insanekun

Greetings! (*°ｰ°)ﾉ Just a woman who likes puzzle, point & click indie games a lot. I enjoy some TD games as well! Game MUST HAVE AN ENDING. I’ve learned my lesson.

Used to be an active Monsters & Dungeons player, until they closed down their servers. I also used to play Lionheart Tactics, Naruto Online and Bit Heroes but grew bored and quit. Crusaders of the Lost Idols = horrible for game addicts. I’m so blessed I got away when I did. No joke.

Video games
are not
what they used to be!

Gaming addiction is REAL and a serious problem. Elements in games that I need to look out for before playing a game:

1) Teamwork/social/party/guild causes feeling of “not wanting to let friends down”. Exploiting one’s sense of responsibility. Quitting game becomes harder.
(but even single player, idle games can still be dangerous due to containing any of the elements below!)
2) RNG “chests”, rewards etc.
3) Feeling of “missing out”/being punished if I don’t play often.
4) Constant updates. Moving/Floating goal. THERE IS NO CLEAR END. Thus I will never feel satisfied.
5) Events w. ever growing number of new “collectables” (no satisfaction of ever completing the “collection”).
6) Feeling like I’m never good enough, because I either struggle to keep up-to-date OR TO STAY ON “TOP POSITION” (defending title etc). Always feeling behind. (Ever chasing the moving goals.)
7) If it feels like I “have to keep trying ‘a million times’/grinding before they reward you like a good boy” then I should not even touch the game with a ten-foot-pole.
8) If there are WHALES being catered to = Just a big nope.

9) There are many more things with the human psyche, that game developers will exploit to their own advantage. I can’t say I blame them, it’s nothing personal; after all they wanna make money and have YOU remain their loyal customer.

But it’s up to me to realize I am being manipulated, and take charge of my own life. I can make an active choice to stay away and NOT let some game control my life. It’s always easiest to learn to recognize the elements or “signs” of these deliberately ‘evil’ addictive games and never even touch them to begin with.

A good way to quit, is to constantly remind myself that the “in game things you own/have achieved/collected” means literally NOTHING in the real world. NO-ONE outside that game cares.
I can achieve real life goals instead, that will in the long will make me happier.

Quitting the game and never even think about “what you lost” is hard, but possible to do. (Distract with real life hobby. Opportunity to learn some skill to be really proud off, like making music, new language, write a short story, take martial art classes/dance, plant and learn how to grow your own food, crafting stuff etc..)