VIDEOGAMES

I understand completely what you're talking about.

That numbness in your emotions post high speed/focus multiplayer games. Not everyone feels it that way. I think some brains are more sensitive to the sensations of the digital emulation and competition, kinda like how some brains are more sensitive to caffeine. That groggy period is the head re-prioritizing the game world over your real world passions, or the other way around. Essentially a "rewiring" that's occurring. I've read different places that games are as powerful as porn depending on the user and how long and why they indulge. But rather than appeasing one's sexual needs, it takes hold of your masculine desires of competition, creativity, and growth.

Proud of you for your monk level commitments sir. The jury is kind of in on how detrimental porn is these days. I have a feeling video games will be something similar in the years to come. Have a good one!

 

It's perfectly fine as long as you're not addicted to it and you don't spend too much time on it. It's all about balance
Interesting post bro. Keep going

 

Video games have dominated my entire life. I have never had (or wanted) friends, never had any real aspirations until now. Life was just boring compared to the virtual world. And no one could bother me. I am still addicted to video games. But as you have said, it is shocking when you quit wasting time on trivial things - your goals start to feel more possible. You have so much time that you wouldn't have had before.

 

It's a real issue, some people go to a recovery center for it even - I remember reading, probably in Adam Alters Irresistible that in Asia serious gamers would wear diapers because they cannot take a break when on a quest gaming with their friends, which apparently lasts like 12 hours or something like that.

The more general issue is the effect of types of technology on us and how it can be addictive, of course that can go for social media, games, porn or anything. Or a combination like the comments section on a porn site which is like social media, and the social aspect of a game.. You get the idea. All of this takes place online where the programmers and designers alter your sensory perceptions and the passage of time, which is a big deal I think nobody has really seriously thought about.

Anyway it's definitely a good idea to keep it in check.

 

By the way, I feel that it is my duty to mention there are forums dedicated to video game recovery, with more resources than NoFap has to offer in that regard. By all means, continue to discuss it here, because PMO and gaming are often connected, as in my case. But please check out reddit.com/r/StopGaming

 

It depends.
There's a difference between playing mariokart with your cousins on a holiday, and playing reoccurring sessions of something like world of warcraft. One of these is light hearted, casual, and has a short commitment. You're playing it for the will of the people around you. The other is a lengthy never-ending conquest that's mostly focused on oneself and their own progress.

Now I'll come out and say I am biased on this topic. Like you, I was once a daily gamer. I don't know my collective time played but I can tell you across the board that several to a dozen days played was a usual number of hours I have logged on the hyper-competitive shooter games I played.

Men like competition. They like control and distinguishable achievements. They also like productivity. There is a heap of biological purpose to a lot of these traits and it does somewhat devolve down back into a primitive Alpha-Betas/survival concept. Now these traits aren't bad- in fact they are very necessary to the formation of who a man is. They can become corrupted when one becomes too vain or proud.

So to look at the gaming part- They are, by design, built to entice the player with all these wonderful feelings of victory and such. I'm sure many of the readers know what I'm saying so I won't wear out the explanation. They challenge the man. They distinguish him as, well as shower him, with all sorts of prestigious achievements and notoriety in their gear, skins, titles, etc.
They put his name on a scoreboard side by side with all those who, through all the struggle and strife, couldn't hold themselves up to your level.

But there's a problem.
You see the real world offers these challenges too. But it's much more difficult. There's first and foremost- a need for the man to get up and get out physically to whatever he seeks to do. He also has no avatar, incognito identity, or projection of himself. He is who he is. He must also learn composure in the presence of others. He has to even learn how to remain so when things don't go his way. In the game world- one can lash out like a toddler the moment things go South. They can scream curse words, racial slurs, rage quit, or change the difficulty or to another game when things get too hard.

There's so much more planning, training, denied gratification, and sacrifice to the worldly desires built into the man. The digital avenue of gaming has the tools laid out neatly for the user and the only investment necessary is time.
The gaming can turn from a creative outlet or distraction to escapism very quickly. It will slowly become the only source of dopamine, masculinity, and affirmation that a man might find in his life if measures are not taken against it.
Trauma, or a lack of formation, to some degree usually push one to the "escape to" utility depending on the person.
More often then not- gaming resembles porn (or any other addiction) vividly.

Think about it.
Porn gives you limitless women (or whatever you're attracted to) in an ever-existing inner harem where they are totally submissive and demand no change or sacrifice to yourself. The biological purpose of your sexuality is to guide you into being a family leading individual.

Gaming gives you a limitless amount of adventures, activities, competitions, challenges etc. in a safe, non-threatening, climate-controlled, anonymous place that only needs electricity, button pushing, time, and usually an internet connection. The biological purpose of seeking these things is to make you better at navigating this arduous world that the continuation of your species depends on.

Now there's no sabre tooth tigers to fight with spears or new continents that need exploring, but that doesn't excuse what's demanded of oneself in their formation- despite how plush our current way of life is.

The gaming and the pornography. Folks always move the goal posts.
"Well I only use porn when my partner is unavailable."
"Well I only play games when I'm bored or all my work is done."

"At least I'm not buying hookers."
"At least I'm socializing online."

"At least games get the aggression out of me." (Pro tip: They don't.)
"At least I go to games instead of sneaking out to do drugs and drink."

Disclaimer: You don't have to agree with me. There's a lot of pro game people on here. Also, A lot of folks are aware of the things I said but they're not quite there in there personal journey of controlling their own vices. One doesn't change overnight. it takes time to get addicted. It takes time to get clean.
Gaming may not even be a vice to a lot of folks. Some people are less sensitive to it I suppose. We aren't.

But my conclusive and biased answer: No. You shouldn't go back. At least in the way you played before. Now if you and your brother/friends have some old school nostalgia game that you bond over and it's occasional rather than routine- that's totally different. My brothers and I love to break out the SNES on holidays and BS with it while we enjoy each others company. But even then- I'm in the process of rather replacing things like this with fishing trips or card games or any activity that's more down to earth and wholesome.

I fall too.
My mothers house still has one of my consoles there. If no one's around I've busted it out and had sweaty sessions of pre-2010 COD that always leaves me foggy and aggravated. It feels as dirty as masturbating.

You know there's a problem when I have real guns, real hunting, and a real gun range in my area, but I'd rather play with the fake fantasy world ones.

Quite a read. Sorry about that. Hope this gives you more insight.
If you or anyone disagrees / wants to know more about anything I've said, please do not hesitate to impose. Like I said I know a lot of folks are pro game.
I'm a conservative Roman-Catholic man from the fly over states so my situation is not typical to what the other users lives are on this forum. I learn and grow when people correct me, hold me accountable and enlighten me.

Take care. Keep up the good work. Your monk mode success is very impressive.

 

Props to S'mores for their insight. Lots of great points and ideas there.

I spent an immense amount of my life on video games, often in self isolation and mixed with porn and living on the internet, I think it was probably to my detriment.
I did finally stop with the exception of playing WoW during a couple of xmas's once I met my ex 7 years ago. It's been good to stop and I feel better for not being a slave to gaming anymore. This past Xmas we did get a Nintendo Switch but, it was only used when bonding with my family, which is alot of fun and we keep things in check. I've more recently been staying with my father who bought a few racing games but, I'm still at a healthy point of playing for may be an hour or so a night and not every night. It's nice and possible to have balance.

I will note, I was watching trailers for various games on the Xbox One and it actually felt weird to see virtual people getting shot and killed, I wasn't sure what I felt exactly. I pretty much grew up on violent games and movies so it's interesting to have stepped away and then look at things again with seemingly fresh eyes..it helps I'm also a parent now, so even The Simpson's is like "Whoa" but I still love it.

 

@S'mores and Brimstone, excellent post, very insightful and well written.

 

My friend, in 1999 I was addicted to a video game, and I couldn't stop.

I went to work, came home and played until I could get 4-5 hours of sleep.

On the weekends it was non-stop.

I got so deep into this that I started to go into a serious depression that nearly had me

commit suicide.

I think probably it was because of staring at the screen on an endless basis.

I ended up in the mental hospital on red band.

When I got out, I threw the game in the trash.

It's a life stealer, a time waster.

Don't ruin a year of your life like I did.

 

This response is from someone that grew up for 7 years playing world of warcraft daily for 5-10 hours minimum**

Good insight on how living that lifestyle can have some negative effects. Anything in abundance can be bad for us.

However, in my opinion, I don’t think games can really take a hold on your life negatively, CONTINGENT upon you being able to recognize it is a GAME & being able to pull your emotions away from it. Only when you allow your emotions to tie to the game (day for example, when I was in high school and part of college, I would be pissed off if I missed a raid night for world of Warcraft, my all time favorite game back then, THEN it can become a problem.) I also think the lifestyle you live now, monk, no tv etc etc is going to make your brain a lot more sensitive to experiencing the massive amount of information & stimulus from a digital game.

For most people though, I think gaming can be very much rewarding internally for our minds. It teaches you to think creatively, say Minecraft for example. It teaches you to think quickly, fast rpg games. It teaches you a lot of decision making skills (think Skyrim, choosing different dialogues can change the game). I can go on and on, but ultimately I don’t play games nearly as much as I used to, simply put because I could always recognize that this GAME is not going to actually give me the things I want (like finding a girlfriend, getting money, better career, etc). So yes it can definitely affect you in a negative way if you allow your lifestyle to be wrapped into a digital stimulus. But it can also be very beneficial for a lot of people. Only you can decide that though.

 

Depends on person and game. And like with porn, there's a difference between having a bad habit and addiction. The former can remit and enjoy video games in moderation if they set their mind to it, the latter will probably have to monitor their gaming for the rest of their life. But that's a blurry line that can be crossed at any point.

Honestly, I don't think I'm ready to consider whether or not I have a gaming addiction yet. I need to focus on the porn above all else, because I think that's more toxic no matter what. But my opinion right now is that whilst I spend too much time playing video games, I'm not addicted like I am with porn. I sometimes have urges to play but if I have something to do I'm able to put them off to later. Maybe I am addicted to an extent, but knowing I'll be able to get my fix makes it bearable? Again, I think I would benefit from cutting the time I spend playing video games way down, but one thing at a time.

 

Then take it one day at a time. Don't play any more today.

If you have the urge to play, keep fighting it.

Eventually, those urges get weaker and weaker.

 

i see videogames as more of a disciplined hobby. i meet new people ( although the general community is terrible in csgo i still meet nice people).

one hour or two is pretty much enough unless you're considering becoming a professional ( in a game that actually has decent pay) then yeah go ahead.

i don't speak for this forum but for me, i see videogames as recreation rather than counterproductive. try my approach and see how it goes

 

They pay people to play videogames?

Sounds like you got some bad information.