How Has Graal Affected You?
 

Good or bad, tell your story here. I just remembered a very interesting conversation in Zanza guild chat a month or so ago. We were talking about how Graal drastically changed our lives, most of it in a snowball effect. I'm interested to see your stories and how Graal changed your life, for better or for worse.

As for myself, my GPA dropped from 3.8~ unweighted to almost 2.8 due to playing Graal in class/study time/etc. Also, from these 'till three AM sessions, my eyesight is well... Really bad.

Through Graal, I got a gambling problem. Not only did I waste a lot of my money, I began to gamble it in useless repetitions. Sometimes I won, sometimes I lost. But when I won, I received a high - it only lasted a few frames, but it was so great. When I lost, I felt on a low. But those rare highs made it all worthwhile. RPS was my life.

Graal also gave me a violence problem. I was killing, for fun. I loved watching my victims twirl to the ground.

I lost my money, my sleep. Graal ruined my life.

But that was over a year ago now. Problem gambling is sad - it ruins lives, friendships, and communities. It is not okay.

But, it is okay, to ask for help.

And that is what I did.

If you, or anyone you know, has a problem with gambling, reach out to them. Call the Problem Gambling Foundation of New Zealand.

With my violence problem, I stopped early. I managed to control myself. Just look at my stats - I turned myself from a violent monster into a little angel. And you can too.

http://i2.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/.../216/7nTnr.png

exact same story here.

Graal is pretty much my ultimate distraction, i'm getting use to saying no to it now but it's cut short my studies here and there. Other then that, graal has ruined 2 of my ipods batteries... damn you grawwl!

Hasn't affected my life a large deal, just swallowed up all my free time ~:)

Graal hasn't done anything to my life, I never replace studying or classwork with it, I just leave the game to one side.
I believe letting it take over your life affects everyone around you aswell, that's why you should keep your playing time to a minimum.

I remember when I spent over 2000 SEK (Swedish Krona), on Graal. I stopped spend time with my family as I used to.

But Graal also helped me get a better english, now I got an A, and when I started I only had E-

it affected me ..bad.

My grammar has greatly improved.

Gs1 was the first scripting/programming language i learnt, back in the day.

teach meh :3
graal affected me by consuming my free time and making me not focus on school

Graal made me friends.
http://i0.kym-cdn.com/entries/icons/...Untitled-1.jpg

No, graal hasn't really effected my life except for a few dollars spent on graal at packs and $100 on my Dev Server. Graal has also taught me a new programming language-GS2. Graal has kept my grades the same, straight A's on every test. I've played graal for a year, no impact on my life.

I still have a lot of school friends, I was recently asked out (I declined), and my grades are the same. Also, I learned to not be shy anymore. I talk to my graal friends over Skype despite my mother's "stranger danger" conversations.

Graal has somewhat distracted my life currently and the life ahead of me. It's bringing my grades down and making me lazier. I'm trying to escape more and more of it every day.

My suggestion is to only play Graal on weekends.

Graal ruined my life

A to an C, Don't spend time with family, Don't study, ect

used to be crappy at school because of graal but I learned to control my time on it and so my grades are back to an A

I lost a few Friends, my english was geting better,...

Causes my iPod battery to about 10 minutes without charging.

Pros: friends, fun
Cons: staying indoor more, not being active, digging through my mom's drawers looking for my iPod
I could list a lot more but I'm lazy.

Aren't you only 10? o_o

Meh, i started failing classes, lost a couple friends, but on graal i gained at least 100 more friends. I control my play time. Now my life is pretty good.

I know your feel...

Graal (well, actually Dinosmash) has also ruined my life in an indirect way. On Dinosmash, I met friends who would be my friends for 3+ years now (still are), and they convinced me to get an Xbox. **** went down from there. I made 7 great friends I've had since 09 on Dinosmash/Graal, but now... Yeah.

what friends

7

it changed my life, i swapped my bed time from 9 pm to 3 am,:)

If you're grades drop because of Graal, or you spend time away from your friends or family because of it....you have serious issues. And chances are, if its not Graal, its something else that would do this to you. You just have problems. Its not Graal.

As for me, Graal introduced me to programming, I made some really awesome friends, and even met my ex boyfriend and I spent 2 1/2 awesome years with him.
So, whats wrong with all of you?

Everyone has different reactions to things jazz. Its not that people have serious issues, its that sometimes people can get themselves addicted to something that is important to them. Just because you have had a positive reaction to graal, doesn't mean everyone else does. People are different, and its not really nice to assume that everyone that has been struck with negative side effects from the graal experience has serious issues.

I've developed an online persona while playing Graal based on how I wish I could act offline.

El Palazzo?

Lets see the damage here:
Negatives:
2 of my ipod batteries destroyed
almost 4,000 combined hours (All servers over 3 years) lost from my life
grade averages going from all A's to B's
Loosing a few friends
Developing an adddiction
Positives:
Gaining alot of friends online
Learning to pixel art
Learning how to work in a business environment before initially working at a job
Learning about different cultures around the world from the community
Having a very good hobby to relieve stress and escape
Having a use for my ipod finally besides music
All the fun i have had over the past 3 years :)

Not sure if it helped or hurt yet.

D: wow. Graal should be marketed as work experience then :3

Bad, I became addicted and I play way too much.

Loss of sleep! Not so much lately, but I used to be quite the addict.

Same here. I've been trying to pull my stuff together.

Stefan mind controlled us...

He had any sort of mind control abilities most of the Graal population wouldn't have left when Graal became pay-to-play and there would be no ********aal.

My grade point average went from a 3.5 to a 2.0. I still managed to stay really active though, I mad time for friends. Although during summer I didn't really do much of anything anything with my friends. Now I've learned to control my time and make time with my friends. :D it probably has affected me rather hard. It's still fun though!

I'm supposed to be studying for a major exam. Three hours that could have gone there...

Went to Graalians.

who studies these days anyways.......

I sometimes do, if it's important enough (borderline grades, finals, etc). Usually if I don't worry about it too much, it'll pass easily.

I never study, but my mind can remember test things and stuff really easily.

I can now type on my iPad keyboard at god speed!

Graal introduced me to the big, bad world of game development.

No, i'm pretty sure if your sacrificing your social life and education for an iPod game, you should get some help...that's just not normal.
And you say people get addicted to something that is important to them...if you get addicted to the point that your obsessed and your sacrificing other parts of your life for it...you do have issues.

I was on Graal every day for hours when I used to seriously play. But I didn't sacrifice my social life, or put off studying for school or homework.
Just because you enjoy doing something doesn't mean you give up everything else for it. That's called having a problem.

Was he Elk?

Now, i can agree with you that children can have serious issues getting addicted to a game since they don't have the cognitive development to decide what is best for them in life yet, but please, tell me what "normal" is..?
You seem to be acting like theres a set path for people to take in life, you must have this many friends and this good of grades, and if you put other things over it, such as getting addicted to graal you have a 'serious' problem and have gone off the rails society expects of you. You weren't really getting what i was saying...
Maybe some people, given the right age to be able to make decisions for themselves, can choose what makes them happy in life. It doesn't have to be having an extremely social life and having lots of money and being successful, people can make choices. That's what life's all about right? Being happy? I mean what else is there? If this game is incredibly important to them, and it makes them happy, whats really wrong with abandoning parts of your social life for it?

School comes first, kiddies. Seriously. The line between what you may consider a hobby and what is actually an addiction can be blurry, and hard to see... but it's there. The moment it starts effecting your life in a negative way, you should step back and start reevaluating and get your priorities straight.

It's so easy to get drawn into Graal, not as a game but as a time and social sink. But in the end the moment you start putting off other things, like going out with friends, or homework, to play Graal, there is a BIG problem.

I think the most positive thing that has come out of Graal for me is that it got me deeply invested into development, and in more fields than one. It's pretty much what got me into game art, programming, and game design.

However, the cons probably outweigh the pros. I don't know what my life would have turned out without Graal, but there's a good chance it would probably be better.

I agree. Graal got me into game design and programming, (though I have yet to learn gscript) and has made me friends. It has increased my bedtime from 9 to 11, so not too much. But I definitely have wasted aLot of time on graal.
For me.
School
Programming
Graal
So I don't think it's a bad thing:)

Whatever happened to your own life I think you playing Graal improved the lives of everybody else who plays it.

Maybe, but I think potentially if I could go back and never have found Graal the time it consumed would have probably gone to something more beneficial. But I don't really know that, but I imagine there were more productive things out there that could have filled the void if not for Graal. And this is coming from someone who has learned A LOT because of Graal.

Well you still have the entire rest of your life to be productive...