Sensible Erection | Video games: the addiction

Sunday, 21 March 2010

quote [ Tom Bissell was an acclaimed, prize-winning young writer. Then he started playing the video game Grand Theft Auto. For three years he has been cocaine addicted, sleep deprived and barely able to write a word. Any regrets? Absolutely none. ]

I love video games, but now I'm afraid to try ~~cocaine~~ GTA IV

[games] [by Dioxin@6:19amGMT] [+10 Interesting]

Comments

Krutz said @ 6:23am GMT on 21st Mar
It was addicting for a while, but there's a cure: Cousin Roman. He makes you want to break the disc in half.

max_damage78 said @ 10:59am GMT on 21st Mar
Nah, ROMAN is tolerable. It's Dwayne. If not for getting that SWEET save house with the "GTA3" special outfit to wear when you choose to kill Playboy over him, he would SO get a bullet to the head every game.

snowfox said @ 8:21pm GMT on 21st Mar
Yeah, Dwayne did piss me off. I mean he was always calling and wanting to have deep conversations with me. I think he was in love. Girlfriends are also ridiculously annoying in that game.

papango said @ 4:10am GMT on 22nd Mar
I can't stand Kate. I just can't fucking stand her. She does nothing but piss and moan and carry on. I make a point to shag a hooker after every date for cleansing.

afrasr said @ 6:24am GMT on 21st Mar
Coke addicted loser plays games too much ?

*yawn*

I can see the anti games lobby jump on this though..

*sigh*

Dioxin said @ 6:27am GMT on 21st Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
You find a yawn inducing article written by a coke addicted loser who plays games too much interesting?

Forget that. Teach me your speed reading lessons.

afrasr said @ 6:38am GMT on 21st Mar
Picked up speed reading in Uni when I was doing chemistry.

It's such a pain, I finish books in a day or so.. two for a long one.

Dioxin said @ 6:47am GMT on 21st Mar
So, more than 8 words a second?

lilmookieesquire said @ 7:18am GMT on 21st Mar
That explains a lot.

eIfish said @ 9:29am GMT on 21st Mar
OOI, how does speed reading overcome issues such as resolution of the fovea, seek time of the eye, blinking, etc? Some of the claims being made for it appear to defy physics.

theolypse said @ 11:51am GMT on 21st Mar
Some of the claims are bullshit.

More moderate claims lean on the ability to broaden focus and take in significantly more than one word at a time.

arctan said @ 6:34pm GMT on 21st Mar
I've tried speed-reading classes before, and as far as I can tell it's just wrapping fancy-schmancy terminology around what us ordinary slobs called "just skimming through it" in college.

theolypse said @ 6:49pm GMT on 21st Mar
Could be. I've only skimmed through the sales material.

backSLIDER said @ 6:28am GMT on 21st Mar
yeah, um read maybe?

soulecho said @ 6:47am GMT on 21st Mar
Cocaine is a helluva drug.

kang said @ 1:00pm GMT on 21st Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
Take away all he's got, and all he's ever gonna have.

ComposerNate said @ 1:12pm GMT on 21st Mar
We've all got it coming, kang.

maryyugo said @ 10:17pm GMT on 21st Mar [Score:1 Funny]
"Cocaine makes you feel like a new man....and the first thing that new man wants is more cocaine" --- George Carlin

Nostrildamus said @ 6:57am GMT on 21st Mar [Score:5 Insightful]
He's just a drug addict doing what drug addicts do: blame something other than their own nervous systems for their illness.

He admits, perhaps knowingly, but more likely as a means to excuse himself, all the major symptoms of an addict: geographicals (moving location in attempt to beat a cycle of behaviour - never works because it's you that is the problem) - seeking to transform himself by 'finding shelter' in another 'consciousness' - which is another way of saying he wants to be someone else. He claims to have been disciplined before his descent into addiction - but really he was already an addict - a workaholic. A true creative does not need a restrictive timetable to create. This is the lifecycle of one who craves control, and that, yet again, is the mark of an addict.

This person also claims his life was not marked by compulsion, yet freely admits to chewing tobacco, a very seriously addictive drug, and drinking 10 diet cokes a day - a massive hit of caffeine.

The guy is a self deluding idiot if he thinks he was never an addict before getting hooked on games.

The biggest problem addicts face is admitting the reality of who they are to themselves.

Dioxin said @ 7:23am GMT on 21st Mar
Know this: I was not someone whose life had been marked by the meticulous collection of bad habits.

That's about the closest he comes to saying what you think he's saying. As far as I can see he's only admitted he was never addicted to video games, or coke (which he'd tried once) as much as he was until he mixed the two. Nowhere does he say he didn't have an addictive personality beforehand. All I see is him admitting he had his choice vices but never went shooting and snorting everything in sight for the next high. So his getting hooked on coke and games, addictions that take real effort to pursue and satisfy, was a departure from his previous type of addictions.

No matter what I think about GTA IV, or however I am currently regarding it, my throat gets a little drier, my head a little heavier, and I know I am also thinking about cocaine.

Video games and cocaine feed on my impulsiveness, reinforce my love of solitude and make me feel good and bad in equal measure. The crucial difference is that I believe in what video games want to give me, while the bequest of cocaine is one I loathe. I do know that video games have enriched my life. Of that I have no doubt. They have also done damage to my life. Of that I have no doubt. I let this happen, of course; I even helped the process along. As for cocaine, it has been a long time since I last did it, but not as long as I would like.

Sounds to me like he knows exactly the reality of who he was and what his addictions had done to himself.

lilmookieesquire said @ 7:51am GMT on 21st Mar
By the way, nice article. You really write well!

Dioxin said @ 7:53am GMT on 21st Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
Thanks. Give Tom Bissell a mountain of coke and that skill can be yours too.

Dioxin said @ 7:40am GMT on 21st Mar [Score:2]
Also, "A true creative does not need a restrictive timetable to create" is one of the more offensive statements regarding creativity I've encountered in a while. And I have a girlfriend studying art history who likes to regale me with choice summaries of the often silly theories of art she has to read, so that's saying something. Judging someone's creative ability and output based on what they do to get into their creative headspace seems really petty to me.

erich wiess said @ 4:47pm GMT on 21st Mar [Score:1 Insightful]

A true creative does not need a restrictive timetable to create.

Nonsense.

Dioxin said @ 7:29pm GMT on 21st Mar [Score:3 Funny]
I know, right? That's like exactly what I said!

Tang said @ 7:00am GMT on 21st Mar
buy the pc version... the disc not on steam (i hear the steam version is just as bad)
takes almost an hour to install have to create 2 accounts
buggy as shit even with a really decent processor. you need to install really pissy securom
have to always have windows live open even if your offline

actually bought the game... but had such a horrible god awful experience it's just sitting on my table. probably will never play again unless if i one day get a console or pirate it.

DRM is my anti-drug

insanemonkey said @ 12:47pm GMT on 21st Mar
surely that should read "don't buy the pc version"?

I bought it through steam. I've since been told that there is an "un-official" requirement for a quad-core processor. On anything else it will run but it won't be much fun.

I'm just glad I bought it in a sale for about £5.

mischa said @ 7:02am GMT on 21st Mar
reminds me why I hate my xbox... or kinda dislike anyway

MelloHippo said @ 7:17am GMT on 21st Mar
GTA4 was unpleasantly restrictive and a step backwards from San Andreas. However, as far as sandbox games go, Just Cause 2 is massive in scope and beautiful to look at. The story probably sucks worse, but it's open-world for a reason.

Ankylosaur said @ 7:34am GMT on 21st Mar [Score:2]
I've been playing the demo for Just Cause 2 and it is very fun. But I'm afraid that if I get the full game I'll become addicted to mescaline.

Krutz said @ 8:23am GMT on 21st Mar
It could be worse. If you play the "Fallout" games, you can be addicted to substances both in-game and in real life.

insanemonkey said @ 12:48pm GMT on 21st Mar
I was playing the demo with my friends for about 3 hours on ps3. Installed the PC demo on steam the next day. It's awesome. Looks like I'll need a new PC to play it properly though...

insanemonkey said @ 12:50pm GMT on 21st Mar
Also I've just read that Just Cause 2 will use Steam's built in DRM system which, while not as good as 100% DRM-free, is the best system I've seen.

It's a whole lot better than the games (like gta IV) that use Steaworks AND SecuROM AND a load of other shit...

Go Eidos!

daigotsu said @ 3:43pm GMT on 21st Mar
You mean Square Enix?

insanemonkey said @ 8:17pm GMT on 21st Mar
I'm not sure actually.

It was developed by Eidos and Avalanche Studios and is being published by Square Enix (with the help of valve, obviously).

Who would be in charge of DRM?

daigotsu said @ 11:41pm GMT on 21st Mar
Well, Eidos is owned by Square Enix, and they rarely touch PC stuff that isn't an MMO anymore, and all of that can be downloaded via Steam. I would say......Steamix?

'Cause I mean, you never know if Square will just buy up Valve or not....

mwoody said @ 9:22pm GMT on 21st Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
SAINTS ROW 2

It's everything GTAIV should have been, with full campaign co-op. If you have a good friend who likes to game and is in to inventive chaos, this will easily be among the greatest gaming experience you two ever have.

The PC version is a mediocre port, though most of the problems are reportedly alleviated with over 3gb of RAM. It runs remarkably well on mine, but this machine is a beast.

I was so disappointed with GTAIV, and loved SR2 so much, that I invented a rating system to judge game review sites. It's a simple system: subtract their GTAIV score from their SR2 score, and the higher the value, the more that venue can be trusted to ignore less important things like polish and a PR campaign in favor of pure, unadulterated fun. It was this system that led me to begin paying more attention to Eurogamer reviews, and I've been well served by the switch.

-0.9 Worth Playing 94 85
-1 Eurogamer 100 90
-1 Gamespy 100 90
-1.8 IGN 100 82
-1.9 Play UK 98 79
-2 Official Playstation Magazine 100 80
-2 Games Radar 100 80
-2 Gamespot 100 80
-2.5 1up 100 75
-2.5 EGM 100 75
-4 G4TV 100 60
-5 Edge 100 50

Oh, and my favorite moment from the game: If you piss off the cops enough, they'll send these really nasty helicopters at you, complete with cannons and missiles. My brother and I, early in the game, decided we wanted one. So we got a helicopter with large, broad wings, landed on top of a high building, and used sniper rifles to get our stars (wanted level) up high enough for them to send the attack helis.

I jumped out and climbed on the wing while my brother, an old-school flight-sim fan, caaaarefully maneuvered his way above our opponent, dodging rockets as he did. Of course, it took us a few tries to pull off - thank god for parachutes - but eventually he managed to deposit my character directly onto their cockpit. Fingers crossed, I hit the "jack car" button and - SUCCESS! The game actually lets you jack aircraft midair. We stored the heli in our garages (meaning we can always recall and repair it for cash) and used it for a number of later missions in the game. It turns out missions where you're supposed to be defended by a few morons with pistols hanging out of car windows get extra hilarious when you instead have military-grade air support...

mwoody said @ 9:25pm GMT on 21st Mar
Oh, and I forgot to mention the Gentlemen of the Row Super Mod if you get the PC version. It's probably not a great idea for a first-time playthrough, but for those looking to replay the game or have already finished the story and just want to screw around, it's tremendous fun.

cb361 said @ 9:56pm GMT on 21st Mar
I only played single-player, but I don't think I've ever hated a game more than I hated Saints Row 2. There's not much wrong with the programming - although I didn't like the car handling, but it was the story and characters that left me feeling sick. It's the only game I've ever played where I genuinely found myself rooting for the opposition.

DBDellDesk said @ 7:44pm GMT on 22nd Mar
I had the same experience with Saints Row 1. Didn't feel like trying out #2. I think if I'd never played a GTA, I might have like Saints Row.

MelloHippo said @ 10:17pm GMT on 21st Mar
Hmm I have this on 360 but is there really coop multiplayer?
Is it online? Or like the single screen free-roam segments from San Andreas?

mwoody said @ 1:14am GMT on 22nd Mar
It's online, full multiplayer. You invite a player in and he gets full access to your world. The host controls the gang and property settings, but aside from that, both players get the full game. A few missions you're given the option to do separately at launch (like, one player can race while the other wanders around if he's uninterested), but for most side and all main missions, one player starts and the other confirms to go. All missions are set up to allow (even prefer, as they tend to be difficult alone) two players, and vehicles with weapons use player two as a gunner.

Meanwhile, in GTAIV, "co-op" means the other player can enter a graphically degraded, empty world. The one time we tried it, we went straight into a bowling alley and discovered not only could we not bowl, the entire place was empty. This, from a game that focuses all about doing activities with your virtual friend. And they had 5x the budget. It boggles the mind.

arrowhen said @ 8:46am GMT on 21st Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
Can I please have a life that lets me not have a job and just play video games all fucking day? I promise I won't need cocaine to enjoy it.

snowfox said @ 10:40am GMT on 21st Mar
I am not so sure addiction itself is the disease. People usually aren't child addicts, but there are lots of kids with serious problems who become addicts. From my observations, people who are that fucked up just want to shut down and stop working at life, but there's a lot of fear and anxiety associated with that kind of failure, the disapproval of friends and loved ones and social stigma. Cue drugs. Drugs allow them to feel good about themselves anyway and eventually become the only goal because it is much easier to get the next hit than it is to have a successful career, especially if you are emotionally unstable.

snowfox said @ 10:46am GMT on 21st Mar
BTW, in this case the guy did something sort of brilliant. He wanted to use games as a replacement for real accomplishments because they offer faster and more certain rewards. The problem was that he still knew those achievements weren't real, and worse, as he stopped getting real life achievements he felt bad about himself. He used drugs as a counter-effect to that nagging doubt so he could enjoy the accomplished feeling of the games.

Of course this idea should be old news. Those anti-weed commercials a while back exploited the doubt and fear over lack of achievement and perceived social stigma. The only problem is that they targeted weed, and not, say, meth or crack. The pot smokers don't seem to be that emotionally disturbed, if they were, they'd probably start using hard drugs.

eIfish said @ 12:05pm GMT on 21st Mar [Score:2]
See also (from here last week) 5 Creepy Ways Video Games Are Trying to Get You Addicted, I Kept Playing — The Costs Of My Gaming Addiction.

The idea of games providing a substitute for real-life accomplishments is pretty well-understood nowadays, I thought. With massively multiplayer games like EverQuest, Xbox 360, etc., it's way easier to see the game accomplishments as real accomplishments, because of the built-in peer group to show them off to.

cb361 said @ 2:16pm GMT on 21st Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
That's why I'll never install a mmoprg, or even one of those web games. The thought of finding myself climbing that sort of structured ladder to nowhere if terrifying.

snowfox said @ 7:41pm GMT on 21st Mar
I wasted plenty of free time for several years playing City of Heroes/Villains. While I don't really regret the time I spent playing, I don't have any intention of ever picking it back up (maybe briefly out of morbid curiosity, but then I'd get bored again).

I know people who never stopped playing. The hobby doesn't consume their whole lives but the game is their hobby. I didn't like the idea of having to sacrifice to a game. Probably the only reason I staid as long as I did were the friends I made and the roleplay.

EPT said @ 12:05am GMT on 22nd Mar
It depends what you see it as. I love getting a new MMORPG, playing it for a while to check out how their system works, what ideas for areas and plots the creators had, mastering different ways to use the character. When the time sinks kick in and there's nothing new, I stop. Then there's also working with a team of friends that's like any other co-op, though obviously you don't want to be running over the same task again and again.

The secret to MMOs is the same as any game: when it stops being fun, stop doing it. For some that's at the login screen. For others it's when their guilds demand long sessions multiple nights a week. There's a lot of area in-between these two points.

EPT said @ 12:09am GMT on 22nd Mar [Score:1 Insightful]
Sorry, forgot to say: as long as you remember it's supposed to be entertainment, you'll be fine. I find comments by people saying "I'm puzzled as to why anyone would buy a virtual item in a game" to be hilarious - these people obviously don't see that it's paying for entertainment just like going to a movie instead of downloading it, buying a football ticket instead of watching it on the telly, or buying a handjob from a hooker instead of doing it yourself.

b said @ 2:21am GMT on 22nd Mar
i played D&D Online for 3 or 4 months, and really quite enjoyed it. i had to stop though, when i realized that i would get home from work, go directly to my computer and play for hours and hours before finally realizing i was still sitting there in my stinky, sweaty courier gear and needed a shower and to get to bed because i had to get up for work in about 6 hours. (work started at about 8:30)

it was taking up waaay too much of my time. i also briefly tried WoW, but found the way it forced you to grind to be able to do ANYTHING extremely boring. only played for maybe two weeks then abandoned it.

lilmookieesquire said @ 11:37am GMT on 21st Mar [Score:2 Funny]
On the bright side, if his coke addiction continues, at some point he'll have to sell all his gaming stuff.

Problem solved!

Vampire_X said @ 11:46am GMT on 21st Mar
if anything is like a serious addiction, its world of warcraft or just mmorpgs...

anything that can make it the done thing for 40 guys to sit at 4 am on a weekday pressuring each other to stay up for one more go at raggy...
the social aspect is so much bigger

snowfox said @ 8:20pm GMT on 21st Mar [Score:1 Interesting]
Yeah, the real reason this happens is because the games all use some kind of clan system. This creates pressure to play from real life people. I was in a high-ranking supergroup and a favorite, which meant I really got shit for not logging on. One of my primary jobs was to recruit for the group, which was easy. Oddly, I never used any female avatars and a lot of people never figured out I was a girl (many thought gay male). I didn't like all the creepy gifts and attention of being openly female in that game. The way I got people to join was by being super friendly and super helpful.

I remember the evenings dicking around on ventrillo, and I know I was playing as a secondary think to hanging out with the guys from the game. One of them is actually still a friend of mine, my old guild leader. He still plays. He also does internet radio and I've been recording his bumps for a long time. What is funny is that his name is Logan, and he had a character with the same first name and middle initial, Logan X Owens. This was all well and good until Marvel started putting pressure on the game. They decided he was possibly a Wolverine rip-off despite his character otherwise not being like Wolverine (he did not take those claws, he took the sword). They tried to force him to change his character name. I am pretty sure he was ultimately able to convince them otherwise.

That game often had a problem of a skeleton crew of admins, so being someone who helps players with dumb problems so they don't have to gives you points with them.

Nihil said @ 11:37pm GMT on 21st Mar [Score:1 Funny]
On a forum for another nerd hobby, one guy once started a thread called "Warcrack". His opening post:

So I let world of warcraft almost ruin my life, it got so bad that I chose it over my far too forgiving girlfriend multiple times. The lack of sleep caused me to sleep through the second and third day of class for the new semester. I was more concerned about being defense capped than eating that I wouldn't type /feed me if it was even possible. After one of my 30+ hour wow binges it hit me that a woman's touch is greater than getting yet another sexy belf to 80. I'm at the point where I had to uninstall the game to get her to not trust me... but I still think about playing all the time, I think about just waving goodbye to wife material and go spend a few days in Azeroth.

So I ask, should I just tell myself now that I'll never be alone with WoW again? Should I seek professional help? Is there a game* out there that won't make me feel like I belong in a halfway house? Should I have posted this on the WoW forum?

Thanks in advance for any feedback** what so ever, serious or not, I'm craving some attention and I don't have /2.

tl;dr: wtb [time management] pst

This was followed by a few pages of people offering suggestions, sharing their experiences, etc.

A few days later, the addict posted again:

Turns out she's a lesbian. I just made a warrior.

ahPook said @ 11:52am GMT on 21st Mar
I understand this guy's situation, I had a compulsive games addiction and with a few exceptions I haven't played a video game in years. My wife bought me a PS3 last year and after less than an hour I packed it up neatly and took it back to the store.
I think video games are great fun for anybody else but me.

jaxtraw said @ 2:03pm GMT on 21st Mar
I don't understand your comment. When did you have the games compulsion and when/why did it stop?

ahPook said @ 10:17am GMT on 22nd Mar
Yeah it wasn't very clear, I played every night from about 7pm until 3am, roughly a third of my life for maybe a year and a half. I'd sleep 3 to 9, work 10 to 6, eat and then game. This was about 12 years ago. I don't know what caused me to stop other than a realisation of how empty my life was.

teknokracy said @ 5:43pm GMT on 21st Mar
Has anyone stopped to think that he wrote this article to boost his own career? It's almost too good to be true.

Also, it's The Guardian.

Dioxin said @ 7:33pm GMT on 21st Mar
Why is that such a bad thing? His career probably needs some boosting after a three year GTA and coke binge.

gooberhead said @ 6:20pm GMT on 21st Mar
When I was a lot younger I did most everything available except heroin and pcp, and I did a lot of it. There's never been a drug I've tried that held the addictive attraction for me that immersive video games hold.

I know going in that any decent game is going to totally wreck my life for a period of time, so I hold off on buying them. When I can work things out so that I don't have work or kid responsibilities that are going to go to hell when I buy a game, then and only then do I buy a copy.

When I bought GTA III I didn't enjoy it that much and I didn't lose too much time to it. When I bought Morrowind, I lost two straight weeks of my life to it. I'd game around the clock until sheer exhaustion that no amount of caffeine and nicotine would prop up, then I'd sleep for a few hours and start again. It was horrible. I knew I was throwing my life away on the game, and I did it anyway. Once I'd beaten the game a half a dozen different ways, I was able to back off to only playing it a few hours a day. That lasted for three or four months.

The same cycle repeated for KOTOR, KOTOR II, Oblivion, and several others. I'm pretty damned clear that if I *ever* signed up for any kind of MMO, I'd be jobless and lose my custody rights in pretty short order. The thing is, fuck me if I can even begin to justify it. I usually find real life a lot more interesting, but ... turn an immersive game on and I'm toast.

Not that I mind, mind you. Its still fun.

maryyugo said @ 10:16pm GMT on 21st Mar [Score:-1 Bad]
What exactly are so intent on escaping from?

gooberhead said @ 2:12am GMT on 22nd Mar [Score:-1]
Damned if I know... overall life has been pretty great, and my personal situation has had little to do with how much gaming I was involved in. When I was a college age bum with no stressors and no responsibilities, it was D&D, often for 30+ hours at a stretch. It just seems like I have always liked the escape, even if I never had anything in particular to escape from.

disconnect said @ 7:17pm GMT on 21st Mar
Wow, addictive things are addicting, who knew, film at 8.

b said @ 7:47pm GMT on 21st Mar
it's kind of sad that gtaIV seems to have been his downfall. it's a fun game, but not really that good. it looks real nice and driving around and doing the races is pretty cool, but the missions are all just "go get this and kill these guys" and done. no thought.

plus, all you can really do in the game, aside from the mostly boring minigames, is drive around or kill shit.

i'll admit that over the last... oh 6 month or so, i have played through it and am nearing the ending, but i really was only curious about the story. it didn't take long for me to start ignoring the whole social aspect of the game world- the girlfriends, roman, dwayne, little jacob- and focus on story progression.

i'd give the game a 9.5/10 for graphics and a 7.5/10 overall.

b said @ 7:48pm GMT on 21st Mar
also, i did not purchase the game myself. it was given to me. i never would have bought it.

Dioxin said @ 8:02pm GMT on 21st Mar [Score:2]
It's not the same without coke. He even says as much. Nvidia should just start selling that as their graphics card.

gm1970 said @ 8:49pm GMT on 21st Mar
"plus, all you can really do in the game, aside from the mostly boring minigames, is drive around or kill shit."

For some of us, after a day of dealing with idiots, driving around and killing people is enough.

Sure I could play one of 100 FPS games, but GTA IV also lets me listen to Iggy Pop as a DJ and hit people at 60 MPH so I can watch them fly quite nicely. :)

b said @ 2:24am GMT on 22nd Mar
oddly enough, i take more enjoyment about driving as fast as i can through the city while avoiding ruining my car. it takes more skill, in my mind, to get somewhere quickly and with a car that still has both doors, the hood and very few scratches than it does to get somewhere as fast as possible.

ComposerNate said @ 8:24pm GMT on 21st Mar
Warcraft 3 FT Tower Defense games were my last allowed steady addiction, subdued by Dice Wars and later Star Baron 2. I once had one two-week relapse binge with Fallout 3 and intend to again with upcoming Fallout: New Vegas.

My 15-year video game addiction began around 8th grade with the NES. I decided to fight it while trying to better myself for the failing girlfriend relationship, or ultimately bettering myself for the next, taller girlfriend. This mostly involved making more money, transferring the gaming traits to following my increasing monthly dividend returns.

Chop-Logik said @ 8:28pm GMT on 21st Mar
Ditto on the TD maps.

ComposerNate said @ 8:33pm GMT on 21st Mar
Rockstar Games' upcoming Red Dead Redemption is another contender, satisfying my long-held love for westerns.

I forgot, SE also helped with my addiction, using earned karma as a real-world scoring system, allowed for the education.

ComposerNate said @ 2:58pm GMT on 6th Apr
I've returned to Fallout 3, finally completing the main quest - now tackling the expansion packs. Meanwhile I have no job and my room is a mess, part-way through spring cleaning.

snowfox said @ 12:54am GMT on 22nd Mar
Fallout 3 is an excellent time drain if you like filling in map markers and stealing shit. Which I really, really do.

b said @ 2:26am GMT on 22nd Mar
default character in most games that offer class specialization?

thief/assassin

it's so satisfying to be able to steal and rob everyone and everything blind.

maryyugo said @ 10:15pm GMT on 21st Mar
"Cocaine," Robert Sabbag tells us in the smuggling classic Snowblind, "has no edge. It is strictly a motor drug. It does not alter your perception; it will not even wire you up like the amphetamines. No pictures, no time/space warping, no danger, no fun, no edge. Any individual serious about his chemicals – a heavy hitter – would sooner take 30 No-Doz [caffeine tablets]. Coke is to acid what jazz is to rock. You have to appreciate it. It does not come to you. (my emphasis)

Where do people get ideas like that? Well... usually Darwin's Law will apply.

Dioxin said @ 11:15pm GMT on 21st Mar
No [perception of] pictures, no [perception of] time/space warping, no [perception of] danger, no [perception of] fun, no [perception of an] edge.

Because no drug in the world causes actual pictures to appear out of thin air or literally warps space/time. Unlike meth, cocaine doesn't make you feel like you're in a dangerous situation, even if taking it puts you in one.

snowfox said @ 12:57am GMT on 22nd Mar
I suspect it was a reference to hallucinogens such as LSD and mushrooms. These things do cause altered perceptions and when I took mushrooms I would shut my eyes, let my mind wander and get these vivid pictures. Mushrooms even made me hear techno music in my head.

People who have the same drug use profile I do but are older and have been doing it longer all tell me they've tried cocaine once or twice and didn't bother with it after that. They said that it was a pretty good physical high, but unsatisfying compared to other experiences.

Basically it isn't that cocaine isn't incredibly addictive, it's more that many drug users will never bother using it enough times to become addicted because it doesn't offer what they want.

blacksun said @ 12:38am GMT on 22nd Mar
What's this, No More Hereos 2? ... I want a Wii now

papango said @ 6:24am GMT on 22nd Mar
Cheesy Vaginas!

drperry69 said @ 8:23am GMT on 22nd Mar
"You never see a positive drug story on the news. They always have the same LSD story. You've all seen it: "Today a young man on acid...thought he could fly...jumped out of a building...what a tragedy!" What a dick. He's an idiot. If he thought he could fly why didn't he take off from the ground first? Check it out? You don't see geese lined up to catch elevators to fly south; they fly from the fucking ground. He's an idiot. He's dead. Good! We lost a moron. Fucking celebrate. There's one less moron in the world."
Bill Hicks

gooberhead said @ 2:54pm GMT on 22nd Mar [Score:2 Funny]
The one time I saw the walls in my apartment melting... I went over to check it out and touched them. Turns out that the pipes in the apartment above us had broken and our apartment was flooding.

A simple reality check saved me an entire evening of running around like a moron yelling about the melting walls. Instead, I got to run around like a moron yelling incoherently about water. Good times man, good times.

the9thcircle said @ 10:27am GMT on 22nd Mar
aww, the poor guy identified with the charcater b/c he was moving somewhere new every few years.

lost said @ 5:49pm GMT on 22nd Mar
for someone not able to write a word that is a long fucking article.