[regularemployee]

Having been hooked on Diablo 2 in high school, I made the terrible decision of playing Path of Exile (POE) last year during thanks giving break (cuz we had 5 days off, I thought hey maybe I can play POE for a few days).

Since then, I have been playing POE non stop. I'd wake up at 3am and play until 8pm. I'd drink alot of water before going to bed so I can wake up early to play.

I stopped caring about work, I just played the game. To complete my work tasks, I hacked together my tasks in 30 mins before the end of the sprint with some of the shittiest code I've ever written.

Somewhere along this journey I decided that the only way I can stop my addiction is to completely finish it. I spent around 12k buying stuff for the game. The way it works is... you play to find and collect "currency" in the game. But instead of spending the time, I buy in game "currency" from other players. Its frowned upon and getting caught will get you banned, but part of me secretly wished my account would get banned so I could quit. I never got banned, so I got bolder and eventually I was spending $800 / day.

This week, I finally feel like I have finished the game. It finally got boring after building my character to the point where I could breeze through everything in the game. I was finally able to work this week and correct the bugs I introduced and get back to focusing on work.

I have yet to digest what happened in the last 3-4 months.

Its crazy how addictive these games can be.

[Jayschwa]

This reminds me of an anecdote I once read or heard about a person curing their World of Warcraft addiction. The person used an unofficial server with cheats to instantly get the best gear, then proceeded to one-shot the toughest boss. After that, playing normally felt pointless to them.

[scoopdewoop]

I've done pretty much the same thing with idle games. They make me really obsessive. I edit a save file or inject some javascript in the console once I've decided to quit. Once I have infinite resources, I can see how shallow the endgame is and I lose any will to play.

[regularemployee]

"The person used an unofficial server with cheats to instantly get the best gear"

> Smart, unfortunately I didn't think of this. I feel like if I did, maybe I wouldn't have spent so much time on this game. My addiction to the game really took a toll an people around me who cares / loves me. I feel bad, but really there was nothing I could do except finish.

I'm wondering if there is a certain personality / mindset that is susceptible to gaming addiction.

[Tarsul]

I really appreciate you talking so openly about it. It really can be one hell of a drug. I don't really think the personality traits are quite different to people who go to casinos or lose all their money on the stock markets. It's this idea to get better, better, better at all costs. Just one more thing and I'll stop, however after this thing there's another thing waiting and so on and so on. It never ends (well, except as how you did it :) Hope you leave it all to rest now before the next addon comes. Actually, I think the developers are quite user oriented so if you would ask them to ban you, they probably would.)

[iamacyborg]

You could press Shift IIRC, particularly if the skill you were using was bound to LMB. That way hold LMB down to move around and hit shift when you need to attack.

[squibbles]

It is unfortunate we do not strive to make "work" as enjoyable and as addictive as some games, while also allowing employees to share significantly in the wealth they help generate. It feels like many video games show us how much potential is hidden away inside people.

[washadjeffmad]

PoE is effectively a gambling addicting simulator.

I quit shortly after I bought my first tabs on sale. I'd stalled on mid-tier mapping playing solo self-found and decided I needed to grind currency to continue if I wanted any hope of better rolls. I've never paid into any gachas, so it really caught me off guard when I realized what I had done and how impulsive and out of character it was.

The base game is very comfortable and alluring. I rolled several toons and got to where I could sprint to 80 in a week, then get to high 80s mapping until I hit the natural limits of playing SSF.

I haven't picked it up since, and thinking about how deeply I got into it before has been an excellent deterrent from relapse.

[iamacyborg]

I feel this.

I was borderline addicted to D2 during my high school and beyond years. I'd literally do nothing but play D2 for a solid 4-5 year period.

Then I discovered POE, this was back in the alpha days, I created the wiki (which eventually got sold to Curse which is another story) and played PoE pretty muich daily for a few years.

I'm entirely burnt out now, but just hearing the D2 music has got me in the mood to play it again.

[rkt88edmo]

story time!!!

[nvarsj]

Think you learned your lesson? I am the same, and I won't touch addictive games anymore - it takes far too much effort to get unaddicted. Not to mention all that time lost where I would have had more _real_ enjoyment, and enriched my life - reading books, going outside, watching good TV shows and movies, single player games, etc.

[regularemployee]

Yup... I think finishing the game (in the sense that I've done everything fun about the game) put a closure on my desire to play MMORPG games in the forseeable future.

[rozab]

So am I right in saying that this money went to other players/farmers, rather than the devs? Did you manage to sell your account in the end?

Do you intend to seek professional help about your addiction? From my perspective, it definitely seems this did not happen as a result of some addictive quality of the game, rather your own personality/current situation.

[regularemployee]

So am I right in saying that this money went to other players/farmers, rather than the devs? -> Yes

Did you manage to sell your account in the end? -> Nope, still have the account as a sort of trophy / reminder.

Do you intend to seek professional help about your addiction? -> Yes, scheduled something last month. But as I mentioned, the game slowly lost its appeal.

> it definitely seems this did not happen as a result of some addictive quality of the game, rather your own personality/current situation.

Putting blame the victim is always the easiest way to go. Good job.