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Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?

#141

Post by muzani »

sb057 wrote: post #24

>According to Steam I played over 2.000 hours during 2020 and 2021. Less than three hours a day for passive recreation is hardly out of line with modern western lifestyles. The average American spends more than that watching television. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-07-22/... I obviously wouldn't want to deter anybody from productive work in favor of entertainment, but physical and mental rest…

The thing is games usually don't get anywhere. If I watch the Marvel movies for 100 hours, or most series, I'd be done with the whole thing. I've been playing Xenonauts for almost 100 hours and I'm only halfway through the campaign.

There's little satisfaction. Not as much growth as say, playing a sport, and not as much rest as just sleeping or lying down with a book/TV. I think games have evolved to be more competitive than fun, in both design and marketing.

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?

#142

Post by bradlys »

bko wrote: post #73
sb057 wrote: post #24

>According to Steam I played over 2.000 hours during 2020 and 2021. Less than three hours a day for passive recreation is hardly out of line with modern western lifestyles. The average American spends more than that watching television. https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2021-07-22/... I obviously wouldn't want to deter anybody from productive work in favor of entertainment, but physical and mental rest…

I don't think its healthy because he changed his lifestyle around it. He said he would wake up early, go to sleep late and put off work. Americans watch a lot of TV, but no one is setting an alarm to binge watch Jeopardy.

No one is setting an alarm to binge watch Jeopardy - they just put off all the things they should be doing instead.

It’s a much more passive involvement but still just as problematic as described above.

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?

#143

Post by offsky »

What worked for me to quit an addictive game was to educate myself on the dark patterns that games use to make us addicted. Knowing their tricks makes them less powerful (at least for me). I used my research into dark patterns in games to make a website about it. https://www.darkpattern.games/

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?

#144

Post by xedrac »

It took me a full two years of complete abstinence before I stopped feeling the pull. It was a much more powerful addiction than I realized - leaving a gaping black hole in my life that seemed to suck the life right out of me. It would come and go in powerful waves. I decided that I needed to fill that hole with something or I wasn't going to make it. So I took up studying Chess. This appealed to my competitive nature, and felt enough like a video game that it helped reduce the pull somewhat. Exercise was also instrumental. I often get weird looks when people hear about my experience, but the fact is, my video game addiction was destroying me.

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?

#146

Post by bradknowles »

redsh wrote: post #9

If you really need to stop, use cheats. That will break the dopamine cycle and you’ll be free. Maybe it also works to limit play time to healthy levels. For example, I was once playing quite a bit of WoW, and after I trying it out on an unofficial server where I could teleport anywhere made the game lose all its appeal.

I haven't seen any games that held any interest for me since Baldur's Gate and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

I guess it's easier for me since I refuse to buy any computing devices other than Apple, and since many games are console or PC only, I just don't ever get tempted.

I'm okay with that. I haven't even played Baldur's Gate or KotOR in years, even though I do have them on my iPad.

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?

#147

Post by [deleted] »

superkuh wrote: post #137
erulabs wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is nothing magical about other addictive substances either… I don’t believe anything about the definition of addiction has to do with how it “hijacks your substrate”. As far as I found - OP is describing addiction: an overwhelming desire to do something one knows is harmful, which provides no benefit to one’s life, that one cannot maintain a healthy relationship with.

Addictive substances directly effect the biochemistry of motivation. Directly acting on some subset of receptors (or other mechanisms) in the brain on neurons and glia is entirely different from something coming in through your senses. One is direct and one in indirect. For video games to become addictive they actually have to be fun and rewarding; probably in a random interval operant conditioning pattern. For metha…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?

#149

Post by blooalien »

Acquire other (more productive/creative) hobbies/activities which excite/interest you enough to channel that same energy/focus.

I had this problem with EverQuest for a while, and other MMOs/Open-World games, then "virtual world" software (OpenSim/Second Life/InWorldz) that I was semi-addicted to led me to a (revived from olden days) interest in programming/scripting, and a (newly rekindled) interest in 3D modeling/graphics which at first I had learned for the sake of creating content for the virtual world and other game engines. I just used that interest in those "new" hobbies to start finding "excuses" to do more productive things and learn further skills around those interests which sucked up enough of my time and focus that the games simply no longer held the same sway that they once did over my attention.

Now that I've honed those skills somewhat, I'm moving into learning the Godot game engine, in hopes of creating my own amusements and tools with those skills. :)

Re: Ask HN: How do you avoid video game addiction?

#150

Post by sirspacey »

jeffwask wrote: post #55

Married, Adult Children, 40's, Life long gamer So my yearly hours spent gaming would probably be double yours as it is the primary recreation activity for both my wife and I. We game together most nights and when we aren't gaming together we are likely gaming separate. My first suggestion would be to game with your SO, games are social activities. Warped perceptions aside there is nothing wrong with engaging in virtu…

Similar circumstances & taken a similar path.

Embracing that I’m a gamer was a big help, I now tell people that as part of my identity.

Selecting games carefully is a big deal. I have one competitive game: Legends of Runeterra. The rest are single player, co-op, or sandbox games like Minecraft.

Playing with my SO is great, sometimes we game side by side in whatever game we want. It’s a feeling of closeness like reading together.

I’ve been designing games since I was 8, but never made it a career. Gaming & what I’ve learned from designing them has served me very well.

I also share the fears of OP. I often given entire weekends to gaming. I’m choosing to see those fears as an indication that I want experiences other than gaming, so now my SO & I go hiking every morning.

One thing I know for sure, I don’t want to live a life “fighting addiction.” I’d rather embrace what works for me today, develop as a person, and see how I can diversify my experiences in a gentle way.

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