One of the core features of gaming which kept drawing me back to it, was the “push-button social life”. If I ever felt stressed or just lonely, all I had to do was log in and there’d be someone to chat to, or play games with. That cosy convenience
After gaming less and less, I felt kind of lost in the real world. All of the classic questions kept popping up: What should I do with my life? What’s really important to me? You see, up until then, my focus had been on gaming with my friends, so
When I was totally hooked on WoW and gaming in general, as soon as I’d get home, the first thing I’d do would be to turn on my PC. Even if I was hungry or needed the loo, the PC got switched on first. If I had some
When you’re juggling a lot of different stuff to get done every week, it makes sense to set a schedule in order to be more efficient with your time. However, I’ve found that while the schedule I’ve set does help me to be more productive, I also
As I started to avoid particular types of computer games, and also played games less in general, it was often tempting to replace gaming with other types of distractions; some more senseless than others. One time I remember I started overeating and put on a lot of weight in just
Addiction, amusement, compulsion, distraction, pastime, habit, hobby, hook, infatuation, fad, fixation, obsession, passion… Is playing computer games a habit, a hook, an addiction, or something else? I remember when I lived in the UK in my 20s, it was common to class smoking as a habit, but that really downplayed
This happened just over ten years ago, when I was making a serious attempt at losing weight. I’d decided that once the clock struck midnight, I would go cold turkey and stop eating any and all junk food. It seemed like a logical enough plan. It got to about
“But in the end, it doesn't even matter” I knew someone, let’s call him ‘Al’, who was caught in a negative spiral of questioning the meaning of his own life. He never laughed with joy, and rarely even smiled. I think I finally decided to just avoid
Over the last two weeks or so, I’ve had cravings to play more games again. I think I know why, so let’s get into it. I mentioned before how I’d restricted my gaming to couch co-op games, and over the last two weeks, the gf and I
Another chain which tied me to excessive gaming was my reluctance to leave behind that which had been built up over many years. Not just online RPG characters and rare digital items, but friendships. Friendships which had lasted years. I never met most of my online gaming friends in person,
I was never successful in controlling my excessive gaming by going cold turkey. The strategy which worked best for me, was to make gradual changes. I took small steps away from gaming, as I took small steps towards RL. For example, when I was focussed on reducing my interaction with
I used to have a real problem with perceiving problems as problems. You see, the problem with seeing problems as problems is that then problems can’t be challenges. If we agree that challenges are things which can yield fun, satisfaction, and growth on completion, then what are problems? Are