Billingsworth wrote:
I have just quit for the 2nd time. I hope it is the last, but you never know. Here is what I have done this past year.
In about 2 weeks will be my 1 year anniversary of playing SRO. Since then, my grades have declined drastically. From a 3.6 GPA out of a 4 scale a semester to a 1.65 GPA this semester. I've failed my first class ever in college. My social life went from life of the party to never party. My skin color went from a nice dark brown to an OMG PALE WHITE!! I came home and sat on this chair for hours at a time. All night grinding sessions. I would drink massive amounts of coke to stay awake. My body has turned from lean muscular to where's the muscle OMgzers lots of fat! I used to be able to run 10 miles a day easy a year ago. Today, I couldn't run 1.5 without a huge number of breaks. I used to have girls all over me. Now.. the only girls I talked to were online in SRO. I have failed to keep a job. I would call in sick just because I felt a SOS drop would drop for me, or the guild needed me. I have memorized every word from "That 70's Show" and "The King of the Hill" just because that's what's on TV when I started grinding.
This might be really bad. But if you can relate to any one of these things that I brought up, you're not far off.
I sat here thinking, when I have kids, would I rather be bragging about how fast I could run the 10k or about my l337 SOS +6 spear that I pimped out in blues? How would I feel if I brought a girl back to my place and showed her my "Awesome grinding skills" instead of my decent guitar skills?
The fact is, to be good in this game requires an INSANE amount of time. Almost to much. Doesn't WoW and Granda Espada have a limit on how much you can grind a day?
Is this game worth your life? The best years of our life? We should be exercising, meeting people, having fun in the real life.
Just because you get an SOS drop, doesn't mean you are cool or will get far in life. Getting good grades and meeting people will.
I have a problem. I am addicted to MMORPG's. Why? Well... Because in the real world I have problems. But playing a video game all day will not fix these real life problems. I am not encouraging you to give up playing this game. I AM encouraging you to stop making this game your life, if it has gotten that far. Limit yourself.. That is all.
My story is SO much like yours...
I have quit for my 2nd time, and this time permanently, I will regularly visit these forums and post, but now SRO is a thing of the past...
My grades dropped HEAVY, I used to get straight A's, now im lucky just to get a B
I used to go outside and party all the time, when I played SRO, I just declined every day every time my buds asked me
I was at a good tone of skin, now im pale white and the purple in my eyes is easily visible, my Mom has glaucoma and shes nearly blind, yet she can see the purple on my eyes clearly
Every time I came home, I thought "F*** HW" and I ran to my chair and booted up the PC, and sat for hours consistently, every day, I would eat only a little bit of food cause I craved to grind. I drank massive amounts of coca-cola to keep awake and quenched, I used to have a hard time finishing half the can, now I can ravage 2 whole cans within a few min.
I used to be quite over 100 lbs., now im drastically less.
Im not asthmatic or anything but I can do an 800m course (T&F) easy and hardly get a breathing problem, now it kills me just to go through the first lap, finishing the whole course practically gives me an asthma attack
My g/f used to be all over me, I couldnt pass off the whole day without getting millions of kiss marks across my face, now im lucky just for her to smile at me
I was always late for the bus, and missed it several times just to grind and pray for a good drop because I was getting dirt poor in my 40's.
I memorized all the lyrics for every song I listen during grinding, which is my whole collection of downloaded songs (27 of them)
I have a problem so much like his

(Your not the only one man, I feel for you

)
MMORPG's are extremely addictive, I took a few grams of cocaine before and I say this to everyone : MMORPG's are the most addictive thing that you can probably experienced, it took me a couple grams to be addicted to cocaine, but I got it off easy anyway, due to my mental power
But it took me almost a year to finally convince myself that I have a problem and that Gaymax is only making the game worse, even though I think its getting better, I spent alot of my $$ from my job, of which I work like hell at for a game that a bunch of idiots is only gonna make worse.
Moral of the story : DO NOT get a problem like this, it will seriously affect your life, and a good life is something we ALL want... Limit yourselves.
Amen Billingsworth