The Fall and Rise of a Facebook Gamer

It began with a message that a high school friend sent me through Facebook. I had not seen her for many years and it was through that social networking behemoth that we managed to actually find each other. Our public information showed that we were still relatively neighbors. So I assumed that she wanted to meet up for drinks and catch up on old times. But the message said something more urgent along the lines of:

"I am under attack. Please join my crew and we can take out both of our enemies together."

I thought back to high school when we did rely on each other to deal with our respective enemies. Her enemy was Miss Popularity, who needed to be taken down a peg. And my enemy was Calculus BC. We were a good pair. Pity that we never dated. But now she was beckoning my assistance again and like a knight in shiny armor, I heeded the call and clicked on the link she provided...

And found myself playing my first Facebook game.

The Gateway Drug

It was a Mafia-themed game and she needed people to join her virtual crime family to do jobs and fight other virtual families led by other Facebook players. First impressions were rather pleasing. I like playing video games, but my work and social schedule often eats my time for them. I never wanted to get into World of Warcraft due to the nerdy stigma it poses, but these Facebook games feel just like a MMORPG. There are millions playing through Facebook a game online in a role based on the game. I just do not need the fancy computer hardware. I joined my friend's mob and formed my own. The gameplay was as easy as a mouse click. Each click either got me to beat up a pimp or other mission for experience, purchase property to gain income, purchase weapons for my crew, and fight other virtual mobs. I was having fun and leveling up like an MMORPG until I noticed dozens of people beating me up. It turns out my well armed army of one was not enough to take on the well armed army of 100s that other players had. Though I wanted to keep my family business away from friends, I wanted to avoid turning into street pizza during every mob fight. So I flashed the message to my friends: "I am under attack. Please join my crew and we can take out both of our enemies together."

It turned out that most of my friends were also virtual mobsters who wanted to keep this Facebook game habit under the table. At the very least, I figured I could easily network among players and promote my writings.

Upping the Dosage

While the mob game was fun as I celebrated my rise to level 200 in a short couple of months, the game started to lose its appeal. I tried out other mob-themed games only to find more of the same. Some other themes like the superheroes, sorority sisters, and even flirting with people still felt the same.

Then the mob game added new features like cities and better fighting actions. It was still a dolled up version of the same stuff, but the change in color was enough to keep me in. Cross promotions with its other Facebook games that granted me exclusive items got me to try out those games. And soon enough, I was mildly hooked on those games also. Now I was a successful mobster who ran a cafe on the side when I was not playing poker with my friends after using my vampire strength to fight werewolves. If only I could put this multitasking skills on my resume. I would stay up a little later at night just to use up my pent up in-game energy for one last turn. "One last turn" would become my mantra as I ended the night.

As I began playing more and more, the temptation to actually pay for these games grew. Each Facebook game has some sort of virtual currency that I could purchase with real currency as an option to buy exclusive items, recharge my empty meters, or quickly use for emergency game purchases. It is a principle of mine to avoid paying for anything since these are just virtual items. They will not hang on my wall. They will not serve as an icebreaker during parties. And if I quit the game, the item goes away also. But then again, that item would look interesting in my cafe. And it's only a dollar.

So much for principles.

Hitting Bottom

It was not the hundreds of hours logged into my Facebook games that made me face my addiction. It was not the game-related spam I kept seeing on my Facebook wall. It was not even the tens of dollars I spent on various games without blinking. No, it was when I realized one weekend that I had arrived pretty late for our date because I needed the extra time to get one last turn in before I left. I did not want the cafe food I prepared to spoil while I was out with her.

The verbal thrashing about my tardiness was enough to get me thinking. When I place priority on virtual people over real people, something has clearly gone wrong. She did not give me an ultimatum, but I knew that either I had to cut down on the games, or cut down on the real life socializing. At least I knew better than to give her an answer when she visited my Facebook cafe.

Purging the Addiction

Just as I justified myself getting into these games, I had to justify getting out of them. I told myself that stripping away the colorful themes and story elements of the games, they all played like a Powerpoint presentation where I just click away to get to the next stage. Removing the fun elements of these Facebook games made it easier to get bored with them and eventually wean myself off. The most relieving step was deleting most of them off my profile, which made a lot of my Facebook friends happy that they would not have to read about my cafe closing or my mobsters fleeing to Canada.

Now I'm off to dinner with my girlfriend... at a real cafe. Hopefully without real mobsters.

For more by this author, read University of Florida Teaches Management Skills Through Starcraft, Id Software and EA Sports: 3D is Too Expensive, Video Game Walkthrough: Pokemon SoulSilver Pokemon League Champion Rematch, and Hands-On X-Box 360 Kinect Preview.