Getting sucked into the addiction

From now on, the one hour of gaming per day (I was 13 and needed the permission of my parents to turn on the computer) was the only thing i looked forward to. During school I kept thinking about how I could beat the next level, when having lunch I already planned on how to use my one hour of gaming most efficiently. All my thoughts revolved around gaming. It seemed to be the only purpose in life.

The game showed me that investing my time would yield huge earnings! "If I level my character to level 10, I can learn that new powerful spell! If I can defeat the boss of this dungeon, maybe he will drop a great wand which will make me so much stronger! Everyone is going to admire my character as soon as I wear that shining robes!" This is what the game suggested to me.

As time went on, I exploited almost every situation in which my parents were not home to turn on the computer. When they went to bed at 11 pm, I stayed up for two extra hours to level my character. I quit playing in the soccer team, I was never really "good" anyways. I quit running around in the woods with my neighbours, I was "too old" for that now. And week after week, the "one hour per day" rule got weaker and weaker. My parents had just given up limiting my computer use. They knew all along that I was using every chance to play.

Now my life seemed just great! I could play whenever I wanted to, no one would keep me from playing all day long and improving my character. By the way, character in this context does not refer to my disposition - it refers to the hero which you play in computer role play games (short RPGs). But just as my character was about to reach perfection, there was an Add-On to the game. This Add-On introduced a whole new world, lots and lots of new quests and even more powerful items. Needless to say, the next day I got to the shop to buy the new Add-On.

But guess what? Just as I arrived at the Olymp of what the new Add-On made possible, a whole new game was announced: better graphics, a bigger world, dynamic day-night-cycles, enchanted items, ...! WOW! I needed to get this.

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