I hope everyone understood that my last blog entry was not my final goodbye to gaming. It was meant more as a major change in my lifestyle with respect to gaming. I put that plan into effect and my grades improved greatly. This was made easier by sticking to casual guilds. I wasn't pressured to be on a lot which was really nice. My grades are doing pretty good now, so my reward is a new system. I've wanted a new system for a while, but wanted to see all the systems release before making a decision. I've chose an X360 because I'm looking to try something different. Every system I own is from Nintendo. I don't see anything wrong with the Wii but I just want to see how it's like from a different perspective. My full reasoning is below.
"After much thought and discussion with friends, I've decided to get an X360. When it first came out I was interested but wanted to see the other systems first. Now the Wii and PS3 are out, and we've had a chance to see what games they have.
PS3 - MG4 looks pretty cool but it's the last of the series, not really interested in final fantasy or GTA4.
Wii - I plan to get one of these next but not currently. I want a system where I can just relax and play after a long day. Plus, we don't have much room in my dorm. I graduate in 2 years. This will be on my list then. Another reason is that I've been playing Nintendo games for years. They are starting to get a little stale. It feels like the movie industry with all the rehashes, remakes, and rereleases. I think there's still some innovation in them, but I'll wait for now.
I've decided to get the Premium system mainly because I don't need the extra HD space. I don't plan on downloading a whole lot anyways. Most likely, I'll just watch trailers and play demos with the HD space. Also, I'm not going to do multiplayer a lot either. I have WoW for the online community aspect. By the end of the day I should have the X360.
Current Wishlist: Oblivion, Halo 3, Rock Band, Mass Effect(love Bioware), Bioshock. I'll have to decide which of the released games to get."
For those who don't know, I'm in college right now for Computer Science. I'm also an avid gamer.
About my first year in college I started noticing a gaming addiction. I had trouble starting projects and always ended up pulling an all-nighter to get things done. While it was a problem at the time, the workload was fairly light. I was able to pass all my classes.
Second year starts and the same thing happens except this time I just barely pass my classes. I finish my exams knowing I'm going to have to retake some classes, yet somehow I end up getting a C- or higher in all of them. Just enough to keep going.
And now we come to the third year. I suffer from the same problems. The course plan requires six classes. I know I can't do it with my current gaming status but I go ahead anyways. Now in the last week before classes, I know for sure I will have to retake two classes. I've got a project due tomorrow that I haven't started and one due next Tuesday that I've just barely started. One class I've already dropped. Best of all, I've got work full-time Friday-Sunday.
I became addicted to a few MMORPGs, I'm sure you've heard of them. I
knew when I had to stop but I couldn't. I would keep playing until late
at night. Then scramble to get my homework done on time. I was in
constant stress.
Today is the end of my gaming life as it has been.
Today a new plan goes into effect. I have uninstalled all my games from the computer, including all save games and characters. The new rules are:
1) I can only have one game installed at a time.
2) I can only play one hour per day.
3) I cannot play any games from now until Dec. 15th, the last day of finals.
I don't want any sympathy from anyone. I am trying to show how games can ruin your life. My story is not so bad compared to some stories I've heard but you can see how it will get worse if I leave it alone. Most people are probably not addicted to games at all, but for the few that are, know that there are things you can do.
Everyone is susceptible to something. One of our jobs in life is to find our weaknesses and control them. In closing, I hope everyone is able to find their weaknesses and find ways to deal with them this holiday season and for the coming year.
P.S. I'm not limiting my online time because I found I was not addicted to forums or chatting.
Everyone on my shift is a gamer so we all had a hard time. We all wanted to just close the store and play old games in
preparation for the Wii launch. A few people came in to ship their
newly acquired PS3s hours after they had purchased them. Average price:
$1500. The Ebay thing appears to have backfired because there were so
many people selling them their bids went down fast. One guy said he put up a few package deals of PS3+10 games. When he saw it was going to sell for less than he paid to buy it he had to pull the listings. Bad luck for him and many others I guess. We ended up checking out Gamespot most of the night and looking at the various Wii launch titles. We sort of had our own party at work but it wasn't as fun as it could have been if we were partying in our apartments with a Wii or PS3.
