Confessions of a Video Game Addict
By: Tim Monroe

Had I known that the following events would lead me down this rough path, facing insurmountable odds like balancing playing videogames and actually getting some semblance of work done. I had this problem once before when I was younger; buying one too many amazing games at once and then sequestering myself off in the most darkest and dankest place in my house (which was generally the basement), it was there, many numbers of feet beneath the surface, that I first came face to face with this unknown supernatural force of binge video gaming. This psychological anomaly has been known to cause crippling affects to the gamers' or "hosts'" minds, making them focused only on playing videogames, the gamer’s traditional daily routine will begin to become more and more unappealing and disappointing as they spend countless hours just trying to obtain level 50 in Chrono Trigger. This delightful illness plagued me for much of my childhood, but after a storm knocked out the power while I was just about to unlock the invincibility cheat on 00 Agent difficulty in Goldeneye, the resulting explosion of rage prompted my parents to take swift and decisive action. After months of being forced to attend psychoanalytical tests, and one accidental exorcism, I thought those wonderful days of aching finger joints and blood shoot eyes were behind me.

For a while I was successful at balancing gaming and a social life, but I was always aware of the ever present being that lay dormant in the innermost sanctum of my mind, waiting (and secretly hoping) for the day when the beast would reawaken and cause me to sink back into my destructive ways. I knew I was up for the ultimate test when I saw the releases for the months of September, October and November of this year, Guitar Hero 3, Call of Duty 4, Assassins Creed, Kane and Lynch, and Mass Effect, to name a few were being released for the Xbox360, also the Nintendo Wii had some major releases like Super Mario Galaxy, Battalion Wars 2, Manhunt 2, and Metroid Prime 3. Thankfully these games were being released on weeks that I was going to get paid, so I knew that money would not be a problem, which in turn would be a problem in and of itself. So it began, I had been wanting to expand my game library with some new killer material and these couple of months have proved to be as good a time as ever to go out and buy a whole slew of videogames to pass the time in between school and work.

The first two games I purchased were Guitar Hero 3 for the 360 and My Sims for the Wii. My motivations for buying these games were that I enjoyed Guitar Hero 2 and the thought of being able to unleash my extreme finger dexterity over Xbox live was an attention grabber. I had spent many hours playing Guitar Hero 2 until my fingers tensed up with pain and my thumb was raw from wailin’ on the strum button, so I knew I could expect the same thing from the third installment. I was a little iffy at first when it came to My Sims, I had been watching it for a while and the idea of being able to design and create your own town from the ground up using the Wii style controls would be a blast. I was admittedly a little turned off by the “cutesy” graphics of the game, after all the game is intended for children to be able to play, but that’s what makes the game so approachable, you can just pick up the game with never playing, the only thing holding you back is how creative you can be.

Within the first few days I had spent nearly 27 hours on My Sims, and had already unlocked every song in Guitar Hero. I would sit down for a session of My Sims at noon, and before I knew the sun would be down and it was 9 o’clock, by then I would figure “why stop now? I nearly have a five star rating and I almost filled up my town, just a little bit longer.” I often would find myself not being able to take myself away from the game until my own physical limitations get the best of me and in a weakened and near-delusional state I summon the strength to turn the system off moments before I sink into a heavy game induced coma. The cycle repeats itself on a near daily basis; I am not so far gone however that I forsake all responsibilities such as school and work, but I find my mind is constantly thinking of the games and what I can do to improve my note streaks, or how I should design my latest sims house.

The binge demon has got me in its trap again (took it long enough). Only this time I am older and a little wiser; I have suppressed this illness once before so I can do it again. This new acquired sense of self-control was only short lived for two weeks later I purchased Super Mario Galaxy, and Mass Effect later the same day. The story of how I acquired Mass Effect a week earlier than most is one of pure dumb luck. few hours after I had purchased Super Mario Galaxy I was begrudgingly on my way to work, when I drove by the store that I had just been at. They had a sign in their window that read “MASS EFFECT IN STOCK”, my mind ran the gambit of emotions, I felt excitement at the fact that Mass Effect was finally being released and that I would soon have it, and I was pissed that I was just at that store and they said nothing about it and now I had to go to work. The whole time I was there I was wishing that I was at home playing my newly requisitioned pre launch copy of Mass Effect and Super Mario. Finally my workday ended and I rushed to the store hoping that they still had copies of Mass Effect in stock, and that I would get there before they closed. When I got there I had 15 minutes before the store was going to close, I asked the guy at the counter if he had any more copies of Mass Effect in stock. He asked if I had reserved the game, I said no. I was ready to leave the store with my head down, crushed at the fact that my previous excitement was misguided. But luckily the guy had one copy in that somebody reserved, and if they didn’t come to claim it before they closed I could have it. So I waited the 10 minutes (although it seemed like an eternity) nervously eyeing the door whenever I would hear it open, hoping that this kid wouldn’t show up for his game. After an intense 10-minute wait the guy told me he could sell me the game, I couldn’t wait to get home and explore the vast expanses of the Milky Way Galaxy and explore various uncharted planets.

As soon as I started playing the game and saw how natural the narration and conversations felt, I soon became more interested in having simulated conversation with aliens than an actual conversation with a human, besides the game version of me has much more interesting things to talk about anyway. I have already spent 20 hours in this game exploring the many different star systems, and listening to the informative recordings of various codices.

The other space related game I bought that same week, Super Mario Galaxy, is quite possibly the most impressive game experience I have encountered on any game console. The unique setting of space and the various gravity elements make for some unusual gameplay mechanics. What surprises me the most is the graphics being displayed by the Wii; this game is the best representative so far of what the Wii is truly capable of. While the story is of the standard Mario fare, the setting is completely different from any previous Mario game, save the outer space levels in Super Mario Sunshine. Each galaxy has it’s on unique planet designs, and Mario traverses them with ease with the shake of the remote. I have found that once I pick this game up it is incredibly hard to stop as I find myself compelled to play on.

Since I have purchased these four games I have felt the tendrils of the creature coursing through my brain refusing to let me stop until I make it up to just one more level (and after I do that the next level too). The problem I have now is that I have all these new games that I have to spread my time over, which is no easy task to do, in hindsight it probably would’ve been better to buy the games one at a time, that way I could really take in what I’m playing , but the roots of binge gaming go down deep. I know that I am not the only one out there that suffers from this psychological illness, I am sure that there are a number of people out there just like me who have met videogame bingeing head on, while they may not be the same games, we all have played a game at one point in our lives that we found it difficult to pull ourselves away from.