How Video Games ruined my life

As a child, I was a fairly normal boy. I

enjoyed playing outside with my friends.

I was active, enjoyed sports, and didn't

have to wear glasses. All of this changed

when I was around 7 years old and I

received my first ever games console. It

was Christmas morning and I went

downstairs to unwrap my presents, and I

unwrapped this box, and inside of the box

was this weird gray-looking machine. It

had purple buttons and a green-looking

screen. I had never seen a device like

this before, and I was very curious as to

what it did. My parents had bought me the

first ever Game Boy, and this was the

beginning of my descent into video game

addiction. I had a few games like Super

Mario Land and Kirby's Dream Land, and

they were fun and everything for a few

years, but then I got a serious upgrade.

And this is when I finally got a proper

gaming console. I got the Sega Mega Drive,

and this is when I transitioned from being

a casual gamer to a serious gamer. I had a

few games like Sonic 1 and 2, Cool Spot,

Mortal Kombat, and it was when I got the

Sega Mega Drive I noticed massive and

drastic changes in my personality and

behavior. The young energetic kid who

enjoyed the light summer's breeze on a

cool evening, the boy who enjoyed playing

football outside with his friends, was no

longer there to be found. Instead, a

sickly looking boy hunched over in his

bedroom staring at a dimly lit screen.

Completely void of any motivation or

ambition to achieve anything in life. The

spark of life seemed to have been

extinguished from within his soul. During

the summer days, I got pretty bad hay

fever, and the allergies were just

unbearable. So I hid away in my room,

shut my curtains, and shut out the

sunlight. I hated people coming into my

bedroom and disturbing me. I hated having

to go to school, hated having to wake up

early in the morning when all I really

wanted to do was just play video games.

So as the years went on, I upgraded my

console from next generation to the next

generation, from the Mega Drive to the

PlayStation 1, from PlayStation 1 to

PlayStation 2, from the PS2 to the Xbox.

But all of this was still considered to be

fairly casual gaming compared to what I

would eventually end up becoming— a PC

gamer. So as a 15-year-old teenager, my

family only had one computer and shared

family computer that we all used for

various computing tasks. My dad originally

bought it to help him with his work and

also for me and my sister to do homework

on. I don't think he knew when he bought

the computer that computers would

eventually become very capable gaming

machines. And when I began PC gaming, it

was like a completely different beast

because the types of games you can get on

the PC were unlike any I've ever seen on

console. So I was around 15 years old and

my dad recently just upgraded the

computer. And then one day I accidentally

discover a game called Guild Wars and

I was introduced to the world of MMORPGs,

also known as the crack cocaine of video

games. Guild Wars was a very basic game,

didn't really hold my attention for more

than a few months. And then I found a new

game called Star Wars Galaxies, which had

me absolutely hooked for one year. And

then I discovered the one game that

probably resulted in the destruction of my

education and my life. You might have

heard of it before. It goes by the name of

World of Warcraft. Probably one of the

most dangerous video games that has ever

existed. So because Star Wars Galaxies got

kind of boring, me and my Star Wars

Galaxies guild member friends decided to

all move over to World of Warcraft.

Initially, I didn't like World of

Warcraft. I thought it looked stupid and

childish. It was just full of

cartoony-looking elves and dwarves and cow

people. Where are the stormtroopers?

Where are the TIE fighters? Where are the

AT-ATs and Jedis? Nowhere. So I

reluctantly followed my guild members into

World of Warcraft, thinking I was going to

hate it. But oh my God, as soon as I

logged into the game and created my first

character, I was almost instantly hooked.

I found the cartoony graphics and colorful

world to be kind of childish and immature

for my tastes in the beginning, but I soon

grew to love it. The addictive nature of

these MMO games was just so powerful. It

combined the addictive gameplay of video

games with also the social community

aspect of, you know, being a human being

and wanting to socialize with your other

fellow human beings. But because I spent

most of my childhood inside my bedroom

playing console games, I was kind of

scared of interacting and socializing with

people in the real world at this point.

So being able to socialize with people in

games on these MMORPG games really

fulfilled my craving for social

interaction. When I started playing World

of Warcraft, it was actually the beginning

of summer holidays, so I was lucky and

didn't have to go to school for the next 2

months. And I thought to myself, okay,

this World of Warcraft thing is just gonna

be something I'll just do to do something

over the summer holidays, and then when

school starts again, I'll just be able to

go back to school again like I usually do.

But as soon as school started again, I

felt so miserable and depressed during

class, all I wanted to do was run back

home and start playing World of Warcraft

again. I had absolutely no interest in

studying or listening to the teacher or

trying to pass exams. I had no interest in

learning at all. When I was in the

classroom, all I could think about was,

what quests am I going to do when I get

back home? Should I change my secondary

profession? Should I start again with a

new character? Because I don't really like

playing as a druid anymore. I want to try

being a rogue. Maybe that'll be more fun.

When I wasn't playing World of Warcraft,

I was thinking about it. And on my days

off school, I'd wake up really early in

the morning, like 7 AM in the morning,

and then play all day until midnight. So

as you can imagine, because I was using

this shared family computer to play World

of Warcraft, there were quite a few

arguments and fights that happened because

of my World of Warcraft addiction. My

sister also liked to play games like The

Sims, and she also used to do her homework

on this computer. And she would want to

use the computer, but I was still playing

World of Warcraft. And then I would refuse

to get off the computer and let her use

it. And then we would have a fight, like

an actual physical fight. I would usually

end up making her cry because I would win

the fight. And then she would go to my

dad. My dad would be upset. And then to

punish me, he would take away the

internet, the little cable that connects

the internet to the modem. He would take

that with him to work. So when he was at

work and I was at home, I couldn't play

World of Warcraft. And these days when I

couldn't play were absolute torture. I

didn't know what to do. I just sat on my

bed, sometimes crying. Sometimes I'd get

so mad and angry, I would start punching

the wall and just having a tantrum and

crying, and then desperately waiting for

him to come back from work. And then when

he would come back from work, I would

start trying to beg him to plug the

internet back in. I was like the worst

imaginable spoiled little brat as a kid,

and I feel kind of ashamed of myself now.

I remember my family would have a family

discussion downstairs without me, and I

could hear them discussing, how can we get

Daniel to stop playing World of Warcraft?

And my dad obviously wanted to stop me

from playing it, but I think he knew how

sad and upset and angry I would be if he

just took it away cold turkey. So he let

me continue playing it, and then he would

take away the cable as punishment if I was

violent. And I guess his strategy or plan

was hoping that I would eventually just

lose interest in the video game. But over

2 years had passed and I was still

completely hooked to World of Warcraft. I

finished secondary school failing nearly

all of my exams. I think I got 2 Cs. They

were my best grades. Got 2 Cs in science

and maths, and then the rest of the

subjects I just got Fs and Ds. I did try

to study for exams to get into university,

and that usually takes about 2 years. But

1 year into the courses I was taking, I

decided to just quit. Because I was so

addicted to World of Warcraft and that was

all I wanted to do. So I quit school and I

was like 17 years old, no job, no

education, just playing World of Warcraft

every single day, all day. And my dad was

getting more and more fed up with it. And

because the shared computer was right

outside of his bedroom, he would get angry

when I was playing it late at night. I had

this raid in Molten Core. I finally got

myself into a decent raiding guild and we

were raiding Molten Core and we're quite

far into the dungeon and it was like 1:00

a.m. My dad kept telling me to turn the

computer off, but I was in the middle of

this very important raid, so I ignored

him. And then he just came out of his

bedroom after trying to tell me to turn it

off, and he just switched off the computer

by the mains plug. I was so angry, I

actually started swearing at my dad,

saying the F-word and the B-word, and he

didn't do anything. He just went back into

his bedroom and went to sleep. I also

stole a lot of money to be able to buy

items in the game. So you could pay

someone, some shady website,

and real-life money, and then in the game

they'll give you gold. So I used to use my

dad's PayPal account and then secretly use

his PayPal account to spend hundreds of

pounds on these gold farming websites in

order to get in-game gold. And he didn't

find out until I spent up to £1,000, I

think, on his PayPal account. One day he

said to me, Daniel, what are all these

payments to this website called Item

Garden? And then I was like, oh crap, I

need to just admit that I was using his

account to buy in-game items. And I said,

I'm sorry. And I promised that I would pay

the money back, which I did. So I was

about 18 and I finally got myself my first

job and things started to get a little bit

better because I finally had enough money

to buy my own computer, put it in my

bedroom. I didn't have to share it with

anyone, didn't have to fight with my

sister anymore. But I was still pretty

addicted to the game and my dad tried

taking us to France on a skiing holiday.

To see if he can try and break me away

from the game. And he used to love doing

skiing when he was younger, so he thought

he would introduce us to it as well. So we

went to France on this skiing trip, and I

really hated it. I didn't find skiing to

be interesting at all. I just sat there

sulking, wishing I could play World of

Warcraft again. And then he kind of

snapped and got angry because I wasn't

showing any interest in skiing, and he

said to me when we get back home, he's

gonna rip out the internet and I'll never

play World of Warcraft again. Again. On

the last day of the ski trip, I did start

to improve with my mood, and I did try

skiing, and it was kind of fun, I guess.

So eventually I did lose interest in World

of Warcraft, and that was only because I

discovered anime and Japan, and I became a

weeb, and I became obsessed with learning

Japanese and watching anime and trying to

become a manga artist. And I had this

dream to move to Japan and live there. So

because of this crippling addiction to

video games, I think I missed out on

improving my education, moving into

university, getting a really good

education, and maybe even getting a good

job in the future. I don't know how my

life would have turned out if I never got

into video games. It would have been

drastically different. And for this

reason, I feel kind of scared if I ever

had kids. I would be scared to ever let

them anywhere near video games because

they are so addictive. People say stuff

like, uh, sugar and fast food and that

kind of stuff's addictive and you can't

give it to kids. But no one seems to talk

about how addictive video games can be and

how dangerous they can be for children to

get addicted to. I had zero self-control

and there were no rules in the house.

There was no such thing as you can only

play for 1 hour or only 2 hours before

dinner, or you can only play for 1 hour

after you finish your homework. There was

no rules like this. It was just like, oh,

you can play however long you want,

whenever you want. It's up to you. Do what

you want, Daniel. Obviously, I still play

video games to this day, but I try and get

my chores done and my work done before I

start playing video games, because

otherwise I'll just sit here playing all

day and then I'll feel really bad because

I didn't finish any work or anything I had

to do. Nowadays, I like to see video games

as a reward. So I finish something that

was challenging or difficult or something

I don't really want to do, but I have to

do. And then I reward myself with a few

hours of playing some video games. I find

it kind of funny that I started off my

video game journey with the original Game

Boy and now I play on the Switch OLED.

It's pretty impressive and amazing how

much technology has improved over the

decades. I can't even imagine what it's

like being a kid now with things like

Steam Decks and Switch OLEDs and free

online games like Fortnite. When I was a

kid, we just had very simple games like

Super Mario Land, and even that alone on

its own was enough to get me completely

hooked. It must be a nightmare being a kid

or being a parent nowadays. I don't really

see myself ever not playing video games

because why stop? They're fun, they're

enjoyable, makes you feel good. You just

need to know how to have a bit of