adict and ruines people lifes they better gambling then doing that at least u could get something !

  35. I would think that any good examination of “addiction” revolves around how it affects your life.
    If it affects your mood? Social life suffers? School or work problems? Forget to eat?
    If you could not quit? (Try it for a week instead of saying “I could if I wanted to” cause every junkie says that)
    But on the flip side, if you play and it’s just a spare time activity? Or a cheap substitute for something like going to the bars?
    Not everybody who drinks alcohol is an addict…

  36. The Marathon trilogy – I stayed up way too many nights because of that one, staring at the monitor and jumping out of my skin at the sound of approaching Pfhor . . . good times!

  37. Diablo and Diablo II…hardcore rpg?

    Since when?

    Last time I checked Hardcore RPG’s didn’t involve twitch reflexes and a fast cliking finger, but involved thoughtful moments, strategic use of skills and powers and a character driven plot that has an effect on npc’s and the world.

    or is that just me?

  38. I find games like WoW and Guild Wars boring. It takes me a coupla of months to get anywhere, because I don’t play more than half an hour a day. Just don’t see the point.

  39. I’m 15 years old been playing WoW for 3/4 years now. games fun as hell, my usual schedule is to go too school come home , do homework and school stuff. then play for the rest of the day. Some of you might suggest getting a social life but due to where i live (in the middle of a mountain range) i cant. Seriously..its just impossible. But! as many know WoW is very social, so i do get some interactivity between people and whatnot. Also the only reason im on this thread atm is because im waiting for my buddy to get the latest WoW patch for me. i also do well in school and have a good amount of friends. Plus i dont want to kill everyone.
    >.> Jack Thompson

  40. Hello? What about Yoshi’s Story for the 64? Spent 2 days straight trying to get a full ring of the same fruit to unlock all the levels! That and Aladdin for the SNES.

  41. man i was addicted to Evercrack for about a year and another year with WoW, good thing I can control myself and quit fast b4 my life go down any deeper =) now im game free! yay!

  42. I tell you what, my roomie who is probably my best friend started playing that game and I tell you, I understand why parents tell their kids to go outside and play. When he was playing that stuff, it was as if he wasn’t there at all. And then the lies started happening and rent wasn’t paid and then he said he’d quit and then I caught him playing, but didn’t let on that I knew. Just knew that he’d rather play that game than pay his rent. The rage inside me was immense.

  43. I play wow alot because i have nothing else to do. Im 7 months pregnant and a housewife who lives out in the middle of nowhere. My husband works from 12 pm to 9 pm. I admit the game is starting to get addicting. But my husbands addiction is worse. Yes he works all day but when he gets home, instead of being “ah honey, lovely dinner, house looks great, lets make some love” its him coming home and getting on the computer until 3-4 am…reading wrestling reviews. I thought i was the geek. I have to sit him down and say”hey youknow its been 2 weeks since we had sex and…yeh” he says “yeh…im sorry…i will be better.” make up sex…then it goes back to the norm. We have married for 2 years and he hasnt even bought me roses. ANYWAYS. I feel that wow is perhaps the most populated addiction, besides substances, but its not the lamest addiction lol. Reading is great…but reading about wrestling reviews hours on end, and then uploading audio reviews to his ipod and taking it to bed with him….thats just lame to me. but hey, to each their own. i would just like to have a lil attention once in a while. and no im not a fat ugly pimple faced wife. Thats what bothers me the most i think…

  44. Except for Halo, I haven’t played any of these games. Never ending games? Ha! My addiction took the form of a MUD, named Dragon’s Era. I have played off and on for about 7 years now. At the height of my addiction I was getting up at 4 am to play two hours before going to school, coming home and playing till about 2am…that’s right two hours asleep a day. I think i lasted a month doing that before going…hmm, perhaps i shouldn’t play this. And its been off and on ever since.

  45. Luckily my attention span is such that I cant play a game for more than a couple hours at a time until I get bored, and when I’m not playing I don’t feel the urge to play unless I get bored again. Thank you small attentions span.

  46. It’s sad that people can find such things addicting, and it can ruin your life if you let it.

    Kinda like a Class A drug. 🙂

    I like my PS3 and love my games consoles but I would never go to the extent of having regular 4 – 5 hours gaming periods.
    Maximum I have is around 2 hours a week nowadays, if I’m lucky. Got to earn that degree somehow!

    But I know what it feels like to get addicted to a game, got addicted to the Halo: Combat Evolved for 6 months straight so no never gonna go back to extensive game playing again.

    Hope people who are addicted to WoW and the like get help!
    Sorry to say to them I’ve played the game and it sucked!

    I’ll get hate mail and my IP address hacked now lol

  47. This is a solid list. I’ve gotta agree with all of the people who are pointing out the lack of Civilization on the list though, that game has been getting people addicted since before any of the other games on this list.

    My personal “soul-sucking” game has definitely been The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. I’ve put hundreds of hours into that game since it was released and get this, I’ve NEVER actually completed the main quest line! There’s just so much stuff to do, see, and explore in that game. I just started another character earlier this month who I swear I’m actually going to complete the main quest with. 40 hours in on him and I’m still not even halfway through it though >_< TOO MUCH TO DO!!!!

  48. “Eve online deserves a honorable mention. Once you get sucked in to the economy you will be doing excel spreadsheets for fun, now that is deranged!”

    *looks at spreadsheet for Zydrine pricing in other window*

    *cries*

  49. What? No Final Fantasy VII, or Syndicate, or Civ? You need to get another contributor who was a teenager in the nineties to more accurately reflect the past twenty years of gaming. Otherwise, it’s a fairly accurate list.

  50. I just don’t know how people can play SO much that they lose their jobs, relationships and drop out of school…

    I’m a junior in college and I’m a chemistry major. And as you can imagine, being a chemistry major is pretty stressful. WoW is my way of relaxing. It’s nice to just sit for 1.5 or 2 hours and goof around, then I’m happy. I always get my homework done and I make A’s and B’s. I do however, have friends who lost scholarships and had to take out loans to keep going to school because they played WoW 24/7. That’s just retarded!

    Thankfully, my relationship never suffers due to WoW. I go to school 3 hrs away from my fiancee, when he comes to visit or I go home, WoW is the last thing that I think of!

    Also, they should add tabletop games to this list. Another of my college buddies lost his fiancee because he spent all of his time playing D&D and similar games instead of seeing her.

    Just use your brains people! Alotting your time is NOT that hard

  51. Just quit WoW two weeks ago. Ive never felt better. Like a freakin weight off my chest. Sold my account. I would say thats the only way that I could quit that game. Cold turkey with no hope of getting back into it. The password, email and login name are changed so its permanent. SELL YOUR ACCOUNT IF YOU WANT TO QUIT.

  52. I pretty much have to agree with the list, although I haven’t been addicted to any of those games.
    Not actually a game, but definitely soul-sucking (it sure got me) is DotA Allstars (Defense of the Ancients maps, Warcraft III). I was hooked for almost three years, failed a year in college and so on.

  53. There was Syndicate, Sim City, Tekken, Civ, GTA, Gran Turismo, Final Fantasy etc. but my true vice is Counter strike.

    Dropped out of school, lost my girlfriend, played for about two years straight, bit more, though my recollection of the period is hazy now. When still in school I’d play all night, go sleep in my car or at my girlfriends place so my mom would think I were in class, go back home, play. Ended up giving away my 3500$ worth of hardware in a snap decision following a binge. Felt good.

    I’m just so uncontrollably lazy and self-centered that I’ve always known that I’m addict material. I’ve got to fight that shit, keep myself in check. That’s why I’ve Never taken a sip of alcohol, never a puff of anything, let alone more. Just didn’t see Counter Strike coming.

    Thankfully, I’m pretty much back up to speed by now. Finished my high school/collage degree (it’s a different system here in Iceland), cum laude-ing University (the three lost academic years result in a competitive streak), back to reading books for fun (something that trailed off with my game-infused teens). Still fucking up with the (nearly non-existent) ladies, but hey, that’s life.

    And still, I’ve got a soft spot for videogames. I just make sure I can’t play any at home and make do with friend visits. It’s a beautiful medium, and it’s only going to get better. Films, prose, music, other visual art, poetry, videogames, they can all offer something unique, and they can all be profound.

  54. two words : enemy territory

    quake wars enemy territory more recently
    and wolfenstein enemy territory back in the day.

    i’ve probably put about 1000 hours into them, and they never get old for me.

  55. Curent wow player myself, I play maybey 4 hours a week, more if the weather is bad outside. Like any fun activity some people get addicted and some dont … have a friend that has lost jobs / GFs because of golf yet no huge outcry like video games. I read the newpaper more than I play but for $15 a month is pretty cheap entertainment I can do for an hour when bored.

    Use to play everquest during the Shawn Wooley incident, his mothers crudsade did leave out alot of the evidence he may have been in an online “relationship” around the time of his death, was also his anti psycotic medication he was not taking as well … so yepp was the game that killed him. She just wanted an outside excuse to rally against and chose the easy answer rathen than his pre exsiting condition or liklyhood of relationship problems.

  56. Good list and a fair point.

    Morrowind actually cost me my little finger — well, it’s not removed or anything, but I damaged it on mouse-work badly enough that the hand is impaired. *sigh* Dumb move on my part.

    Still, as entertainment goes, if I’m not doing anything else, I’d still far rather spend 3 hours playing Warcraft than watching TV or drinking and smoking down the pub with a bunch of people I only know well enough to share a pint with. Much less propaganda and bullshit than either — and a much better psychological message than TV (“You can be a hero!” vs “You are a pathetic loser if you don’t look like Chandler / Rachel”), and much less health-damaging than booze ‘n cigs.

    You can’t beat it for value for money in terms of hours entertained, it’s more social than any off-line solo pursuit (obviously), and it’s a lot less retarded than most TV and magazines nowadays.

    However — and it’s the biggest one there is — the important fecking thing is to remember it’s a GAME!

  57. I think some of the people that have posted here have taken this too personally. i mean i didn’t want to know whether or not the guy gets intimate with his wife on a regular basis, if it truly wasn’t such a big deal to the guy to have that kind of opportunity then he wouldn’t have even posted. and the guy who’s married and has two kids just seems like he’s pissed that someone would write it and wants to redirect it to tv…. honestly? this article is about video games. not tv. if you limit your game time in wow this is not against you in any way. because that means you’re smart/nonobsessed

    I’m lucky though… after years of playing video games i’ve developed ADD and can’t play wow for more the five minutes, it’s really a snore feast to me. but my bro plays it all the time… but at least he remembers to eat.

    lol to the kid freaking out. i totally agree with the previous post stating that his parents weren’t equipped in any manner to raise a child.

    you just gotta love the way he lashes out at the tv and then tries to beat up the floor…. seriously though it made me feel bad for the carpet, i mean whatever did the carpet do to him?

  58. You forgot THE SIMS. I mean, the Sims 3 has consumed more of my life than…. I dont know… just wait.. Sims 3 deaths are coming.

    Diablo, Yes brother, yes, I was one of the few girls on Diablo I and played it until I had nothing left. Of course… I still have enough to play the sims.

    I agree with this.

    If you’ve ever played Nexus, Kingdom of the winds you’d add that too.

  59. diablo 2. dear lord. i’ve finally been able to kick the habit. i was playing on my latest character, a wind druid, trying to complete him by filling him up with good gear. and then i asked myself, what am i going to do once he’s as good as he can be?

    nothing. it’s a dead end. quit now. i loved that game, but the level it drove me to makes me wonder if i want to even play diablo three.

  60. Civ 2 for me reminds me of those movies where they mention someone coming off a 30-hour card game.
    Simcity and Simcity 2000 ate up a lot of time during my childhood (which was so dull that movies and video games were the only highlights). Lemmings also gets an honourable mention due to the sheer number of levels but it doesn’t have the kind of addictiveness of a Civ 2 or an ORPG.

    I never really got the multiplayer culture (maybe because Australian dial-up and even broadband suffers from too much lag) how much fun is it being killed over and over and over again by 15 year olds who probably spend several hours a day on it.

    And WTF would you want to converse with these people, especially if people like the one in that video are on the line.

  61. Final fantasy VII and Final Fantasy Tactics were the first ones to suck the life out of me. I spent upwards of 12 hours a day on these titles. I played them so much that I developed migraine headaches from playing them. Recently, Fallout 3 is the culprit.

  62. Great article, but unfortunately telling people how addictive a game is and how many people are playing it only gives the addicts another reason to keep playing, which is the idea of doing something everyone else is doing. It makes them feel connected to something big and important and global (even if it’s not important).

    What they need to understand is that video games are temporarily satisfying whereas real life accomplishments have long-term value. In wow, players can “get things done” in a shorter amount of time and that makes them feel like they’re making fast progress, when in fact they’re not doing anything except avoid the things they have to get done away from the computer.

  63. I have to agree that people can lose countless hours of their life playing video games, but usually it is time well wasted. Most people have some amount of free time that they waste doing something for leisure. How many people sit in front of their TV’s for hours going brain dead? There’s no interaction there at all. I think video games can be a stimulating hobby. Personally, I’ve wasted a few hours on WoW and Everquest, but my favorites weren’t even on this list… The Sims2 and the Elder Scrolls series… 🙂 However, I don’t watch TV at all… I find it mind numbing.

    People who become addicted to video games are no different than people who become alcoholics or addicted to anything else that provides them an escape. The key is they’re looking for an escape and you need to understand why before you can begin to help them. In the case of children, its to be expected if a parent doesn’t do any real parenting.

  64. This article was originally posted on November 17, 2009 and I just happened to come across it why? Because I have been too busy playing Wow. I completely agree with everyone who stated that 15.00/month is cheaper than one night out a week. I do disagree about it being a game that will suck your life away. I (among many of the other millions of players) hold a full-time job, go to school and have children. It’s not always an obsession for everyone, sometimes just a hobby and a release from reality.

  65. [Quote]Remember, if you’re doing ANYthing for 10 hours a day, it’s probably not good for you.[/Quote]

    Hey I spend 10hours a day at work and you have to tell me it’s bad for me.

  66. Not a single game on this list compares to Ultima Online, it is what started the MMORPG genre. The genre didn’t even exist until Ultima online came out. I have played Ultima Online since 1999 I’ve played wow since BC came out(off and on like 7 month breaks).

  67. I’d add Elder Scrolls games here personally.

    I mean, I have an active (though currently frozen, as I have too much work and no sense in paying for a game I can’t play anyway) WoW account, but I ahve never, ever managed to play WoW more than 5 hours straight back in the day when an instance took that much to do, and more than 3 hours nowadays when an instance only takes about 30 minutes. Even if I forced myself. And my characters aren’t nooby, mind you, they’re all well equipped.

    And despite my lack of succeptablility for WoW addiction… I managed to play Elder Scrolls Morrowind for 8 hours straight for 3 days and Oblivion for… 15 hours straight. For two days.

    I’m really not normal, I know that. I’m a school teacher and it was the summer holidays and I had no work, had it been the semester I probably would never even turn a game on for more than an hour. But I do realize there are few people who, like me, can play WoW and have two endgame characters and still tell what is real life.

  68. WTF???
    Ummm… Yes, WoW is #1 NOW… but…
    Warcraft III??? C’mon!!! I’ve played Warcraft since 1994 and I STILL play WC3 casually when I’m not raiding on WoW. At least you have Blizz as the ultimate Devil here… There is no other gaming corporation with more addiction under their belt.
    I am not proud of being an addict, I do find time for work, gym, and a steady GF, but I do play excessively and I raid whenever my guild schedules it, which is 2-3 times a week. I just work my social life around WoW, instead of focusing my WoW around my social life. If there is any advice to give, QUIT, if you can. It really IS the best alternative.

  69. i know some %$?£-faced pile of @!&% who believes WoW stats apply to real life e.g. “I can install (WoW) better than (the guy who wrote this) because i’m a higher level than him”. i want him dead.

  70. ok, eve, thats addicting, with corperations(guilds/clans) of over 1000 people each they get committed, its a fun game, but i used evemon to find how long it would take to learn every skill in the game with max learning skills, 28 years, holy crap. Also after you realize you are running 5 instances of the game at the same time in windowed mode so you can mine with 3 hulks, 1 hauling ore, and the last trekking the 5000 solar systems of the galaxy just to sell it at the best price, you realize you need to take a break. I spend most of my free time on the computer, but thats not including the fact im physicaly fit.

  71. Hey there. Just stumbled across this website and love it so far. My two-cents are for the Championship/Football Manager series. I succumbed to playing it (again) a month ago and i’ve already spent 6 whole days bringing Rushden to the Championship. It’ll all be worth it when we win the Champions League in a few years.

    Other than that, the Civilisation, Counter Strike and Red Alert have caused me malnourishment in the past. From consoles, i’ve clocked up at least 100 hours on 6 of the Final Fantasy games. Oh, and Sensible World of Soccer! Anyone else love that as much as I did?

  72. Hah! I’m surprised to see EVE-Online mentioned in the first couple posts (after which I skipped to the bottom). That game is the perfect fit for me: when I don’t feel like playing it, I set a skill to train for a long damn time and come back to it again when I want to play. My character still gets better while I’m not playing, I just don’t earn any money by doing stuff in the game. (I’m probably also throwing away my subscription payment that month, but it’s better than having to pick up from square one again. I won’t go back to flying tech 1 frigates! I won’t!!)

  73. I so far have been immune to the call of MMORPG’s, although there are sporadic instances of games consuming my life for months at a time. Although I tried getting into WoW, I just couldn’t get past the fact that I was paying someone $15/month so I could “go there, kill those things” and “go that way and bring me back something”.
    I barely reached level 30 and lost $45 because I forgot to cancel my subscription after I was bored to death with the game and stopped playing.
    Old Republic will probably become my crack though.

  74. twice i tossed away all my videogames, but the just keep coming back ?.
    TRIBES and TRIBES 2 , am i the only one who was trying to make 20 mid air disk shots in one game ?

    Game on !

  75. i am currently quiting wow and it is hard, i have desires to go on but when i do i cant find anything to do, thank god for MW2(uh oh another un healthy ubsession growing) and assassins creed 2, and the loads of awsome games coming out, i think i will go outside

  76. Hey, dude!
    I really like the work you do – great job!
    If I were to contribute to this list: QuakeLive, Resident Evil series, and Online Chess / Poker.

    Quake left 3 month long black-out in my life, Resident Evil (2 & 4) – took about 1 year, and Chess I have managed to turn into a habit (not addiction), thank God.

    To all: remember, the most addictive thing is Laziness.

    Thanks again, dude.
    Keep up the great work! 😉

  77. WORLD WARCRAFT illuminati game become more evil freemasony
    dont play it that game steal your money and take your soul brainwashing like zombie !DONT play it !

  78. Great Post…..

    I found your site on stumbleupon and read a few of your other posts. Keep up the good work. I just added your RSS feed to my Google News Reader. Looking forward to reading more from you down the road!

    Thanks for sharing….

  79. A friend of mine who attends medical school with me is addicted to WoW. He slacks off, misses class and never studies. He did, however, meet his current (and first) girlfriend on WoW. She lived 4 states away. Now they live together (9 months later). At least now I know he’s straight…

  80. The brightest star burns out the fastest. I see WoW like a virus. Eventually it’ll run it’s course and then ten million people will need something else to do.

    I’ve watched people play and I just don’t understand the appeal of it. It doesn’t make sense to me at all.

    The most Soul sucking games of all time?

    Civilization…any of them

    Fallout 3

    World of Warcraft

    Diablo 2

    Final Fantasy…any of them

    Eve Online.

    Ever Quest

    Runescape

    Ultima Online

    Oblivion and it’s series.

    Halo

    Not sure if it counts as a game. But alot of people like the “Second life” thing.

    The sims(Another game I don’t understand… You’d make a character, get a job…clean house…live a virtual life…just do it for real?)

    Any of the apps on Facebook. Yoville, Farmville? Mobsters? Seriously. People put too much time into these things too…or facebook in general.

    And for those of you who dont know the most and oldest soul sucking game online has to be FFRP.

    Free Form Role Playing Text Based. Back in the old AOL days I used to spend countless hours on this. It was. and still is evil. Check it out. It was called of all things Rhydin…

    Here is a version of it.

    http://crimsonstarlight.forumotion.net/forum.htm

  81. Halooooo…has none of has ever played Red Alert (1 & 2) or Age of Empires??????Those games were pure strategie and braines and of course total waste of young man’s life…..

  82. I have played all but the MMOs casually. Not so much CS as the others. I actually even played a borrowed account of WoW for a few days to try it out. I found it boring.

  83. Watching the kid in the first vid made me think of something I tell my sibblings…. and self occasionally. If it’s making you cuss it’s no fun. Games should be fun. Turn it off.

  84. This is a great and true article. thankfully there are people with sense that talk about these things…and open my own eyes to my own problems. What’s most disturbing this sort of soul suckingness is becoming a norm.

  85. Heh, personally, even though WoW is installed on my PC, I don’t play it much, and just borrow my brother’s account on occasion. It caters to more casual plays who don’t have all the time to sink into an 80, which you can reach in under a month.

  86. It just takes discipline; kids don’t get the structure they need. They live in an immediate gratification society, and unfortunately (many) parents have a hard time saying no, so kids never learn that life has limits, that accomplishment usually requires sacrifice.

    I’m a thirty-something going back to school and getting an A in Calc II with a GPA of 3.85, yet my husband and I recently finished Mass Effect 2 and are playing Dragon Age Origins now. Playing games is our ‘entertainment’ and it’s a heck of a lot better (and less expensive), then going out and seeing cr@p movies that you end up paying an arm and a leg for anyway. We’ve gone through spates of being ‘consumed’ by Civ IV, SWG (early on), Dragon Age, Mass Effect 2, Asheron’s Call, etc. We’ve played a lot of good games; but we also know the value (and necessity), of getting up on Monday and going to work and/or school. A lot of people haven’t learned that it’s only “1’s and 0’s”, and it has no value, practically. Hard thing to teach late, after a kid is sucked into computers and their allure; it’s like being part of your own reality TV show. Very destructive to young minds that aren’t ready for it.

  87. Oblivion is clearly the main time-sucker for me. Played it close to 400 hours, including whole nights several times. Way beyond what I spent on Morrowind and Fallout 3.

    The fact that you can now get the game and the two main expansions in the GotY edition for $20 or less is amazing value.

    The graphics still looks very good, despite the fact that the game was released 2006.

    All in my opinion of course.

  88. I remembered when I played WoW the demo for the 1st time…I played I think 12hrs straight or more from 10pm til 12pm and that’s when my friends told me to stop for a while and get some sleep and honestly I wasn’t tired at all or sleepy. I wonder how long I could have gone with the game but hey, I told myself they were right and I had to stop and get some rest and so I understand the addiction some of these games have on us. I still play Diablo 2 but not as often as before and with WoW, I just never bought the whole game but do plan on doing so but with a job and all, if I ever get it, I’ll be playing it on my days off or after work and when enough is enough and not 12hrs or even 4 or a little less, then that’s when I’ll stop and get out for a while lol.

  89. Another honorable mention should be “Any Free To Play MMO”.

    With the fact that all you need is a compatible system and an internet connection, your able to spend years of man hours just playing to reach incredible heights. Some F2P games have over 100 levels to reach, and constantly are either getting updated, or giving MORE free content to keep them playing.

    If you want some of the F2P’s, then Perfect World International has a cult following, Rising Force Online has an underground Private Server following, and im gathering there are others people can think about for their addictive nature.

    Great list! you just forgot the new term i’ve heard of WoW, “Everquest is a clone of WoW”. thats right, straight from a newbies crusted keyboard to this very computer screen, WoW has clones that existed before it actually existed.

  90. seriously… anyone who lets a game run their life is sad… i play wow quite alot for fun but i don’t rly care if i don’t play for a while… i do get that “hmm… im wasting my money” feeling tho ^^

  91. hi nice article. my fav vid game is of all time is WoW, because it litterally took my breath away the first time i played it and no other vid game has every done that. on a scale where 10 is perfect, it is 100. i love rpgs,and WoW shows just how brillant they are. i player everquest once and found it boring and confusing, i don’t know how anyoe could be addicted to it. BTW i don’t play WoW anymore, because i was becoming addicted to it. seriously i was all @_@ . so i quit cold turkey and iit was hard, but ‘m happier for it. and also i quit because there wasn’t very good control over the public chat, and idiots would mess up my play by using profane language and talking about their personal bodily functions. I complained, but Blizzard said “yea, whatever! Sorry” yeah their customer service sucks. and oh! those patches were annoying. plus Blizzard kept shutting everything down for maintenance all the TIME. Yeah. still, it is my fav vid game anyway. in my opinion it is the Best Game of all Time so far. Woot! Rant over. Peace!

  92. I tell you about WoW as a guy who played it for 1 year straight: If your life is healthy, you won’t have any problem playing for a while then quit it. If your life sucks, WoW will suck you in completely.

    It is not WoW to blame for the addiction, it is your parents who treat you like sh!t and make your life miserable and you have to escape into a sane reality so you can give and receive affection and respect and experience stuff that makes you human, stuff that is denied to you in real life. because you have sh!tty parents.

  93. Diablo I, I played the most perhaps, about a whole year like 12 hours a day. It was certainly soul sucking, I knew and felt it at the time, it was like a drug, not that I really know what drugs are like because I don’t do them, but it felt excited and happy playing. But It was a guilty pleasure because that kept me thinking I should be doing something else, I did not have a clue though exactly what that something else could be, and was always left yearning for gaming. It’s an addiction certainly, but if you can forget about your guilt it makes little difference, if you can’t think of anything better to do, and no one there to stop you. Now I just feel the weight of time a lot more, and I can’t afford to spend so much time on games, it all comes with age and understanding if you survive all of it, if I never tried I would have learned nothing, there is no common recipe.

    Also, Baldur’s Gate, Fallout Tactics to name a few…

  94. im really surprised cod:mw2 isnt on here, i alone have over 23 days logged, and im only in the top 10 percent on playstation network, i dont even know how many people play xbox

  95. I was trying to find a link to this article I read, but I wasn’t able to track it down. It was the story of a guy who had a severe (and I mean severe) everquest addiction. In the end he lost his girlfriend, his job, and was about to be thrown out into the street before he got his sh!t together. I’ll paraphrase the conclusion he came to.

    “In the end, I realize that I was just looking for a hiding place. EQ was that, and nothing more: a damn good hiding place. It was always my decision to let it take over my life.”

    Anything can become an unhealthy addiction if you let it. Anything at all, from stamp collecting to movies to making your own moonshine. Thanks to a handful of isolated cases, online gaming has this massive stigma it doesn’t deserve – a stigma that’s perpetuated by people like you who have no concept of what an online community is actually like.

    I play world of warcraft. I have two level 80s, and I raid for three hours on tuesdays. I also go to the gym 3 times a week and have a career I’m proud of. No one I know in-game fits this supposed archetype of a gaming addict. I fail to see the difference between what I do for fun and something like watching that new episode of The Office every week.

  96. Terry, what is prevelant in your post is that little thing of wonder called omitted facts. You might have 2 lvl 80s, raid on tuesdays and do that real life “stuff” you claim. Yet its like saying there is a flying spagetti monster living in your attic, and that he loves candy.

    What you fail to see is that you already are part of the archetype, i’m betting if the servers were down on tuesday, there was a character wipe tomorrow, or you were the new highest bounty on your server you’d sing a different tune.

    You’re failure to see or “know” people like this is more that others omit themselves so as not to be generalized into that sub gaming clique known as WoW Players. As i’m betting if asked if you play WoW, you probably don’t speak of it as an accomplishment. Yet in the back of your mind you want someone to hear about that recent raid you ninja’d.

    Don’t worry Terry, your secret is safe with the internet.

  97. the reason people die from playing it is because they are ass holes and dont take a break and if u play it right u have a drink and food with u when playing xD

  98. what about call of duty i kno hundreds of people wastng their life on it. They even stay up all night on it tryin to get to 10th prestige. I dont see the addictive side to it tho. I did get addicted to wow for a while but i went out after a few days on it when i went on it it bored me to fuck so i dont play it no more.

  99. what about..like…call of duty 1 man? when I was like, young you know, I played cod1 over the internet, multiplayer for like 8 hours straight, for 2 years…Then came call of duty 2, and I played for 9 hours per day…everyday…all year long. Then I startet playing guild wars. Took two years of my life. Now I quit school, I live at home with my mom and earn money as a goldfarmer in World of Warcraft. I smoke weed on ocassions, but…. I’m happy. If I die, I’ll die as a happy pot smokin, had sex with one girl, loved it, but loved MMO more geek addict.

    peace mathafukaz

  100. I raise my hand to say I am an addict. I can’t simply just spent my pc. It’s on almost all day, by just surfing the net or playing video games. And almost all my video games are solo playing… So, yeah, I’m cracked up to the core, and I know i can’t stop. It’s a mental drug that keeps me on, and when I don’t have it, I show the same symphtoms of when you don’t have your shot. My mind goes null, my reactions wither or are grumpy, I become letargic and I get stiff, ‘cept when I began to play. I spent 2 years of my life playing videogames all day long, all night long, and some other days I just closed the door and when I finished due to the hunger or because I had irreversible responsibilites, I moved, then I realized I had played all over the day, from 8 am to 6 am the next day. It could be one game, several games, anything, any kind of shit it came to me, I’d accept it. Never cared the quality of it, or even if it was the same again and again and again…

    I really don’t know when I went the wrong road. I lost my career and my girlfriend and a better future for the videogames… I lost almost my soul to it. I think I have to thank God until I die that I didn’t die playing SOOOOO much… I couldn’t even get bored, and when I got bored I didn’t know what to do. I felt depressed, angry at myself and life, because my mind couldn’t find pleasure again in this drug, until that veil passed and the pleasure returned…

    I give my experience to people who really likes videogames and does nothing else more, that this thing can kill you. Even if you’re young, have a gf, a good family, friends and stuff lik that, if you let him control you, it will test your very limits, up to the verge of death. I was there, and came back, I can asure you. I felt how it was and I’m ashamed. Even now I’m still addicted to it, but I made the first step on rehab. Telling those close to me that I had an addiction. An addiction to videogames.

    For Christ sake I kept on playing Ultimate Doom to the point I knew where EVERYTHING was AND EVEN THE GLITCHES!!! SHEES!!!

    Help yourself. Do something else. Anything. But don’t lock our soul on this drug. It will consume you, and it will kill you. YOU yourslef will kill you slowly if you let him.

    So mark my words when I say it. Videogames, if not controlled, can waste your life to no end. And when you’re on the last part of the journey of addiction, the only thing your mind and body will ask you, is the cease of all functions, which obviously includes life.

    Have safe journeys, wherever you go, even to Azjol Nerub or Mar Sara… Just don’t hang out so much over there…

  101. BTW (even if it’s double post) Thanks to my parents and NEW University, I’m starting to discover the world I left behind. So remember also: there’s still hope for everyone of us. We just have to search for it. No. Matter. What.

    There’s hope. There’ll always be…

  102. There’s a reason Everquest was called “Evercrack”, its because it was the true first soul sucking game out there. All others stand in its shadow. It took 3 yrs of my life and I can attest to at least a dozen marriages that suffered from it and just as many deaths because or linking to it. it’s when the 36 hour kill limit started coming to notice in Korea/China. Some of them would play for over 36 hours straight and some would die on the spot.

  103. I love the post.. “Oh this **** should be on the list i played it all day one time.”

    World of warcraft is the number one soul stealer. In the 5+ years now of the WOW universe I have an ingame timer of 486 days played. Holy Crap thats OVER A YEAR SPENT IN GAME!!! and alot of people say I am not dedicated to the game. I am no longer in a Hard core raiding guild. Most people treat wow as a job. being in a guild post Burning Crusade means a full Time job. My previous guild had a 5 day a week schedule from 6:30pm to midnight. Can I do the math for you thats 30 hours a week REQUIRED!!!! But that is just for guild Raids you still have to maintain your ingame character needs, so farming for money and mats. You are looking at 50+ hours a week in game. Yeah… Im 33 and have a wonderful marriage. Luckly the wife said if you cant beat them join them and she plays now. Her first video game. But since these days I quit the game for 6 months and came back with a new sense of life.

    I am back to why I play Entertainment!! I play when i want, not log on if i want. Is raiding hard. hell yes it is. Can I get into a guild Nope, I refuse to adhere to a schedule. But Im OK with that.

    But in all its faults. Blizzard has made something that has kept 10 million peoples interest for over 5 years. And everyone I know that “quits” comes back ever other year for the expansions. Not even evercrack, counterstrike, halo, or Ultima can touch that.

  104. I’ve played most of these games and the one that made me think like “I think I’m overdoing it…” was World of Warcraft when I first tried the free demo and seriously, I spent 15hrs straight on it because it was so much fun and addicting. My friends finally had to tell me to rest and get some sleep even tho I felt none of that by a bit and I soon realized “I think I do need to stop…” and now that I have the actual full game, I set myself an hour or 2 and not to play it heavily at nights or I may not get some sleep lol but I still play Diablo 2 which is still fun and Counter-Strike Source zombie mod both with Left 4 Dead. These games if you’re not careful can consume pretty much your entire life so play it cool and get some fresh air once in a while lol. 😀

  105. One that had me hooked for a week was Wild Arms 2 for the original Playstation. I played it for a week straight, no sleep. All I did was eat, crap, and play. The only reason I stopped playing was because I got to a point in the game, and it suddenly said “Please insert disk 2”. Turned it off immediately. Since then I have vowed not to play RPGs. As of today, the only ones I do play have been the Fable series. There is most definitely an end to them which staves off addiction.

  106. I played Eve online for 1 or 2 years and while i really enjoyed my time there i would say it was an addiction. It was my 1st and only mmo ive played, nowadays I love playing lots of different games, something I never did while playing eve as i only played eve and nothing else.

    Nowadays I channel my ocd, addictive personality into arcade shmups like Mars Matrix and Dodonpachi, but due to the nature of the genre I only need 30-60 mins per day to get my fix 🙂

  107. Soul eating games? Quite a few, IMHO, that just didn’t make this list.

    1. Unreal Tournament, Quake, Wolfenstein, Doom, CounterStrike, America’s Army:
    The pioneers that started the FPS craze, with still vibrant online multiplayer communities. I can still play UT and Quake for hours straight, especially against online players who match my skills (which is somewhere between a noob and a bloodthirsty psychopath.. LOL).

    2. World of Warcraft, Nine Dragons, Everquest, Lineage, Savage (Newerth) :
    Some of the best MMORPG games ever.

    3. Civilization, Age of Empires, Sims:
    Sometimes the best way to immerse yourself is to build and destroy things!

    4. The Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, Oblivion:
    An unique single-player game with unlimited replayability and endless potential. Probably has the world’s largest modding community. Millions are waiting avidly for TES5: Skyrim.

    Lots of new games are coming up, and I am sure as long as the game makers spend millions of dollars into making games their immersive, there will be millions of addicts who will be ready to give up their soul, for “just one more hour” of their current game.

  108. I started playing pc games 1 and 1/2 years ago.I played games as a kid but stopped for 20 years.Basically I stopped using drugs and alcohol and started playing pc games as my main hobby.I love it and I may do it more than I should I’m no longer sticking needles in my arm or stealing to get high.There are alot of really good games out there and I would never encourage trading one addiction for another but in my case I just accept it.

  109. I was trapped in the Wow prison for about 7 years. I was finally able to escape it but now I seem to have found a big red door with with the name TRION written on it. Once owned I was sucked into a rift and spewed out into another land in which I can’t seem to recall any landmark from the Warcraft universe. Where had this rift taken me I wondered. Then I saw a sign with the words “Welcome to Telara” written on it. Time for yet another adventure!

  110. I see the most recent comment is 4 years old, but here is my Diablo 3 story:

    I purchased D3 and played it for about a week. I got stuck at an early Boss. I would die, respawn, dies respawn, over and over. I gave up and didn’t play for well over a year.

    I got bored one day and tried to play again. For some reason, I couldn’t log on, and tried to reset my password, It turns out my account was hacked and my account was locked. It took at least an hour going though all the steps to get my locked account opened, but when I did, my low level character was long gone. In it’s place, I found 2 new characters; a lever 30 magic user (I hate playing them, so I ignored that one), and a lever 56 Barbarian (my missing character was a Barbarian also).

    This new character was a badass and decked out to the hilt with crazy armor and weapons (and more gold than I could ever spend).

    I played my newly inherited character for weeks, leveling up, getting even cooler weapons and armor, and blazing though the game to the end.

    Did it feel like cheating playing a high-level character that I didn’t earn? A little, but it was better than being stuck in an endless respawn loop.

  111. ive played everything except wow and everquest. halo: ive finished games
    in 3 minutes and, ive sold well over 20 fiftys, it doesnt take a whole
    lot of effort. Counterstike is MEH. Diablo is a biiiigggg soul sucker,
    grinding for drops haaarrrdd.
    The only thing that makes diablo a soul
    sucker is the ladder resets on the pc, on the console it dies off
    easily. Starcraft is boring, just as is any kind of rts after maybe a
    few weeks.

  112. Wow. The oldest comment is six years old. I’m surprised its still getting views and comments. I’m surprised I got here.

    Looking everything over I think that the comments were imported into Disqus at some point.

  113. “Remember, if you’re doing ANYthing for 10 hours a day, it’s probably not good for you.”
    That’s it, it’s time to stop working.

  114. That’s awesome – with the exception of playing around with Starcraft for a little bit, I never played any of those games.

    Older Computer/Atari/Nintendo games, then on to Castle Wolfenstein, Doom, Hexen/Heretic, Quake, Unreal, Quake II, Oni, Quake III and Unreal Tournament, GTA III/Vice City/San Andreas, Farcry, COD4 (online only), Mafia, probably a few others I can’t remember – then got hooked on Real Racing 3 (talk about soul sucking – but for a phone game, damn!), then Skyrim, a little bit of Fable 3, and Farcry 2.

    I want to play Left 4 Dead 2 – I bought a copy, but had a problem with my steam account (had to set up a new one to play Skyrim). I might break down and buy it from Steam. I’ve also got a game based on ‘Reservoir Dogs’ that I’ve never had a chance to play.

  115. NERD ALERT >>> That pic is of Antonia Bayle; that’s EQ2. Nowhere *near* as immersive, or awesome imo, as EQ.
    I was lucky to never get sucked into EQ to that level, but I know some who did. I hang mostly in GW2 now, too simplified to get lost in but still fun at a casual level.

  116. what’s with all the retarded getting laid comments and stereotypical virgin jokes? Anybody these days can spare an hour here or there to bang someone.

  117. I have spurts where I’ll play a new game near constantly but my worst was Skyrim. I spent near 12 hours at a time on that game every time I popped it in.

  118. How cute to filter negative opinions. Mine was hate-free and constructive, plus it also provided information. While writing this I have pages of pretty much spammy comments which contribute in no way really. But yeah, let’s remove the opposition. 🙂

  119. Lich King came out in 2008, the release was cited as the inspiration for this post, and the post is only 7 months old. Ugh, I hate it when old crap is passed off as new.

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