Last week, Principal gave everyone a photocopied newspaper article on an ex-gaming addict. He spoke to us about this article somewhere last month as well, while he was revealing the past year 'O' level results to us (and when we had tremendous stress). So everyone had a nice nice big A3 size article about this:

Confessions of an ex-gaming junkie

Benjamin Toh was active in school until he became addicted to Maple Story, an online fantasy game. He spent hours playing the game, neglected his studies and eventually had to stay back in Secondary 3. The 17-year-old, who is from a top boys' school, looks back and tells Tessa Wong what went wrong.

"I HAVE been a gaming fanatic since my primary school days. I started with games like Red Alert and when I got older I got hooked on massive multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPG).

But my serious addiction started two years ago, with a game called Maple Story. It is a fantasy game where you can battle monsters and go on quests. My schoolmates introduced me to it in the middle of 2004, when I was in Secondary 2. I went home that day and immediately downloaded the programme and started playing it on my laptop. I just could not stop.

By the time I was in Secondary 3, I was rushing home from school and locking myself in my room to play it, often all the way up to midnight. Sometimes, I would play for over 10 hours a day, taking breaks only to go to the toilet or to gobble up my food.

My father is a logistics manager and my mother is an administrative assistant, and I am an only child with my own room. When they returned home at about 6pm, I would usually be playing Maple Story. They would tell me at least once a day to stop playing so much, but I ignored them. Back then, all I could think of was having fun.

My addiction was at its worst during school holidays. I have played up to 24 hours straight. Sometimes I would play up to 6am, then wake up at 3pm and continue to play again. I was also spending quite a bit of money on the game. I spent over $600 on Maple Story prepaid cards, which you can buy from 7-11 to redeem "cash items" in the online game. I skipped meals in school to save up for that.

I really became a totally different person.

Before this, I used to run in competitions and win medals. I was in the National Police Cadet Corps. But after I got addicted, I gave up almost all these things. I did not really have a social life too. My friends would call me about two or three times a day to ask me to hang out with them, but I kept rejecting them to stay at home to play Maple Story. They gradually stopped inviting me. But I didn't care, I was concentrating on playing my game.

Maybe it was part of growing up too, I was being rebellious. The more people don't want you to do something, the more you want to do it. My mother kept saying that if I continued playing I wouldn't do as well in my studies as other boys, but I just ignored her.

A lot of my older friends were playing it and I wanted to join them online. But they were already in polytechnics and had more time, I forgot that I still had secondary school to worry about, that I had to start preparing for my O-levels.

I started failing tests in the middle of 2005. I used to get about 60 upon 100 for my tests, then my marks dropped to around 30 upon 100 for nearly all of my subject tests.

It was dangerous, I felt I was losing direction in my life even though I was still happy-go-lucky during my exams, and continued playing a lot. It was only when my teachers announced that a number of students wouldn't graduate to Secondary 4 that I started worrying. Then I got my report card: I had passed only two subjects, English and Higher Chinese, out of seven. I had to repeat my Secondary 3. I was really depressed, and my parents were very upset.

My vice-principal said that she wanted to help push me to the next level, but I more or less made the choice to be retained. I realised that my studies were weak, and that I really wanted to get my foundation for Secondary 4 right.

Getting that report card was an eye-opening experience. I realised that I had to get over my addiction, and I just gradually stopped playing so much.

Other people helped too: My friends helped by refusing to play with me online, and my parents would confiscate my laptop sometimes. I have a new computer now, but I play only Maple Story and this other MMORPG called Audition for about two hours a day.

Life has been much better since I cut down. At the end of last year, I passed all my seven subjects and made it to Secondary 4. For most of the subjects I scored 60 upon 100 and in some I even scored 70 upon 100. Now, I also hang out with lots of new friends instead of being cooped up at home.

I am not really ashamed that I was so addicted. I still think playing MMORPG is okay, just that you really should not play it too much. You end up sacrificing a lot of time which could be spent with your family or doing constructive things. You end up throwing your life away on a game and it is just not worth it.

I guess this article won't apply to us, because being in a mugging class, no one plays Maple Story (I think only Alvin does, though). Like what Mrs Setho (Physics teacher) likes to say, "I am worried for you all, not because you all don't study, but because you all study too much." Haha. So, so far 3 of these articles have been pasted up on the notice board, each one edited in its own way. So one of the edited versions was:

Confessions of an ex-gaming mugging junkie

Benjamin Toh was active in school until he became addicted to Maple Story A-Maths, an online fantasy game a branch of Mathematics. He spent hours playing the game studying A-Maths, neglected his studies social life and eventually had to stay back in Secondary 3 jump straight to university. The 17-year-old, who is from a top boys' school, looks back and tells Tessa Wong what went wrong.

"I HAVE been a gaming fanatic diehard mugger since my primary school days. I started with games subjects like Red Alert Maths and when I got older I got hooked on massive multi-player online role-playing games (MMORPG) to harder and more challenging topics like solving quartic equations.

But my serious addiction started two years ago, with a game subject called Maple Story Additional Mathematics. It is a fantasy game subject where you can battle monsters solve equations and go on quests prove theorems. My schoolmates introduced me to it in the middle of 2004, when I was in Secondary 2. I went home that day and immediately downloaded the programme doing research and started playing it on my laptop studying. I just could not stop.

By the time I was in Secondary 3, I was rushing home from school and locking myself in my room to play study it, often all the way up to midnight. Sometimes, I would play mug for over 10 hours a day, taking breaks only to go to the toilet or to gobble up my food.

My father is a logistics manager and my mother is an administrative assistant, and I am an only child with my own room. When they returned home at about 6pm, I would usually be playing Maple Story mugging A-Maths. They would tell me at least once a day to stop playing mugging so much, but I ignored them. Back then, all I could think of was having fun studying.

My addiction was at its worst during school holidays. I have played studied up to 24 hours straight. Sometimes I would play study up to 6am, then wake up at 3pm and continue to play study again. I was also spending quite a bit of money on the game subject. I spent over $600 on Maple Story prepaid flash cards, which you can buy from 7-11 to redeem "cash items" in the online game Popular bookstores. I skipped meals in school to save up for that.

I really became a totally different person.

Before this, I used to run in competitions and win medals. I was in the National Police Cadet Corps. But after I got addicted, I gave up almost all these things. I did not really have a social life too. My friends would call me about two or three times a day to ask me to hang out with them, but I kept rejecting them to stay at home to play Maple Story study A-Maths. They gradually stopped inviting me. But I didn't care, I was concentrating on playing my game my studies.

Maybe it was part of growing up too, I was being rebellious. The more people don't want you to do something, the more you want to do it. My mother kept saying that if I continued playing studying I wouldn't do as too well in my studies as compared to other boys, but I just ignored her.

A lot of my older friends were playing learning it and I wanted to join them online in the library. But they were already in polytechnics and had more time, I forgot that I still had was in secondary school to worry about, that I had to start preparing and needed to relax for my O-levels.

I started failing achieving full marks in my tests in the middle of 2005. I used to get about 60 90 upon 100 for my tests, then my marks dropped increased to around 30 98 upon 100 for nearly all of my subject tests.

It was dangerous, I felt I was losing direction in my life even though I was still happy-go-lucky during my exams, and continued playing mugging a lot. It was only when my teachers announced that a number of students wouldn't graduate to Secondary 4 university that I started worrying. Then I got my report card: I had passed only two subjects, English and Higher Chinese, out of seven achieved full marks for every subject, all 11 of them. I had to repeat my Secondary 3 move up to university. I was really depressed, and my parents were very upset.

My vice-principal said that she wanted to help push me to the next level retain, but I more or less made the choice to be retained study less. I realised that my studies were weak too strong, and that I really wanted to get my foundation relax for Secondary 4 right.

Getting that report card was an eye-opening experience. I realised that I had to get over my addiction, and I just gradually stopped playing studying so much.

Other people helped too: My friends helped by refusing to play study with me online, and my parents would confiscate my laptop textbook sometimes. I have a new computer textbook now, but I play study only Maple Story trigonometry and this other MMORPG branch of Mathematics called Audition Calculus for about two hours a day.

Life has been much better since I cut down. At the end of last year, I passed all my only seven subjects and made it to had to retain in Secondary 4. For most of the subjects I scored 60 80 upon 100 and in some I even scored 70 upon 100. Now, I also hang out with lots of new friends instead of being cooped up at home.

I am not really ashamed that I was so addicted. I still think playing MMORPG studying is okay, just that you really should not play it study too much. You end up sacrificing a lot of time which could be spent with your family or doing constructive things. You end up throwing your life away on a game subject and it is just not worth it.