Gaming addiction. One of the bigger problems in the gaming society, although apparently not as big as having gold farmers in WOW (total sarcasm there). Parents have been sending their kids to shrinks for help, praying that their kid will be all normal again and stop playing WOW or Perfect World or anything else that people are playing. I don't know much, but I don't think that there has been much progress.

Gaming addiction is unique in its own way, as it is purely a mental addiction. In some ways it is like sex addiction. You just have the impulse to do it. But, unlike sex addiction, and the addiction of drugs like crack cocaine, gaming addiction is so much harder to cure simply because games are so accessible now. Think about it. It is so easy to get ahold of a computer nowadays. If your parents lock up your computer with a password, break it. I've done it before. When I was 14, I was playing this MMO called Fairyland. I think it is still running now. It got so bad that my dad locked up my computer with a password. After lasting a grand total of 2 days of this cold turkey, I dug up the manual for my computer, and learned how to disable the password by removing a certain chip from the inside of the computer. Basically I took something out of the motherboard. I then proceeded to seal the computer with my OWN password, and took to playing the game in the wee hours of the morning. I would sleep at 10pm and wake up at 3 in the morning, to level my Pie Aibo and Flame Tiger and Gem Crawler and god knows what pet I had at that time. But I digress. If breaking the password does not work, the world does not help by having lan cafes all over the place. Right now, if I did not wish to use this computer, all I would have to do would be to leave my house, and turn right. And after a few hundred feet, voila! A computer to use for a mere 3 dollars an hour.

Gaming addiction is severely underrated these days. It's not as if people are living their lives ok by playing WOW every second they have to spare. Some can do it. But not many. Unfortunately, all the addicts that are playing think that they are mentally disciplined enough to live a fairly normal life and play the game at the same time. By that time, you have lost the battle.

The first step to curing gaming addiction is to realize that you are an addict. You have to realize that your gaming habit controls you, not the other way around. And then, you have to summon the discipline to stop gaming. It is not as easy as it sounds, obviously, but it is easier once you realize that you are an addict, and want to quit. Finding another healthier hobby helps. I cured my addiction by picking up basketball. I still play in on a daily basis. But unlike gaming, basketball actually helps me. I'm in terrific shape, at least compared to when I was staring at a computer screen all day long. I lost a lot of weight, and converted it into muscle. Now, I eat anything I want, and I still remain healthy. Last time I measured, I was about six feet three inches, and weighed about 70 kilos, or about 170 pounds.

Before I wrap up this blog post, I want to tell you guys a true story. This is a story about an acquaintence of mine. He was a very talented man. He graduated from the National University of Singapore, with a degree in sciences. That might not have been a big deal, but it was enough to ensure that he would at least live fairly comfortably. However, he fell in love with gaming, and opened up a Lan cafe. He could not keep it afloat without charging extremely low prices for it, and instead of abandoning his venture, he chose to stick with it. Why? Because he could play video games all day if he kept that job. As the Lan cafe lost more and more money, he started to borrow money from his girlfriend. It was really sad to see how fast and how far he dropped, just so he could play his games. He is only about forty now, but his hair is all white. His girlfriend used to be extremely pretty, but in just a few short years she seems to have aged about 2 decades, and looks at least 10 years older than she is right now. She also put on a lot of weight, which I think was caused by an eating disorder from the stress. I know that by reading the blog, most people think that I am a wet blanket. I like to point out what is wrong with the gaming world. That's true. I'm not a big supporter of what games like WOW have done to several good people that I have known, and thousands that I do not. But I think that if you are playing these games, you should at least know what is happening around you. It is like if you're playing the stock market, and you refuse to hear about everyone that has crashed and burned. You only want to hear the success stories. Well, here's a statistic to chew on. One year from now, 90% of the people investing in the stock market will leave it, never to return. And they will be replaced by another bunch of fools, and the cycle will repeat itself.

Ok, last story. A baby in Korea died of suffocation because her parents left her alone in the house for a couple of hours to play WOW at a nearby internet cafe. The couple came back to find their daughter dead. This could have all been prevented if they had been controlled and hadn't lost themselves in the game.