Video game addiction

[readjusting]

To summary, I had an addiction to a video game called Dota 2. It was a team battle video game with hero and leveling up.
I want to remove it because it is a big time sink. About 25% of my time, equivalent to a whole week every month.

Ideas I tried:
- Willpower: Failed many times.
- Having other things to do: It worked somewhat. Jobs, class projects, pickup. But between jobs, finished projects, failed dates, however....
- Counting the days without addiction: It reduced the time I was in the addiction, but not removing it.
- Surrounding myself with non-gamer: I compromised a bit, but it worked well. It reduced the addiction time.

Ideas I chose not to do:
- Having a close non-gamer friend monitor it: I didn't have any.
- Having a family member monitor it: For personal reasons.

However, recently I had found another good idea: finding the root cause.
So why I was addicted to this particular video game? Why not other video games?
Because:
- Team battle
- Improvement
So to remove it, I have to do activities with these elements. For example, pickup/wealth has the element of improvement.
But another element is team battle.
How?
Team sport, like soccer for example.
So I'm going to the soccer field today. It might cure the addiction. It might fail. Or it might partially work.

I want to remove this addiction as soon as possible. Any of you having an addiction in the past, how did you remove it?

 

[Cacc]

The first time this happened to me, I broke my expensive computer into pieces.

The second time, I deleted the game, then started playing other games that I didn't like much to spend the time. After a bit, I lost the interest in playing at all.


Short of throwing away your pc, I reccomend you buy yourself a computer that's so bad, it can't run Dota 2. Like a notebook or something.

Glood luck

 

[readjusting]

Damn, it's a good idea.

Actually I had thought of it. 2 months ago my old computer broke, so I planned to use your idea.
However I had a job-related computer, so my computer had to be reasonably strong.
In the end I had a bad computer, but it was still good enough to run Dota 2 at the lowest resolution level.

I also deleted the game, but the Internet at my school was so good. It was like I downloaded it in 20 minutes.
Every time, I played the game. Then I deleted the game and swore not getting back to it.
Until several days later.

But yeah, playing other games is a good idea. I'm going to try this out.

 

[Hector Papi Castillo]

As your coach, I suggest that we play Dota 2 together. I'm only like 3k MMR. Where you at?

Just kidding, you gotta stop Well, stopping cold turkey is hard. You have to be disgusted with it, which usually means you love something far more than that thing, so you are disgusted by how it distracts you from that other thing. For me, it was pickup. I stopped playing video games for almost 2 years because of pickup and never really missed out. Only recently picked up video games again (mostly Dota 2).

I would suggest you download an app that blocks programs on your computer. It can limit how much time you play a day (also the same with websites, if porn, for example, is a problem) or even block it completely. I'll send a link to you. also, we can talk about this during our coaching session tomorrow!

Hector

 

[trashKENNUT]

Everything is advertising.

You figure what triggers your addiction and give many suggestions to avoid it. Video game is not bad, really. In a society where video game is "right" and drugs is wrong but we put people in shit situations, then everything is bullshit. i won't elaborate much. Just a short anecdote.

of course my anecdote is boring because it's facts.

Zac

 

[readjusting]

Dota 2 is a good game. I spend a lot of time in this game.
I play most of all in World of Warcraft now. But I'm not interested in playing as a beginner, I want to have a panned account. On the forum, some advised to do a boost HERE. What do you think? Is this a good way?

I can give you my account for 100 bucks. 4k8 MMR.
Oh wait, wrong game

 

[Big Daddy]

One thing that stopped bad habits instantly was paying $5 to my best friend every time I either did something physically if it was recurrent (e.g touching my face). For less frequent things such as playing games I'd up it to $20 per launch or $5 per 15 minutes or so. It took $70 to stop completely but it was the cheapest method you'll ever find.

After a while of missing it so many times you get angry as fuck, I can't even describe, and just stop cold.

 

[readjusting]

For those of you who's watching this thread, I have already quit the video game. For 63 days.

To be honest, quitting is easier than you think.
1) Tell everyone you're going to quit
2) Quit
3) Enjoy the time gained

One thing that stopped bad habits instantly was paying $5 to my best friend every time I either did something physically if it was recurrent (e.g touching my face). For less frequent things such as playing games I'd up it to $20 per launch or $5 per 15 minutes or so. It took $70 to stop completely but it was the cheapest method you'll ever find.

It's worth it.

 

[pks391]

To summary, I had an addiction to a video game called Dota 2. It was a team battle video game with hero and leveling up.
I want to remove it because it is a big time sink. About 25% of my time, equivalent to a whole week every month.

Ideas I tried:
- Willpower: Failed many times.
- Having other things to do: It worked somewhat. Jobs, class projects, pickup. But between jobs, finished projects, failed dates, however....
- Counting the days without addiction: It reduced the time I was in the addiction, but not removing it.
- Surrounding myself with non-gamer: I compromised a bit, but it worked well. It reduced the addiction time.

Ideas I chose not to do:
- Having a close non-gamer friend monitor it: I didn't have any.
- Having a family member monitor it: For personal reasons.

However, recently I had found another good idea: finding the root cause.
So why I was addicted to this particular video game? Why not other video games?
Because:
- Team battle
- Improvement
So to remove it, I have to do activities with these elements. For example, pickup/wealth has the element of improvement.
But another element is team battle.
How?
Team sport, like soccer for example.
So I'm going to the soccer field today. It might cure the addiction. It might fail. Or it might partially work.

I want to remove this addiction as soon as possible. Any of you having an addiction in the past, how did you remove it?

Hello IceCream,

I played the original DotA from 2007 to 2013 like a maniac and after a while I could tell I spent a lot of time, money, energy and mental resources behind it. It was so addictive, it was like a drug. It really takes over your life and work.

To describe the level of my addiction let me give you all the instances:

At home on usual days I used to begin playing at 8 am and stop playing at 9-10 pm. Drove my parents crazy!!! They had to turn off the main switch many times!!! Got into fights.....not to mention the electricity bill was increased by Rs. 1000/- just for my gaming pleasures.

I have lied and cheated my parents and spent my lunch money on DotA.....

Every Sunday for 6 years we used to go to a gaming cafe where we spent our money playing DotA on LAN from anywhere around 5 to 10 hours. At the end of it my head used to spin.

I played the Beta of DotA 2 when it was initially conceived. I was chosen as a beta tester and let me tell you the game was pretty shitty in its pioneer days....

The amount of total money spent playing this game is an insane figure now that i think about it. Anyways, i haven't played DotA since 2013......but I can understand you situation. Let me tell you what happened to me that I stopped playing.

I got a life outside DotA

I got busy with my career (Really busy)

My computer busted and I could not fix it coz i had no time and by the time I fixed it, I was over DotA

Been 4 years ever since.

 

[Regal Tiger]

I know I'm late but there was something I remember reading a long time ago about why video games are so addicting:

It's because (and especially in the beginning) you level up so fast. You can also see your progression whereas with actual life it's sometimes difficult to track things. That hits some of the logical parts of our brains and makes it seem fair where a lot of life just plain isn't fair.

It's awesome that you've gone so long without giving into your addiction! That's a huge step forward man!

One thing that I would recommend to try and hit some of the same 'progression' parts of life:
1) Start tracking something that you're working on. That way you can really see the differences (though it does take longer on average than a game does). This was also found to be a cause of social media addiction: all those likes gives us a hit of dopamine and it's fun to watch the numbers climb higher and higher. I'm actually using this, and the next thing as a way to help me build my Instagram. I've just started working on it within the last few weeks but I've already climbed to 1,331 followers! As soon as I get to 20K followers then I can start using it to fuel one of my passions for photography by making money off of using it for marketing purposes.

2) Nerdfitness had an awesome article about looking at fitness (or any other pursuit) exactly like a video game: basically if you do some pickup for example you can add x number of experience points to your social skills.
Worked out your arms that day? That's minus 4 on arm strength but +10 experience points to arm strength with a 24 hour recovery period on arms to full health
--it sounds really silly and dumb but it's kinda hilarious and helps at the same time.

3) Just have a bunch of different things going on in your life. Like right now I'm focusing on what feels like a ton and it doesn't leave a lot of time for much else.
But I feel like for this particular step you also have to know what gets you motivated. And remember that motivation is like eating: You should do it daily

Keep moving forward bro!