Hi, my name is Jake McNeill. I'm a freelance writer for 1Up, and I was referred to this board as a good place to get some feedback from the gamer community.

My latest assignment is an article about the more obsessive, compulsive, excessive, and just plain ridiculous side of gamers. Understand that I have no desire to create some kind of freakshow, but rather something more along the lines of "times even we have to admit we took things too far."

I've done a lot of these things myself - my game collection has gotten somewhere into the thousands (half of which I've never taken out of the shrinkwrap), I've taken days off from work just to play Oblivion ("Uh, yeah, I'm... uh... really sick... *cough*" ). One time, I took a pencil and pad of paper and actually mapped out the whole ridiculous trade system of Secret of Evermore - I didn't even like it all that much!

So my question to you guys is what experiences along those lines you may have had. Times when your enthusiasm outweighed your judgement, or caused problems elsewhere in your lives. As per usual, I'll PM anyone whose comments I'd like to use in the article to ask for permission before plastering an embarassing story up on the website.

Thanks again in advance to everyone who participates. I should note that I'm posting this both in the Classic Gaming and Modern Gaming boards because it kinda' applies to both.