Show us your /age command!

My universty newspaper just ran a long article on the WoW. They were talking about the addiction to online games such as WoW, Asheron's Call 2, Everquest, GW, etc. They even cited MMORPG counseling services for addicts. I beleive that GW is good because little time is needed to have fun. I would like to hear some disscussion on this. Do you think GW is better than WoW for the sake of time and addiction (Not which is the better game). Do you find yourself playing too much time? I played 8 hours the other day straight. I think that was just a goof off day, and I don't do it regulary. The newspaper talked about buying virutal money and items with real money, which we all know is out there. Do plan on asking for virtual items for Christmas?

I think I spend too much time on this game. I feel embarassed whenever I type /age and I've only spent 600+ hours playing.

I would never EVER buy anything for real money. Once did it in Diablo ll... Worst money I ever spent. Won't do that again. Good thing it was no more than 5 bucks, but again... Argh.

As for playing time, I too feel embarrassed. I haven't played for 600+ hours but still I think I spend WAY too much time infront of a screen. Very addictive game this is.

Right there with ya...

I think I've put up about 200 hours

I just added up my hours....sheesh.

Account 1: 617 Hours, 33 minutes
Account 2: 244 hours, 1 minutes
Total: 861 hours, 34 minutes

I don't spend real money on virtual items/cash.

And my other account.


XP for my characters.

1,153,833 Ranger ascended
979,375 Warrior ascended
4,392,358 Monk ascended
8,875 Ranger presearing
693,244 Monk mule ascended
12,043 Elementalist mule
4,978 Necromancer mule
18,961 Mesmer mule

Further edit...
I think GW is better than WoW because there is no monthly fee (and i haven't even played WoW...go figure)

i will get out my calculator later as those figures add up to a per day i find frightening (or i misplaced a zero somewhere)

lol GW IS addictive, but unlike pay to play you can put it down if you like. With things like WoW or UO you feel obliged to keep playing even if you're bored with it, just so you're not "wasting your money". Also I'd never pay for a virtual item, but with friends in-game I'd be happy to give them a little present of a rune or a green or something

Unfortunately, it's only around 14 hours a day

A while ago I found an article from the perspective of behavioural psychology. It's about how MMORPG's get some people hooked, and how the reward system conditions some players to seek more and more elusive rewards. This article doesn't go and say that MMORPG's are terrible, it just states how some people get so hooked on obtaining elusive rewards in MMO's.

http://www.nickyee.com/eqt/skinner.html

The Guild Wars' reward system, on the other hand, works more like a traditional video game. The player is rewarded for skill. Going through a tough mission and completing it means you and your team were good at it. Slaughtering a rival guild in GvG means your team honed their skills and played well. Nothing in the game conditions a person to aim for FoW armor when Drok's armor is just as good (either you want to look unique or you don't, it's simple), and boss monsters spawn predictably so you won't spend days waiting to capture their elite skill.

I'd say Guild Wars doesn't fit in with the addictive style of MMORPG's. It can be addictive in a different sense, as can all other video games.

this game is very addicting. i've been slowly cutting back because it interferes with my grades, which is bad because now that im in high school, everything i get affects what kind of a college i might get into.

OMG, that is insane!
Thanks for that thou now when my wife gets on me about playing too much I can show her this. WOW!

by the way I'm getting close to three hundred hours.

How the hell do you find an average of 12 hours a day to play GW in?
Slow down or you're gonna get carpal tunnel syndrome soon.

But I guess it pays off, I saw your thread where you showed us all the green
and gold items you have. Pretty crazy stuff.

Haha, I had the same thought, I make it just over 51% of his life in the last 6 months playing GW. That is some feat.

i hvae 1.045 hours since 10 of may ... but that doesnt mean anything , i think experience say more , cose a lot of people just leave the computer on 24 hours.

im adicted to guildwars , i dont have to study , so ... as long as i go to work to pay the rent and internet bill , im on.

but then , before GW was out , besides being waiting like crazy for it , i played a lot of FPS games , and i still do ... i think its not the game .. its the computer and the internet connection , thats adictive.

same goes for tv , you dont read articles about TV adiction , cose its old news , but we know there are millions of people adicted to it , more of our parents genaration then ours ... we are Computers.

Play Hard

ps : study before !

well, i just hit 700 hours, and i don't leave my computer on 24/7. its definatley time to cut back.

Well, I've been a gamer ever since Santa set me up with "chutes and ladders" and that was about 1952.

And yeah, I probably do play more than I should (600+ hours in GW), but I've got a lot of other things on my plate as well (family, reading, writing when the spirit moves me, keeping up the house, yard, and everyone's computer). I don't vegetate in front of the television. Took an early retirement a couple of years ago -- busier now than ever.

I game 2-3 hours a day, average. Could I be doing something more constructive? Sure. And sometimes the old Beatle's song runs through my mind.

"He's a real nowhere man,
sitting in his nowhere land,
making all his nowhere plans,
for nobody".


Perhaps that's a fitting description of gamers. But it could be said of someone with a room full of model trains, as well as a lot of other pursuits. As for myself, I'd like to think it keeps my mind sharp, as well as, in the case of online gaming, give me something to do with my family, scattered all over as they are.

Saw an advertisement in a computer magazine awhile back. The girl is sitting on the edge of the bed,wearing a short red nightgown and a black snap bracelet. She has candles lit, and is rolling her eyes while this jackass is hunched over his monitor saying, "Just one more game, honey". Now there's a man who has his priorities misplaced, and about to have it proven.

I gotta admit that a good chunk, maybe even half of my /age time is from being AFK >.>

Either way I spend too much time in GW. Any game you're passionate about, be it GW or WoW or whatever, will eat up a good portion of your free time. I don't think it's the game so much as it is the type of person who is playing.

great song Overhill