James McAvoy Was Playing Too Much Oblivion, So He Destroyed The Disc

[entremet]

I think we all have had at least one game in our life that consumes your every waking hour. A game that you stay up late playing, then wake up early and play some more. For James McAvoy in 2006 that game was The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Things got so bad that the actor had to burn the disc to free himself from Bethesda's open-world RPG.

James McAvoy is probably best known for his role as young Professor Xavier in the X-Men films. His latest role is in a video game, 12 Minutes, starring alongside Willem Dafoe and Daisy Ridley. McAvoy sat down with Forbes to talk about 12 Minutes and his gaming past and revealed that at one point in 2006 he was so enthralled with Oblivion that it started to cause serious problems for him during the filming of Becoming Jane.

"I'm, like, having to go to bed at 10 pm, because I'm getting up at 6 am every morning," said McAvoy. "And I've got tons of lines, and all that kind of stuff. And I'm just staying up until four in the morning just playing Oblivion."

Eventually, McAvoy's long gaming sessions during filming got so bad that he started playing the game at 8 p.m. and didn't stop until 5:35 a.m. Only 10 minutes later a car came by to pick him up to start the next day of shooting. It was at this point that McAvoy realized he had to do something drastic. So he took the disc out of the Xbox 360, turned on his stove, and destroyed Oblivion.

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James McAvoy Was Playing Too Much Oblivion, So He Destroyed The Disc

The X-Men and It: Chapter Two actor also revealed he loves RPGs like Secret of Mana

kotaku.com

I had to do a few times. But I didn't break the discs. I erased the saves. Going for 100 percent on FFX. Those damn Celestial Weapons.

This was the original PS2 version, so just cleared the save on my memory card. What a timesink.

 

[Strings]

James McAvoy Was Playing Too Much Oblivion, So He Destroyed The Disc

The X-Men and It: Chapter Two actor also revealed he loves RPGs like Secret of Mana

kotaku.com

I had to do a few times. But I didn't break the discs. I erased the saves. Going for 100 percent on FFX. Those damn Celestial Weapons.

This was the original PS2 version, so just cleared the save on my memory card. What a timesink.

Click to shrink...

Pfft, you're both weak. Look at this absolute specimen:

 

[Mona]

i played to much WoW so i broke my Hard Disc Drive

 

[Van Bur3n]

That's one way of closing shut the jaws of Oblivion.

 

[Hexa]

When I was ten I destroyed the gamecube disc for Sonic Adventure DX because it was ruining my life.

 

[Shroki]

I guess I don't really understand this kind of addictive personality.

No matter how into a game I've been, I've always been able to walk away.

 

[Mau]

Imagine if it had been Morrowind instead? I don't think he would've shown up on set at all whew

 

[Sordid Plebeian]

I guess that counts as beating it

 

[Artorias]

I guess I don't really understand this kind of addictive personality.

No matter how into a game I've been, I've always been able to walk away.

Click to shrink...

This isn't so much a virtue of yours so much as you're fortunate enough not to be wired that way, in simple terms. I also don't have this problem (ocd aside), but, lots of people struggle with having an addictive personality and it's not easy. This can extend to more destructive things outside of games.

 

[Rosebud]

I played Skyrim for 8-12 hours a day during a month, then I finished the main story and lost interest.

It's VERY rare for a game to get me like this, but when it does...

 

[headspawn]

Professor X starred in Oblivion and then destroyed Oblivion.

Neat.

 

[Kalnet]

I obviously don't destroy my physical games, but I do sympathize with him. Had that feeling with Fallout 4 when it first came out. Did not did anything nor done my work properly at all. Fortunately I was able to balanced myself between gaming and working.

 

[PunkSxE]

I don't really have an addictive personality but I had the same struggle with Skyrim. It got to a point where I didn't even wanna go to school so I wouldn't miss on playing the game. I thought about it 24/7, I'd wake up thinking about it and went to sleep thinking about what I'd do in the next day, which quests would I take, where would I go...

It's the only game that has ever made me feel like that (thankfully)

 

[Darkmaigle]

Cheated the game and himself

shame

 

[fontguy]

I guess I don't really understand this kind of addictive personality.

No matter how into a game I've been, I've always been able to walk away.

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This is a short hop away from "If I was an alcoholic, I would simply stop drinking so much."

 

[Shroki]

This is a short hop away from "If I was an alcoholic, I would simply stop drinking so much."

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I'm not blaming addictive personalities as much as I'm glad that I'm not wired like that.

 

[terminaljeremy]

 

[bounchfx]

Pfft, you're both weak. Look at this absolute specimen:

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I remember Xbox did a promotion where you could play PGR3 with Jack Black when the 360 launched. I wanted to win that and play with him so bad, would have been so rad haha. Fucking PGR 3 was INCREDIBLE too, would love for that to come to gamepass! Ugh I'm so sad now. RIP PGR.

 

[Cantaim]

Bethesda games do be like that.

 

[LossAversion]

I can relate. But instead of breaking the disc, I let it consume my entire summer break.

 

[StarsAreStuff]

Pfft, you're both weak. Look at this absolute specimen:

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I miss PGR 😩

 

[Deranged Hermit]

I was playing too much WoW so I dropped out of college.

 

[SuperHans]

James McAvoy is probably best known for his role as young Professor Xavier in the X-Men films.

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Surely he's best known as the Landlords daughters boyfriend in season 1 of Early Doors?

 

[Spaggy]

The last game that got me like that was probably Fallout 3, playing late into the night and right when I woke up, all day long.
But I was on winter break and didn't have a job at the time, so it was mostly fine.

 

[Multievolution]

Don't get me wrong, I've been addicted to games before, but never to the point where I had to contemplate sabotaging myself.

still, when it comes to an addiction that's taking over your life sometimes this is necessary.

 

[The Unsent]

RDR2 for me, often called a boring game and it's pretty labourious, but I keep getting sucked back into its very well-realised world.

 

[Callibretto]

I guess I don't really understand this kind of addictive personality.

No matter how into a game I've been, I've always been able to walk away.

Click to shrink...

Sometimes it didn't feel like addiction. You might just think you had some free time and would like to relax and play for an hour or something, but then later you realized you've been playing for 4 hours that kind of thing.

 

[ManOfWar]

I had a similar experience with Destiny, which is to this day the single greatest factor preventing me forn trying Destiny 2. Glad I got out!

 

[Dark Knight]

I have a friend who once went out into the woods and destroyed a new laptop because he didn't want an MMO sucking him in again. 😂

 

[Graven]

Mcavoy should get his own adoring fan.

 

[DirtyLarry]

Me and my friends had to stage an actual intervention with my friend back in the day. It was all due to World of Warcraft.

He played so much he just outright stopped working. He also got hooked on cocaine as it was a way for him to stay up damn near 24 hours a day to play. It got so bad he was not even going to the next room over to go to the bathroom and instead pissing in two liter bottles. Shit was bonkers how addicted he got and how much of a negative affect it had on his overall life.

We tried and tried to tell him shit was not healthy as friends. However we finally did the actual intervention when he told us he agreed to marry some girl in his guild (which to this day we still question as he never actually saw her and let's just say her voice was super weird on the phone.

It was really quite tragic and my first real world experience of how one could get addicted to a video game.

This was around 2004-2005/ Said friend did not touch any games for over a decade. When he finally picked up a PS4 we were all super worried, but luckily he was able to just game like a normal person. Shit was crazy.

 

[cyrribrae]

Sometimes it didn't feel like addiction. You might just think you had some free time and would like to relax and play for an hour or something, but then later you realized you've been playing for 4 hours that kind of thing.

Click to shrink...

Or 10 hours.. or something... Yea, it's kinda scary how easily I can fall into that trap. It doesn't even feel like a lot of time, until I realize I've done nothing else for FAR FAR TOO LONG.

 

[entremet]

Me and my friends had to stage an actual intervention with my friend back in the day. It was all due to World of Warcraft.

He played so much he just outright stopped working. He also got hooked on cocaine as it was a way for him to stay up damn near 24 hours a day to play. It got so bad he was not even going to the next room over to go to the bathroom and instead pissing in two liter bottles. Shit was bonkers how addicted he got and how much of a negative affect it had on his overall life.

We tried and tried to tell him shit was not healthy as friends. However we finally did the actual intervention when he told us he agreed to marry some girl in his guild (which to this day we still question as he never actually saw her and let's just say her voice was super weird on the phone.

It was really quite tragic and my first real world experience of how one could get addicted to a video game.

This was around 2004-2005/ Said friend did not touch any games for over a decade. When he finally picked up a PS4 we were all super worried, but luckily he was able to just game like a normal person. Shit was crazy.

Click to shrink...

The human mind is wild.

 

[XL Hoodie]

Pfft, you're both weak. Look at this absolute specimen:

Click to shrink...

Hey I did this. Then I mailed off a memory card with the save to pass on to my friends.

Never sabotaged a game I was playing like this though. Weak indeed.

 

[Antrax]

Reminds me of a friend in undergrad (also TES lol)

He was using my console to play in my dorm room, and at one point (at like 1AM) I was like, "hey man, I think I'm probably gonna go to sleep now."

He was like "oh ok" and turned the light off but kept playing lmao. He still was when I woke up

 

[Sulik2]

EverQuest fucked me up for years. Messed up my social development as a teen because of it. There is definitely an addicting aspect of games that can really mess with some people's brains.

 

[Mau]

Last time a game had this kind of hold on me was probably Final Fantasy XI? I remember playing that game for a whole summer, just going to summer classes and returning home to play it for the rest of the day until late at night. I can't remember how I stopped playing it though, I just did and never looked back.

Me and my friends had to stage an actual intervention with my friend back in the day. It was all due to World of Warcraft.

He played so much he just outright stopped working. He also got hooked on cocaine as it was a way for him to stay up damn near 24 hours a day to play. It got so bad he was not even going to the next room over to go to the bathroom and instead pissing in two liter bottles. Shit was bonkers how addicted he got and how much of a negative affect it had on his overall life.

We tried and tried to tell him shit was not healthy as friends. However we finally did the actual intervention when he told us he agreed to marry some girl in his guild (which to this day we still question as he never actually saw her and let's just say her voice was super weird on the phone.

It was really quite tragic and my first real world experience of how one could get addicted to a video game.

This was around 2004-2005/ Said friend did not touch any games for over a decade. When he finally picked up a PS4 we were all super worried, but luckily he was able to just game like a normal person. Shit was crazy.

Click to shrink...

Damn!

 

[Pein]

I was literally playing so much goddamn naruto ultimate ninja storm online I was like in a daze, like I just got so sick of it. Literally just wake up and play online matches for hours, I fucking hated myself at that point.

 

[Loxley]

I mean hey it just goes to show that for as predatory and addicting as MMOs/online games can be - a singleplayer game can really fuck your shit up just as much.

 

[mhayes86]

I recall reading a while ago that one of the actors from Friends was addicted to a game and had to stop due to injuring their hand from playing too much.

Fake edit: Just did a quick search and it was Matthew Perry with Fallout 3.

 

[Strings]

I recall reading a while ago that one of the actors from Friends was addicted to a game and had to stop due to injuring their hand from playing too much.

Fake edit: Just did a quick search and it was Matthew Perry with Fallout 3.

Click to shrink...

Yeah. He's had problems with addiction in general, so I can see how it ended up an issue for him. Seems like a cool guy in general though (also he was in Fallout: New Vegas).

 

[Larrikin]

Hades is getting that way. So much fun, One More Run.

 

[Deleted member 30544]

I was playing too much CoD Modern Warfare/Warzone so I destroyed the 3 external HDD used to store the game.

 

[poptire]

The closest I ever came to this was EverQuest in the 9th grade. I played for almost a month from noon until 6am. But I had no responsibilities or anything.

Also Oblivion was so much more fun than Skyrim. I hope they lean into the silliness more in the next game. (they won't)

 

[Torpedo Vegas]

PSO on the Dreamcast. I played so much of that, that I was missing events with my friends. So I told my friends to piss off and spent more time with PSO.

Best decision of my life.

 

[Deleted member 35987]

I just do not understand the desire to play games for that amount of time in one sitting. It would feel like such a waste of the day.

 

[MegaManTrigger]

MapleStory. I was a preteen and the game hooked me right before the end of the school year. I went from getting As in two classes to a B-/C because I didn't hand in two projects. I'd play the game at 9am/10pm and keep playing until 5pm. And often went back for an evening session.

Once the summer ended, I uninstalled the game because I realized how much it was dominating my life.

 

[Elfgore]

I've been there. Bethesda games will kinda consume a lot of my time if I start playing them. Even Bethesda adjacent games make me do it.

 

[CreepingFear]

I've destroyed my cd/dvd porn collection 2-3 times back in the day. It didn't take. In fact, I regret it, as there was some material I haven't been able to recover again.

 

[Rover]

They called him Games McAvoy