The frightening consequences of electroshock therapy
I'm a middle aged government attorney living in a rural section of the northeast U.S. I'm unmarried and come from a very large family. When not preoccupied with family and my job, I read enormous amounts, toy with evolutionary theory, and scratch various parts on my body.
This journal is filled with an enormous number of half-truths and outright lies, including this sentence.
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City of Villains wrap up
With the first of the year, I wrapped up my time with the online game, City of Villains. I took my starting character, Brainsalad, up to level 38 out of 40. Here's one last picture of him flying over the factories of St. Martial island, no doubt working on another scheme to dominate the lesser minds of planet Earth. 
You may notice that he looks different from his appearance in my entry from November 1. Using game money, you can modify your character's initial appearance. At level 20 you can add a customized cape, and at 30 you can add an aura or glow. With Brainsalad, I got rid of some spikes above his forehead and added the antenna you see, I added glowing lights to his eyes, and I gave him a cape with a jagged design.
After a certain point, I got bored with Brainsalad's powers, which were pretty weak. I played around with a few characters before coming up with Mean Matey.
Mean Matey had a better power set, and I kept him in character all the time. He had an over-the-top pirate dialogue that was fun to maintain. "Aaarrggh. There be them do-gooders on the port side."..."Aye, thas right landlubber, and if ye doubts me, I'll shows what ya whats right with me left hook." I got involved with a group of other supervillain pirates who also played pretty much in character. I was probably the most dedicated of the bunch, and they were sad to see me go after three weeks.
I was wasting a heck of a lot of time though. Games like these sort of work the reverse of things in real life. You start out with decent powers and at first you rapidly gain more. Over time the gains become more difficult, the opponents become harder, and you have to spend a lot more time to achieve any advancement. You get hooked by the rapid advancement and then spend more and more time pushing to that next gain. It's sort of like a drug that you slowly develop a tolerance for, requiring stronger dosage as you go along.
In real life, it seems like you have to spend a lot of time developing basic skills that you can then apply to make more rapid gains. Like exercise. It starts out tedious and painful. Then you get into the habit of it, and slowly start seeing pay offs. The tedium is slowly replaced by an almost meditative high. The pain remains, but it becomes a welcome burn. You put new challenges in front of yourself, and meeting them you find yourself enjoying things more and more.
Two months I spent on City of Villains. Three months on City of Heroes. About five months on World of Warcraft. Sure, they're fun, but I seem to waste a lot of time, and in the end all that leveling doesn't mean anything in my life outside the game.
There's not all that much wrong with it. It wasn't interfering with work. I managed to spend time with loved ones over the holidays, and my free time is my own deal. But there were a few things I felt like it was getting in the way in my personal life. In the past few days, I've gotten my apartment cleaned up, gotten some exercise, and written some more. I have an antsy feeling, and I'm a bit more moody these last few days.
At some point in the next year, I'm sure I'll find another computer game to get temporarily addicted to. For now though, I've got my New Years resolutions to focus on.
You may notice that he looks different from his appearance in my entry from November 1. Using game money, you can modify your character's initial appearance. At level 20 you can add a customized cape, and at 30 you can add an aura or glow. With Brainsalad, I got rid of some spikes above his forehead and added the antenna you see, I added glowing lights to his eyes, and I gave him a cape with a jagged design.
After a certain point, I got bored with Brainsalad's powers, which were pretty weak. I played around with a few characters before coming up with Mean Matey.
Mean Matey had a better power set, and I kept him in character all the time. He had an over-the-top pirate dialogue that was fun to maintain. "Aaarrggh. There be them do-gooders on the port side."..."Aye, thas right landlubber, and if ye doubts me, I'll shows what ya whats right with me left hook." I got involved with a group of other supervillain pirates who also played pretty much in character. I was probably the most dedicated of the bunch, and they were sad to see me go after three weeks.
I was wasting a heck of a lot of time though. Games like these sort of work the reverse of things in real life. You start out with decent powers and at first you rapidly gain more. Over time the gains become more difficult, the opponents become harder, and you have to spend a lot more time to achieve any advancement. You get hooked by the rapid advancement and then spend more and more time pushing to that next gain. It's sort of like a drug that you slowly develop a tolerance for, requiring stronger dosage as you go along.
In real life, it seems like you have to spend a lot of time developing basic skills that you can then apply to make more rapid gains. Like exercise. It starts out tedious and painful. Then you get into the habit of it, and slowly start seeing pay offs. The tedium is slowly replaced by an almost meditative high. The pain remains, but it becomes a welcome burn. You put new challenges in front of yourself, and meeting them you find yourself enjoying things more and more.
Two months I spent on City of Villains. Three months on City of Heroes. About five months on World of Warcraft. Sure, they're fun, but I seem to waste a lot of time, and in the end all that leveling doesn't mean anything in my life outside the game.
There's not all that much wrong with it. It wasn't interfering with work. I managed to spend time with loved ones over the holidays, and my free time is my own deal. But there were a few things I felt like it was getting in the way in my personal life. In the past few days, I've gotten my apartment cleaned up, gotten some exercise, and written some more. I have an antsy feeling, and I'm a bit more moody these last few days.
At some point in the next year, I'm sure I'll find another computer game to get temporarily addicted to. For now though, I've got my New Years resolutions to focus on.
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