Video game addiction

CaptDeadlift · 2018-06-14T16:02:00+00:00

Hard next and lift but from time to time it's okay to play a game ( I do too sometimes play some bf4 for 1-2 and then focus on my shit).

I was like you but with other games and would play daily 8h ( it was bad). Now I play every week 4h max and focus on the things that are really important.

vandaalen · 2018-06-14T15:42:46+00:00

I used to play a lot, although I wouldn't say I'd been addicted in it's original sense. I binged RPGs or Civilizations or something alike through the nights, but it never interfered with my real life and it wasn't unhealthy other than from sitting and not moving.

I just can't find the inner peace in it anymore. Every now and then I start a game, but after one or two hours in, I am bored and think of the things I could be doing instead. Doesn't matter if it's a classic or a new game.

I will play a couple of rounds of Hearthstone every now and then, but that's about it.

It just happened. I don't even know why.

With you it definitely sounds like it's unhealthy and you should actually go cold turkey IMO.

caporal247 · 2018-06-14T15:50:40+00:00

Used to play LoL

I cut it cold turkey,asked my brother to put a password on it.

Got fully into my sport(handball.

A few months after it he gave me the password but I didn't even WANT to play again.

vileoat · 2018-06-14T16:00:08+00:00

Drop video games and start some other competitive activity. Per example game sports, martial arts, competitive dancing or at least running marathons.

2comment · 2018-06-14T16:01:36+00:00

The itch eventually goes away. Especially if you have something physical to do and the energy to do it with, then games feel like a poor substitute for actual irl stuff.

Even if you play just an hour a day, that's 365 hours (or 45 working days) down the drain. After 10 years, that's 3,650 hours (well over a working year). Now, we all need down-time, but gaming tends to sneak in and then bloat that.

BluntMFer · 2018-06-14T16:54:11+00:00

Waste of time, I love video games and I stopped playing. Something I learned is that no matter what game you already experienced the high you get from beating a boss or winning an online fight. Would you rather live your life doing the same thing and feeling the same emotions every day? or would you prefer to better your future?

Peter_B_Long · 2018-06-14T16:52:02+00:00

It's good that you're taking a break from it because you're removing the habit part of it. The last game that I would play every day and was sort of addicted to was COD: Modern Warfare 2. All my friends played it and I wanted to be the best at it. It became so bad that we spent the better part of a summer just eating pizza, smoking weed, and taking turns playing online. That's when I realized I had to break free from that.

Playing video games isn't really bad. Just think of it as a reward. For me, after a long day of waking up at 5am to hit the gym, then head to work for 8 hours, then come home and meal prep, meditate, and all while following IF, I like to think that I've earned a few rounds of PUBG. Just as long as I go to bed at a good hour.

trpppp123 · 2018-06-14T17:20:33+00:00

Waste of time if you play too much. I used to play LoL a lot, got myself banned by trolling... and never really opened it again... I still play other games but after one hour I get bored and want to do something else. Not even sure why, I don't seem to get into games like I used to when I was younger.

Get off of them, I feel like I wasted so much of my life on them when I could have been bettering myself and getting better with women.

bwazap · 2018-06-14T17:58:54+00:00

I started becoming turned off by games once I felt that there was no real world achievement from them. This was further reinforced after I started playing piano and going to the gym After a while, these hobbies gave me the same thrill as playing games - I was overcoming obstacles and making progress - AND I was getting real world value from it. So why would I go back to seeking artificial achievements? Now games to me are like tv shows, something to enjoy for a while. Once you establish new hobbies that give you the same thrills, there isn’t much to go back for.

Wrath_of_Trump · 2018-06-14T18:33:43+00:00

If you have spare time during the day, you are naturally going to backslide and fill it with this activity. You need to find a way to replace downtime with something productive. I recommend something physical because I honestly have to really be in the mood to read a book. Cutting gaming is one of the best things you can do. Being good at it will never amount to anything unless you become one of these championship streamer guys. If you ain't that good, don't bother. Why? Because in 2 years nobody will play that game and all the time you spent will have meant nothing. Focus on a real game that won't go out of style.

RedSkeller · 2018-06-14T19:27:03+00:00

First off, OW is pretty shit in general, especially these days. When it first came out it was exciting and rewarding, now it's just glorified babysitting. You're probably competitively gaming it, taking it too seriously and ignoring the fact that it's just a game. Not even a particularly good one, not to mention, being exposed to the neckbeards and social warrior bullshit that the game thrives off of. It's literally competitive Reddit, you're in a virtual world on a team of sad sacks playing against another team of incels who have a temper tantrum if they can't play Genji and get a positive KDA. Blizzard balances the game around what the community wines about and now it's which team has the best healer and OP strat - much like LoL where it's mindless fanboy fanaticism and less about skill or decision making.

I used to game with my friends and slowly weened off it although I do play in moderation once I get my shit done. You need to understand what the game is and why you're doing it, and if that doesn't work you need to sell your rig and get a basic computer for at least a month to detox off it. Realize how much more there is to life than gaming and you'll see what a waste of time it is.

cenie · 2018-06-14T20:04:44+00:00

I grew out of it. I don't think they're a bad thing if you're getting other things done; work, working out, chores, etc.

cptgoatsack · 2018-06-14T15:52:23+00:00

Used to be a massive StarCraft addict (original one). Sports are my video games now.

WorldNewPilla · 2018-06-14T17:21:14+00:00

I always liked video games, but not in a way that made me play for that long of time, never got addicted to any... I can suggest to simply delete it. Just delete it now.

If you wanna play a game here and there it's fine IMO, but if you know that 1 match will make you stay for hours at a time, just cut it off ASAP.

Elitevaz · 2018-06-14T18:31:01+00:00

I play games, but I do other things too. If something has to get done, I'm going to make sure it gets done. I have goals and priorities. Gaming is just lower in priority than work and fitness for me right now, along with any side hustle. So if I'm off work and I got my workout in and there is no side business. I play some games. If there are some chores that need to be done, I do the chores and then I play some games. It's not that hard to take care of important shit first, before relaxing.

SteveRogersPill · 2018-06-14T18:47:46+00:00

I just recently SLOWED down on games. I was playing 1-3 hours a day instead of doing my usual writing and recording. Now I barely play if I REALLY feel like playing I just do 1-3 matches of 2k or Fortnite at best and then get off

theeworstyasuo · 2018-06-14T19:21:03+00:00

Here is what i did cus i was in a similar boat. Set the goals you want to accomplish for yourself, write them all down or keep em in your head, doesnt matter. Now that you have your goals think about what you need to be doing realistically every day to accomplish these goals. For example, for me I wanted to weigh 185 with 10-12% BF and finish college, I also wanted to maintain a good social life that kept me happy. So what I did was make sure i went to the gym everyday (except for my 1 off day), went to the library to finish a predetermined amount of homework for the day, and late at night, made sure to go out and drink/hangout with my friends instead of gaming all night. As long as I accomplished all of these things, whatever extra time i had during the day was up for grabs and i could game or do whatever I wanted. I ended up having plenty of time to play video games and my life was overall much more satisfying and they seemed more like a hobby to pass the time to get to my next important thing instead of an addiction. This all caused me to naturally stop watching "the competitive scene" and every update like a hawk which IMO is what makes games get unhealthy. Give up all the news and community shit from games first cus this turns it into a lifestyle instead of a hobby. By the end of everything I started to feel like i didnt even want to play games much anymore, so now i only really do it with some buddies.

As soon as you wake up in the morning, do not play any games or read any news or whatever about said games. Instead, do all of your goals then once those are accomplished you can play games just fine. It just takes a little bit of self-discipline.

(Sorry for my terrible grammar and run-ons I dont feel like caring that much about a reddit post.)

HannibalBacara · 2018-06-14T22:27:28+00:00

The problem with video games is that they're meant to suck you into binge-playing. It's basically impossible to sit down and only play for 30 minutes.

I used to play a lot too but now play one session a week for an hour or two. It takes a lot of discipline though and the way I broke my habit was by not playing for over a month. I just occupied myself with lifting, sports, hobbies, etc. then suddenly I had no time to game even if I wanted to.

BACONisKEWL · 2018-06-14T22:29:52+00:00

I used to be like that. Now I’ve got so many other things going for me games are kind of boring in comparison. Its why people who just focus on quitting anything always circle back round. You’re filling some void with your game, the void isn’t going away. Ever. Find something else to replace it.

CypressSmallz · 2018-06-15T00:00:27+00:00

As long as you only play for a few hours here and there. It sounds like YOU think you might have a PROBLEM with it, so there for you probably DO have a problem with it.

Everything in moderation.

kiwifx · 2018-06-15T00:04:58+00:00

Gaming dominated my life from early childhood through till the last couple of years. I'm now 36, and I wouldn't be surprised if I'd spent half of that at a computer. At my lowest point, I was putting in 50 hours a week on LOTR Online outside of a 45 hour work week. I won't bore anyone with details except to say that the Kinship (guild, clan) was my family, my social life, my love life. My Burglar was feared and reviled in PvP, revered in the Raiding scene. And that means NOTHING to anybody today in any part of my life.

I've played Overwatch, and it can easily do to your life what it did to mine.

You'll likely never be a world class OW player making a living from it. Nobody outside of the OW community cares about your rank. Women sure as fuck won't, and any male friends that do probably aren't adding anything to the life a Redpill aspires to lead. MMO's and games that offer ranks and achievements are a treadmill that makes you fatter.

I deleted all my games recently when I swallowed the pill, stopped using the PC for frivolous shit.. now it's solely dedicated to improvement. Next step is to ditch the gaming desktop PC and move to a basic laptop. I keep a couple of e-books open, TRP/AskTRP, outside RP articles, and tabs on lifting, diet and anything else improvement related. Also my amp modelling program since I sit at the computer practicing guitar. IF I sit at the computer for an extended amount of time now, which is lessening quite quickly, it's only to focus on improvement. That's it.

Grab some water to make sure that pill is washed right down your throat, and start assessing how you're using your time. Overwatch or TRP reading? Overwatch or lifting? Overwatch or going out and meeting people?

Here's a goal for you that people around here might actually care about. Memorize everything in the sidebar. All of it. Internalize that shit.

UnbreakableFrame · 2018-06-15T04:20:08+00:00

This is the person I've been waiting to be mean to ever since I discovered TRP.

Jk.

I used to be horribly addicted to video games. I played competitively also. I got into the top level of every game I played. Do you know who gives a fuck about that last sentence I wrote? Absolutely no one. Sure, people say stuff like this all the time, "no one cares that you are good at this game". But have you really truly internalized that? Because it's true. No one of any significant value in this world gives a fuck how good you are at Overwatch.

Now your hamster is going to start spinning to help you rationalize that maybe it's NOT about the validation and the dopamine that comes with each little headshot. Well it is about that and you know damn well it is.

I'm nearly 30. I wasted probably 3 full years of my life playing video games. I don't mean that I played over the course of 3 years. I mean 24 hours X 365 X 3. That's fucking depressing. That's a pill in and of itself whether you are RP aware or not. That number comes out to 26,280 btw. According to the 10,000 hour rule that would be the number of hours roughly necessary to master 2.5 skills. All of which could be skills that raised my quality of life in nearly every aspect.

So why do you game? The same reason every competitive male gamer does: you aren't cool enough or good enough at anything else in your life to get the validation that you get from gaming outside of gaming. You aren't hot enough to get the sex you want and you aren't conscientious enough to get the job and life that you want.

You are a fucking dopamine hamster and only you have the power to change that.

Pluglord · 2018-06-14T15:55:34+00:00

Throw that bullshit away

Title	Video game addiction
Author	voxiqs
Upvotes	9
Comments	34
Date	June 14, 2018 3:23 PM UTC (8 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/8r2p7z/video_game_addiction/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/video-game-addiction.100049 https://theredarchive.com/post/100049

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