On-Line Gamers Anonymous is a fellowship of people sharing their experience, strengths and hope to help each other recover and heal from the problems caused by obsessive game playing. Can playing games turn into a true addiction? For those who have experienced this themselves and from those who have seen it happen to their loved ones, YES IT DOES. The gamer becomes as helpless and cannot control their game playing any more than if they were hooked on drugs, alcohol, etc. The results are similar – they loose their real lives, their relationships in their real lives, and they can loose their jobs among other things. Knowing the fact that the games were designed by people with degrees in psychology to make them as addicting as possible explains how this can happen. The gaming companies are playing mind games with the gamer, and they are winning, so they can put more money into their pockets The gamer goes into a trance, and turns into a zombie, under the spell of the games. They may stick to one game, or move from one to another, all the while, ignoring their real life, because this is easier and they no longer have the choice "to NOT play". Can a gamer get their real life back? Yes, if they start spending the time and energy there that they used to spend in their gaming fantasy land. It is not easy. Real Life is not easy for anyone, but at least they will have a REAL life and REAL relationships. Our group encourages each other to come back to our Real Lives. We learn that by sharing what we have, we keep it. We change our lives and blossom into human beings contributing to our society. We become less self-centered. We learn that by giving, we receive. We welcome anyone affected by game-playing into our group. Home Page: http://www.olganon.org/ Message board: http://p198.ezboard.com/bolga 12-Steps and Principles for Gamers Step 1. We admitted we were powerless over gaming, and that our lives have become unmanageable. Principles - Honesty and Acceptance Step 2. Came to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. Principle - Hope Step 3. Made a decision to turn our will and our lives over to the care of God as we understood Him. Principle - Faith Step 4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves. Principles - Action and Courage Step 5. Admitted to God, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Principle - Integrity Step 6. Were entirely ready to have God remove all these defects of character. Principle - Willingness Step 7. Humbly asked Him to remove our shortcomings. Principle - Humility Step 8. Made a list of all persons we had harmed, and became willing to make amends to them all. Principle - Brotherly love Step 9. Made direct amends to such people wherever possible, except when to do so would injure, them or others. Principle - Justice Step 10. Continued to take personal inventory and when we were wrong promptly admitted it. Principle - Perseverance Step 11. Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood Him, praying only for knowledge of His will for us and the power to carry that out. Principle - Spirituality. Step 12. Having had a spiritual awakening as the result of these steps, we tried to carry this message to other compulsive gamers and to practice these principles in all our affairs. Principle – Service