Game Overload

You know you've been playing too much of a video game when...

• ...you dream about the game.
• ...you discuss game strategies with another addict ("I find that if you go left there...")
• ...you close your eyes and see the game.
• ...you come up with life philosophies based on the game ("You know, in life, just as in Tetris...")
• ...you are late to important events because you have been playing, or you decide to play "just one round" even though you are ALREADY late.
• ...you find yourself humming the game music as you go about your day.
• ...you not only recognize the music when someone else hums it, but you suddenly get the feeling of being at that particular part of the game where the music occurs.
• ...you had paper notes about the game, but you stopped doing that because you no longer needed to.
• ...you're quiet at a party until someone asks you about the game, and then you are animated and excited (nothing else to talk about if it's what you spend all your free time on).
• ...you say "just one more round," but after that round ends, you play again out of habit. you realize as soon as you've done this that you didn't mean to, but play out the game anyway. you repeat this process for HOURS. "oops. oh well."
• ...you stop playing because one lucky high score was SO high that you're sure you have no chance of beating it... ...then you start playing again anyway, despite that impossibly high score, because one never knows.
• ...you start pointing out subtleties in game play to the designers ("On level 6, if you have the magic sword AND the amulet of protection, tap on this door three times...")
• ...it was nighttime, but now you hear birds chirping...
• ...you have these symptoms often enough that you start thinking "hey, this might make a good web page"...

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This page last revised Sun Jan 27 02:06:45 EST 2002 by leaf