What has it cost you? The Pixel fixation.

[iruinedyourday]

the first rare item drop I ever got on my own was a level 10ish mob in Lavastorm. It was a gypsy that had a +7 cha torch. I held that thing with pride until I was PK'd and someone looted it.

I was a 19 year old boy, I sat on my front porch and cried... Then i looked up and thought to myself, 'wtf is wrong with you, you're crying over a video game?'

So I guess you could say EQ cost me my dignity.

[Farzo]

My wake up call was playing @ 1am in my undies on the ground next to my bed and having my gf wake up roll over and watch me for a bit then state " wtf is wrong with you, its 1 am..." that's when my eq time started to wane.


Luv eq but

[Oooruk]

I think it has benefited me way more than it cost me.

I started playing EQ at 11, then moved to DAoC at 12 and WoW at 15. When I played, everyone I played with and was friends with was college age or older so I had to act a lot more mature than I was at the time. I remember being terrified of people finding out how young I was.

The benefits (for me at least) include:

-Typing speed and ability - so glad I learned this at a young age

-Learning how to use computers. Again, so glad I learned how to do this at a young age. My friend and I tried to program a D2 MF bot at 14, it never ended up working but was a great experience.

-Leadership and conflict resolution skills. This might sound funny but for DAoC and WoW I was part of a core group that dominated each server. This meant running raids, running PvP groups, working on strats, sifting through data to min/max etc. As well as dealing with all the bullshit that comes up between people in these enivornments.

-The value of hardwork. IE if you want to be the best, be prepared to dedicate 60+ hours a week. This came in handy during university and work.

I mean, I basically did no school work from the ages of 11 to 17 but school is easy enough for me that all I had to do was show up and I could pass. My hockey performance dropped dramatically, but I would never have made it pro anyway, so no big loss.

Fast forwarded to the last 3 years... I graduate uni in 2012 at 22 with honors near the top of my class, got a job working on the other side of the world (moved from Canada to Australia) and am making almost 6 figures a year. Basically i have the world at my finger tips and play this when i have the time. Life is good.

Oooruk - 51 shaman, blue
Aten - 43 enchanter, red

[Farzo]

Pras - welcome to Australia, even if ur Canadian.

[Oooruk]

West Australia, near Fremantle.

Been here almost 3 years now.

Truth be told though, I haven't been on p1999 since feb. My gaming time is taken up with nostalrius

[EndofLine]

Originally Posted by Nuggie [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

On the contrary, I used it as a crutch to get me through some bad times. Eq helped me in a large way.

Yeh, I'm not going to say there weren't some sacrifices made to keep up with the game back then, but I definitely have to say the pros outweighed the cons. Without getting into it there was an enormous transition in my life going on back then, and Everquest and the friends in it gave me an escape until I was in a position to remove myself from the situation.

14 year marriage, 2 kids later. I still feel as though in some very strange way I owe a lot to Everquest for taking me out of my home life and into Norrath for a couple of years.

[GreldorEQ]

I can assure you, time spent playing EQ as a teenager was detrimental to my education and my work ethic. A problem I certainly still struggle with today. I can reasonably say, however, that it strengthened my social skills (which were perhaps already strong) in addition to my problem solving skills(something most video games in moderation can provide).

Currently, I play well under the radar. My work situation allows me certain liberties that somehow translate to playtime opportunities in my twisted priority list. If anyone found out how much time I wasted, or that I was doing this at all, there would be some pretty serious work/family consequences.

Despite identifying my addictive personality, it is hard to understand why I continue, knowing the very serious possibilities that could come to be. There is a world of better things to do than play this game for those of us who are physically able. Playing this game is much easier than most of those things.

[murcielago200]

As far as I can tell I only have slightly irritated wife from it. I also made it through nursing school because of EQ. I needed to study for like 12 hours a day for a week before state boards and it's easy to study while doing a 6 min camp and not fall asleep while reading my books since I get a mini break every 6 min.
My wife stays on and off irritated at me because of this game so I'm currently on break. She had to make a bet with me that I couldn't go 60 days without eq and so I said she couldn't go 60 days without TV. My house is really boring now... And we had to decide to do this when Velious is about to come out... Im hoping she cracks before then so I can play without losing the bet.

[Gotze]

Originally Posted by murcielago200 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

As far as I can tell I only have slightly irritated wife from it. I also made it through nursing school because of EQ. I needed to study for like 12 hours a day for a week before state boards and it's easy to study while doing a 6 min camp and not fall asleep while reading my books since I get a mini break every 6 min.
My wife stays on and off irritated at me because of this game so I'm currently on break. She had to make a bet with me that I couldn't go 60 days without eq and so I said she couldn't go 60 days without TV. My house is really boring now... And we had to decide to do this when Velious is about to come out... Im hoping she cracks before then so I can play without losing the bet.

Out of curiosity has she in return quit a hobby that she enjoys?

[murcielago200]

Ya that's the no tv. (her hobby)