Video Game Addiction

[Jack55]

The first video game console I ever played was, I believe, a GameBoy.
I played the PS1, PS2, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360 and on the PC when I was little.
I remember games like:

Fighting Force

​

Halo 3

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Fable: The Lost Chapters

Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos

Runescape

​

Thinking back, most of my day was filled with playing video games, I think I started around the age of 6 or maybe even earlier then that. When I think about what video games have given to me or what they have done for me I only think of what I have lost by playing them. Sure, they do provide for a fun time, and can give you an endorphin rush and make you feel better if you preform well in them.
But what they have really done is rob me of my full potential. On one side I could see myself have becoming a famous Youtuber or a streamer possibly. Maybe I could have become a professional video game player like on a team or something. After all I was quite good at Halo and Call of Duty, I remember being accused of cheating in Halo a few times, and being at least in the top 3 of the leaderboard in any game I was in on COD.
On the other side, I see myself never having played video games at all, and learning how to socialize with others in my school years going onto make friends and maybe even going onto date that chick in 8th grade who clearly had a crush on me. I could have flourished as a person, increased my confidence, worked on myself, worked on my grades, spend time with friends... instead? I stunted. I'm not even afraid to say that I might even have degenerated by playing video games.

Well, clearly gaming took over my life. I never did good in school, I far preferred preforming well in a lobby than in class, I flunked the fifth grade and skipped many classes. I think I missed around 90 days of school and had around 180 tardies in 8th grade. I slept through most of the classes. Going forward into high school things didn't really change. I dropped out in eleventh grade and went on to get my GED.
I think most will agree with me when I say that video games as an addiction, is a lot like an addiction to porn.
It leaves you lethargic, it's the only thing you want to do in a day or it makes you to where you don't have a will to do anything but that!
It saps of you of your potential, it takes the love for life out of you.
Anyways, back to the present. I'm 25 now, unemployed for over a year, still playing video games. I'm thousands in debt, I still slack off and do nothing all day long. I have no car, no friends, no real passion (something that's been true of me since I was a kid), no girlfriend or wife, no confidence, and no real skills or talents.
However there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm starting to grow bored of video games, I'll confess that's a bit of a lie. I've been tired of video games for probably over a year now. But yet I still keep coming back to them, still sitting down and letting them take up hours of my day.

Why do I keep playing Apex when I don't even have a mic or a squad of regulars to play with? Why do I keep playing with randos who don't even understand the game and expect them to do good? Why do I play when it's obvious most people in these shooter games use anti-recoil script, aimbot, walls, or other cheats or bug abuses?

Why do I play Red Dead Online when it's literally just a grindfest, something that is made to deliberately keep you hooked so you spend day after day toiling away at it?

It's because I'm very clearly addicted. So, this post and this thread will be used by myself to keep a track on how many days I go without video games.
Will I play video games in the future? Probably, but it will be constrained to games like the next Elder Scrolls or the next Fallout game. It will also be constrained to single player games, those games have always been less addicting than online games. You can put 40 or 80 hours into it and be done with it.
I will also not be playing video games for a very long time.

 

[Jack55]

Tomorrow will be day one of NoGaming!
I think I'll post about my single mother tomorrow. I need an outlet for this, I don't have anybody to really talk to about this, and this is a good enough place.
Please, I encourage you to post your thoughts in this thread!

 

[Jack55]

Today is day 1 of NoGaming. My tasks for today are:
-making myself a breakfast of eggs and toast
-practice typing for an hour
-study for an hour
-massage my finger so it can return to full mobility
-tweek my resume and look for jobs to apply to
-go for a walk
-do my workout
-cooking myself dinner
-taking a cold shower
-doing basic hygiene
-go to sleep around 10 PM.

 

[Deleted Account]

Hey there, I just wanted to chime in and say that I'm in similar boat.

I've been playing video games as long as I can remember and while I'm still able to accomplish stuff - I also know it's stopping me from realizing my full potential because of how much time it takes up and how much I prioritize it over doing other things. I recently finished a single-player game which I've been playing during work hours. I have a remote job and my productivity has dropped to near zero. I decided enough is enough. It's not like I love my current job, hence why my productivity is low anyways, but that only means I need to put time and effort into looking for a better job or whatever else I need to actually be doing instead of avoiding my problems.

For me, I'm not buying any new games and I'm selling my PS4 Pro, Nintendo Switch, and my TV. Hell, I'll gladly give them away to a friend I know just to get them out of my apartment. I know one day I'll play video games again (I really want to play VR games like Beat Saber - good exercise, you know?), however that won't be until I get my life sorted out. And perhaps I'll never play video games again. That's ok too.

I'm thinking of picking up guitar or something after I get some cash from selling my stuff.

P.S. I'm not exactly sure when's the last time I played a video game, but I'm happy to start at day one with you.

 

[Jack55]

Yes! I want to learn how to play the guitar too, and also how to paint. I love looking at clouds, and would love to learn how to paint them along with the rest of the sky.
It's good that you sell those things off I think. One of the things that I think I will struggle with in the short term is filling my days with stuff to do. I don't want to just replace video games with browsing twitter or what ever else.

 

[PegasusKid]

Good luck. I dropped video games for a bit and then ultimately returned to them in a much healthier way. I'd say the most important thing is figuring out activities, hobbies, skills to work on etc that replace the needs gaming provided for you. In a little book i read about quitting gaming, the 3 activity categories were mentally engaging(something stimulating/challenging like learning guitar as you already mentioned), resting(something that requires low energy like reading for fun, meditation, painting) and social(just anything that gets you involved with other human beings outside of multiplayer such as boxing classes, paint and sips, volunteering, etc) as the author argues that these are generally the three areas that gaming either satisfies for us or helps us avoid, especially in the case of socializing this can go either way. https://gamequitters.com/ is the site I bought the book on but imo, the free parts of the site are good enough to get the idea.

 

[Jack55]

Day 2:
-cook breakfast
-study some more
-go for a walk
-tweak resume and apply to job
-clean room
-do the dishes
-find a podcast or book to spend time on
-massage finger
-practice kegels
-hygiene
-

 

[Jack55]

Day 3:
I keep procrastinating on the tweaking my resume and applying to jobs part. I am going to do it today!
So far, I've had a few urges to play Apex. I hate playing Apex. This is how I know I'm addicted lol. Im listening to a podcast right now to fill my time, once I'm done I'll workout and then I'll apply to jobs.

 

[Deleted Account]

I used to play a ton of League a couple of years back. Soon enough I hated it, but played anyways. What's up with that?

Anyways, as long as I'm not defaulting to playing video games, that's a win. Things like eating better, sleeping better, exercising will naturally follow.

Good luck with the job search!!

 

[AtomicTango]

I'll say the same thing I say in every thread like this; videogames are not the problem necessarily, the problem is the TYPE of game you are playing. OP, you mentioned Apex Legends, and Goblinsocks mentioned LoL. What's the correlation between these two games? They are multiplayer titles designed to trap you in their ecosystem and, once trapped, string you along forever. There used to be a time where multiplayer games were fun because they were fun and that was that, but in the last 10 or so years there has been a paradigm shift. It's now all about "live service" bullshit, nickle-and-diming people for as much as possible, and selling broken/unfinished trash that people will eat up anyway. I saw a tweet recently that summed it up. Went something like this:

"We used to play online shooters because they were fun. Now we put up with hours of tedious busywork because we want to unlock a new skin."

What I'm saying is, don't buy into it. If you want to play videogames, play games that offer something challenging, thought provoking, or at least memorable. Something with a tangible start and end so it's not a timesink. Online shooters and games of that ilk are just sludge. I've studied game design, I know for a fact game companies hire psychologists to figure out how to make games more addictive, and this is not an industry secret. They WANT you addicted.

 

[Deleted Account]

The first video game console I ever played was, I believe, a GameBoy.
I played the PS1, PS2, Nintendo 64, GameCube, Xbox, Xbox 360 and on the PC when I was little.
I remember games like:

Fighting Force

​

Halo 3

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Fable: The Lost Chapters

Warcraft 3: Reign of Chaos

Runescape

​

Thinking back, most of my day was filled with playing video games, I think I started around the age of 6 or maybe even earlier then that. When I think about what video games have given to me or what they have done for me I only think of what I have lost by playing them. Sure, they do provide for a fun time, and can give you an endorphin rush and make you feel better if you preform well in them.
But what they have really done is rob me of my full potential. On one side I could see myself have becoming a famous Youtuber or a streamer possibly. Maybe I could have become a professional video game player like on a team or something. After all I was quite good at Halo and Call of Duty, I remember being accused of cheating in Halo a few times, and being at least in the top 3 of the leaderboard in any game I was in on COD.
On the other side, I see myself never having played video games at all, and learning how to socialize with others in my school years going onto make friends and maybe even going onto date that chick in 8th grade who clearly had a crush on me. I could have flourished as a person, increased my confidence, worked on myself, worked on my grades, spend time with friends... instead? I stunted. I'm not even afraid to say that I might even have degenerated by playing video games.

Well, clearly gaming took over my life. I never did good in school, I far preferred preforming well in a lobby than in class, I flunked the fifth grade and skipped many classes. I think I missed around 90 days of school and had around 180 tardies in 8th grade. I slept through most of the classes. Going forward into high school things didn't really change. I dropped out in eleventh grade and went on to get my GED.
I think most will agree with me when I say that video games as an addiction, is a lot like an addiction to porn.
It leaves you lethargic, it's the only thing you want to do in a day or it makes you to where you don't have a will to do anything but that!
It saps of you of your potential, it takes the love for life out of you.
Anyways, back to the present. I'm 25 now, unemployed for over a year, still playing video games. I'm thousands in debt, I still slack off and do nothing all day long. I have no car, no friends, no real passion (something that's been true of me since I was a kid), no girlfriend or wife, no confidence, and no real skills or talents.
However there is a light at the end of the tunnel. I'm starting to grow bored of video games, I'll confess that's a bit of a lie. I've been tired of video games for probably over a year now. But yet I still keep coming back to them, still sitting down and letting them take up hours of my day.

Why do I keep playing Apex when I don't even have a mic or a squad of regulars to play with? Why do I keep playing with randos who don't even understand the game and expect them to do good? Why do I play when it's obvious most people in these shooter games use anti-recoil script, aimbot, walls, or other cheats or bug abuses?

Why do I play Red Dead Online when it's literally just a grindfest, something that is made to deliberately keep you hooked so you spend day after day toiling away at it?

It's because I'm very clearly addicted. So, this post and this thread will be used by myself to keep a track on how many days I go without video games.
Will I play video games in the future? Probably, but it will be constrained to games like the next Elder Scrolls or the next Fallout game. It will also be constrained to single player games, those games have always been less addicting than online games. You can put 40 or 80 hours into it and be done with it.
I will also not be playing video games for a very long time.

I was thinking just today, while i was playing fallout..i was building a settlement and is really fun, but ine day that save file will gone, and i will lost hours on it for nothing, i am playing too much these days because outside is rainy.
One guy told that when you start to care so much aboutba game then it become a work, and it stop to be funny.

 

[paragun]

But what they have really done is rob me of my full potential. On one side I could see myself have becoming a famous Youtuber or a streamer possibly.​

Come on, even if it's lucrative being a Professional Teenager isn't having aspirations. The successful ones are better entertainers than they are gamers.

Porn is worse-- it's instant gratification. Games, you have to work at to get that dopamine hit. But it becomes a problem in that the rewards you get for doing Fake Work can exceed the non-rewards you get for doing school or your actual job, so it becomes an addictive cycle.