A Real-Life Case of First-Person Shooter Video Game Addiction

By GREGG KIRK
January 1995, Big Shout Magazine

When I was in college, I had a little addiction problem. No syringes, crack pipes, pills or anything like that. Instead, I developed a compulsion for a stupid video arcade game called Omega Race. It wasn’t very high-tech or stunning graphically, but there was something about it that appealed to a part of me I didn’t know that I had. Up until that point, I had viewed all video arcade addicts as computer squids or snot-nosed geeks with too much time on their hands. But did this stop me from pumping quarters into the machine like a trained monkey?

I don’t even remember how it started, but by the time I was in my junior year, I had developed an $8-a-day habit — and that’s when video games were 25-cents per play. When I finally managed to kick sometime as a senior, I vowed to stay away from arcade video games and their more insidious counterpart — the TV home video game.

After the experience, I felt wizened with the knowledge of a junkie, knowing that addiction crosses all boundaries of age, race, and socio-economic status. — no one is safe.

So when I read in Time Magazine a few months ago about a computer game called DOOM that had thousands of people locked in its grip, at first I laughed out of sympathy for the pathetic fools who were spending millions of man-hours glued to their CRTs, playing in slack-jawed abandon.

Then my brother Jeff, who is an admitted computer geek (but that’s what he does for a living) came across the game, and was soon hooked.

Late one night while I was visiting him, he revealed the game to me. Before showing me, he spent a good 20 minutes in an introduction that was sprinkled with phrases like “the best graphics you’ve ever seen,” “This is the most awesome game ever invented,” and “don’t bother playing it without a sound card — the sounds are that cool.” He grabbed my wrist, and with the frenzy of a junkie warned me “don’t put this on any of your computers at work — you’ll never get any work done! This game is addictive!”

For the next hour, I watched him blaze through an amazing labyrinth, filled with creatures whose guts exploded as he blasted them with an assortment of weapons. He took great delight in showing me his arsenal — brass knuckles, chainsaw, pistol, shotgun, chain gun, rocket launcher, plasma rifle, and something called a BFG9000 that creates a burst of energy that explodes horizontally and wipes out everything in its path. The creatures themselves move realistically, and each has a set of destructive attributes that make them unique. The architecture of the different levels is astounding — there are even sections where you move outside and see an impressive skyline.

The way the whole thing plays out is very ingenious. You can run, jump, acquire medic kits as you get wounded, become temporarily invulnerable, and find hidden walls and portals. Even the trajectory of your rockets and the momentum of you jumping is realistic.

I avoided the game for a while, but when we were brainstorming for story ideas for our high-tech issue, I felt that an article on the most high-tech computer game available was in order. To do the story, I would actually have to play the game.

I had my brother show me how to use the controls and give me a few pointers. He did not lend me the maps and other information you get (stuff that tells you about secret levels and things you’d never find out about otherwise), so I was pretty much flying blind. After about an hour of frustrating play, I gave up — the movement, weapons, and other controls are difficult to master within a short time. But when I sat down the next night, it was all over. I emerged from the computer sometime around 4 a.m., feeling dizzy and nauseous from staring into the screen.

After a month of serious play, I can say that I’m worse off with DOOM than I ever was with Omega Race. At one point last week I actually caught myself with my mouth wide open, my eyes glazed and watering from the glare of the screen, once again playing until four in the morning. I have caught myself daydreaming about how to get through certain levels, and I’ve even had real dreams about the game. It’s pretty much hopeless. Actually, if I could just get to the final level, I think I’ll be okay. Really.

The thing is, the damned game never seems to end. After making it through about a dozen levels, I thought it was about finished when my brother told me that there are 31 levels of DOOM II, and each level has so many intricacies that not even the most profound computer-game addict could find them without help. Being a relatively-profound addict, he proceeded to show me a few secrets that blew my mind.

What makes this game so addictive is the fact that it is much more than just a shoot-’em-up game — you actually have to use your head to get out of traps, listen for clues, and figure your way through dangerous predicaments. Obviously, an incredible amount of time has been spent designing every aspect of this game, and the people who created it must be raking in cash with large robotic arms. Unfortunately, none of them saw fit to call us back when we requested an interview, but what the hell do you care? Call them at 800-238-6622 and get yourself hooked even before it is released as a home video game.