I have spent most of my life gaming...
Anything to excess is bad for you (otherwise it wouldn't be excessive).... and the thing is.... I reckon I
might have had some bad side effects from gaming (it was TOTALLY worth it if that's the case of course).
Like the part of my brain that deals with directions... it takes me weeks to even months to learn how to get to a local place (it's quite a serious problem) ... and it could be from all the years and years in the house as my brain was developing as a kid and young teenager... so I got disorientated. Then again it could be genetic.
My visual memory and 4 second memory are really bad according to my former psychologist... she said that the symptoms were one of a head injury but on the brain scan there were no physical symptoms at all (after all, I haven't had an injury).
I used to spend 16 hours a day playing call of duty 2 when I was 17... and from 12-about 15 and a half years of age, I gradually went up from 2-3 hours gaming a day playing Age of Kings to about 10 hours on weekends and 8 hours on weekdays....
And before I ever did net gaming, from 6 years to 12 years, I started off having a regular 1 hours a day play... it's all my parents would allow - but so often I ended up sneaking in some more hours anyway because they'd forget themselves, not be bothered to tell me to stop, or they were just being nice to me lol.
And the thing is...... all the disorientation when going out just made me want to stay in the house and game MORE :S
But BOY was it worth it.
It's extremely hard not to treat life as a game sometimes.... wait... I got that the wrong way around.....
I'm TRYING to treat it as a game but I can't help take it seriously sometimes...
I love games
It's just so annoying when I can't immerse myself in gaming enough in order to forget where I am or that I even exist anymore :S
I miss that feeling where I AM the game and that's all that is... I miss being that immersed... the rest of life seems crap compared to that feeling :S
But... the downside to being that immersed and obsessive... is it's extremely unhealthy if done as much as did. That's why I had to stop. Boy I felt physically better after the exercise.
I find gaming infinitely more fun than being healthier... but it's just 'wise' to go with the healthy option.
I lost a lot of weight after I stopped staying in all the time gaming lol... at 17 years old I was 11-11 and a half stone (there are 14 pounds in a stone... I only know British measurements sorry, google if you care enough lol), Now I'm like 9 stone and 2-4 pounds and I'm 21 now :S....
Many people can love gaming... and I still do. But I can't appreciate it on the level that I used to... I need to forget myself... it's the opposite of being self conscious
... and then some...
It's like being in an alternate reality that IS the game
... and that's all there is...
/end highly passionate rant on gaming and on the bad + possible bad effects as well as sheer enjoyment.
EvF