Confessions of a former Call of Duty addict

The following excerpt is from a fictional interview with former Call of Duty addict, Greg Pepperly.

Jeff: So Greg, tell us about your first time playing COD and what it was like.

Greg:  Well, I didn't start playing Call of Duty until I moved back to Cedar Falls . Shortly thereafter, my roommates showed me their "Green Room," an upstairs room dedicated to COD.  There in that tiny room, they spent hours on end glued to the boob-tube, slaughtering enemies.  I didn't mind, though. In fact, most times I'd just sit with them and socialize. Every time they'd ask me to play and every time I'd politely deny. However, after one particularly rough day at school, I ended up stomping into the Green Room and shouting at my roommate, Brandon, for no reason at all.

"Chill out, man,” he said. Why don't you play some Call of Duty?  It'll calm your nerves."  So, I snatched the controller out of his hands and took a turn, but I didn't feel any less stressed afterward.

"Just play it again," he told me.  "It usually takes a coupla turns."
I heeded his advice and about halfway through the second game – it hit. My whole body just relaxed and I lost all cares. By the third game, I knew why they called it, "God's gift to man.” That was my first time.

But for weeks after, I didn't touch a controller; I didn't need to. Then mid-term came, and so did the stress. I asked Brandon if I could try COD again?  He said, "Okay."  From that point, I started playing about once each day, which wasn't much. But once a day turned to two and two to three and so on. And before I knew it, I was blowing off friends on the weekend, and I even started skipping some of my classes.  Nobody really noticed though, I mean, my grades stayed up, I still went to work and still did normal everyday things.  I just liked to play COD when I got home.

Jeff:  Okay, so it started to affect your schoolwork and the time you spent with friends.  When did you realize your habit was more than recreational?

Greg:  When my girlfriend started nagging.  "You never spend anytime with me; you're always playing that stupid Call of Honor game!"  Normally, I've would've ignored her because she ALWAYS nags -- but she had a good point -- I was only spending a few hours a week with her.  What's worse is that I'd spend 20 or so hours of that same week playing COD.

Jeff:  How'd you quit, then?

Greg:  Cold Turkey!

Jeff: Cold turkey? Wasn't that hard to do?

Greg:  Well, at first. For the next couple of days, my friends said I got irritated easily. But COD isn't physically addictive like alcohol or tobacco, so I didn't have tremors or cold-sweats or anything. I just had to keep my mind off it. So, I started volunteering my free time at the animal shelter, at school, anywhere to keep me away from the Green Room.  And the strange thing: without COD, my level of stress actually went down. 


Jeff:  Greg, it appears that we're running out of space.  To end, do you have anything you'd like to say to the readers?

Greg:  Yeah. I want to say that in moderation, playing COD isn't that bad – you won't become a communist or a serial killer like some would have you believe.  But playing excessively can strain personal relationships and may make you apathetic toward things you once enjoyed.  So, if you find yourself struggling with a COD addiction, know that help is out there; however, it's up to you to seek it.
 

Be the first to comment on this article!

Add comment


I am not posting spam. I understand posting spam or other comments that are unrelated to this article will cause my comment to be flagged for deletion and possibly cause my IP address to be permanently banned from this server.

Enter the characters in the image above:

log out