Most Embarassing thing you've done for gaming / gaming time?

I'm not talking about the usual skipping work or cutting class to play a game. How about those little embarassing things that you've done to secure gaming time that make you feel a nice, juicy backlash of remorse and/or self-disgust?

My worst than I recall was one Thanksgiving when I was expected to go home back to Maryland to visit my parents over the four-day weekend. I was a freshman in college in Tennessee, and my parents lived about 10 hours away. One day driving, two days home, one day driving back. I'd just picked up Master of Magic and was so enthralled with it that I was desperate for more time to play it. So, instead of going home, I told my parents that I had a bunch of homework to catch up on and couldn't possibly make it home. Being an only child, my mom's tears "we'll miss you!! but we understand...." and 'that's okay, son, we know you're busy' from my dad were not unexpected. I spent Thanksgiving with a huge grin on my face, a bag of doritoes the size of my torso, a fifth of illegally obtained vodka, and an almost unprecedented thirteen-hour-game of Master of Magic playing out before me.

It was two days later that the crushing guilt swept over me like the shadow of some filthy carrion bird. Needless to say, I helped assauge my conscience by doing a trip home the following weekend, whispered not a word of my actual Thanksgiving activities, and everything worked out in the end. I never said this story had explosions or high romance.

How about you? Vent some of those skeletons in your gaming closet. Justify those little white lies you told in the name of clicking on a little piece of plastic in front of a screen.

How about failing out of college by spending class time playing Doctor Mario at a buddy's place? Damn those pills! Damn them to HELL!

Stylez wrote:

How about failing out of college by spending class time playing Doctor Mario at a buddy's place? Damn those pills! Damn them to HELL!

I had a friend that failed out because of Diablo II.

Really, I haven't done anything particularly shameful to get a game. Other than, y'know, work for a SUIT. The MAN.

I've seen a few people fail out over too much game time, and my friends have failed more than a few classes failed over it. WoW in particular has a reputation for scarring transcipts.

I've wished on a few occasions that I had skipped a party or other social event with my friends in order to play a game... I know that's a bit backwards, but it sort of counts, right?

Stylez wrote:

How about failing out of college by spending class time playing Doctor Mario at a buddy's place? Damn those pills! Damn them to HELL!

How about just gaming in general? Splinter Cell, MechAssault, Halo, all my GBA games, you know, constantly over 3 years? That'll do it.

*Edit* Rest of it removed per member's request. . . even though it's already been quoted, like, three times.

Chiggie Von Richthofen wrote:

I have all of you beaten so far. I gave up a late night rendezvous with two lovely ladies, one now my wife, so that I could play Quake 3 at a LAN party with a my friend and a bunch of college guys while I was in high school. . .

Late night rendezvous with two girls or Quake 3? I, am an IDIOT!!

So I assume your penis threw its self off a bridge right?

Dr.Ghastly wrote:
Chiggie Von Richthofen wrote:

I have all of you beaten so far. I gave up a late night rendezvous with two lovely ladies, one now my wife, so that I could play Quake 3 at a LAN party with a my friend and a bunch of college guys while I was in high school. . .

Late night rendezvous with two girls or Quake 3? I, am an IDIOT!!

So I assume your penis threw its self off a bridge right?

SHRINKAGE!!!

I always made sure social activities came before games. If a friend asks me for a game of football (real football, soccer) I'd leave even Civ II.

I'll leave my Gaming Nerd Card at the counter.

Real Life always trumps gaming for me. But barely. There have been days when i'm on a roll in R:TW that i've had to force myself away from the PC.

Lol, I convinced my mother to buy me a brand new laptop, saying that it was required for school, and all that. lol ,.... it was actually so that i could play games.....

Puce Moose wrote:

I'm not talking about the usual skipping work

Seriously? Skipping work? I assumed people here were exagerrating when they claimed they were thinking about doing that for "Game X when it comes out tomorrow/next week/Q3 '07" No wonder you've all played everything.
Man, I am so freakin' jealous.

Having said that, I'm convinced I would never have made it through college or grad school if I had a computer (or access to one) at the time. My brother complained to me once about his 19 year old son having been really close to losing a semester to Everquest. I couldn't muster up the moral fortitude to declare the kid a shiftless punk, because I just kept thinking, "man, that would so be me if I was 19 now. Except it wouldn't have been 'close'."

HantaXP wrote:

Lol, I convinced my mother to buy me a brand new laptop, saying that it was required for school, and all that. lol ,.... it was actually so that i could play games.....

Do you actually say "Lol"?

Anyway, I've blown off sex a few times whenever I wanted to play something. I don't regret it, really.

Mex wrote:

Do you actually say "Lol"?

Anyway, I've blown off sex a few times whenever I wanted to play something. I don't regret it, really.

I guess he needs to read the Code of Conduct.

Chiggie Von Richthofen wrote:

I have all of you beaten so far. I gave up a late night rendezvous with two lovely ladies...

The quote plus your avatar.. priceless.

Chiggie Von Richthofen wrote:

Late night rendezvous with two girls or Quake 3? I, am an IDIOT!!

You fool! Though I admit.. it's one of those situations that at the time most of us would have probably made the same decision, it's afterwards you realize the mistake.

Wait.. what? No! You fool!

Jakobedlam wrote:
Puce Moose wrote:

I'm not talking about the usual skipping work

Seriously? Skipping work? I assumed people here were exagerrating...

Sadly... no, there's been the occasional Tuesday's I've been "out sick" because game X was being released. I always feel guilt afterwards and always thought what the hell was I thinking.. I couldn't wait one more day? But at the time, no way.. I must play now.. right now!

Mex wrote:

Anyway, I've blown off sex a few times whenever I wanted to play something. I don't regret it, really.

You fool!

Vega wrote:
Mex wrote:

Anyway, I've blown off sex a few times whenever I wanted to play something. I don't regret it, really.

You fool!

Considering how much sex Mex gets, I think he's operating on a wholly different level of humping than we are.

Well, my low was using VNC (remote pc control) to connect to my home machine from work, and use that to do stuff in WoW like making wands and buying and selling stuff. It was really sad since VNC has a refresh rate of 0.25 or something, and I had to quit and restart regularly because I would manage to get the character looking up or down, but never managed to level the view again.

But soon after that I left my WoW addiction card at the counter.

Might be lame but I skiped school to play World of Warcraft... on a Tuesday.

For those of you who don't play WoW Tuesday is when the servers are taken down for maintnence.

Well, I failed out of a $26k/yr college due to Asheron's Call, though it probably would have happened with any game. I was depressed and suicidal at the time, so I'm not sure if I was really addicted, or just using it as escapism. Probably the latter, since I rarely ever played... I just sat online and socialized.

And Chiggie... in the words of the all knowing Ren... "YOU EEEDIOT!"

(And for reference, yes, I've been at those crossroads before. I chose... wisely. )

As for WoW, I really don't play it that often. I took off Thursday because I wasn't feeling well, but since I was running a fever, I feel that was justified (no use making everyone in the office sick, and I pulled in two levels that day). I was also supposed to work on Sat. (to make up those Thursday hours), but switched my hours to Sunday so I could run Stockades. But I haven't missed any time for it, as my timesheets all say 40hours worked.

Hey, PurEvil, my favorite picture is back!! Yay!!

Anyway, I would say there's a chance you were addicted. Possibly. I know I'm not an addict, but definitely have been addicted at times.

I've read quite a few books on anxiety and depression, having dealt with them myself. And I've also ready books about having an "addictive personality". Meaning that you have a gaping hole in your life that you will likely fill with SOMETHING. Be that workaholism, gaming addiction, gambling, drinking, etc. There are addicts. And then there are people who are in a psychological spot where they can get addicted to any number of things to avoid dealing with what's painful or hard.

I've been there, certainly. What saved me as a gamer and as a person was realizing that I had to treat the underlying cause and not just check myself into a gaming addiction clinic (didn't have them back then, I don't think) or a workaholism addiction clinic. So I treated the underlying cause and I do better these days. Not perfect, but better.

Well, the way I look at it is... I would have escaped into any fictional reality... I only chose AC because of my prior addiction to it. I had left the game months before starting college, and I was in a good place emotionally, so I had very little inclination to log on. Then, about 2 months into my first semester, I crashed, and went back... if I hadn't had that mental crash, I'd probably chalk it up to addiction (since I don't think I would have crawled back to it)... but obviously my depression was the bigger problem. Heavy gaming was just a symptom.

And yeah, I think I like this old avatar better. It's less creepy than the Sith kitty, though he may make a return after a while.

That's my point, though. The term addiction has been misused so much that it's hard to know what to term addiction sometimes. People joke about a game being "addictive", for example. Or people refer to getting "addicted" to Paxil, when it's actually a medication some people just need.

So I guess what I'm saying is that for the purposes of what you're talking about, I don't think addiction is necessarily a bad term. It doesn't mean you're a "game addict" that needs to jump out of airplanes. It doesn't even mean you're like me and have a permanent void in your life that therapy has not yet helped you to fill and thus you're prone to getting addicted to a number of things. But in the context of addictive personalities (and remember that there are always underlying causes like depression, anxiety, etc.) it sounds similar to what I've read about. What I've experienced. Glad you're better.

I'm pretty sure I've called in sick to play a game before. Not in a long time, and I don't remember which game/job, but I'm pretty sure I've done it.

I also told my parents I had to work and couldn't go to Thanksgiving once so I could stay home and play videogames, but to be fair, we were having Thanksgiving at this other family's house (good friend of my mom) and I can't stand them. So the reasoning was two-fold.

I ran a LAN party for seven years that at one point hit nearly 100 attendees and usually averaged 50-60. That's kind of embarassing, isn't it?

atom wrote:

I ran a LAN party for seven years that at one point hit nearly 100 attendees and usually averaged 50-60. That's kind of embarassing, isn't it?

I hope not. I helped run one for 3 years that topped out at around 120.

We have one at 60 right now, and no more places in the room, why is that embarassing? I fell that if we get bigger, we will lose the atmosphere and personality of our LANs.

Edit: Don't mean to derail the thread, sry about that. Think think, another embarassing game thing....think!.....