Need urgent prayers to overcome MMORPG addiction

[lankyknight1990]

Hey guys. I need your prayers. I have recently decided to quit playing a video game, Runes of Magic. This game has utterly controlled my life. Im talking 10 plus hours a day just running around in maps. I want to quit.

I have tried to quit before, but i went back. Pray for me, ask the saints to pray for me. Its gotten so bad i dont pray, i dont read my bible, i even sometimes stay up late questing before liturgy and go to commune half asleep.

Please dont take this chance to laugh at me, i believe this is a serious issue. I am scared and dont wanna quit. I dunno what to do

 

[RobNJ]

Lord have mercy

And have you told your Priest? If not, do so! He can help you too.

 

[gzt]

Yes, these games can be quite addictive. You'll have to decide whether you should try a phased approach (ie, limiting yourself to a certain amount of time per day) or a cold turkey approach. You may have to try some annoying tactics in order to set yourself up for success: moving your computer to an inconvenient location, turning it off when you're not using it, avoiding being at home without something to do, turning off your internet connection if you need it for the game (and making it inconvenient to turn back on), setting up your computer so it automatically shuts off at a certain time each day, etc.

 

[Lukaris]

Lord, have mercy.

 

[Chrysostoma]

Lord have mercy

You can get out of this! Talk to you priest.

Sent from my iPhone using CF

 

[GreekOrthodox]

I've never heard of Runes of Magic, but I've played World of Warcraft and an old text MMO called Medevia. I understand how these games can suck you in and I've had to take a break at times.

Currently, I play Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) and here are some of the things I do to make sure I dont get too involved:

Time / Quest limit - I give myself a time period or a number of quests to fulfill. So I might accept 3 quests to work on which might take me an hour to do. That gives me the satisfaction of making some progress with my toon, while not disrupting family life. I also tend to play on Saturday mornings when the kids are still sleeping in or watching Saturday morning cartoons.

Switch games to something geared for the casual player - I left World of Warcraft, because too many players are WAY too serious about the game. If you miss a raid, they'd boot you out of the guild. I've chatted with a couple of players on LOTRO and we have all said that LOTRO and the people who play it are far more casual about the game than WoW.

Soloing - I also tend to solo more than I do in forms because if my family needs me, all I have to do is find a safe spot and take care of matters. So even if I'm mid-quest, I can easily teleport myself back to a town and log out. I might have to restart the quest, but not a big deal.

Forms - Before I join a party / raid, I ask my wife if it is okay if I play for a longer period of time. Once I join a form, I let them know that I might have to bail unexpectedly and if that is a problem, and it rarely is, as I mentioned, LOTRO seems to be more casual, then I excuse myself politely and let them know that it might not be the right time for me. Everyone is pretty understanding.

Guilds and Kinships - The members of my "kin" / guild are mainly guys in their 30s-40s and we all know that we have real lives. So if we are doing a raid, and someone says that he has to take care of something, we wont go forward in the raid until they are back. In fact our kin broke away from a kin who was lead by this obsessive moron who kept insisting that every player had to recruit, have 2 hours a day on LOTRO, and other silly rules. So about 20 or us said "CYA" and started up our own Kinship.

Believe me I do understand, but if you work at it, it can be a fun diversion rather than an addicting experience.

"Serathir of Area Fifty One" on the Riddermark server

 

[Dorothea]

Lord, have mercy.

 

[ArmyMatt]

Lord have mercy!

 

[27B6]

Lord have mercy.

 

[Protoevangel]

Lord have mercy!

 

[SoulFoodEater]

Beware of making yourself feel bad about having the desire to want to play the game or that you fell into it again. St Dorotheos said, "You have the passion inside of you and you say to yourself "why do they bother me?"... "Instead endure it."

Here is the entire chapter of St Dorotheos entitled "On the Suffering of Temptation Calmly and Thankfully." Orthodox Christian Life: Enduring Temptation by St. Dorotheos

He also said this about enduring temptations, "Give blood and receive spirit, that is to say struggle, and you will be accustomed to virtue."

By the way if you want to beat this passion (which is a vice), you must root it out and implant the virtues in its place (humility, fear of the lord, love, patience and the like).

This is a quote from the blog I just linked :

The Fathers, knowing this, strengthened mankind with their teaching and do not allow us to be a prey to anxiety. One of them said, “Have you fallen? Rise up; and if [it happens] again and again and again, do the same.”[21] And another said, “The strength of those who really want to acquire virtue is this: even if they fall they don’t get discouraged and give up, but go on, thinking only of starting again.”[22] Each of the Fathers quite simply, each in his own special way, holds out a hand to help those who are in combat with the enemy and are being attacked by him. For they take as applying to themselves the words of Holy Scripture, “Shall not the fallen rise again?”or, “Shall not one who has turned away from me turn back again?”[23 ]“Turn to me again, my children, and I shall heal you from your wounds,”says the Lord! [24 ]And many other [sayings]like it. When the hand of the Lord was heavy on Pharaoh and his attendants, they were willing to send away the sons of Israel, and He said to Moses, “Go and sacrifice to the Lord your God, but leave your sheep and oxen behind,”[25] by which are signified to us the thoughts of our minds of which Pharaoh wanted to be master, hoping through them to draw back to his service the sons of Israel. But to this Moses replied, “By no means, but you should also give us victims and holocausts which we may offer to the Lord; our cattle shall also set out with us and we shall not leave one hoof behind.”[26]

 

[MariaRegina]

Lord Jesus Christ have mercy.

 

[servant of Merciful Love]

You have my prayers ~ God bless you

 

[mrmccormo]

Don't feel shame (there's a difference between conviction of sin and shame). Shame will only push you back into your addictive habits.

As a former game addict who still plays games (though sparingly and with prudence), I would recommend two things: first of all, turn off the internet. MMOs are all the more addictive because they have a social aspect to them, so it's no different than hanging out on Facebook all day. Do it. Make no excuses. If you're serious, then turn off your internet (don't LITERALLY cancel your internet subscription, but you know what I mean).

Second of all, do you have any of the "old school" systems (NES, Genesis, etc)? Play an old-school game like Ghouls 'n Ghosts or Contra or Super Mario Bros 3. This suggestion might seem really silly, but old games were designed from the ground up to be quick, fun, difficult experiences. They were designed to suck as many quarters out of you in the span of 30 minutes. Beating these games usually only takes a few hours (though of course you will die trying many times before you actually beat it).

Modern games are designed to suck as many HOURS out of your life as they possibly can. They are designed to completely take over your life. A modern game (like the MMO you mentioned) is considered a "success" if it takes up the maximum number of hours out of your week.

But old-school game developers knew that time was limited, so they designed games to be quick and fun. An old-school game was considered a "success" if it crammed as much fun as possible into a short, 30-minutes-at-a-time timeframe.

Again, that might sound really weird, but I've been a gamer since the NES and those old-school games help me to keep any addictive traits in check.

God bless.

 

[MetanoiaHeart]

Lord haver mercy.

 

[ExOrienteLux]

Of course, a lot of those old-school games will have you throwing the controller against the wall in frustration several times before you beat it. Ninja Gaiden, anyone?

 

[mrmccormo]

Of course, a lot of those old-school games will have you throwing the controller against the wall in frustration several times before you beat it. Ninja Gaiden, anyone?

That's part of the point. You aren't likely to be playing a game for 10 hours on end when you're constantly frustrated. But frustration isn't a bad thing. I find that I get "more" out of an old-school game because of the challenge.

I can spend 45 minutes with an old-school game and I think "whew! That was a ton of fun! I can't wait to try again tomorrow" and then I'm done for the day.

But I can spend 6 hours with a time-consuming modern game (think Oblivion, World of Warcraft, etc) and I feel physically drained, and all I can think of is "I need to spend more hours in this game to get anything accomplished".

 

[Blackknight]

I keep meaning to cancel my WoW account. This thread is a good reminder.

My biggest issue with MMOs is that it requires a ton of time and dedication to level up and get the best gear or to gain rep, etc. Daily quests are nothing more than chores and I still don't understand why people do them.

Once you quit playing for a while you'll realize that you don't really miss the game. There is so much more that you can do with your time to actually improve your life instead of sitting there in front of a screen for hours on end every night. Read a book, watch a movie, go jogging, lift weights, ride your bike, etc. etc.

I do miss my guild mates and still log on from time to time but I've found that real life interaction with REAL people is far more rewarding.

 

[Blackknight]

Old school games could suck just as many hours out of you, by the way. Leveling up in Dragon Warrior or Final Fantasy required killing a lot of mobs to level up enough to clear certain dungeons or bosses. The nice thing is that you can always save the game and come back to it later though.

 

[Memento Mori]

It's definitely nothing anyone should laugh at you for, lankyknight. When I was 13-14, I was without a doubt addicted to Star Wars Galaxies. I would spend all day playing, and sneak out of bed in the middle of the night to keep playing. It made me feel so bad, but I couldn't stop. MMORPG addiction is a serious problem.