You know if you really want to see what MMOs/excessive gaming can do to you, I suggest reading some stuff from gamerwidow.com. Lets see if i can pull out a story. Ahh her be one from the Introduction forum!
Something close to a year ago, I found this website and joined. Made my introduction post, talked to a few of the participants, and then left. It seemed like everything was improving, and I felt guilty for complaining about my husband behind his back. I also felt guilty that my problem wasn't as bad as some of yours' were, like I was a selfish brat whining about a knee scrape in front of people with casts on their legs.
Now, with the **** DELIGHTFUL release of the latest expansion pack, I'm not only back in square one, but it's worse than ever. Now he's a part of a guild that raids from midnight to 3-4 am. So he goes to work at 6, comes home, sleeps ALL DAY, then gets up and raids. I'm the afterthought that is circumstantially there during that brief 2-hour period before work - that is, if he's not getting ready for work, taking a shower, or checking his online forums/READING about WoW.
I'm so close to my breaking point. I've tried compromise, complaint, bargaining. I even suggest the 6-2 work schedule (he can choose to go in anywhere between 5:30 and 9 am, then stay 8 hours) so that he could come home, sleep until 7, then get up and do something with me. Go to our local cigar store, watch Deadliest Catch with me on Tuesdays, have a meal out. Something. Nope! The first week we tried this, he came home early and slept through the night, and it set the tone for the rest of the week. This week, I left the house to be around friends during the day because I was so tired, but I wound up falling asleep the same time as he did, and by the time I was awake, he was already online.
I get time with him on the weekends - that is, after he's slept off an entire WEEK'S worth of exhaustion. Weekend sleep is usually something like 10-12 hours. That's a hell of a lot of time taken out of the one part of the week I'm allowed to see him. And if I don't immediately usher him out the door, he'll get on the computer, check his forums, and sign into WoW for a few quests. Sundays are also cut short, as his guild occasionally raids THEN, too.
I'm at the end of my rope. This morning we had a fight about it, because I was looking forward to Wednesday all week (cigar night at the cigar store) and he came home and said if we went, it'd have to be late, because he was tired. I know what late means. Late means we go at 10 pm or later, and can only stay u ntil 11:30, because he has to get home for the raid. He went to sleep, we didn't go. He said he'll try and think of a solution while he's at work today, but I know it won't happen. I'll ask him when he gets home if he came up with anything, he'll say, "I don't know, baby, I can't come up with something that fast." And even if he does, what will it be? Okay, he'll what, schedule time to be with me? What kind of a marriage is that? I am not a CHORE. I'm your wife. I shouldn't even have to be thinking this way.
I'm sick as **** of being the afterthought, I'm in disbelief that he's willing to COMPLETELY rearrange his life, and mine by extension, so that he can be awake at midnight to play this stupid video game. I'm sick of the absolute and certain KNOWLEDGE that if I made him stop playing, he would resent me, I'm sick of having to force him to spend time with me and having to sit there across from him aware that he'd rather be playing WoW, sick of being the bad guy for nagging him, sick of doing things together in the awkwardness and tension that comes from having to manufacture them.
Don't know what to do. Sometimes I wish I weren't in love with him, because then I could leave.gamerwidow website
Now, I really don't want to widely label MMOs as something that is horrendous and life destroying but I don't want to say it has no detriment on a persons life. I'd say that the main issue here in terms of gaming and particularly MMO's is the incapacity to manage yourself properly and find the equilibrium between gaming and your own health. So I say, that If you are playing 2 MMO's but it has not proved a detriment to something like academics, a social life or a job then, I say go nuts. Otherwise, I say cut back.
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