Please read the whole thing before commenting. This is very important to me.
About a month ago, I uninstalled Starcraft from my computer because I could not stop playing and it was distracting my ability to do well in school. Since then, I’ve gone on a series of plans to renew my mental state. Recently, I’ve been getting these surges to do starcraft again, but my I’ve had enough mental strength not to download it again. All this time, however, I’ve been watching the pro scene. Summer is starting soon, and I was contemplating whether I should start playing again or not. I’m not taking any classes over the summer but I have to study for SAT 1’s and 2 SAT 2’s and do homework for 4 AP classes over the summer. And I also have to practice clarinet and piano. I guess I’ll have time at night for 2 or 3 hours of starcraft, but my worry is that I wont be able to focus on anything else and I’ll be thinking about SC all the time. Plus I could be spending my time on more “useful” things like exercise, working on learning a new instrument (guitar), watching some dramas (I wont get addicted to those), and practicing some coding for computer science.
When I see Jaedong, Bisu, and Flash play, I get SO inspired to play myself, but I don’t want to get sucked into that vortex again. I saw the video of flash winning the OSL over Movie lately and him crying was so touching. I thought to myself, How could I ever stop playing Sc… I thought this many other times too, when Jaedong won his OSL over Fantasy, when Bisu transferred to SKT from MBC. Anyways I’ve been following SC and playing it for about 2 years now and I’ve been very passionate about it. I remember when my friend first introduced me to Starcraft at the beginning of summer right after School ended. He had been playing for two and a half years, and he loved it, so I decided to give it out a try. I fell in love with the game, and after playing, learning, absorbing information for 3 weeks, I beat my friend 5 games in a row, which startled both him and me. I instantly started watching the pro scene and my first favorite player was Bisu (I’ve had 2 favorite players until now). He was so dynamic and dominating, it was amazing. After a couple weeks, I learned about ICCUP, and tried playing on that, but got DEMOLISHED by better players. I played 30 games, ending up 11 wins, 19 losses. This increased my drive to get better. I read somewhere that if I practiced one build against computers and practiced keeping my money low and try to force myself to do more stuff, my APM would go up and I would get better, so I tried it for a couple weeks, and I got to C-. After about a year of playing and practicing, I got to B+, my highest rank.
Since I started playing the summer right before my sophomore year, I didn’t know how this would affect my school life. Before this, I was an all A student. Up to freshman year, anything lower than an A was horrendous for me. I would freak out if I got an 89%. First semester of Sophomore year, I got 4 C’s - a 2.4 GPA. This had a huge impact on me and my parents. They went crazy and found out that I was playing games, but I kept playing and trying to improve myself. I told myself that I wanted to become a person that could balance games and grades at the same time, and kept playing. The thing is, it consumed my thoughts and time. I could not focus in school because I would think about what to do under certain situations in the game, what aspects for me to improve, how to respond to a drop, etc. I would write all these down and not listen in class. When I got home, I would tell myself that I was gonna play for 1 hour, and end up playing 7.. I ended up 2nd semester Sophomore year with a 3.3…
I knew now. I knew now that I was addicted to this game. But I couldn’t do anything about it. Over the summer right before my junior year, I reached my highest rank on ICCUP. When school started however, my struggle began to try to free myself of this thing that had hindered my life for so long. I felt desperate at this point. Everyone knows that sophomore and junior years are the most important years for college. I ruined my sophomore year, and it seemed like I was going to bomb my junior year too. I felt helpless. The struggle was me trying to get myself to totally quit and go on with life. I tried everything, from online game addicting courses to talking to my counselor to writing down everything that has ever been an inspiration to me and trying to study hard so I could be like them someday. After getting a 3.0 in first semester of Junior year, I tried even harder to do something about my situation. Only now did I manage to uninstall it. Mind you, however, that I’ve uninstalled it many times before, only to reinstall it a couple days/weeks later.
So why am I asking you guys whether I should start playing again or not? For my own good, I know that I shouldn’t, but I’ve been doing it for so long and the pro scene is so interesting that I want to drive myself to be able to control my time playing it. Please tell me what you think I should do, and give me reasons and explanations too. Thanks for the support, guys!
if playing SC is all or nothing when it comes down to it, maybe you should wait. but if you think you can learn to play an appropriate amount of time so you can keep up with your education the way you want, dive back in. like you said, its about controlling your time. with sc its hard since when you lose you want to rebound and it can turn into long gaming sessions. thats my experience anyway.
reminds me of smoking, i quit a couple years ago and ive been keeping away from a single puff just because for me, the risk is not worth the reward (risk of picking that nasty habit back up =\) sc is another issue with me entirely though lol.. don't take away my sc ;D
SC is damn hard to quit. Ive never even tried to quit till now but i had periods where i play like 10 hours a day to a few games per week.
Now im playing like a few games per week but im following progaming scene as much as i can. You can try to stop playing and just watch progaming i think thats enough for a SC fan.
put it this way, if you want a real life dont play sc, if u dont want a real life play sc. For your situation, some people would like to play it that much, but dont have the time, and end up not playing it. but others cant do anything but play sc, so its your choice, normal lifestyle with an outdoorsy status, or a hibernating nerd who lives the life of an sc gamer.
SC is a culture with many sacrifices, only real downfall is there isnt a huge pro scene for NA EURO etc.. as is in korea, so spending too much time on sc is fatal to real life, unless your living in korea.
I am really sorry man. I was playing WoW (back when it wasn't awful and pedestrian) during my junior year in high school and had some of the same problems. I was running recruitment/raids/website/etc. as the leader of a high-end guild with competitive end-game progression, which took 50+ hours a week, and I can tell you that quitting was really, really hard.
My relationships suffered while I played WoW, along with my school work and my home life. However, I made friends with WoW and had a great life there too. You just have to weigh what is important to you. You are going to university in a year it sounds like, so I think the time has come to sit it down and concentrate on your studies. Good luck man it is really hard to do.
I'm almost ashamed to say this, but Ragnarok had the same effect on me for a period. I wouldn't sleep, or even eat much and just play. I started playing a lot after my girlfriend left me 3 years ago. Without her I got depressed and I needed something to do I guess. My grades dropped and my life was terrible. All I did was play games to become the best.
After almost failing a semester, somehow I broke out of it and my life began. My grades went up, and I found a lovely new girl whom I have been with for 2 years now. I managed to break my addiction.
I never went back to be like that, but I still play for maybe an hour or two a day at most. I play 2-3 matches of sc a day and I have a great deal of fun!
I found the key to breaking my addiction was simply finding other things to do. It almost sounds obvious, but many times to me it was a feeling of "Well I got nothing better to do lets play, why not!" Keep in mind that Flash, Jaedong, and Bisu are only as amazing as they are because that is their job, that is all they do. You still have school, so if you do one.. you lose the other (generally) Your sc skills went up, but grades suffered. The progamers don't have to worry about grades, they can just play, so you shouldn't try to claw your way to where they are standing
I know you can quit, its just hard, but once you abstain for maybe a month or two, you will be fully free from it. Its always the first steps that are the hardest and you already realize you are sinking into a hole slowly and that's a great start! Do not stop playing or you may fall into the trap again. The key is to not play until it just goes out of your mind, if you don't quit all the way the addiction will start again and you will be back at square one. During this time, find other healthy things to do. Once you become accustomed to doing those things and a life without SC, when you come back it'll just be on the side. For example if you really got into tennis and maybe going out every so often, if SC is reintroduced into your life, you will view it as a side thing and keep tennis and whatever else you are doing primary (just an example). You can do it!
I just decided to quit myself. Funny this blog should be here. I was gonna make one myself, but nobody really cares. I was 11th in my Gold Division sc2. Staying up playing 5 or more hours a night. Not really effecting my life. I work part time, I can afford it. It's just too frustrating. I'm bad no matter how hard I try. I don't improve and it drives me nuts. It stops being fun at some point. I was playing customs against a guy and lost 4X in a row, the last to a horrible cheese I didn't scout. I punched a 6 inch hole in my drywall at 1:30AM. That's pretty fuckin' stupid if you ask me. It's the nerdrage that got me. Triggered by my inability to play- still...
This game just isn't for some people. I am one of them. Some people just don't have the sort of brain that plays this game well. Oddly enough, I'm not going to recommend you quit. If its fun for you and you enjoy it, do it. Just don't expect to get anywhere or win the OSL. Ain't gonna happen. You gotta play for the enjoyment, not the goal. People need some sort of vice. If its not Starcraft you'll pick up something else. I will pick up something else. Just pick what makes you the happiest.
sounds like you're approaching junior year in HS... if you value rl > video games, not a bad time to quit for a year or two at least. Seriously, I had the same addiction problem with Super Smash Bros Melee, maybe to a much greater extent... but I didn't have the self-control to quit. Next year I will be a senior in college, and not a day has gone by when I don't regret my HS days for not quitting SSBM. If you want to, quit it and don't look back, at least until you get into a college that you really want. If you don't get in, you at least won't spend the rest of your life thinking of what could have happened if you hadn't given into the temptations of Starcraft for just one year. Seriously, not worth it, quit for my sake, a small part of me dies when ppl repeat my mistakes.
been for playing for 12 years here. first 8 years...almost always active...last 4 years...mostly semi-active.
Starcraft "activeness" is poisonous for your real life. its a like a slot-machine that sucks in your hours instead of your money.
Starcraft "semi-activeness" can be very healthy. Semi-activeness here is defined by anything from ZERO games at all to not more than say; 15 games/week... although in your semi-active state, its perfectly fine if you play like 100 games in a week cuz you had 2 free days where you decided to cram a Starcraftothon and played non-stop for 16 hours. nothing wrong with that. The point is; you need to make sure never to go above a certain limit in terms of Starcraft hours for a prolonged period of time. a general rule is to add any Starcraft related hours (playing, watching proleague VODs, surfing TL) and make sure they DO NOT surpass 10 hours a week. meaning, in a week of 168 hours, make sure you're NOT doing or thinking about anything that has to do with starcraft for a good 158 hours. thats pretty fucking healthy and you'll love it.
the transition could be hard...but once you're USED to being semi-active....you may have a hard time to go fully active again. a good tip is to stop trying to be so competitive...just play for fun...and accept the fact that you're not trying to get better anymore.. when i was active..all i was thinking was how to get better...but in my semi-active state, all im doing is trying new funky strategies, playing mostly random, and i dont give a fuck if i screw up royally...that helps to not play so much. take it very very casually.
treat SC like a hobby, not as a way of life. treat SC like its tennis...or skateboarding...or Surfing... nothing wrong with doing one of those things for a solid 10 hours a week.
keep the obvious in mind; 30,40,50,60 hours/week or more of a specific activity ====> poison
I can give you advice on this.. Specifically if your goals are going straight to a 4 year university out of high school. If you want to go to University, then you need to focus on your priorities. In my opinion, AP classes after sophomore year seem worthless and a waste of time. I had kids in my grade who never took ANY AP classes and they got into most of the schools of their choice bar Ivy League, Stanford, UC Berkerly, UCLA, etc.
You have the exact same dilemma I did 8 years ago, I've been playing starcraft since 1998. Warcraft 2 since 1996, War3 during release. I played WoW (sucked the left out of me for 3 years) and I was a competitive CS player after my starcraft years. I've been far enough in the 'pro gaming scene' to get sponsored in other games like Halo, CS and WoW. However I sacrificed my education tremendously because of my years of obsessive gaming.
I was a straight A student until my Sophomore year of High School, I was an OG Kali / WGTour player in Starcraft and I played CAL in CS. I went pretty hardcore in gaming and my grades dropped to C level through the rest of my high school years.. I really gave up my education for gaming because I was completely obsessed with competing, practicing, going to LANs and "trying to become pro". I was able to reach that goal and landed numerous jobs in the gaming industry, it's been an exciting perk however I regret it now that I'm almost 25 and I realize that without a degree my professional life is really suffering.
I had to quit my QA job at a known gaming company because I wanted to go back to school, I'm a sophomore now at University of Oregon and most of the time I'm one of the oldest students in my classes. I feel like I'm making up for years of slacking off, but I manage my time now very well on-top of playing a lot of SC2. I've played almost 500-600 games at least since Beta has been released and I don't plan on stopping. I always just try to budget my time but I always give myself the leisure of SC2.
Just stay focused and know what you want, StarCraft will always be here.
Lol, you have plenty of time to do everything you just listed and starcraft. I believe you're thinking too much into it. Alot of kids start slacking and dropping in GPA around senior year. If you just do homework right away when you get home, you will realize you have like the majority of the night left.
Stopping sc won't be the cure you're looking for, because you will most likely find something else to fill the time in which you used to play sc, and I can almost guarantee it won't be school.
And for the "thinking of sc all the time", I don't think that's addiction that's just you not giving a fuck about school so you think about other things.
I wish i could force myself to play at least 2-3 hours a day...i know i could still study then but I cant force myself to play more then an hour normally. I cant even begin to imagine how you must feel, but i hope you can bring the addiction under control and still enjoy the game
Your problem extends far beyond just Starcraft. If you have this little self control, you're going to have a huge problem in college when your parents aren't breathing down your neck. If you want to be successful while also enjoying life, you absolutely must learn to use your time efficiently and actually know when you have to do work. In my junior year of high school, I took 6 APs, played 2 instruments, had 30+ hours/week of extracurriculars, and still had time to play Starcraft on weekends. I can almost guarantee you that if you want to be a typical "studious Asian aiming to get into a top tier college", you won't be anywhere higher than C rank.
On May 14 2010 21:19 Snet wrote: Stopping sc won't be the cure you're looking for, because you will most likely find something else to fill the time in which you used to play sc, and I can almost guarantee it won't be school.
This may be true but the reason why sc is so damaging is because you can't just "stop" whenever you want and go to study. For example you're in a game in bw, you can't just pause in the middle of the game and say "oh im going to go study now" you have to play out that 15-20 minute game and then you can study. And that's if you don't chat afterwards or get sucked into another game and immediaetely go study. (this is flash btw)
Thanks for all the help guys. I decided to quit for a while. Ironically Flash has been a huge inspiration to me to try harder in school. I wanna become the best, like him, and have a mental state that's as refined as his.
EPT
