My little brother is addicted to a free MMORPG called "Runescape"

[lefrenzy]

disclaimer: this is a long post. if it's too long for you, please do not post and say that it is too long. It's not my fault if you can't read 500 words without complaining.

Hey guys.

I have a 13yr-old brother. He's very smart (skipped a grade). He's a freshman in high-school, and received all As for his first quarter.

What bothers me is that he is completely addicted to this free flash-based MMORPG called "Runescape" (http://www.runescape.com). I guess one of his friends from school got him into it, and apparently he's been playing it for the past 3-4 years.

If he were to play it with moderation, I would not care too much, but apparently he has been playing it from dusk to dawn. School's out? Runescape. Weekend? Runescape. It's good to know my other little brother forces him to hit the gym so that he stays in shape.

I haven't lived with my parents in years (I live in a diff. city where I'm in college), so I did not know about this problem.

He really is extremely addicted. Everytime I ban the site from our router, he gets very mad. Throwing chairs, crying like a little kid, locks himself in his own room etc.

Now, all of us brothers love videogames. One loves the sport games, I love FPS games, another likes RPGs.

I don't mind the single-player RPGs for the PS2. That brother will spend a couple dozen hours with it, then move on to a different type of game. Not to mention he only plays it about 4 hours a week, save, and continue the next week.

I hate this MMORPG, because there is no "safe point". He just plays it endlessly, and I don't want my little brother to go insane because of 1 stupid game. It's as if everything revolved around Runescape for him.





Hell, he even started using proxy sites just to get on it.

There are extreme measures I could use. I can simply ban all the mac addresses in the house from the site, and the 30 proxy sites he's been using. But I can only do so much while I am here. Once I leave, he'll probably find new ways to play it.

I've showed him that South Park episode where they play World of Warcraft and turned all fat and disgusting.

I've told him that MMORPGs can be an addiction. And now, he clearly is addicted.

I've read many crazy stories about real people's lives torn because they were so far into their game, they could no longer distinguish the virtual world from the real world.




How do I get him to lose interest, or at least play it with much more moderation?

The extreme measure would be that I just continue to ban him for months until his runescape-withdrawal disappears. I'd like to think there are more appropriate measures. Anything that you guys recommend?

Thanks for reading,

-lefrenzy

[alexsk8ca]

Oh man, Runescape blows!!!
Okay now I have said that, why not buy him a MMORPG that costs money per month, and pay for the first month or two than cut him off, forcing him to find his own way to pay for his game. If hes hooked to Runescape he shouldn't have a problem dropping it for a game that doesn't suck balls.

[tokenuser]

Oh man, Runescape blows!!!
Okay now I have said that, why not buy him a MMORPG that costs money per month, and pay for the first month or two than cut him off, forcing him to find his own way to pay for his game. If hes hooked to Runescape he shouldn't have a problem dropping it for a game that doesn't suck balls.Advantage of Runescape is the cost. since he also skipped a grade, I imagine that he is a little on the outside in terms of peers - everyone being about a year of more older. This is a issue by itself because of maturity and developing interests ... so he has made "friends" in Runescape, a place where age makes no difference.

I think he'll grow out of it. Might be worthwhile encouraging him onto another hobby - could be tech related, or community focused, but just get him into something else that he can get fixated by. If he wants to get his game on - get him onto console gaming so that he can at least play with friends/brothers in the same room.

[klitzy]

Buy him World Of Warcraft...

[lefrenzy]

I think he'll grow out of it. Might be worthwhile encouraging him onto another hobby - could be tech related, or community focused, but just get him into something else that he can get fixated by. If he wants to get his game on - get him onto console gaming so that he can at least play with friends/brothers in the same room.

He does indeed play videogames with us (we play FIFA 2007 in Multiplayer), but it's like a 10/90 ratio with Runescape. He still plays Runescape too much.

I'll try to follow your first advice, and continue to try to find him a new hobby. He lost interest in playing music unfortunately, he used to play the violin. He also did Martial Arts for a while, but he quit that same time as my other brother.

Hopefully I'll find him something soon. I don't want him to grow up to be an anti-social kid in high-school. I know he indeed has friends there, but I guess it must be very complicated to be 13 yrs old when you take elective classes with 18yr old seniors. I wish he would have waited to take these courses later.

[xibalba]

See if ya can make some type of deal with him so he only plays a few hours a day.

If its a real problem and its truly effecting his real life contact the game admins see if they will remove his account and prevent him from opening a new one, of course I'd only do that if it get way to out of control he would probably hate you for something like that.

[jeffchan]

Runescape is Java-based :)

Anyways, I used to play the game myself. If he plays the free-to-play part of the game, he WILL eventually get out of it. Everyone does. But if he pays the $5 a month subscription, it's endless.

For me, I was in some way addicted to it. And then I eventually found another hobby, programming, and got out of it. Now I don't play any games at all. Basically, I joined a Runescape fansite while playing, and then I was basically promoted to the staff team where I managed and learned about website, and then I completely moved my mind into programming.

just my personally experience.

[rabidbadger]

This is really sad, and as the ol' fart of Rev3, with a couple of addictions of my own, (nothing heinous, just a couple of things I'd like to either taper off of, or quit entirely) I really hate to see a smart young kid walking down a path that could ruin his life.

Couple of things to make you feel a little better:

It is not drugs.
It is not porn.
It is not (too much of) a physically damaging thing.

But something JeffChan said inspired me to think of a possible solution:

And then I eventually found another hobby, programming, and got out of it. .

Engage your brother in a friendly conversation, non judgmental, asking him what he likes about the game, what sucks about the game, what could be better about the game, etc...

Pull out a little "present" for him: a couple of books and some software, that will enable him to make his own games.

Sit down with him at the computer and surf the web together to find forums, and communities of game makers and JAVA and/or Flash developers.

This would serve several purposes:

It would not "disapprove" of his hobby.
Would expand his hobby in a productive way.
Give him an idea of a fun and possibly lucrative future.
Inflate his ego in that you consider him smart enough to pursue this.

Suggest that he talk to his Runescape buddies about working on this together. That will take what he does know about dealing with his existing peer group and expand that, too.

Anyway, just an idea.

[darknessgp]

well, let's see... your in college. My advice would be to invite him up to campus one day. Don't do anything in particular just hang out on campus... let him get a glimpse of college life/girls... that should at least help.

[hoodedrobin]

So you wanna trade me some addy boots for my r2h?

I so play this game.... And its sad....


edit : oh, get him a girlfriend its what cured me btw. thx

[muffins]

Now I may be different than most people, but heres my story:

Basically I grew out of everything.

Played too much of online video games and never would go out - stopped

Use to be ridiculously anti-social to a scary point - tons of friends now

What I'm saying is if you just tell him you're concerned and why he WILL mull it over. He may act like he doesn't care and that its all good but take it from me - he will think about it and eventually he'll realize you're right and he'll act on it.

People may act stubborn on the outside but they're listening.

Also, about those stories where peoples lives were torn apart - this is one of those things where it happened to 4 people out of the millions who play MMO's and due to media and internet it seems like it happens to everyone who plays MMOs. Well it doesn't. He'll most likely get bored of it and move on. I honestly wouldn't be too concerned. Let him play it for hours upon hours. He'll probably start to feel sick and get bored.

[samureye]

When I first started using forums, back on the old TechTV community, I was addicted. This lead up to when TechTv was aquired by Comcast. I would spend all the time I could on there, even to a point where it would inconvenience people and cost us money (dial up, limited hours). Now, i've more than matured and I am to the point where I can manage to stay away from this forum long enough to get on with my life, I'm reading books, etc. Is it that you want him off the game or off the computer as well? If it's just off the game, then maybe get him involved in blogging and even forums. Bring him around here, even, we can always use more faces. In reality, I think addiction on the whole is something younger people suffer. When I was younger, I would want to do nothing more than watch the shows I wanted to watch. It was at a point where I would be really, really pissed to miss X-Play. Now, I've outgrown it, I don't really watch the show anymore. If I see it on, I might watch but it isn't at the top of my agenda right now. Shows that I do like to watch, such as the soup or the office, why, they are there, and while I would be dissapointed if I miss them, it's nothing like an addiction. I think that comes with age, he just may outgrow it, but kudos for being a good bigger brother. Talk with him, and do keep concerned about his physical state and social skills, it'll come in handy.

[alexsk8ca]

edit : oh, get him a girlfriend its what cured me btw. thx

Vagina can cure the common man of any addiction.

[tokenuser]

Vagina can cure the common man of any addiction.No - it just replaces one addiction with another.

[ariastar]

He's destructive and possibly someone delusional. Have you talked to your parents about this?

[tarx]

Hello, I used to play that game and i have an idea on how to fix his addiction... "hack" his account! log on to his account, get a trusted friend to log onto another and you will transfer all of his stuff onto the other and he may or may not stop playing! but this requires strength, you must not give in to his crying, begging, whatever and not tell him a thing about the transfer. Times to do It: when he's at school, sleeping, various other things like getting someone to take him out of the house for a few hours like watching a bunch of movies in the theater or something like that! this would most likely be effective while he's in school because you have the most time.

Try It, I would love to know the results.

[vahnx]

I played Runescape Classic way more than Runescape 2. It's kinda sad... the TechTV vs G4 thing is an equivilant of an RSC vs RS2 to me. TechTV and RSC pwn G4 and RS2.

[popltree2]

Buy him World Of Warcraft...

That's like saying "quit smokin' crack and start shooting up heroin." You aren't helping, Klitzy (as usual). :D

[vahnx]

My friend keylogged this kid at school during his spare, then I needed my laptop for marketing, so he got me to steal all the kids stuff for him. Now my friend is rich mwahahaha. I wanna start playing again =D

[illu45]

How long has this been going on for? Personally, I play a number of online RPGs on an off, and usually I'll get really interested about one for a few weeks, and then my interest will taper off. However, it sounds like that isn't happening with your brother.

What seems like a likely cause (to me) is the social factor of Runescape. If he's skipped a year or two in school, he's likely finding it difficult to connect with people in his classes, and resorting to Runsescape as a means of finding social contacts. What I would do if you want to get him away from it is get him involved in other activities that are social. Encourage him to join clubs or sports teams outside of school with people who would be his age. You probably have some ideas about what he likes outside of the game, so maybe encourage him to join a forum about whatever it is he enjoys. If he's interested in programming, you might try teaching him (presuming you know a language he doesn't).

Hope things work out well for you,
illu45

[rabidbadger]

LeFrenzy, now that this thread has been bumped up after more than a month, any news?

[mattmaul1992]

Well I registered here just to help you out if you still need it.
I went through exactly what your bro is going though. I cried, hit, threw stuff all that fun stuff :o. Anyways after I realized there was nothing no one could do anything about it about a day or two I couldn't play (my internet connection went down because.. Well that's personal XD) I started slowly realizing I didn't need it. My obsession faded to a controllable amount.
The thing that got me off it mostly was programming. I later started earning a considerable amount of money programming in PHP/MySQL. I found myself getting smarter in everything I did (I wasn't too bright before). I did that because one dude I looked up to and he programmed and didn't play RS much and just happened to be my clan leader (groups of people joined to PK [player killing] and war with other clans). So basically get your brother in a clan. It is right now what is keeping me from an RS obsession by leading one. You have to setup a website, forum, get members, socialize constantly, etc. In fact here's mine - http://www.purelite.org/. Well hope you fix him otherwise if he doesn't grow out of it on his own he is definitely screwed.

[lefrenzy]

Months have passed so here's the update.

Because he never held his promises, I took manners into my own hands and completely banned him from the internet unless he was supervised by my other little brother (18yrs old) to use it for school work. After a few weeks he understood that he no longer allowed to play runescape, and that any attempt to try using proxy servers, and he would never have privacy again online for another 4 years (He's 14). He eventually realized that I was not going to let him play it anymore, even though I am 110 miles away in a diff city near my college campus (OSU).

I was happy to know that he eventually lost complete interest after 7 months of not playing the game. He was no longer craving it. His grades did deteriorate, (starting getting a few Bs as opposed to As) but now that he is no longer addicted in this MMORPG, I think that when fall starts, he'll go back to that 4.0 GPA.

He's going to be a sophomore in highschool and he turns 14 this month. Thankfully he's pretty tall for his age so I don't think he'll get picked on too much.

I'm glad this happened or else I was gonna start a campaign against MMORPGs to people under 18. He still plays PS2 and Nintendo DS from time to time, but when he played that runescape, he was completely addicted and under a spell. That used to be all he would do, stare at the screen for more than 5hrs at a time.