The Danger of Becoming Addicted to Evony and Other Real Time Online Games

Evony is a multi player browser based game that is played by millions of people around the world, and is based on a concept similar to Sid Meier's Civilization in that the player is attempting to build a kingdom and to conqueror their enemies.

You can see advertisements for Evony everywhere on the internet these days, promising adventure as you go on a power trip to build your kingdom in one of hundreds of medieval worlds, each one having thousands of people playing at any one time.

These types of game are great fun to play, but since they are real time games, in other words they never stop, even when your computer is switched off and you are tucked up in bed, there is a real threat to these taking over your life.

Evony is not a game that you can really play half hearted. You can if you are just starting to play Evony, to see how it works, but once you start to upgrade buildings and to create troops, you have to be there to set the next batch of upgrades going once one set finishes, otherwise you can lose half a day of production, which means it takes longer to develop your cities and armies.

Since building or upgrading anything in Evony takes progressively longer with each new level, players learn to time everything as well as they can, so that not a minute is lost between one upgrade completing and the next beginning. That means you have to be playing Evony at every available moment, from when you first get up in the morning, to your lunch break, when you come home from work or school, and all evening until you finally head off to bed.

So why do you have to do this? Well, all the time you are building, so are your enemies, and they are all around you. You need to advance your technology, enhance your defences, and build up your troops faster than they do. Should you get attacked, a percentage of your troops remain wounded and you can heal them - however the longer it takes you to do this, the more that die, so every hour you lie in bed sleeping, your cities could be under attack, your resources of food, lumber, iron, stone and gold being plundered, and your city in flames. Worse still, you can't sleep properly because your dreams are filled with attacks, defences, troop movements and other tactics.

It's at this point that Evony begins to take over your life. You end up getting up early in the morning so make sure everything is ok before you go to work. You have to set upgrades going, farm for resources, update troop production, and then you hurry home and spend all evening doing the same. You might even risk the consequences of playing Evony at work, to make sure you are online in case you get attacked. And you also will for certain spend most of every weekend online to make sure that you stay on top of things.

This ultimately has an effect on your relationships, especially if you have a partner and children. You have less time for family and friends, and all activities have to centre around the game.

I started playing Evony in July 2009, and my fiancee began in November. We both ended up hopelessly addicted, and spent every morning, evening and weekend sitting side by side with our laptops doing little else but playing the game. Ironically, we were both on different servers, so we weren't even playing together!

We decided at the end of the year that since we have so much to do this year, we would give up Evony, and this above all was out main New Years Resolution. At the start of the year, I contacted my alliance and handed over my cities, and rather sadly gave up playing. It was a sad moment, since I had five good cities, and had reached a level of number 140 out of 10,000 players on the server, but still - it was quit or be miserable, and quit I did.

My fiancee quit too, but went back in a few times just to take a look. Of course she is back and hooked again as expected, and is right now sitting beside me with her laptop and playing the game.

So beware everyone in case you too get addicted. This game, and others like them are like a cancer or any other addiction. Yes they are fun, but once you get sucked in, it's incredibly difficult to tear yourself away.