In this blog article, I will share my personal journey of why I chose to stop playing video games and how it was very beneficial to me.
The positives
Witcher 3
So this is my favourite game of all time.
Once I downloaded the game I was extremely immersed in the experience.
I have never been so immersed in a virtual experience up until that point and also since then.
I spent around 10 days completing the story line. By the end I got kind of a empty feeling like “so what do I do now?”.
It was like taking a vacation into a different world during those 10 days, if that makes sense.
All of this to say that I appreciate video games.
However,
during my life up until I gave up video games (in late 2022) I would say that video games did more harm that good for my life. And I’m here to argue that it could also be the same in your case.
Let me explain
Spending your motivation on things that have no return
Think about it
You are playing an RPG type game and you develop your character, you get better traits like more strength and charisma, you collect valuables in the environment and get wealthier, you complete missions and quests and get more respect around you in the world.
What did that “accomplish”? Really think it through.
Pause while reading this.
Take a minute and really think what all of that “did”.
The answer is, unfortunately, nothing.
The same drive and the same urges that guys have to go out in the world and “conquer” are being exploited by games designers to hook you in.
It’s really fun I agree.
But you could have spent that same energy/urge doing the same type of things in the real world, while having accomplish real things.
Actually gained muscle, having more social skills and being more comfortable talking with strangers, made more money and also maybe doing things to improve your community gaining the appreciation and respect of your peers.
And the thing is while you do that in the virtual world you spent that energy/urge and your brain thinks “ah! I’ve accomplish some things, let me relax now”, while not being true. You lose the drive to go out and “conquer” the real world because you have already conquered the virtual one.
This is the same with more competitive type games like shooters for example.
You are competing against the other team and maybe you scream and rage about the situation. You get emotionally affected.
You could spend that competitive energy instead in the real world, in a positive manner that is, maybe in teams sports, or combat sports, that have much better returns like better physical health.
Time wasted
I don’t know how many hours I’ve spent gaming but I wouldn’t be surprised if it was something like 10 thousand to 20 thousand hours.
I’m never getting that time back.
I could have done so many productive things instead.
Imagine what you can do with 10 thousand hours.
Maybe I could have become a millionaire by the time of writing this if I spent that time starting/growing businesses.
Maybe I could have meet a lot of interesting people and have a completely different social life.
Point being that it is a lot of fucking time.
Crabs in a bucket
Talking about friends that also game with you and the overall culture of gaming (as in its like the crabs in the bucket type situation)
I’ve noticed this with some of my old friends and that’s one of the reasons that I had to change my circle of friends. My guess would be that this happens in some other circles of guys as well.
They would try to pull me in the “bucket” of gaming. Maybe not even conscious manner. But it would happen.
When everyone in the circle of friends is spending their nights on discord and playing games if that one friend doesn’t want to do that and is trying to quit then it is kinda of ostracised.
Or maybe you are so used to that routine that for you that’s normal.
It’s normal to spend like 4 or 5 hours a day gaming and losing sleep over it.
You are in a bubble and you don’t know you are in one.
My recommendation to you is that if you find yourself in a situation like that, you need to change your environment. You need to hang out with different people.
AA Alcoholics anonymous
I’m not really familiar with rehab programs but I heard many times that in those type of programs one of the first things they ask people that are trying to beat their addiction is to admit they have a problem.
Regarding the guys I used to play games with (of course some played a lot more hours than others) but I’ve never heard them say “I have a problem by playing video games for this amount of time”.
And I think one of the reasons that I stopped playing was in fact was that I acknowledge that I had a problem. I couldn’t spend that much time playing. It was not healthy and it was preventing my success in life.
Video games as an escape
I remember one specific time, and this was the last few weeks that I played video games ever, that one relationship ended with a girl and I got rejected two times in a row in a short amount of time. At the time I was still going out/talking with more girls so I wasn’t “alone” but it was kinda of a kick in the ego let’s say.
I remember that I installed some game a started playing again, directly because of that.
I felt that I needed to “escape” that feeling so I started playing again. And that led me to 2 or 3 weeks of very low productivity.
It was the last run of playing.
I said “enough is enough”.
How I did it
So I was playing games through STEAM (a platform of games) and I just asked to delete the account. Not uninstalling the games and the launcher. No. Actually deleting the account (in a way that I could not recover it).
So I went ahead and ask to delete the account. I think I had to wait something like 30 days for it get deleted.
So far I haven’t played since and the plan is to never play again until I’ve met all my financial/life goals.
Simple but it worked.
Conclusion
If you are playing video games and that takes way too much time in your life admit you have a problem.
Change your environment and takes measures like I did to stop playing.
You will see that you get more mental energy to accomplish things in the real world one you do that.