Hope for the Hopeless?

[matrixman]

Ouch. Good thing your grandfather is generous, LF.

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Hell of a story Foul...overcoming any addiction is an achievement to be proud of I think, and it looks like you overcame more than just one there.

As you so rightly point out though, it tends to become part of your life.

And if it wasn't for the fact that games and machines only started getting so cool after I had to fend for myself as it were, I'd have been just the same. The only thing that stops me is that I just can't afford it if I want to pay rent etc.

And while the alarm clock is a good idea, (I've used the technique with external alarms for a long time), it only helps if you actually pay attention to it. What happenes to me is I just hit the snooze button...again...and again... I might as well not bother with it.

Worst of all is I spend 10 hours a day on the PC at work, only to go home and play games for another four or five hours. Can you say "carpal tunnel"?

--A

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Internet addiction rife

San Francisco - The United States could be rife with internet addicts as clinically ill as alcoholics, an unprecedented study released on Tuesday suggested.

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine in Silicon Valley said their telephone survey indicated more than one of every eight US residents showed at least one sign of "problematic internet use".

The findings backed those of previous, less rigorous studies, according to Stanford.

Most disturbing was the discovery that some people hid their internet surfing, or went online to cure foul moods in ways that mirrored alcoholics using booze, according to the study's lead author, Elias Aboujaoude.

"In a sense, they're using the internet to self-medicate," Aboujaoude said. "And obviously something is wrong when people go out of their way to hide their internet activity."

According to preliminary research, the typical internet addict was a single, college-educated, white male in his 30s, who spends approximately 30 hours a week on non-essential computer use.

--A

[Holsety]

I guess you and I are more into the "hyper-reality" games like Quake. True escapist stuff! Works for me. I never really cared for sim combat/ strategy games where you sneak around most of the time with a sniper rifle, and where with one shot it's game over. That kills the fun for me. I want the adrenaline rush of running around with some kick-ass futuristic weapon fragging everybody in sight. Yeah, gimme some good ol' mindless violence!

For me, the most addicting are SHMUP games. Believe me, I didn't even need multiplayer a few years ago to spend an entire night trying to beat my 17 million high score in Cho Ren Sha. It's probably because of the level of perfection needed to get the scores; I used to reset in frustration every time I got hit during the first 3 or 4 levels (which costs about 25k points minimum in refreshing your shield, to give some persepective on what an overreaction that is). And I'm a freeware-only guy, so my experience is limited to the really hard arcade games like Viewpoint.

Recently I picked up Ikaruga, which isn't as hard as people say it is. I'll have to try the R-types or something like that.

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SHMUP

????

--A

[Holsety]

SHMUP

????

--A

Shoot 'em-up. Gradius, R-Type, Space Invaders, Starfox. Also called shooters, spaceship shooters, and stuff. Fiendishly hard on human reflexes at their best.

shootthecore.moonpod.com/



If you're interested, check out home of the underdogs (just google it), which has a number of SHMUPs in its collection along with other good free games.

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Ah, I'm with you...1942 style games. Never really been my favourite I must admit. Mostly prefer RPG's and strategy games.

--A