Cantr: Obsession or Time Killer?

[chadpants]

Forgive me if this has been a topic already, but I had to ask after reading this:

I don't know about the rest of you, but I play because I don't have anything else to do.

Sometimes, I play because I have nothing to do. Other times, I don't log on for weeks. It depends.

Whenever I use the internet, though, I always watch TV or listen to the radio also. I feel like I'm wasting time if I'm not doing two things at once.

So do you play just to break up your day and you're drifting online, or is this all you would do all day long if you had, say, 1000 minutes at your disposal?

It's a little of both for me. It's the first thing I do when I get up in the morning after I shower, and the first thing I do when I get home from work, but then I drift in and out for the rest of the evening and on weekends, as I have a life, a wife, and many other things I'm into, like recording music and acting in the local community theater.

[Shaderon]

It's a time filler for me for when I'm working and have nothing to do. I work on a reception desk you see and lots of my time is spent typing away at my keyboard pretending to be industrious as I am in a spot where there has to be a presence between 9am and 5:30 but sometimes there is no actual work for me.

Saying that I also play a little from home and do love to check in now and again at weekend.

[Doug R.]

It's my online game obsession of the year. I check Cantr right before projects process when I get up, when I get to work, pretty much all day while I'm at work, and before projects process after dinner, and at process before I go to bed. I haven't started dreaming of Cantr yet in my sleep, but I came closest last night when I was obsessing about Cantr and couldn't actually get to sleep. In fact, the only time I'm not checking Cantr is the "middle of the night" project processes at 1am and 4am. I even go so far as to stop working on projects that I know will finish at 1am and work on something else. I can't stand my characters sitting idle, if even for an hour.

So I guess you can say that I'm a junkie, at least until something more fascinating comes along.

[Wolf]

1000 minutes, I'd use them all up!
1440 minutes would be a full r/l day, but Cantr time is different, I forgot the exact numbers (I actually made the conversion between the times and the number of minutes once), so 1440 minutes would break up cantr days.
Right now, I have no job, but even if I did, I already spend all my free available time on the internet.
Cantr is definitely under my skin, I even set my computer to play a loud mp3 two minutes before the reset so I can log in and take care of the day's first things.
That means, I log in even before getting dressed, going to the toilet, and having breakfast.

The current locked situation is funny, in a way, because a few days ago I had this dream where I tried to log in, but the whole screen went red and gave a message that I had been locked out.
In that dream, I broke out in hives and panicked - and then I woke up to quickly check on my chars, about 45 minutes before the reset.

Cantr is an addiction in a good way, it inspires some things...
I started writing some fiction involving some of my chars, I started carving a stone hanger that goes on a keyring, with what I think of as a Cantr-like theme.
When I'm not playing, I'm writing down things that my most important chars are witnessing/experiencing, from their viewpoints, trying to think up as many possibilities as possible that could arrise from those events.
That last thing is something I tend to do to keep my mind as sharp as possible.
I even considered a blog in a "what if my chars had access to blogs"-kind of setting.
In those blogs, I'd have them rant about stuff from r/l as well, and maybe even have them take shots at eachother... the blog would be made from their characters' perspective, with a bit of humor added, but it wouldn't be something that had any reflection on how they lived in the game.
In the game, they'd still be doing the same things, blissfully unaware of anything outside of their range of life in Cantr.

[BlueNine]

A big fat heroin-addiction of an obsession...I would gladly have 1000 minutes...or 1000 characters!

[EchoMan]

For me it is gaming addiction. I've been playing MUD's to and from since 1989, many hours per day during uni-time (many nights perhaps) and some jobs after that when I've had periods of low activity. Right now there is no way I can find the time to MUD efficiently, so Cantr really is great for me. A couple of minutes during coffee break, and a few minutes at night. It's perfect.

[Dee]

I play it when I have nothing else to do... But I sometimes WANT to play it.. I love it!

[Bear]

I'd say obsession and timekiller.

[Surly]

Addicted and obsessed... although sometimes I wish I only had 5 characters, and sometimes 50.

I never use up all my minutes anyway, despite spending probably more than 200 minutes on it... but I often find myself thinking about Cantr in lectures instrad of concentrating... but that is more in an RD way than a player way.

But today, for some reason, my net is broken... and Cantr all I can access. And of course, that coincides with the first game lock for quite a while...

Typical really...

[west]

I've gone through varying stages of obsession and resignation over the past 3+ years...there've been months where I logged on constantly, every day, between classes and meals and constantly on weekends, even losing sleep/skipping classes when something really important is going on.

And then there've been weeks or months where I can't be bothered to log on at all, whether because I'm too busy or I just don't want to, any more than is necessary to make sure my chars don't die. I'm sure those are frustrating to other players, and when other people do it it frustrates me. But sometimes it has to be done.

Now, cutting down and minimizing, I usually find time to log on a few times a day and do what needs to be done. I'm enjoying playing again, which is nice, and slowly getting rid of my characters that are actually "important", which is nice too. I'm too busy IRL to be important IC. Now I mostly just play fun characters.

But yes. Obsessed, I've been.

[formerly known as hf]

It's only ever been a time filler for me (in a good way)

I started at work - a way of easing the boredom, then I would log in every now and then at Uni.

I log in more often now I have the net at my flat - usually daily, but I don't often spend more than half an hour on it each day, usually with two checks - one in the morning, one in the evening.

I have one character I keep active - the others fluctuate depending on how bothered I can be - at the moment hardly any of them have communicated with other characters much at all - three of them have gone a month or so wihtout saying a thing...

I spend more time on the forums and IRC than I do playing.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

Depends how I feel at the time... sometimes I'm almost obsessed with checking it, even if nothing's going on... and other times, I just don't care and might log in once a day... and it depends on how much other stuff I have to do and how industrious I feel...

[Sunni Daez]

*raises her right hand* I, Sunni Daez, am a Cantr addict....but not just for the game...for all the wonderful people I have met, the friendships that have formed...the love that I have found.....I am just sooo addicted to all of it...

[Racetyme]

Time filler for me, if I had friends who lived close, a car, or a girlfriend, I wouldn't play nearly as much.

[west]

one out of three ain't bad for me.

(friends; car was left at home and girlfriend, well... c'est la vie)