1264 All The Things.

by

I’ve been there a few times, Red. Can’t save a galaxy in an evening though.

I’ve always compared video games to reading in so far as it can be a time consuming hobby. Depending on the game they’re more like a movie than a book. Early on though the parallel was a little easier to draw. A fair amount of imagination was required to connect with pixels. Some games are just games with thinly connected strands of premise to hold the world together. Others are a story you experience. Sometimes, like a book, you’d do just about anything to finish one more chapter, but your body simply can’t take any more.
I read every Harry Potter book past 3 in one or two sittings. I mean I scheduled my days off around them. When something really grabs me I’m the type that will power through to the end. With games I’m like that too except you can’t power through them in quite the same way. It’s a little harder to figure out exactly how long it’s going to take. Which is how I end up waiting years, in some cases, to finish some games. I knew once I committed to finishing Mass Effect I’d want to go as hard as I could so it wouldn’t make me obsess all day trying to get back to it. Results have been mixed. My life doesn’t allow the kind of marathon gaming that it used to, and my body protests as well. Being in ridiculously bad shape doesn’t help that either. Scoff if you must, but if you intend to do anything for hours at a time having a healthy body facilitates that much more easily. That should give you an idea of just how fat and unwell I truly am.
With the Teen around my access to terrible food has increased to dangerous levels. Part of the reason I didn’t buy that stuff is the same reason I never started drinking. I know myself well enough to know I can’t control myself. Which is why I’m dying at a much faster rate than I should be right now. Before, I could maintain my normal level of unhealthy; now I’m sliding significantly faster toward the grave. Unfortunately she’s at an age where, in spite of the death of her father due to similar circumstances, my demise is just a pretend thing that can’t happen. When I protest grocery choices I’m being mean, when in actuality I just don’t want the instrument of my destruction to be a Dorito.
I know I’m playing this off as kind of a joke, but the fact of the matter is I am in mortal peril.

44 Comments

The very first all-nighter that I had due to playing a video game was Golden Sun for GBA. It was the first RPG I ever played and I fell in love with the story. Thankfully it was during a weekend so I didn’t really have to deal with any repercussions. I couldn’t possibly get away with that now, though…

Mine was Red Alert 2. I had a day off from school on a Friday, and my Dad accidentally woke me up at 6 leaving for work. I played for a solid 24 hours.

Mine was Super Metroid. #ImOld

Mine was Phantasy Star. Don’t feel bad, I’m older.

Bionic Commando. The NES version.
#Older

I’ve pulled all nighters with nearly every game I’ve ever owned. First was probably the NES Super Mario Bros. 1 or 3. The first one I did that with that had a story though was Final Fantasy 1.

I’m with Justin, minus the “hashtag” which is really a pound sign or a sharp.

Octothorpe actually. But I think that’s getting a bit to pedantic.

There were many. My dad used to call me “Nintendo-leg”.

Double Dragon 2 and 3(because I’m a twin, my brother shared my fate),

final fantasy 3(6, which let you play 2 players on SNES, and which I spent hours leveling up on), and later chrono trigger, because you have to get ABSOLUTELY everything, if you want to win.

Now… it’s Rage of the immortals on my cell phone. I think I may have a problem…

Actually both Phantasy Star and Bionic Commando came our in 1987 so I guess we’re the same age?

Ummm… My first time was on NES Lode Runner, then I had a full 12-hour day at work. Does that count?

I fucking loved golden sun! The second was great! The third was baby bullshit unfortunately. Holds your hand the whole time

wow, that’s tough to remember…
was going to say chrono trigger, though that might just be the first rpg i did that to.

Most likely, it was Jurassic Park for the NES, SMB3 for the NES, or Maddog McCree on the computer.

The old Infocom text adventures were referred to as “interactive fiction”, because each was at least a novella worth of story that you had to work your way through.

This was my reaction the day my brother showed my Skyrim. It was during one of my yearly visits and I ended up spending half the weekend hogging their PS3 and not even sleeping. I literally only stopped when I passed out. I also have a similar problem with junk food, but I tend to crave sweets, so I’m lucky that I can satisfy that craving with things like fruit and granola bars. I still lean towards the bad stuff though. Chocolate, cheesecake and pepsi are my worst cravings, and when those things are in the house I will not eat or drink anything else until they’re gone.

I may be ruining your life, but you can get a cookie dough & cheesecake blizzard at just about any Dairy Queen. >_> The only thing that has saved me from health problems due to excess consumption is my stinginess and laziness. Otherwise I’d probably be making them in mass quantities at home. Although I do have to figure out the home-made soft-serve problem.

I used to be like that too, but then I moved out of my parents house, and had to make financially conscience decisions when it came to grocery shopping. Being a little poor has done wonders for my figure.

Go ahead, blame it on the teen. I live alone, and the amount of death-chips I keep on hand is overweening.

Only for emergencies, of course! ;-)

Used to we just didn’t keep anything like that in the house. I mean I didn’t eat fast food for 4 years.

You’d be surprised what an hour of walking a day and cutting out soda does. I had heart surgery last year and my doctor recomended it. I ended up losing almost fifty pounds barely doing anything different over six months.

I’ve already developed a chronic, serious genetic disorder, so I’ve stopped giving a damn about what I eat.

C’mon, baby needs another hit of that sweet narrative twist. Please don’t hold out! I’ll do anything!

I know that feeling of not wanting to stop enjoying something but you’re body says otherwise. I kind of like the feeling when I am very into a book or a game. I like the feeling of surprise when I turn my head to find out I’ve been into something nearly all day.

I love your comparison of video games to books. It’s how I’ve always felt about video games, but I could never convey that to my family because most of them don’t exactly enjoy reading. I still don’t like how I could be inside reading a book for hours with nothing said by my family, but playing a video game for the same amount of time leads to them confronting me about “wasting the day”.

I have a strange habit when it comes to games. I can “marathon” one particular game for a while, but then I eventually get bored and end up replacing it with another game. I normally cycle through my available games until I “re-discover” the games I’ve play most of the way through. When new games get added to the cycle some games get dropped, unfortunately.

I’ve recently decided to combat my unhealthy habits, but it is a struggle when they are readily available in the house. I’ve taken up running, climbing, and basketball to try to combat them, and my motivation to do these things is actually increasing the more I do them. Though it took me about 50 lbs to actually commit to them. >.>

ANYWAY, I think this is the first time I’ve commented and I just want to also say that your comic is one of my favorites, and I thank you for creating it! :D

I guess I’m hereby “third”ing the book/game comparison. I got the HP books taken away from me because I was reading them instead of doing things like, paying attention in class. My mother insisted I wasn’t allowed to read them in my room, so she could take them away from me, because reading the entire book in one sitting ruined the experience or something ridiculous. Sadly, reading is hard now, I can’t concentrate the way I used to. I’ve found I even have trouble marathon-ing games because I get bored.

“I have a strange habit when it comes to games. I can “marathon” one particular game for a while, but then I eventually get bored and end up replacing it with another game. I normally cycle through my available games until I “re-discover” the games I’ve play most of the way through. When new games get added to the cycle some games get dropped, unfortunately.”

THIS.

This has been my cycle ever since I got my 360 and continues with my PS3 and X-bone. I STILL haven’t beaten Skyrim and I have 3 chars over level 50. NONE of them have even started the main questline beyond killing that first dragon. And I only did that so I can kill dragons as I travel. I have almost 30 games on X-360 and 7 on X-bone and the only ones I have beaten are RYSe and the CoD series. And I don’t consider them fully beaten until I have ALL the achievements…..

It’s all part of his plan to leave her mind tired and easy to manipulate! What no one knows about Thomas is behind that ivory smile of his lurks the mind of an evil genius. Let’s all hope Carol has the resolve to overcome his dark ambition.

He’s already got her. What’s the point of world domination? Now if world domination would get you her……

An lo and behold I bring you tidings of great joy.

For on thine very couch has birthed a true gamer.

And save the universe she shall or may her breath be her last.

Her song is sung; her will be done.

The recognition of things that are potentially harmful to your health is at least a step in the direction it sounds like you want to go Crave. The part it breaks down is the same for most people, and that is willpower. No one can make a change but you, so I hope for the best for you, and for her sake, the teen too.

I understand you completely.

I have Lyme Disease (from a tick bite) right now and the medicine can’t be taken anywhere near milk…. IT TURNS EVERYTHING I CRAVE IS MADE OF MILK at least a little bit. :( I’m way overweight and should have used this as an opportunity to diet a bit but instead my logical monkey brain got to work and figured out how to make my favorite fudge without evaporated milk….. cause chocolate………………… I’m a sick person.

On another note there is another cutting edge to the whole overweight unhealthy thing. You may not die. Wait you say, how can that be a bad thing? Well, I’ve seen many relatives and friends go down to bad eating habits without dying (as well as seeing some die) many simply loose the ability to do anything besides sit in their chairs (even beds can be problematic) and some of those feel pain just sitting in those chairs (good luck enjoying your video games) I had another relative whose heart actually grew physically larger to take the strain of her decades long morbid obesity, she also went mad and set half of her family against the other half in a dumb struggle to get her approval and cash but I don’t know how much of that is from the eating problems. One relative had a reaction to her blood pressure medicines (different ones at different times in her life) and got first some disorder where her skin hardens which itches and burns and later her muscles were damaged by the second medicine and we barely got her off it before she became chair bound….

Lastly but bestly, my Godmother had a stroke which removed her ability to smell things so she couldn’t taste food anymore. She then lost all extra weight because food meant nothing to her anymore. Course now she is dangerously thin and has to be badgered into eating………….. Moral of the story is: people are tougher and our medical doctors better than people think when it comes to simply keeping you alive……… and that isn’t always all that great so healthy is better. Now if only I could heed my own warnings! XP

To get fit steal a fish from a hungry mother grizzly bear.
To stave off poor food choices with multiple people in a house have the one making the most poor choices foot the grocery bill.
To get someone to stop playing a game, etc. say the telephone is for them (Super Effective for cell phone gamers). For drastic cases then cut the power.

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