Staked through the heart, and you're to blame...
Hi, I'm Russ and I was a Facebook games addict...
I suppose it was a year ago or more, when one of my FB/LJ friends (you know who you are) send me an invitation for the Facebook game "Vampire Wars." I ignored it at first, but some time later, out of curiosity, I decided to start playing it, and before long I was hooked. At one point, I think I must have been playing VW as much as two hours a day, in between work, while doing creative projects at home, and even in the middle of the night. I issued and accepted friend requests from people I didn't know, all because we shared one thing in common - to succeed at Vampire Wars.
It turns out that such games are specifically designed to be addicting. I saw active players loudly proclaim that they were quitting, only to show up with VW-related posts on Facebook a few weeks later. I even read the above article, understood what was happening, and still had trouble staying away for more than a few days - after all, there were new "limited abilities" to be gained, abilities that would never be available again.
I finally decided that cold turkey was the only way, just as if I were quitting smoking. I blocked all VW posts, hid all of my FB-only friends and then just waited. I waited until I'd missed some of those "never to be gotten again" abilities. I waited until game goals I had set for myself were slowly becoming irrelevant, and then I took the next step. I started to defriend people.
In Vampire Wars, as in many similar FB games, you need a lot of friends who are also playing in order to succeed. By defriending my allies, I was giving up an advantage that had taken me a fair amount of time to build up. But I also made it that much less worthwhile to go back into the game. After all, I was now much weaker. I could no longer count on receiving support from other players as needed to meet various challenges. Little by little the addiction died out.
I think I have fewer than thirty "vampire-wars-only" friends left on my list, and I defriend them when I recognize them. It was an interesting experience, but one I prefer not to repeat.
Are you a Facebook games addict, too?
I suppose it was a year ago or more, when one of my FB/LJ friends (you know who you are) send me an invitation for the Facebook game "Vampire Wars." I ignored it at first, but some time later, out of curiosity, I decided to start playing it, and before long I was hooked. At one point, I think I must have been playing VW as much as two hours a day, in between work, while doing creative projects at home, and even in the middle of the night. I issued and accepted friend requests from people I didn't know, all because we shared one thing in common - to succeed at Vampire Wars.
It turns out that such games are specifically designed to be addicting. I saw active players loudly proclaim that they were quitting, only to show up with VW-related posts on Facebook a few weeks later. I even read the above article, understood what was happening, and still had trouble staying away for more than a few days - after all, there were new "limited abilities" to be gained, abilities that would never be available again.
I finally decided that cold turkey was the only way, just as if I were quitting smoking. I blocked all VW posts, hid all of my FB-only friends and then just waited. I waited until I'd missed some of those "never to be gotten again" abilities. I waited until game goals I had set for myself were slowly becoming irrelevant, and then I took the next step. I started to defriend people.
In Vampire Wars, as in many similar FB games, you need a lot of friends who are also playing in order to succeed. By defriending my allies, I was giving up an advantage that had taken me a fair amount of time to build up. But I also made it that much less worthwhile to go back into the game. After all, I was now much weaker. I could no longer count on receiving support from other players as needed to meet various challenges. Little by little the addiction died out.
I think I have fewer than thirty "vampire-wars-only" friends left on my list, and I defriend them when I recognize them. It was an interesting experience, but one I prefer not to repeat.
Are you a Facebook games addict, too?