I grew up playing the golden era of N64. I was solidly addicted (Ocarina, Mario, Golden Eye, and Mario Kart). I played a good deal of Civilization in late high school and early College, but as I got good at programming I started to play less and less.<p>My philosophy has morphed into seeing video games as a waste of <i>my</i> time. I could be building something, reading a good history book or novel, learning more about x in computer science, OR getting closer to my friends and family.<p>I have a friend who tells me that I need at least one trashy addiction in my life. For a while I thought his argument had some merit, but I just don't agree with him anymore. I feel most alive and happy when I'm pursuing activities that increase my understanding of the world, open my eyes to ideas I hadn't considered, or brings me closer to my friends and family. Maybe video games can be these things for other people, but not for <i>me</i>.
I was, in my teens. Specially in my "angsty phase", videogames were my escape.<p>Now, I don't play as much as I would like because of work and personal life. It also helps that most of my firends aren't gamers.<p>IMO, it's the finest and most flexible medium that currently exists, taking cues from a lot of the others. I'm an amateur video and board game designer and developer. It's hard to play games because of this, as I am always playing games with a "research" and "critical" perspective. I force myself not to replay games and try to only play games "that matter" and that "have something new", whatever that may mean at the moment.<p>I find it very sad to see so many HN'ers say they are "wasting their time" with games. There is a lot of crap, but some game are well worth the time. (As it is with everything -> Sturgeon's Law)<p>So, to answer the question, I was addicted in the past, I'm not anymore. But I would gladly be addicted again (in the good way :) ).
Yea, Eve online had me for a while. It also had the strange effect of making all other games un-enjoyable for me. Eve is a true min/max game, where 2% of something often makes a huge difference. The desire to maximize the efficiency of everything I did carried over to other games and even aspects of my life.<p>Most games stop being fun when you make a spreadsheet for them, Eve is one of those few exceptions. Right around the time I stopped playing Eve, I started finding it difficult to play games just for fun without trying to min/max every aspect to gain an advantage. I guess I was really addicted to the meta-game rather than the game itself.
In the past, when I was younger, I was addicted to numerous games including WoW, FFXII, C&C, Counter-Strike, TFC. But one day whilst playing WoW I thought "Why am I here grinding levels in a game? I should be grinding levels in life.".<p>I uninstalled everything and made a conscious decision to grind by learning and living. Sure, I still zone out with video games from time to time but I start to get uncomfortable after an hour and stop, very casual. For me, I realised I was wasting my life and it was making me unhappy.<p>[Edit: Typos]
At various times in my life I have devote entirely too much time to Chess, COD, SWG, LOL, and SWTOR.<p>Now I avoid them entirely, run desktop linux, and try to spend my time on things like violin, writing, reading, and coding.
Probably. I have devoted several thousand hours of my life to L4D, L4D2, TF2 and Dota 2. Even more to counter-strike and other hl mods not even bothering to mention all the MMOs I've played.