I doubt what I say might be helpful here, but in the spirit of sharing…
I grew up severely addicted to video games. My parents didn’t buy me a PC until I was in college, and so I would befriend anyone in school who had a PC and was willing to let me play/ take turns in playing. It was pretty insane now that I think back… I didn’t even mind watching others play, I just loved video games so fucking much.
In college, the semester I did get my own machine, I got Cs in most of my courses (while I had been a mostly A and some B student in previous semesters). I returned my machine to my parents in the hopes of improving my grades, but I would just borrow a laptop from a friend and play anyways.
I didn’t get a console for the longest time as an adult.
However when I saw a pretty great game on a PlayStation at a friends place, I was hooked and bought it. The addiction was back: couldn’t stop playing until I completed the game; I barely got by with other things while I played.
However, I guess my life got more interesting so there were other things that I really liked doing too. But If there is a really cool game, I will get it, and the rest of my life takes a backseat while I complete it. During the pandemic, I went really hard for factorio and would spend hours upon hours in the game, to the point that I was dreaming in designs for solving problems in the game.
Today, I would say I have a good relationship with video games. When a new game is released that I find interesting, I am hyped. I’m very upfront about this to my coworkers and my manager, that I might be less productive because a game is coming out. Sometimes I take time off just to immerse in the game completely.
I’m happy that I have a somewhat healthy relationship with gaming today. I couldn’t have gone through the pandemic without video games… and some games are just so good, there are moments from these that are very memorable. I know not everyone may be able to get this balance, I guess I’m just happy I was able to because I really love gaming. As a socially awkward teen, it provided me an amazing escape and I latched on to it really hard. As an adult, I still love the feeling of escaping reality, of total immersion in a story, in a different universe.
Thanks for sharing, and congrats, you have made really good progress!
Having a healthy relationship with video-games, while not prioritising it over everything else in life (except on some occasions ;)) seems like a really good end state. As for myself, I will only start playing again when I get a trusty accountability partner who would make sure that my relationship with gaming stays healthy :)
I grew up severely addicted to video games. My parents didn’t buy me a PC until I was in college, and so I would befriend anyone in school who had a PC and was willing to let me play/ take turns in playing. It was pretty insane now that I think back… I didn’t even mind watching others play, I just loved video games so fucking much.
In college, the semester I did get my own machine, I got Cs in most of my courses (while I had been a mostly A and some B student in previous semesters). I returned my machine to my parents in the hopes of improving my grades, but I would just borrow a laptop from a friend and play anyways.
I didn’t get a console for the longest time as an adult.
However when I saw a pretty great game on a PlayStation at a friends place, I was hooked and bought it. The addiction was back: couldn’t stop playing until I completed the game; I barely got by with other things while I played.
However, I guess my life got more interesting so there were other things that I really liked doing too. But If there is a really cool game, I will get it, and the rest of my life takes a backseat while I complete it. During the pandemic, I went really hard for factorio and would spend hours upon hours in the game, to the point that I was dreaming in designs for solving problems in the game.
Today, I would say I have a good relationship with video games. When a new game is released that I find interesting, I am hyped. I’m very upfront about this to my coworkers and my manager, that I might be less productive because a game is coming out. Sometimes I take time off just to immerse in the game completely.
I’m happy that I have a somewhat healthy relationship with gaming today. I couldn’t have gone through the pandemic without video games… and some games are just so good, there are moments from these that are very memorable. I know not everyone may be able to get this balance, I guess I’m just happy I was able to because I really love gaming. As a socially awkward teen, it provided me an amazing escape and I latched on to it really hard. As an adult, I still love the feeling of escaping reality, of total immersion in a story, in a different universe.