Some weeks ago, it was announced that online gaming in China was to be restricted with a kind of reverse 'resting' system, for all MMORPGs.
Van Hemlock: The Definition of Healthy
For want of any healthy useage guidelines from my own government, I've decided to take this on-board, and game like a Chinese person from now on. I suppose the point of living in a western democracy is that you're free to regulate your own life and habits, but I wonder with MMO Obsession and Addiction whether a helping external boot up the arse might not actually be quite helpful in keeping online games just that - games, rather than life-destroying and ultimately doomed attempts to escape from a more mundane world.
Anyway, while the actual fine print of their legislation is probably not finished yet, the basic premise seems clear enough:
- Three hours normal playing
- Two hours of 'half power' character
- Further hours of 'no power' character
- Five offline hours required to reset to normal again
A strange system, and clearly a compromise toward the Chinese MMO industry. If it had been me, I'd have just gone with the clearly intended 'three hours, then account locked for five', so without a viable way of halving my character's level, this is the system I shall be adopting: a flat 'Three hours of MMO a day' system.
I must admit that this plan comes at a somewhat easy time for me, as I seem to be going through another 'off' phase with the obsession - no real interest in future titles, and a waning interest in my current one. The WoW Mount Savings Push seems to be a variant on classic short-term goal-creation mind-game I play with myself often, usually in games that are starting to lose their ability to entertain me in their own right, and if past experience is anything to go by, once I have a Mount, I'll probably get bored and quit.
I also seem to be becoming fascinated with the occassional glimpses of a life offline I still see - is there anything out there for me? What do Normal People do with their spare time? What is it like to have Spare Time? I become increasingly aware of the Human Cost, too. I've always been very careful about that - never knowingly hurting others by my obsession, but one phrase in particular does make me wonder:
'...those around you, people who know you, people who would have come to know you but never will now because you decided to spend that time in front of the computer instead...
Of course there are a million Van Hemlocks in a million parrellel universes, who never picked up that copy of Everquest in 1999, and many of them are most likely happier than me; but who their friends might be is somewhat hard to imagine, much less apologise too. I get the point though.
So yes, I'm possibly addicted, and yes, I probably ought to give up and find God or Gardening instead, but for now, I'll just take a leaf out of the Chinese book, and try for Healthy...