When a Dedicated Gamer Crosses the Line

There is a fine line when it comes to distinguishing between loyalty and obsession when it comes to video games. Here I go into the largest parts of both.

Loyalty

A loyal gamer is one who sticks with a game whether it’s in its prime or failing. Legacy players in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn can be considered loyal gamers. We knew there were issues with game though we continued to pay and play in the hopes that future changes would improve the game. Final Fantasy XIV was a huge failure in its first launch, although I personally enjoyed it, the game in its entirety was too flawed to justify Square Enix holding to the original game model.

The company apologized to its patrons by removing the subscription fee from the game for an extended period of time. After that time, Square Enix re-instated the fee, but in hopes that the forward progress would be enough to hold people over until the new version of the game released. This is where the loyal players assisted in improving the game to its current state. Due to the loyal fans coming back to a fee based plan Square Enix was able to afford to make the changes they did to repair the damage of the 1.0 release.

These are the types of gamers that companies want to draw in. These are the gamers that will make the company money while it’s growing. Your loyal players are the foundation of the game and they solidify the community.

Obsession

Obsession is what happens when your loyalty to a video game becomes unhealthy. For example, as of the moment I am writing this article, I have been up over 27 hours. The majority of this time was spent speed leveling in Final Fantasy XIV. Once a player gets to this point they are no longer able to make rational judgements when the game is concerned.

These individuals end up making choices that will negatively impact themselves or those around them. Such impacts include, but are not limited to, spending obnoxious amounts of real money on the game, or not sleeping, or even making the game un-enjoyable for others. Game companies warn you to play responsibly to prevent these things from happening, but there are always those who disregard these warnings. If you find yourself slipping into one of these situations try taking a break and clearing your head.

Please try to play video games responsibly so that you can spend your time enjoying them with others. As always, thanks for reading. Please leave a comment below whether you agree or disagree to my thoughts above.