It pulls you in and doesn't let you go... your most addictive game experiences...

[Rindill the Red]

Video Game Addiction:

Possible Symptoms:
"Excessive use of video games may have some or all of the symptoms of drug addiction or other proposed psychological addictions. Some players become more concerned with their interactions in the game than in their broader lives. Players may play many hours per day, gain or lose significant weight due to playing, disrupt sleep patterns to play and suffer sleep deprivation as an effect, play at work, avoid phone calls from friends and/or lie about play time. Relationships with family and friends and performance at work or school may suffer." - Wikipedia (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/19354827/)

"Overuse": "In its report, the Council used this two-hour-per-day limit to define "gaming overuse", citing the American Academy of Pediatrics guideline of no more than one to two hours per day of "screen time." - Wikipedia (http://psychcentral.com/blog/images/csaph12a07.pdf)

While the APA decided that there wasn't enough evidence to include Video Game Addiction in the DSM to be released in 2012, I have found the "possible symptoms" very interesting.

Now, while it is my experience that people do not become addicted to video games in the way outlined above, (though they can become a habit), certain games, and if you've experienced them, you know what I mean, are just extremely addictive (in a good way).

I'm talking about games that you play to death, that you find yourself thinking about when you aren't playing them, games that as soon as you are done, you immediately start the game over and begin to play through again.

And so I wanted to see what games the Deus Ex forums have been essentially addicted to...
(besides Deus Ex, of course)

I believe the biggest factor for "addiction" is actually the quality that people around here praise the most: immersion.

For me, the winner is Morrowind, hands down: that game basically sucked away my life for a month during gradeschool.

[Bradrakh]

Ragnarok Online stole a part of my soul in high school. You level a character from 1 to 99, reborn into a powerful form of that character, and then grind away from lvl 1 to 99. Luckily, I recovered quickly from that addiction in due time for college, and I avoided a lot of mmos since then. Even when people told me to try a few of them, I usually quit by the end of the week when aspects of it reminds me of that game (like level grinding and strict death punishment such as loss of exp.).

I played some real fun games, but none had that addicting power that RO had on me years ago.

[Red]

- Ditto for Morrowind
- Titan Quest: Immortal Throne. Clocked in 370+ hours and still going. And that's only the official stat after Steam started stopwatching it. I think the number is closer to 500h.
- Lumines. Oh god, yes, LUMINES! And now its cousin is about to arrive, Chime.

The only multiplayer which had me in its grip is Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory. There were times of 6+h per day in that one

Now, on the brink of graduating, I already have a job, there's less time for all the gaming I'd like to do, but hey - I still do game, just not so intensively as back in the days.

[lithos]

Tetris.

Doo doo-di-doot, doo-di-doot, doo-di-doot-

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! MAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOP!

[II J0SePh X II]

I'm seriously addicted to VGs, If I'm not playing them, I'm talking about them on the Internet. I even find myself trying to steer conversations towards gaming when I'm talking to non-gamers. Family and friends are being neglected, social intercourse is dwindling away and I just cannot keep a goddamn appointment.

It's like The Matrix has come true, we immerse ourselves in fantastical worlds like the Capital Wasteland or Liberty City or wherever but take a step back and look at yourself and you're doing nothing except interacting with a machine that's sucking all the time out of your life.

Even though I've been an owner of many platforms since 1979, it's only in this gen that I've become addicted. Before it was throwaway entertainment - just interesting enough to last a couple of hours - nothing that stopped me going out and finding much more interesting things. All that changed in late 2007. I had a small plot of land where I'd grow veg and fruit, went for long trips out always visiting family and I loved birdwatching and nature in general. I found being in a bit of a bore and decided to upgrade the N64 to a 360 and later I got GTA4.

This might sound strage, but I was tending my little plot of land and I got this feeling that thing were going on in Liberty City, and I wasn't there to witness them! It just felt that way. Then I went and did a crazy thing by hooking the 360 up to XBL and suddenly LC was full of "real" people. Within a few months the plot of land was abandoned and so was bird watching. Looking thru my stats yesterday, I've put 650hrs into GTA TDM and I don't think I've played it in earnest for just under a year, I've been heavily into Race since that time and probably put the same amont of hours in. Then there's FO3 and ME2 + 1 - I've played ME2 9 times and racked up 512hrs since its release.

I'd really like to see gaming addiction recognised, but it's so tough to nail down, and then what to do? Some of these games are like crack.

[Red]

Originally Posted by lithos

Tetris.

Doo doo-di-doot, doo-di-doot, doo-di-doot-

ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP! MAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOPMAKEITSTOP!

Holy SH* how did i forget to mention this one? I play tetris EVERY DAY. NO EXCEPTIONS. It's like coffee. No dose of Tetris for the day - all hell breaks loose

[Rindill the Red]

http://pc.ign.com/dor/objects/62125/...0.html?show=hi

--Relevant

[xAcerbusx]

The original Breath of Fire.

Nearly failed fifth grade because of that game. I would get up three hours earlier than I had to just to play it. It was my first RPG, and I still pop it in my old Super Nintendo from time to time. It's held up rather well.

Then there's Thief II.

The worst possible thing happened during my first playthrough in 2000... my computer fried. I was without a working computer for almost five months, in a state of limbo, stuck on 'Shipping... and Receiving' not knowing how the game ended. It was brutal.

[lithos]

Also, Win Solitaire.

[TrickyVein]

Most of my childhood - my time throughout middle-school and earlier - was spent playing Crash Bandicoot.

Before I played Fallout 3, I had really only casually pursued a game. Across all of the profiles I've begun, I'd say I've clocked in around, oh, 51 + 30ish + 50 again + 60 + 110 = around 300 hours? I think I'm forgetting a few profiles in there too. Never played a game like it before or since (with regards to my gaming habits).

*Immersion*

Oh, and I've been playing Unreal games for around 10 years now.

[St. Mellow]

Any Total War or Paradox Interactive game. I also had a terrible MMO addiction (started out lightweight, with RuneScape and Guild Wars, and, before I realized, I had progressed to hard stuff like World Of Warcraft and City Of Heroes) that I overcame in 2008. I've been clean since then, but it's a constant struggle. What keeps me from relapsing is both the thought of paying monthly for playing a game I already bought and that inescapable feeling of never really finishing anything. But the real test is going to be Star Wars: The Old Republic. Here's hoping for a flop. Seriously. I'm hoping it will suck just so it will be easier to keep clean.

[Pretentious Old Man.]

Ditto for Morrowind and the Total War series. Damn, I've sunk well over a thousand hours into Rome: Total War and its many mods since it's release. Empire and Napoleon left a sour taste, I must say, so that little trend is unlikely to continue.







Deus Ex. (Would you ever have guessed?)


Hidden and Dangerous 1&2. Without question the best first person shooter franchise ever made, still criminally under-appreciated to this day.


Mafia I. Man, I was nearly crying when Paulie died.


Stronghold I. Let's face it, who didn't sink hours and hours into Stronghold or Crusader once upon a time? This and AoE2 (Age of Empires 2), anyway.



And now, for my latest craze:

The Hitman series. I only discovered this relatively recently, and I genuinely find Agent 47's story compelling. I'm playing both Contracts and Blood Money in parallel, they're both too good to put down! Blood Money is definitely the less demanding of the two, but it does allow you to get creative more and also has the better story. If you were like me and didn't play them then, play them now. Sadly, I haven't got the first two hitman titles. Not sure I will.

[Mindmute]

At it's golden (early-mid years) Freelancer MP stole a major portion of my life.

The game's multiplayer was sub-par, since the game was severly rushed (with it's hopes of being a fully dynamic universe ending up in a very static experience overall) but the community itself made the game a great experience providing creative meta-game mechanics and roleplay to it's (somewhat open-ended) world. They were effective to the point that on the Jolt FL server you had to wait and spam the Connect button for half an hour to try to get in at peak times. That server ended up taking 4 years of my life before it declined in population with the others.

[Unstoppable]

Final Fantasy 7 was great and wanted to keep me playing. Deus Ex and the Thief franchises where very immersive and just a blast to play.

Mass Effect 1 and 2 where great because they showed what exploring the galaxy could be like and the story was epic. Thievery the mod for Unreal Tournament a great multiplayer game.

[Bushmonster]

final fantasy 10 had loads of hours from me
morrowind did aswell

[Donvermicelli]

With the exception of Hidden and dangerous the entire list of games that Pretentious Old Man posted. Almost scares me o_O
EDIT: just for the record: Maffia II was garbage.

[maddermadcat]

I'm currently hopelessly addicted to minecraft. I feel like despite having very simplistic visuals, it's actually one of the best examples of the immersive simulations Spector likes to talk about. VtM: Bloodlines had me glued to my keyboard until I finished it. Same goes for Deus Ex and Thief I & 2. All super addictive for the same reasons.

Psychonauts had me playing my xbox non-stop until it ended. A friend that I'd usually game with and I were also very addicted to Metal Arms and Castle Crashers for long periods of time.

[Rindill the Red]

Originally Posted by Pretentious Old Man.

And now, for my latest craze:

The Hitman series. I only discovered this relatively recently, and I genuinely find Agent 47's story compelling. I'm playing both Contracts and Blood Money in parallel, they're both too good to put down! Blood Money is definitely the less demanding of the two, but it does allow you to get creative more and also has the better story. If you were like me and didn't play them then, play them now. Sadly, I haven't got the first two hitman titles. Not sure I will.

I highly suggest you pick up Hitman 2: Silent Assassin.

The original Hitman was good, but now-a-days is very dated; still worth a playthrough though if you find yourself with little else to do.

However, it was Hitman 2: Silent Assassin that really defined the series; and it's levels and storyline are still the best of the franchise IMO, definitely worth picking up. I found Hitman: Contracts to be a relatively sub-par Hitman experience, while Blood Money was awesome purely for the inclusion of "accidental" death scenarios; and if anyone assumes that violent videogames aren't bad for children; I can tell you that since playing my mind has automatically found itself thinking of ways to kill people I hate using undetectable methods like falling chandeliers and exploding grills.

Also: just beautiful: The Music by Jesper Kyd

[mad_red]

I guess I've had a whole bunch of addictive game experiences. This is just the stuff I can remember.

When I was a kid, games were a lot more difficult for me so I could spend months on stuff like:

Digger
Alley Cat
The original Flight Simulator
The original Prince of Persia
Police Quest 1, Space Quest 1, and King's Quest 3

Then when the industry really started rolling only a few games really managed to get me hooked:

Dune 2
X-Wing
One Must Fall 2097
Might & Magic 2
Master of Magic

Around that time I remember my friend got in trouble for being addicted to Syndicate.

I spend much less time on games more recently. Some games that I kept playing for quite a while:
Planescape: Torment
Civ: Call to Power
Alpha Centauri
Rome: Total War
Sins of a Solar Empire.

Every once in a while, I still go back to MoM, SoaSE, Rome, Planescape, and of course Deus Ex

[MrFoxter]

Talking about immersion, SYSTEM SHOCK 2!!!! Yeah, that game pwnd me so much, I was so lost, so alone and scared as hell, anyway I could not stop playing it! I even had this

as wallpaper on my mobile phone for six months!

Then there was Thief. Long, very long Thief. OK, it was long because I wanted a perfect playthrough and loaded frequently (just like in Deus Ex and pretty much every game I played ). After playing, I was instinctively avoiding light, but now I am OK again


I have also strong weakness for LucasArts adventures. I was stunned by Grim Fandango (which has IMHO the best jazz noir soundtrack I've ever heard), followed by Full Throttle, The Dig and (in good way) insane Sam & Max: Hit the Road.


Another brilliant adventure was The Neverhood, I just wanted more and more clay (in other words, I was in clay-more state of mind).


Blade Runner, BTW the best game by movie ever!


I won't forget Psychonauts, it's a shame that I did not collected all figments


From recent games, it was Mass Effect 1/2 that kept me at computer. I had broken my leg, so I've had plenty of time for this awesome RPG's, which inherited so much from good ol' Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

The atmosphere of Dead Space reminded me my favorite SS2. Though linear and simpler, I really enjoyed it.

Now I play Borderlands in co-op 'till the morning, because it has so freakin' lot of guns and things to kill that I think I am gun-addicted. And it has truly great co-op!

Enough from me. I must convince myself to go to bed.

[Irate Iguana]

Originally Posted by Rindill the Red

The original Hitman was good, but now-a-days is very dated; still worth a playthrough though if you find yourself with little else to do.

Hitman: Codename 47 was hardcore. Like playing in Professional in the other games. Plus a few hyper vigilant guards. It can seriously get on your nerves. Took me ages when it first came out.

Originally Posted by Rindill the Red

However, it was Hitman 2: Silent Assassin that really defined the series; and it's levels and storyline are still the best of the franchise IMO, definitely worth picking up.

SA does have a few annoying levels. Hidden Valley and At The Gates can make you wish you had an invisibility cheat. A few other levels can also be a bit annoying. Plus the guards that shoot as soon as you move faster than walking speed are a pain. But overall it is a fantastic game and really worth it.

Contracts was pretty decent. It had a few very interesting levels, but suffers due to the remade levels. Overall it feels tacked-on to the series instead of a decent installment. It doesn't really bring anything new to the series just a few very minor fixes. All in all it should have been an expansion pack to SA.

[xAcerbusx]

Originally Posted by MrFoxter

Blade Runner, BTW the best game by movie ever!

Couldn't agree more.
A brilliant game based off a brilliant movie. And it was released long before Blade Runner suddenly turned into every nerd's favorite film. Westwood was pretty ahead of the curve on that one.

[TrickyVein]

Mr. Foxter: I am currently making my way through The Neverhood.

I never could find out where to go after finding out that I was probably a replicant in Wwood's Bladerunner game however.

[MrFoxter]

Originally Posted by TrickyVein

Mr. Foxter: I am currently making my way through The Neverhood.(

Just be aware not to miss any of white bricks. Saves a lot of troubles. Also, try to pick up 3 apples from the tree in the backyard behind that room with TNT. After third apple, I truly ROFL'ed around for a while

[pha]

I've easily spent hundreds of hours each with the original Unreal Tournament, UT 2004, Diablo II, Arcanum, and Morrowind.

My favorite game is Omikron: The Nomad Soul, though. Quantic Dream's first game is a relatively short and linear action adventure released on PC and Dreamcast, and David Cage says he regrets ignoring Playstation, the most popular console of those times where the game would reach a far greater audience. Ironically he ended up making his last game Heavy Rain a PS3 exclusive.

Omikron has many blatant design flaws, and its combat mechanics are laughably bad, but for some mysterious reason it's "the" game for me.



There are also some games I haven't spent THAT much time playing, but still enjoy going back every once in a while for a bit of nostalgia. Like Undying,



Knights of the Old Republic I and II,



GTA: Vice City and San Andreas,



and last but not least, Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines.