[Anakin the Chosen One]

Okay, so today I was so bored because my girlfriend was taking a nap and decided to play an Online game (which name I forget). I signed up, made an avatar and went to the starter area. My avatar was in this room alone, then suddenly a second avatar showed up. I got a little spooked, (mind you I was already anxious about starting out as a n00b and being around all these experienced players.) then made my way to the second room. There was another player talking to the character you're supposed to talk to to get points or whatever. That person's avatar faced me and I freaked out. I nearly had a panic attack and logged off and ran to my living room, away from my computer. I was so ashamed.

tl;dr: Has SA affected your online life as well as your normal life?

Any tips on how I can be comfortable even in an online setting? (I forgot to mention, I'm afraid of making eye contact, so when that avatar faced me I flipped out.)

 

[Whitney]

Yeah I hate it when people try to talk to me in online games. Or when you have to group up to do things.

 

[Recipe For Disaster]

of course it has, it affects everything for me. but overall i am way better online. i feel like a big part of it is not having to use my voice. i have trouble projecting confidence and using the right tone with my voice when speaking in a situation where i am not comfortable and i feel like other people pick up on this and can see when i am rattled. online, i know no one can see my reaction so i am able to act a lot more confident and am a lot more confident. i am not afraid of the responses i will get from people. the hardest thing for me online is knowing what to say, which is also the hardest thing for me in real life. i never know what to say.

 

[fc045]

I'd played a text only game in the 90's. People still treated me the same ****ty way as in real life. It was remarkably identically whether visually or choice of words.

Well words hide for a while. But it all comes out. Whatever someone does and leaves a personal stamp. whether art, writing, how someone walks, talks etc.

 

[MagusAnima]

Yup, I quit playing WoW and WAR cause I hate grouping up and talking over voicechat. Not being able to group means I couldn't progress very far in either of the games so I just stop playing when I get to max level. Most people I encountered in WoW were complete idiots who I didn't want to talk to anyway though.

Luckily I always play(ed) a warlock so I could solo almost everything quest-wise.
Although my first character was a priest and I hated how everyone treated me like a heal-bot, so I rerolled.

 

[Joe]

nope but on wow i didnt use voice chat at all but i guess it didnt hinder me that much. But im far less socialble than i was on games.

Also on wow most people always try and act smart with me if they know im young but i was a paladin so i was fine aswell until at 80.
Gonna stop talkin since little will understand what im saying

 

[accepting myself]

Yes I feel the same way I'm even freaked when people want to befriend me on facebook or forums <<<<sigh>>>> :-(

 

[Pr0n]

Yup. Even on forums i sometimes feel like i'm thread killer.

 

[fredbloggs02]

I have a paladin lv80, I think he's still there, a warlock lv 48 and a shaman lv68 i believe, I had a few more characters I can't remember I'm sure, quite shameful really haha but you know it was fun while it lasted. I was even more shy a year ago when I played but the people i talked to generally liked me. I made some good friends there, I still talk to one, on and off. Still, you get the odd thick rimmed spectacled nerd there who takes the game far too seriously for his own good, those people were always good for a laugh and a bit of drama. Still, I enjoyed grouping EXTREMELY tense though, more so than for most of them ESPECIALLY when I was the designated leader but I took them through. I felt accountable when or if I made a mistake and for things I diddn't even know at times. I was probably a better conversationalist then too as I always felt the need to force myself to find something interesting to say rather than random claptrap.

You know what I reckon? I reckon we should all cluster together and raise the banner of social anxiety over all the major cities in world of warcraft, like an awareness parade! For our pride! It might even make an impact. I used to do small things like bring bombs around, blow them up then shout "IN THE NAME OF SOCIAL ANXIETY!" Pretty pathetic sure but I a lot of people were curious haha.

 

[VagueResemblance]

Yes..
I used to love team-based multiplayer FPS games, until they got advanced enough that the teams would need voice communication to coordinate. Now if I play games at all it tends to be singleplayer only.
And I actually LIKE my voice! I shouldn't be anxious about this! Damn it.

 

[endtroducing]

Yes!! I'd like to play some multiplayer games online but I'm afraid of what other people might say, or that I won't know what to do. I'm probably overthinking it but I definitely feel way more pressured when other people are involved--online or in real life. Same with instant messengers, I'm not very talkative at all.

 

[bowlingpins]

Yes, I am the same way. Last I played World of Warcraft about 3 years ago, I was by myself almost the entire time. Anytime I joined groups, it would be more stressful than fun. And since you can't progress much solo, I quit after 1 month.

 

[Chri588]

The only thing that gives me a little bit more confidence when playing online, is thinking to myself that no-one can see me, they're probably hundreds of miles away and I will probably never see or speak to any of them. But I find it hard sometimes when I have to write things to say to them, especially because i'm not much of a 'gamer' and when they start talking in depth about the game, server etc, that stuff just goes straight over my head lol.

 

[milo001]

Yup.I didn't even there to went to SAS chatroom.

 

[odd_one_out]

It affects me because I post about half as much as I would otherwise. I avoid contributing to controversial discussions or even normal ones sometimes because my symptoms go into overdrive. It's pointless pushing through it because, when that happens, I often cannot check a thread for days, weeks, months, or years. I also imagine anything I say to contain too many inaccuracies or lack intelligence.

I left one support site because of anxiety and have not read the PM sent by the admin 2 years ago or logged in because the anxiety's still very high. I don't think I did anything wrong, but cannot really tell.

 

[Hamtown]

During online gaming i used to practically have a heart attack if someone had a go at me, what they say doesn't offend me mentally but it obviously triggers something and my heart will just start suddenly pounding out of control.You just want it to stop but then you find it incredibly difficult to speak without your voice raising 50 pitches and then you've lost control.

I think on a mental level"But this guy really truly doesn't scare me!" but still my heart races like hell.I don't know why but my body just freezes when it comes to mental confrontations, its like a subconscious trigger or something but its horrible it completely takes over my body, mentally i'm not offended but physically my body just totally freaks out i don't know why.It happens way more rarely now but i can get it no matter what i think of the situation.

 

[Scrub-Zero]

Im kind of looking forward to the new starwars online game. The bioware person said in an interview that most places would be solo-able which is something i love. And i guess i'll swallow the pill and party up for those places that you can't solo.

As you can see, i can't talk to people online either. I know a guy at SAS who plays the same online game i do, but we haven't made any real effort to play together. Beside a few emails, nothing has happened yet. I'm just no good with people

 

[Toad Licker]

I used to play Uneal Tournament online and on days when my SA was really bad I'd change my user name so no one would know it was me.

 

[Chri588]

^ I still play unreal tournament (2003) lol, and I do the exact same thing. I must have about 5 different names lol