rs-my downfall

[snowboarder]

How my life was ruined.

When I was growing up I was never really an outgoing kid. In pre-school I was very isolated and didn’t socialize with a lot of kids. Even at a young age I felt like I was different from everyone else. I didn’t really fit in at all. I remember in kindergarten I was great friends with Michael Burton, the most popular, strongest, and most athletic kid in my school right now. We were friends for a while, but soon we became distant. We stopped talking about first grade and I think he has said like 2 words to me since. I managed to get through elementary school without any major problems. I had a couple friends who were considered the nerds but I really didn’t care. My real problems started about 4th grade. I became really good friends with a kid name Zach Hayman. We were best friends. We used to have sleepovers all the time and play video games with each other. We fantasized about becoming famous baseball players. We were obsessed with Lord of the rings and would pretend that we were fighting orcs and goblins in his backyard. My real problems really started about fifth grade.

 

Zach introduced me to this game called Runescape. At the time I thought it was something stupid and didn’t bother with it. I didn’t have internet at the time too so it didn’t matter. Zach sadly moved to a neighboring town and our friendship dwindled. I have not spoken to him since 7th grade. There was one occasion where we hung out and all he did was insult me to look cool in front of his new friends. I really didn’t have any friends now and I turned to runescape. I started playing in 6th grade and became addicted. I played for hours and hours and never did my homework. But because it was middle school I managed to pass. But when 7th grade came around I truly had problems. I had become so addicted to runescape that I didn’t even care about school. I would sit in class thinking about runescape. My social life sucked.

 

I did have a girlfriend but it wasn’t really anything special. We kissed I think and that’s about it. I somehow magically became friends with a new kid named tom. He was new and was from a town called Leonia. He didn’t have a lot of friends so I reached an arm out to him and we became friends. I also gradually became friends with a kid named Ben and Jason. We all lived closely together and would hangout all the time. I had quit runescape for a while and was living a great life. Tom, Ben, Jason, and I would hangout all the time. We’d go take bike rides to the general store, and we started rollerblading and skateboarding. I was happy for once in my life. But things turned to the worse. I started playing warcraft 3 and became addicted. I was playing it so much and made so many excuses not to be with my friends. I would lie and tell them I was sick or doing something else. My mom took the disk away from me because I had really become addicted to the game. Without a game to play… I turned to runescape. It was the 3rd marking period of 7th grade and I was actually failing a class. All because I had become addicted to runescape again. I lied to my mom and told her I was doing amazing and had all a’s but when report cards came she became infuriated. She punished me and forbid me to play runescape. But that didn’t stop me. I continued to play.

 

I managed to keep my grades up in 8th grade and continued playing runescape. But my life all went downhill when high school came. I started the year out horribly wrong. I never studied for a test and I never did my homework. As soon as school was over I’d rush home and log onto the computer. I’d play runescape from 4-11. I literally wasted my life away. Both my mom and dad were working so they couldn’t stop me from playing the game. I was failing two classes by the end of the marking period. I lied to my mom again and told her I was doing great. I hid my report card for as long as I could so that I could continue to play runescape. My mom eventually called the school for my grades and that’s the exact point where my life was ruined. My mom freaked out on me and could not trust me. She told me how she hated me. Yes. Hated me because of me lieng to her about my grades and hiding my report card. She took my account off the computer and I wasn’t allowed to play runescape. I went through 2 weeks of withdrawl from rs and I felt like I was going to die. Runescape was like a drug and without it my life became nothing. I didn’t care about life and I became very depressed. I manged to sneek my sisters password and used her computer account to play runescape. I would play when no one was home and the feeling was great. I managed to hide that I was playing runescape even though I wasn’t supposed to for the entire year. My grades sucked and I was addicted to runescape.

 

Sophmore year went by and I still played runescape. I had similar problems with grades that I had years before. Things never got better. I wanted to quit runescape so badley so that I could somehow live a better life but I just couldn’t. Junior year I met a girl named gabbi. We started dating in decemeber of 2008 and are still dating to this very day. I still played runescape, and this really affected our relationship because I would make up excuses not to be with her. I wish I could take back those years and give up runescape and be with her. W

 

ell now its senior year and my life has somewhat improved. I have a beautiful girlfriend, im running well in track, and I had a great snowboarding season. I’m ready to quit runescape once and for all. I know many of you probably don’t care about this but I felt that this letter/note would help me get away from this game. Im going to drop all of my items and get rid of my laptop and computer. I never want to come back to this game. For those of you who are having similar problems with this game, quit if you can. If this game really ruins your life then it’s nto worth it. Look at me, ive been playing runescape for 6 years and I have nothing to show for it. Im 18, horrible gpa, horrible social life, and Im not going to college. Thanks if you read all this way. Well yeah good fight runescape. It was a pleasure. . Yeahhhh

 

And no im not looking for pity or sympathy, I know its my fault and im not blaming the game. Sorry for my crappy punctuation.

 

Rainy_Day edit: I had to add spaces, the wall of text was impossible to read! Sorry.

Edited April 21, 2010 by Rainy_Day

[Pinkbullet3]

I'm glad you've gotten where you are right now.

 

'twas an insightful read.

[nsalty91]

Sounds like you have time-management issues. There really is no reason you can't play runescape, have good grades, and have an active social life. You just have to be smart enough to know when to play. Homework really doesn't take that long, just set aside some time every day to do it. Really, what's the big deal about chopping out an hour of your playtime to work on that paper that would cause you to flunk if you didn't finish it?

[Lacoste]

stopped reading at zach hayman, my eyes started to hurt aha

 

next time post here

 

http://forum.tip.it/topic/262610-introductions-farewells/

[Pinkbullet3]

Really, what's the big deal about chopping out an hour of your playtime to work on that paper that would cause you to flunk if you didn't finish it?

Easier said than done.

[mario_sunny]

I read the whole thing because stories like that interest me. It was... brutally honest and somewhat depressing.

 

I'll keep my opinions to myself on the matter, since I don't want to start anything, but good luck with your life.

[Gandalf14141]

Sounds like you have time-management issues. There really is no reason you can't play runescape, have good grades, and have an active social life. You just have to be smart enough to know when to play. Homework really doesn't take that long, just set aside some time every day to do it. Really, what's the big deal about chopping out an hour of your playtime to work on that paper that would cause you to flunk if you didn't finish it?

 

 

But I also applaud you for quitting =D>

[Obtaurian]

Really, what's the big deal about chopping out an hour of your playtime to work on that paper that would cause you to flunk if you didn't finish it?

Easier said than done.

 

How so? I don't see what's so hard about closing the Runescape client and opening up Microsoft word.

 

EDIT: To the OP: There's some eerie similarities between the way you started Runescape and the way I did. Fifth grade, best friend, best friend stopped playing. We also seem to be pretty close in age. You're 18, right? I'm 20. You kind of remind me of a TIFer named Abc1230, only you've taken control of your life. I'm glad to see that you're trying to do better for yourself. Some people lack self-control when it comes to certain vices, and while I don't believe that quitting altogether is the only solution, it's certainly not a bad solution, necessarily.

 

Anyway, good luck with your life. I got really bad grades in high school, but I turned myself around. You can do it, too.

[Hajutze]

TL;DR means something, 'k?

Too Long; Didn't read - the ultimate excuse for [developmentally delayed users] to comment without knowing what is going on and trying to act cool ? (Am I close or do I have to try more to find the tl;dr definition ?)

[Aidos Drakon]

tl;dr.

 

Block of text=can't read.

 

Ok, your addiction =your problem. Don't blame rs.

...

And no im not looking for pity or sympathy, I know its my fault and im not blaming the game. Sorry for my crappy punctuation.

 

it was on the last line of the wall of text ...

 

 

TL;DR means something, 'k?

 

If you don't want to put in the time to read the post then don't take the time to post. It doesn't add anything to the discussion. It is like spam.

 

On-topic:

I know where the OP is coming from. I was in a similar situation in high school. I'm in college now and time is more precious than ever before. I have committed to putting school and friends first and then spend whatever time remains on rs even if it means only playing occasionally. It is not easy but it can be done. Good luck with the future! :wink:

[xxshady]

Try not making a huge wall of text next time you want people to read a long post

[Pinkbullet3]

How so? I don't see what's so hard about closing the Runescape client and opening up Microsoft word.

I'd just like to say that not everyone lives the way you do. There are many people who are so addicted to something that they can't take their mind off it no matter how hard they try. I know on a few occasions where I've opened up Word and only managed to write my name and class in the corner of the page before opening up RS and playing for a few more hours.

[deletemeplease]

First of all, I want to say I'm proud.

 

You're doing exactly what I've been trying to do for years.

 

I'll tell you a little bit about myself. Our lives are similar. I became distant from everyone in my life very quickly. Because of my size, I became the school pet; one of those kids who people would laugh at or knock their books off of their desks. By about grade two I thought everyone was an idiot and I pretty much loved when the school day would end. I remember I used to stick a thermometer on one of the lights in my house that got really hot so that I could try and stay home. Surprisingly it worked quite a bit. I had to take Buckleys though, but the bitter taste felt less bad than what happened at school. I never really told anyone, because I know it would just add problems. Anyways, to make me more isolated, my best friend, my dog, died bleeding out in my hands. People in my family used to say that I would be the kid who never stopped smiling; I haven't smiled much since that day. Around grade five or so, I was introduced to Runescape by a somewhat friend. (I could tell he was irritated to be around me, but I guess he felt sympathetic for me or something, I don't know) I began to play and slowly got addicted to it. Soon after I got members. Soon after I got 85 mining. Being stupid as I was back then, I botted a lot of it. This resulted in me getting banned. I wrote a very thoughtful letter to Jagex and got my account back, with 10.5 Black Marks (I guess they really liked the letter, considering you can only have 10 Black Marks back then) and as soon as I got it back I became addicted to it again. I never really had a girlfriend back then; I was always rejected whenever I'd make attempts. I blame them for the way I live today, considering some of the stuff they said to me. Anyways. High school came. First year, I did what any other highschooler would do, enjoy the freedom. Skipping became a drug to me, especially for Gym, considering my size hasn't changed much, I'm still made fun of. Somehow I managed to pass. Grade ten came and I skipped a little less, as I could see my marks declining. I was still addicted to Runescape mind you, so that wasn't helping either. By then, I had let a friend (or so I thought a friend) go on my account. He wanted to buy it, and I thought this would've been the perfect time to try and quit. So he bought it for $40, (Which I still to this day have never received) and then he went on, spammed some disrespectful words and got me banned. My letter didn't work so well this time and I was permanently banned. So I was angry for awhile, but then was sucked right back into Jagex's grasp and began to play again. This is now my main account, and I know I'm still addicted because of the 99's I have. My account right now is almost reaching on 100 days of gameplay. I'll never know how much my old account had, but it probably had more. So I finished grade 10. Around grade 11, I became tired of school and stopped going so that I could work on game programming. I had explained my plan to my parents and they agreed with me. I was honest and told them about how school wasn't working out, and I'd rather start learning to program (self teaching, which I've done in the past. I knew HTML (web-coding) by 13) to make games to sell on the Xbox360 community. This seemed like a good job for me since I have a passion for Programming. So I taught myself the basics of it, and made some trial games. Well, that's about as far as it got. I began to dive back into Runescape slowly, playing an hour a day, then two, then four, then just swiped aside the programming and played all day. This is how I got 99 Runecrafting. It didn't really work out, so I tried going back to school again the next year. It lasted a few months until I had a huge argument with my parents one night, one thing leading to another and I was dropping out. Once I dropped out I began going to church, praying that God would still accept me. I don't go much anymore, I think my problem is I'm too lazy. So I got back into Runescape, hitting a job fair every now and then, being on Monster.com and some other sites. Nothing has come up yet, but I'm still trying. I used to have some friends in preschool, but three of them moved away, and one of them I cheated on with my current girlfriend and vowed to never have any connections with her again so that I could stay with my current girlfriend. Once however I left high school, Ive stopped talking to all my friends, so my only friend is my girlfriend. Recently though, I've enrolled myself into a work at home course institute, so that I can still receive my Equivalent to grade twelve. My girlfriend has been with me for about three years now, and she's been massive support with whatever I do. I thought she was going to leave me when I cheated on her, twice, but she hasnt. Shes stuck with me since, and for that Im going to marry her. Unfortunately though, Runescape still has its grasp on me. I still do play, and recently I achieved 99 Agility. My girlfriend doesnt really have a problem with it. Recently I attempted to quit again for the bajillionth time, this lasted 10 days. I also dropped everything in my bank, around 26 Million worth. Two days before my birthday I began playing again, becoming addicted again. When I wasnt playing, I was doing quite a bit of my schooling; along with I began to write a book. Now the book idea is pretty much trash, and the schooling is done once in a while. Im not eighteen and I know I need to grow up and stop playing this game, or at least play it way less than I do. Thats my story though. I hope it helps to know that youre not the only one where Jagex has ruined things. I must admit though, your current attempt is making me reconsider attempting again.

[snowboarder]

read your story. thanks :) makes me feel better . best of luck to you with life. im shutting off my computer now and hopefully never using again. (yes. never again) good bye runescape love ya baby.

[Robert_R]

Your story about how you started is very scary how similar it is to how I started. I started in 6th grade I'm 17 almost 18 now. I was addicted to some extent how you were but not nearly as bad. Luckily your story stops becoming similar to mine when you started thinking about runescape in class and making excuses to not hang out with friends.

 

Good luck with life now it's much more fun then runescape and never too late to start. :thumbup:

[Giordano]

No offense, but are you guys playing stupid? Don't feed the trolls. <_<

[paul191600]

Honestly, this guy doesn't seem to be typing the way someone that is about to finish 12th grade should. Anyways, this whole situation is similar to obese people who blame food companies; the solution is to distance yourself from the thing that is causing the damages. Sure, Jagex tries to make their game addicting in all, but it all boils down to the person playing it. If this is actually a real story, then I'm sorry about the whole ordeal.

[K4ylan]

Sounds like you have time-management issues. There really is no reason you can't play runescape, have good grades, and have an active social life. You just have to be smart enough to know when to play. Homework really doesn't take that long, just set aside some time every day to do it. Really, what's the big deal about chopping out an hour of your playtime to work on that paper that would cause you to flunk if you didn't finish it?

 

He also mentioned it being like a "drug". And from what I've heard, drug addicts don't control themselves to once a week or so. I kinda became addicted to RS as well. After starting, I played for about 3 months non-stop during summer. Pretty much the day was sleep, runescape, repeat. Thankfully one of my greatest friends in the world told me off, ad I can barely stand to play more than an hour now.

 

Anyway, to OP, good luck doing...whatever it is you plan to do now.

 

There's some eerie similarities between the way you started Runescape and the way I did. Fifth grade, best friend, best friend

 

 

I know, same here Even weirder is that both of us never played the game when our friend told us about it, we started playing late on.

[Moskalski]

Man, that sucks. I'm 20, I've been playing RuneScape since I was 13. I'd play on and off, quitting sometimes, come back a few months or a year or two later. RuneScape is one of those game that just has that effect man. You hate it when things go wrong, and once everything's right again, you get sucked back into it. It becomes easy to quit though. I've got 4 kids and I'm married, I'm only 20. Lol. I'd tell you the ages of my kids but you'd think I'm disgusting, crazy, etc. Most people do. But yea man, good job on quitting, though I don't advise on tossing out your computer/laptop. You could use those for school[college] later on, or for work, etc. If you do play again, add me, or write me on Facebook. PM me if you want to talk on Facebook. I know how it feels not to have had friends. But look at me now, 20, serving in the U.S. Army, have a big, and happy family, I still play RuneScape. Lol. I can't play til I get home, but I still play. Good times, good times. Take care.

[Danny_TeamDan]

Life amazes me on how addicting anything can become and how badly you change over it. I guess it comes down to time management and setting priorities. It isn't easy once you're addicted, so moderation at the beginning is probably the best.

 

Best of Luck in life and w/ your girl friend. Wish I did track/Cross Country all the people were always nice when I ran for my own health they'd encourage you :P

 

Alsooooooo easy on the long walls of texts won't hurt to use the enter button xD

[Thus]

sucks for you

[Central_Keeper]

sucks for you

 

 

Well, you need a lot of courage to step out and tell your own personal story in hope to inspire others. It was a good read, well it would be better with punctuation marks instead of line of text.

 

Sometimes, its hard for people to seek help and look for solutions. Some are good at that, some don't, you can't really generalize everyone with your own ideal situations.

 

Being in a therapist type job myself, I find it hard to change people or convince people at times, because I sometimes don't feel in sync with the client. So some might take awhile to get on the right path, some takes longer, some might never get on the path.

 

IMO, I will always try to find a solution to solve my problem (if I can admit to it in the first place), gradually and slowly. I have heard a lot of people quit due to life changing stories or event, and my take is always step back and value what you have. Whatever the outcome is, as long you are happy with your decision, and set your life back to the right path, its all good.

[deletemeplease]

Good advice. :)

 

You remind me of my old counselor.

[Ed_Warrior]

Honestly it boils down more to a person's personality (addictive or not). People want to find blame for things that they perceive ruin their life, the game is not to blame for your addiction. I started playing runescape almost upon release yet I still managed to graduate from high school with a high GPA while participating in sports during all seasons and possessing an active social life. I went to college and got an engineering degree graduating towards the top of my class while finding time to exercise and hang out with my friends all while still playing runescape. After graduation I have since gotten a job and continue find time to exercise, visit with friends and play runescape all at the same time. I even managed to fit in other various hobbies while doing this. Really all it takes is a slight ability to manage your time and allowing runescape to be something you do in your free time not the other way around. I hate to break it to you but if you think runescape was really taking over your life odds are you just have an addictive personality and will find something else to consume all your time and blame for ruining your life. Instead of just swearing off something try to teach yourself good time management skills otherwise you will spend the rest of your life getting addicted to something and swearing off it to find something new.

[Logdotzip]

I have been playing since March 2001, over 9 years.. Quit off and on in between but never really left the game. It's something to do at the early hours of the morning for an insomniac. Recently I lost interest in RS, but the new Sailining minigame has somehwat caught my interest. I play maybe 1 hour a day on average now, or more at 12am - 4am when my insomnia is acting up.

 

good luck irl