Discussion: what's the worst thing gaming has ever done to you?

We all love games, but sometimes they can be a harsh mistress. What’s the worst thing gaming has ever done to you?

Xairylle: Wow, this question hit a spot. The worst thing that gaming has ever done to me was distract me from life itself. I suffered from MMORPG gaming addiction for a few years because I tried to use it as an escape from many things. It caused me to be able to do stuff ranging from calculating stat builds and skill builds in relation to equipment to using my mouse with my foot. I’d like to stress, however, that it wasn’t the game, but my gaming habits spiraling out of control that caused damage. Still, I won’t deny that gaming was involved in a very negative, but also crucial part of my life. It’s not something I’m proud of, but not something I’ll deny either.

Mary-Anne: It made me date many horrible man-children, because for a long while gaming was all I had for a social circle, and these were sadly the majority of males in the subculture. Some of them were tolerable, in the sense that once I realized they would always be jobless, uneducated, and living with their mothers, I could walk away. One of them in particular was pretty horrible. I had to file police reports against him, but at that time Singapore unfortunately had nothing in the law against harassment, stalking, and cyber-bullying. This whole fiasco lasted for about a year and it showed me just how many more of our mutual “friends” were also gutless man-children. It was a shitty experience and definitely the worst thing gaming has ever done to me, but it was also a real eye opener about the world.

Iain: Mary-Anne had the misfortune of dating some idiot “man-children” and unfortunately I had the misfortune of becoming one. When large amounts of men are engaged in a traditionally “male” activity, we have a bad habit of becoming total assholes. I didn’t even notice it happening until I was called on it by a female friend who took offense to my use of the word “rape” in Halo matchmaker.

I had never really thought about it before, and I thank my lucky stars that she took the time to explain why it was such an awful word to be using in the context. It was after that, that I began really thinking about my gaming behavior, including the way I talked to strangers online and the way I talked about women in my all-male gaming circle. Honestly, it was gross and I was astonished how quickly I could regress from socially-conscious student by day into knuckle-dragging idiot at night.

I think many gamers suffer from the same Doctor-Jekyll-and-Mister-Hyde gaming syndrome, because I refuse to believe that all those idiots on Call of Duty can be as toxic in reality as they are in the game. As Xairylle pointed out, this is not the fault of the games, this is the fault of the gamers (specifically male gamers) and I know that a lot of what you hear during in-game chat is the same as what you hear in sports teams locker rooms. Nobody is broadcasting locker room chat on the internet though, thank god.

Charlie: Gaming brings out one of my worst character traits: my ability to get genuinely upset about things that have no importance at all. This may be a genetic trait; men in my family are quite calm and even-tempered with other humans, but we seem to be easily frustrated by inanimate objects, and for me, that sometimes means games. I’ll get frustrated, dying over and over again, and suddenly I find myself pounding the desk, hurling obscenities, and flipping off a computer screen when I could just stop playing the game.

The only saving grace is that I never rage at other players. When I’m talking to a human it’s easy for me to remember that the game isn’t real life, so I never get frustrated playing multiplayer games even when I’m getting badly beaten. But when it’s just me and a single-player game, things can and do get ugly.

How about you?