My Fellow Gamers

Jaradel

My husband and I played DAoC for a few years, but after the birth of our first child we just didn't have the stamina for multi-hour raids - we'd /stick ourselves to our friends and end up falling asleep at our desks! Not very good when you're playing a spellcaster and your armor is only cloth! I also played Vampire: The Masquerade in college for a short time. I like the camraderie of MMORPGs, but I literally don't have the time in my current day-to-day schedule to devote to leveling up characters, questing, raiding, crafting, etc. I have several friends who play WoW and it intrigues me, but I'm afraid that I would get obsessed again like I did with DAoC and neglect other areas of my life that require my attention. Having said that, back in 2002 I lost almost 60 lbs over the course of a year and I was playing DAoC the whole time - it can be done! As long as calories in < calories out, you can lose weight while gaming.

Animaniac87

I'm a hard core gamer too, and what has been helping me, is that I got a set of stationary bike pedals ($20 at walmart) and I just pedal wheile I play. I sit in a dining rom chair with the pedals right in front of me and my PS controller in my lap. I make sure I pedal the whole time (unless I'm on a boss that needs extra attention :happy: ) So that way if I play R&C for 2 hours I pedaled for 2 hours. It's nothign super strenous, just constantly keeping my legs moving.

It's totally working for me, 5lbs in 2 1/2 weeks!

AmeChops

I'm a hard core gamer too, and what has been helping me, is that I got a set of stationary bike pedals ($20 at walmart) and I just pedal wheile I play. I sit in a dining rom chair with the pedals right in front of me and my PS controller in my lap. I make sure I pedal the whole time (unless I'm on a boss that needs extra attention :happy: ) So that way if I play R&C for 2 hours I pedaled for 2 hours. It's nothign super strenous, just constantly keeping my legs moving.

It's totally working for me, 5lbs in 2 1/2 weeks!

Oooh...that's sneaky exercise...I LIKE it!! :-D

soldier4242

I just had my birthday party and it was a blast. My brother got me a new guitar for my rockband2 game and he bought me the RockBand Greenday because I am a HUGE Greenday fan. My wife bought me a 47" flat screen HD TV so I could hook my Xbox up in the basement and I had a group of my friends who pitched in to buy me RockBand3 and some microsoft points. Rockband3 is a lot better graphics wise. They swear they did not coordinate the gifts but this stuff worked out way too well.

A buddy of mine brought over a microphone stand so I could play the guitar and sing at the same time which works a lot better then I thought it would. I set the singing on expert and the guitar on easy for now. As I get better at both I will bump the difficulty on the guitar. We spent the whole night night jamming out together on our favorite songs and drinking large quantities of alcoholic beverages. So in addition to killing zombies and firelands bosses (btw I have killed one more as of last night check out my armory feed.) I will now be trying to master my band goals on Rock Band 3!! It was a great birthday!!

Aeliyah

@soldier4242 - I am so jealous!! Sounds like you had a great night, and Happy Birthday!!

VelvetKey

Amazing thread!

I once read an article by a guy who told everyone to give up MMORPG gaming because it was ruining your life, even if you wouldn't admit it. He wrote that there were 2 kinds of people in the world: those who had overcome their gaming addictions and those who wouldn't admit gaming is an addiction.

Well, I was disgusted and outright furious with this guy. I was so enraged that I made an Excel pie chart with all of my daily activities right there. (I still have it just in case I need to prove to someone that I do NOT spend my life with a controller/keyboard in my hands.)

I've heard that WoW is all that and seventeen thousand kinds of amazing chips, BUT....hate to break it to you folks, I'm on a lifestyle-changing diet! (And I mean that both physically and financially.) DDO is the poor man's WoW but I less-than-three it, as it were. I'm very attached to my fabulous cleric and I belong to an awesome guild that supports the fact that I don't choose to be online every moment of the day.

On the other hand, when I play tabletop D&D, I now have to bring my own food to the sessions. My friends might respect my goals, but they sure don't appreciate my carbonated water in place of soda or hint-of-salt crackers substituting their Doritos.

Well, I have to pick my battles and they will have to pick theirs, I guess. (This begs for a don't split the party reference!)

All in all, I have to say that some of my choices in gaming have rather enhanced my weight-loss journey. Why? Did you know that DDR Mario Mix tracks your calories?? WIN! And I'm sure that if you do enough flailing around in Ultimate Alliance you can count it with the Wii Sports Boxing. Plus, and others have already said it, it feels so GOOD to sit down to some pure gaming time knowing that you have already accomplished your food and exercise goals. (And preferably some housework or homework goals, too.)

In the words of the Guild: Game on!

nekoemi

So far, SWTOR is pretty awesome!

I'm jealous!

I've been anxiously awaiting SWTOR since it was first announced that BioWare was working on an 'upcoming unnamed MMO' since I love Star Wars and I love BioWare games.

I'm also a former WoW player like many of you (as well as countless other MMOs... EQ1/2, SWG, PlanetSide, Aion, Rift, etc...), and I enjoy almost any type of game.

Lately I've been playing a little Team Fortress 2 and League of Legends here and there with a few friends, as well as Oblivion.

I'm looking forward to Skyrim, Battlefield 3, and of course SWTOR later this year.

I also have a bad habit of buying lots of games that I never get around to playing, so I have a whole stack of PS3 games and games in my steam library that need playing haha! :laugh:

My steam id is desj16 - feel free to add!

mwilco

Hey guys,

my very first posting here and found this thread.
The first sentence catched my eye:
“You can’t lose weight without giving up the gaming.”

Well, I guess people here proved that statement wrong, eh?
I wasn't happy with my belly shape when I was at 89 kg but never really took enough effort to change something.
Then, around November 2010, I started sports regularly and got very motivated, often I exercised daily (about an hour, jogging + weight lifting). Around that time my girlfriend discovered myfitnesspal luckily.
Counting calories + more sports got me down to 78 kg a year later. We also ruled out some foods (junk food, processed food, hardly fries or burgers!), we're more aware of how much and what we eat. I don't have my washboard stomach yet but getting there. My girlfriend achieved maintenance mode even (and did way less sports, how the heck!).
I'm now in the "I start to like what I see in the mirror" phase and...

I never gave up gaming (nor decreased it a lot). Skyrim, L4D2, WoW, Galciv2, you name it!

It's all about changing willpower, food and sports behavior. Though I admit spending less time in MMORGPs frees up a lot of time (yet still there should be an hour free somehow for sports).

Cylic

Grats on the achiveme.....I meant weight loss!
I know what you mean that the idea of giving up gaming doesn't even occur to me. Even my friends and family would never say that too me because they know it would never happen. Here to being hardcore healthy gamers! (still working on the healthy part here haha)

Timshel_

I don't play as much as I used to, but I still use it to destress at the end of some days. Borderlands II right now.

DaniH826

I'm currently on a bit of a WoW hiatus because since starting MFP I have become way more active, and all this food logging and exercising business is keeping me so focused and busy, and I haven't found my stride just yet. And also, because I'm playing Skyrim again/still and I'm really bad when it comes to focusing on more than one (more involved) game at a time (meaning I can't do it).

But, I have a few WoW toons around that need to get to 90 some time this year. I will pick it up again. At the latest for Children's Week because I do want to get my drake this year, finally.

Right now I'm discovering the Kinect though, and that lets me nerd it up while moving my butt at the same time, which is like the best thing ever!

I'm expecting a mail from my GM any time asking where the heck I been (cause I've been in the same guild for like 7 years and they tend to notice after a while if I'm away for too long).

Game on I say! Game on!

gsmithnp

I used to play Wow--a LOT. My husband and his brothers/cousins had a guild and my husband had 2 lvl 80 shadow priests, and they needed someone to play one of them to help get through Karazan. So, I sit down, my husband tells me "hit these keys in this order when I tell you." The rest is history. I played my warlock through grad school, my most recent pregnancy, and after the baby was born (she would lay on the couch next to me while I played). We all played together up through Cataclysm, which completely ruined the raiding experience for all of us. Up until then we were able to raid with just the core group of us (pretty much all family with a few friends thrown in). Unfortunately, it became so difficult to get everyone online at the same time that we rarely had a full group and would have to pug--and we all know how that can turn out. The arguments over when to raid and how to divide loot pretty much took the fun out of it. It really began to feel like a full-time job, and I've already got one of those, thanks, not to mention three kids and household stuff. Our guild pretty much fell apart--our guildleader (my brother in law) and our main raid lead (cousin-in-law) and another cousin left server and that was pretty much the end of that. =(

We did then play Star Wars: TOR and most recently Diablo 3 (which is kinda cool) but I haven't been on for a long time.

There are times I really do miss it--we had some AWESOME times, and it was great to be able to do something with family and "meet" new people. The great thing about being a family guild was we all understood if conflicts came up (sick kids, crazy work schedules, family from out of town) and our mantra was "real life comes first." Nobody worried about being /gkicked if they didn't raid once (though a quick phone call or text was always encouraged). However, I now spend more time with my kids and I'm happy with my life. If I knew we could get back to "the way it was" back in the day, I'd probably jump back in without hesitation, so long as I wasn't expected to be online ALL. THE. TIME.

Oh, and "FOR THE HORDE!!!!"

Adrini

I've never been told that, but I think our family knows better.

My husband and I met in a DnD game just over 6 years ago. We spend at least an hour every night playing something - and I still make time for the gym.

Gallowmere1984

Was reading the first page, people talking about Howling Fjord and being level 85 was wondering what was going on...then realized that this thread was from a year and a quarter ago. Holy ****ing necro man. o_O

Then again, I haven't played WoW in over a year. /shrug Guild Wars 2 and EveO have proven far more challenging and time consuming for me anyway. \o/

ApexLeader

i've pretty much given up games but i used to be there.

asamuels85

I've never gotten into WoW but I do play Call of Duty on PS3!! I'm Loveleeb if anyone wants to add me lol

Im on it!! MRS_NEZ_REZ invite sent

Dulcemami4ever

This is a great post! I'm usually an MMO girl but right now I am really into Path of Exile Hardcore mode!

suffer4you87

I LOVE how you can find WoW gamers anywhere, I find WoW (or any other game) a useful tool in weight loss as I get so involved that I don't feel the need to snack. And since I gave up hardcore raiding there's no need for a load of snacks by the PC as there was no time to make dinner. Anyone who says you can't lose weight without giving up gaming has obviously never been an avid gamer before. Games are amazing, I met my significant other on WoW and moved to be with him in Sweden 2 years ago, gaming owns!

Gallowmere1984

I LOVE how you can find WoW gamers anywhere, I find WoW (or any other game) a useful tool in weight loss as I get so involved that I don't feel the need to snack. And since I gave up hardcore raiding there's no need for a load of snacks by the PC as there was no time to make dinner. Anyone who says you can't lose weight without giving up gaming has obviously never been an avid gamer before. Games are amazing, I met my significant other on WoW and moved to be with him in Sweden 2 years ago, gaming owns!

+1
The wife and I met on WoW as well.

RunDoozer

Why did someone battle rez this thread? It should be dead not undead.

SailorSarah311

I'm right there with you. I spent most of my college years playing WoW, and still graduated on the Dean's List. I play video games at least 3-4 times a week. I never got into Magic or DnD, but I did live with some guys that were die hard players. I had a Therapist tell me that I should allow time for video games because it made me feel better and be happy. When my mom would complain about how much I played I would just show her the paper with my "homework" from the Therapist. At the top was video games. I will always play video games as long as they exist.

leemay001

In conclusion, I tell you to drive Mario’s cart. Get your warrior to level 20. Go win a booster draft. If you happen to be a shooter, keep shooting, and let your opponents fear you. The zombies are not going to kill themselves and neither will the Covenant. If we don’t stand up to Sephiroth then who will? Go forth and get your 25 point hunter pounces! Charge people off of bridges! Shoot portals on to walls! Rock out with your “Rock Band” and kill Deathwing for the security of all in Azeroth!!

You forgot to FUS RO DAH!

Da da dun dun da da dun dun da da dun dun da da dunnnnn (totally in tune with the song).

I would also like to add, and this is 100% truth as crazy as it may sound: Playing games that drastically elevate your heart rate (and I don't mean DDR, but that would work too of course) can actually get you burning calories. Not much more than a casual stroll would burn, but that's pretty good if you're sitting down :P Essentially it's the same with watching horror movies as long as they get your heart pumping / body filled with adrenaline.

Don't believe me? Google it, there's a good amount of research and plenty of people who vouch for it. Here's a good one: 5 New Ways Video Games Help You Lose Weight. - Not sure if HTML works but we'll find out in a moment.

EDIT: Okay HTML doesn't work, let me try BBCode.
EDIT2: Eh, close, but it doesn't seem to render properly T_T

Poop, here is the link anyway: http://www.matchmove.com/newsarticle/games-help-you-lose-weight

ahviendha

klaatu barada nikto...that movie had me thinking for days.

damn it with my nostalgia for raiding days. even when i wanted to stab my rl's eyes out i was still laughing and having a great time.

horde for life! :drinker:

Reza151

Gamer checking in for duty, sir!

I love me some god of war, katamari damacy, little big planet, assassin's creed, monster hunter, Super smash bros (and brawl), Mario, Legend of Zelda (BEST SERIES EVER), and Castlevania. My ex got me into Borderlands as well ^_^

slroggemann

Gamer here as well!
I've lately been addicted to Torchlight II, Civilization V, and Skyrim! I have Fallout 3 and New Vegas for the Xbox - love them both, though I'm not very good. I'm still trying to get better at them. I reward myself for a hard workout with some gameage!

amilypic

Aha right there with you. If I'm not playing Skyrim I'm killing hordes in L4D2. Are my friends over? We're Rock Band-ing. And when my hubby says something about my gaming, I spend an hour or so on the WiiFit, still gaming aha

Gamers rule.