EverQuest

Everquest was my first warning about game addiction. Every teenage kid by the year 2000 had spent too much time in front of a game, of course.

But not like this.

I was sitting with a friend of mine at a computer café. This was more prevalent at the time, since a capable computer with all the modern games on it was still somewhat pricey.

So my friend starts taking to our side guy, who is playing EQ. Nice fellow.

"Hey guys, I gotta stop playing. Been here 24h straight. If I don't go to work they'll fire me."

My friend and I leave for the night.

My friend comes back to the café one night later. Our buddy is there, in the same seat.

"Shit dude, they fired me. I haven't been able to get up and go to work. This game, man."

"Sorry to hear it, what was your work?"

"I'm an attendant at a computer café."

"WTF, which one? Why didn't you just sit there and play?"

"The one across the street. Because I couldn't stop."

Game addiction hits the same part of the brain as gambling does. In fact, it’s my understanding that gambling addicts and video game addicts have nearly identical similarities in terms of how the addiction progresses and “sets in” as it where.

As an aside, and really I am sorry for this tangent, and I have no issue believing any of this, but this comment somehow feels LLM (ChatGPT) generated to me and I can’t put my finger on it, as I like to default to being wrong about such things.

I know it’s an aside but it has become such a big issue on many forums now.

Sorry for the tangent!