EndOfAnEra

Thats good you are figuring things out. Art school does seem to be a mixed bag. I guess it really depends on what direction you want to go in, and if you have a specific style you are going after (like drawing instead of learning other things as well like painting, sculpture, film, etc.), then maybe focusing on your craft and taking some individual classes locally may be a more worthwhile investment. Your portfolio is more important that a degree on your wall I'd assume.

Nothing new today. Still haven't had a chance to play and beat BOTW, so while I am going on a few days of no games, I still haven't officially started my detox. I feel like I am more excited to start my detox than beat the game, I know I will feel guilty playing it to beat it, but I will feel guilty not beating it after all the time invested (160 or 170+ hours)... plus the whole ending my "gamer" era with defeating Gannon one last time thing. Started reading The Slight Edge. After I finish, I will read Extreme Ownership. My toddler keeps taking my Fire tablet to watch PBS Kids app (I need to seriously work on weaning her off of TV, she is in her terrible 2's but the tantrums when we say no to watching a show is alarming, I don't want her to get hooked this young), so I ordered a Kindle Paperwhite to start reading more easily. Plus the lighting on that isn't backlit, so it won't blind my wife if I am reading in bed and she is trying to sleep, the lowest brightness setting on the Fire is still too bright in the dark, even when the Kindle app is set to have black background with white letters. I had a great day with my family yesterday. It was going to rain all weekend at the beach, so we stayed in town this weekend and ended up driving 30 minutes to a dairy farm/ice cream place. And went to another for strawberry picking. My brain rarely strayed to games and I was less distracted. Today we went out for breakfast (I got the veggie omelette instead of my usual steak omelette + pancakes, lets cut that weight). I then mowed the grass and put together the crib in the room our new baby will be sleeping in once he is born. Played some guitar and am now going to catch up on some work. After my Tuesday deadline at work, I think I will just go ahead and beat BOTW so I can start my detox on Wed/Thurs. Still debating on the selling of games thing. I am active on some forums with buy/sell sections and saw some people looking for various games I have on the shelf from older systems. So I think I will sell them. Get down to my childhood games and a few select others, plus the current gen games. If I decide to game in moderation, that alone will probably last me years. I cancelled all my game pre-orders except for the new Uncharted game and the Mario Odyssey game. I still have time to cancel, but figure I would keep them for now. if I do play in moderation, those two games would probably last me a year alone... hopefully.

Jordan Peterson's stuff is great and very inspiring (almost makes me wish I did liberal arts instead of engineering at university, though I am glad I did engineering because of the job opportunities I have had). Understanding archetypes and what goals to set for yourself is great. Be the "hero". As he said on Rogan's podcast and the Rubin Report... make your bed and clean your room! Setting up little structures like that helps with everything in life, and if you do not have the foundation to build off of, you will fail. Jocko Willink was on Rogan's podcast last week or so, and listening to him is inspiring as well. He was a former navy seal who now goes around and does business leadership workshops. However, he has a book called Extreme Ownership. Taking Ownership of our lives and everything we do is important and helps build discipline. He even wrote a kids book that goes over how to achieve goals and better ourselves. Basically put his principles into a children's fiction book... I was tempted to buy it, haha, read it myself and keep it for my soon to be born son for when he is 10 years old or whatever, ha. Also, I just listened to the Guy Richie episode of Rogan's podcast. I didn't think I would take anything away from it (he is a filmmaker who was married to Madonna... what could I have expected?), however, he discussed the central narrative in all stories, even our own, is the struggle between our inner self and the outside self (the self that is shaped by expectations of the world around us). And that tied into the self ownership stuff as well, he even discussed the Extreme Ownership book as being helpful to him. So, that was good reinforcement as well. I was eating some cake and ice cream, and immediately put it down without finishing because I needed to take ownership of losing the weight I want to, a reason I am cutting down/out video games. Getting to the destination isn't easy, however, we have to start on step 1 and then take step 2, etc. If you go off trail a bit, don't get too hard on yourself, figure out what made you go off path and fix it, and then keep taking the next step. Most people never reach their goals simply because they stop taking the steps towards them (from The Slight Edge, a book I started reading that has been recommended on here). If you feel bad for that 30-60 min of Hearthstone, then uninstall it. If it isn't in your way, then that is ok, but still need to consider if that is helping you towards your goals (and having some relaxing downtime is beneficial, and puzzle solving/strategy is beneficial to keeping the brain sharp, so maybe limited amounts could be helpful as long as you have the discipline to put it down after a reasonable amount of time). Anyways, good luck!

Yeah, definitely. We grow into and out of music/bands all the time. I never really got into Bullet for my Valentine, though their first hit or two weren't bad. I did listen to things like the early Atreyu albums, and Trivium, Killswitch Engage, etc. My early high school years was stuff like Deftones, and later years was in the heart of Nu Metal, so Slipknot, Mudvayne, System of a Down, Soulfly, Linkin Park, etc. (embarrassing, but honestly, sometimes I will still listen to Slipknot when working out or if I am driving late and want to keep my energy up, since it is simple driving rhythms). I heard Siberian Kiss by Glassjaw on a Roadrunner compilation CD and then got into them and other melodic hardcore bands like Hopesfall. Then in college, I got into hardcore/metalcore stuff like Poison the Well, Evergreen Terrace and Norma Jean. And then into things like Dillinger, Lamb of God. Shadows Fall, Darkest Hour, In Flames, etc. The last newer bands I listened to before straying away was stuff like Protest the Hero, August Burns Red, Black Dahlia Murder, etc. I've been listening to some form of metal since I was younger though. I think when I was 8 or 10, my oldest sibling got a ripped cassette of Metallica's Black album, and it started from there. Plus I like a lot of the old hardcore and punk bands like Minor Threat, Bad Brains, the Misfits, etc. I haven't heard of Fleshgod, but have heard some Primordial stuff here and there, they are pretty good. I do like those Iron Maiden influenced bands. I really like 3 Inches of Blood in that same realm. They are a little faster paced but you can hear the Iron Maiden + thrash influence, and some of the camp/humor as well. Plus I saw them at a metal fest years ago and they just flat out rocked, I couldn't even remember the headliners, haha... Norma Jean and 3-Inches of Blood were the best. Ya definitely. I've been out of the loop for metal the past few years, just been listening to bands I know and their new albums. If I am in my car, I may switch to the metal channel on Sirius, and 3/4 of the stuff I hear is just generic sounding and I end up turning it. So ya, any suggestions are welcome, especially as I get into playing more guitar again. More prog type stuff and less chugga chugga. My band was all over the place musically. I was really into Dillinger at the time, the other guitarist was into Mastodon. Our drummer came out of punk, but was really into stuff like At the Gates and The Haunted. Our singer liked things like King Diamond and also black metal and death metal stuff. So we had an interesting balance. Didn't go that far because all but the singer were older and didn't put a lot of time into promoting our band. Most places around here require you to sell x-many tickets to play, and all but our vocalist being out of college and into careers, that wasn't happening. So we ended up having to just buy our minimum tickets to play, and eventually just called it quits as we were getting married and starting families. But we were able to open for bands like The Red Chord, Gaza, Holy Grail, Cauldron, etc. However, I am glad we are starting to jam again. Got a new bassist that is a friend (though not really a metal head, but he has been learning our old songs happily) and will need to find a new singer, I wouldn't mind getting a chick singer this time around (our last vocalist mostly did death metal grumble grumble stuff, which isn't my thing, I like singing or hardcore type screaming/shouting).

It is good that you caught yourself and cut it off. Maybe you should consider selling your PC, or at least pulling the GPU out of it (assuming your CPU/Mobo can do graphics since most do nowadays). Put it in a box somewhere or sell it off at least. Add an extra step to just the time it takes to download a game. You may have spent $1k on the PC, but maybe you can sell it off for $700 or so? put that money towards a laptop or something. Or if you prefer the PC, maybe strip it down to a basic PC and sell off what you can and buy a barebones Kindle or something if you want to read more and it doesn't have the features of tablets for other media or phone type games. I also enjoyed the sentiments in your poem, especially those about rushing everything in your life and the preoccupation of thoughts. Hearing that makes me thing I was more addicted than I'd admit.

Ya, I keep trying to get into Meshuggah and I do enjoy their stuff, but just haven't really dived into them enough to listen regularly. I dunno, its just interesting how much they have influenced bands I like (Dillinger for example), yet I just haven't really gotten into them. I need to give them more time I guess.

Thanks, I will check that book out. The only I have done so far is download the Headspace app. I tried doing the first lesson last night after burning the midnight oil catching up on things and I ended up just starting to fall asleep instead of actually meditating, so will try to work on that in the mornings. Ya, I think I will read through those books and graphic novels, make use of it. Time will tell if it will make me want to game or not. I look at the stuff on shelves and my gaming collection, and as much as I enjoy playing them and the nostalgia (it just feels normal to like it), I also think about the discussions in podcasts and media about extended adolescence going into people's 30's and I say to myself "there it is, there is extended adolescence right there" and it doesn't kind of make me ashamed. Then I consider selling it all off and then think to myself "then when would I play it?". Its just weird. I'm not living in my parents basement, I haven't lived at home since I was 18 and have always had the work ethic and desire to make money, so I haven't had issues being self sufficient and calling in sick to game or anything. But just having it in my life is a distraction: both ruining my concentration/brain chemistry, and from using my free time on more productive things. Anyone who combating this stuff when you are in your teens and twenties, keep it going. You don't want to be thinking this stuff to yourself in your 30's. Again, I think it more comes as a response to it just always being there in my life. A habit. I've talked to one of my siblings about it who is also a big gamer. They made some suggestions on how to moderate. I do kind of feel bad doing the 90-day detox because they are going through some medical issues and will be recovering for weeks for an upcoming surgery, and we could do some online stuff on the Switch like Mario Kart, or Splatoon 2 when it comes out (I cancelled my pre-order, even if I do moderately game, I won't play games like that with no story or ending... Mario Kart or Gran Turismo are the only non-story games I'd be willing to play on occasion... thats if I moderately game and not quit for good). I was watching Joe Rogan's podcast with Guy Ritchie and they were talking about ownership of your life and everything that you do. They mentioned Jocko Willink's book on Extreme Ownership. I have heard Jocko on other podcasts and he is an interesting guy, former Navy Seal. His book is meant more for leadership and applying it to business. However, from various things I have read, it seems to go over discipline and has helpful anecdotes to apply to every day life (such as family dynamics). So I bought a copy on my Kindle and will add it to the reading list for my extra free time.

I hear you on those points. I too have a loving wife and kid(s) (one now and one on the way in a couple months). I work a job that has great benefits, perks and pays really well. However, knowing that if I put the time I wasted on gaming/netflix/youtube/partying/etc into something worthwhile like my studies or healthy hobbies, I may be in an even better position career-wise, or who knows. Squandered time and talent spawns some disappointment in yourself. However, luckily there is still plenty of time to turn things around and make the most of life and your talent.

Just continue to figure yourself out. Maybe try to focus on the reasons for your aversions to money and technology rather than the objects themselves, after all they are just objects. The love of money is the root of all evil, not money itself kinda thing. Even the Amish have money, they just ride their buggies down to markets to sell their wares. Also, they deal with companies that will buy their products and sell them in the modern marketplace, so they know their products will be advertised and sold via modern technology. Sadly, unless you grow your own food, build your own shelter and make your own clothes, then you will need money one way or another. So maybe concentrate on why you are against it and stick to a path that makes you feel you come by it honestly and in enough amounts to cover your basic needs. If you have extra money, then you can donate it or spend it on others and do good by your standards and make an impact on others. Technology is a little easier to get by without once you have figured out your path. You could probably figure a way without having a phone or a computer or internet. Maybe just a landline if need be. Jobs may require a phone or internet access, but if you are against that then you would need to be in business for yourself or find a like-minded person to work for. So just keep with it, and you'll figure it out. Lock down the principles you want to live by and try to find a path that sticks close to that as possible. If you find an honest way to earn a living and stay true to yourself, you may find peace. Same thing with scaling back on technology. Look at it as a tool and just use what little you have to for the tasks at hand. While you may need the most basic phone on the wall, that is far from a smartphone in the pocket, or a TV+PS4 in your house or a computer on your desk. You'll figure out the balance to be happy and still be able to navigate through the current technological society. Good luck!

Thanks, will check DTP out. I've seen the name floating around but haven't listened yet. I have heard his former band Strapping Young Lad here and there throughout the years. My music tastes are all over the place. Been into hardcore, metal, and metalcore for a long time, though have been phasing out a bit from it in my old age. Dillinger Escape Plan has been my favorite for awhile, and sad that they are calling it quits after this tour. Hopefully, I can see them one last time as they are the most intense show I have been to. Any band that lets them open for them just looks dull afterwards (including Mastodon, Deftones, and Darkest Hour). Still listen to a lot of Mastodon, Poison The Well, Winter Solstice, and some other bands. Other than that, I have been out of the loop on metal/hardcore and am not really sure what bands are on the up and up. I default back to a lot of bands I grew up with in the 90's like Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Tool, etc. But ya, prog in general is interesting to me going all the back to Rush and other prog rock bands. Been jamming with some former bandmates and may start writing again, so I think dropping my gaming (in frequency if not for good) will help with that.

Did not game last night, went with some friends and saw Tool in concert, something I have wanted to do since the 90's and finally got a chance (they haven't toured much in the last decade, and nothing on the east coast). My work day is looking full and I probably will work and do overtime until I go to bed. Same with tomorrow and we may go to the beach this weekend for Memorial Day weekend. I am still committed to beating BOTW before I start my detox, otherwise it will hang heavy on me and I do see some closure in ending my "gaming days" on a Zelda game. Whether I causally game in the future or not, it ends my "gamer" identity. My big question is do I sell off my memorabilia and books? I got some graphic novels for Zelda for my birthday that I would like to read through. Also, some art books and Hyrule Historia. Maybe I will read the graphic novels through as a form of closure as well, and then get rid of them. Whether to sell off my childhood games or not is also weighing heavy on me, so I think I will just box them up, and will reevaluate after I complete the detox. Maybe they won't mean as much to me then and I can just get rid of them like other childhood toys, but maybe not and they can just sit in a box in a closet for awhile. If I can get to the point of digging them out, playing for 20 min, get the nostalgia feels back and then say "ok, that was fun but enough" then that would be a good spot. We'll see.

I am new here, but its great to see you are progressing well in your round 2 detox. I saw a page or two ago you discuss the new Mastodon album, it has been my primary listening since it was released, a big step up from their last two and their best since Blood Mountain in my opinion. I even got to see them in early May, my third time and it was their best of those three times. Just saw Tool last night, something I have wanted to see for decades and am glad they are finally touring again. There have been multiple concerts I have passed up and just stayed home to watch movies or game. Getting back into music and practicing guitar more is a goal for when I start my detox. I should check out the minimalist podcast again. I feel like gaming has always been my antithesis to being more minimalistic. Because when I game, I just don't play a game I have now, I dive in and go back and buy games I sold in the past as nostalgia kicks in and collect nearly as much as I game. Then I eventually sell off stuff to do another hobby, and repeat the cycle when gaming takes over as main hobby again.

Thanks, will make sure to read through it. Just the first couple posts about comparing it to a break up makes sense. I haven't started my detox yet since I am at the very end of this game, but will finish it the next time I play it (tomorrow night I assume since I will be at a concert tonight), but will start my detox right after. I mean it, not just an excuse to keep playing. Figured I may as well do the final battle since I am already there and close that chapter. Start with Zelda and end with defeating Gannon once and for all. But ya, just talking about quitting games both here and with my wife reminds me of the feeling where you have those talks with an ex-girlfriend where things are really bad, but just not really right and you both don't see it going anywhere so you are talking about breaking up. That sorrow for the past but excitement for the next chapter. A weird feeling, and kinda pathetic feeling. I'm a 32 yr old man, not a child. Oh well, embrace it and move on. My wife is supportive (whether I quit or not), and is excited for me when I mentioned picking up BJJ/MT/boxing again. I even mentioned taking a hiatus from gaming with a co-worker who is also a gamer. He laughed and asked if I saw the 20/20 on gaming addiction last week. I said no, but just need to do some other things. He agreed and said good luck with it. I don't see anyone being negative about it since none of my friendships stem or depend on gaming. I may get some ribbing of doubt, but nothing discouraging or bad. Will put a chip on my shoulder if anything. I still don't see myself as "addicted" but the fact that I see it as a challenge means something. I definitely think it is an ingrained habit at the very least. Maybe more. But I am not really concerned with the label, more concerned with the results and testing my willpower. End goal: get rid of the constant fog in my head and work on concentration and focus. Hoping improved diet, exercise and some meditation will help. Work on multi-tasking less, etc.

Also, if anyone has any good resources for meditation and impulse control, that would be great. As focus/impulse control is a huge component in me wanting to quit/scale back games as I think they have had an effect on my brain chemistry.

Also, if anyone has any good resources for meditation and impulse control, that would be great. As focus/impulse control is a huge component in me wanting to quit/scale back games as I think they have had an effect on my brain chemistry.

Hey all, I think I am at a point where I am ready to say goodbye to games. Maybe not 100% forever, but to the level that it isn't even considered a hobby, maybe just "ya, I'll play Mario Kart if it is rainy out and need to relax" or my PS4 is a glorified Blu Ray player that gets used for games every couple months. But if I can't handle that, then it is gone for good. I started playing at the age of 4 (older siblings) back in 1989, well maybe 3 in 1988 when my family got our NES that Christmas. Playing games likes Mario Bros, Contra, Double Dragon 2, Ninja Gaiden, Dragon Warrior, etc. were great. However, what stole my heart was Zelda. From there I played Commodore64 games, and PC games (Wolfenstein, Doom, Quest for Glory, etc). Later it was N64 with Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time and Harvest Moon, and Playstation with with FF7 - FF9. In my later high school years it was GTA3, Gran Turismo 3 and Vice City, and in college I spent a lot of time playing full length 15min quarter games in NCAA Football and Madden, Dragon Quest 8, and lots of Halo/Halo2. Post college, it was exploring as Nathan Drake or fighting gods as Kratos. Lately it has been GTA5, Skyrim, etc. and now all I have left is the final Castle/Gannon in Breath of the Wild on the Switch. I think coming full cycle from Zelda nearly 30 years ago to ending on Zelda is a good time to put it down. Am I addicted? It is hard to tell. Throughout my life, I have played in cycles. When I was 15, I got my first guitar and was obsessed with it for years. I got pretty good and was admittedly better than my friends who would play. But then after a bit, I would cycle to playing games again. And then cycle back to guitar. Selling games to pay for guitar equipment and then selling that to pay for games. In college, I did let it effect my grades. I had a great opportunity to excel and I settled for average, barely passable even, grades so I could just play games, drink and spend time with my girlfriend at the time. Luckily I graduated and was able to land a great job. It has flexible hours and I could telework, so that leaves a lot of room to play a bit of games here and there when I take lunch/dinner breaks or after I sign off for the day. Again, post college I cycled my hobbies between guitar, games, modding my car, building PCs. At one point, I had just gotten a new PC together and was playing Star Wars The Old Republic (my only semi-venture into MMO, have wanted to stay away from those seeing how hooked roommates and family members were on WoW), and it was my birthday and my girlfriend (now wife) got mad at me because I was holding us up from dinner (my birthday dinner) and that turned into a fight. Well, I sold that PC quick and sold off a chunk of my console games. However, after my daughter was born, playing guitar wasn't an option with a baby in the house and no reason to beef up a 2-door muscle car, so my hobbies turned back to gaming. It was something I could do in hour here and there spurts and wasn't loud to wake my baby. I tried to play Destiny with some friends/coworkers, but I couldn't commit to any raid since I had to quit in the middle to go help my baby back to sleep after waking up at night. So that ended my multiplayer gaming, which I didn't play much multiplayer anyway, was always into storyline/campaign/exploring and my fast twitch reflexes aren't what they used to be, so getting destroyed by 13yr olds in COD or the like isn't that fun after an hour or two. Sorry, if I am rambling, but I will wrap it up. We finally bought a house and just this week I got my retro game set up done. Built the final bookcase for games and hung the final shelves above the CRT and now I look at it and think, "now what?" I barely have time to game, I have a 2.5 yr old and another kid on the way in July/August. My time to game will go down to 0. Plus, I think about the future and whether I want my kids really getting into games? I want them to do something more productive in life. I know at some point they will play video games, but them playing with friends here and there on whatever system versus having every console and handheld system and tons of games in their house from birth may be different. Plus, I have other aspirations and needs in life. My wife wants to travel more. I need to get in shape (graduated high school at 150lbs/60Kg and am now 225lbs/102Kg. So I would like to get down to the 170lbs/77Kg range. I'd like to take up boxing or Muay Thai or BJJ, had started to do that years ago but my rent went up at the time and I couldn't afford the memberships anymore. Also, I do need to read more and would like to start some sort of path or side business to lead me to a more fulfilling career. I want to be a role model for my kids and working 10+ hour days and then playing 1-2 hours of games, going to sleep, and waking up to do it again isn't good for my family. My daughter already thinks all I do is work, whenever we go out as a family she says "no Dada, go work" and doesn't understand that I don't just go to the basement all day (I work from home). I think if I can get gaming and other distractions out of my head (Youtube, podcasts, etc., not gaming really but other topics too) and maybe with some meditation I can overcome my ADD and concentrate more on work and maybe get more done in less time and have more time for my family. Anyways, I am going to beat this Zelda as ode to my "gaming years" and then do the detox, which will take me past when kid #2 is born. Then I will revisit whether I want to pick games back up or not. I really wanted to play Horizon too, I upgraded from a PS4 to a Pro for that game and haven't made use of it, haha. Oh well, I think my wife would appreciate my time more and not having a Switch, 3DS or Vita glowing at night when she is trying to sleep. She is a saint for her patience. Plus if I sell the $8k-$10k in my gaming collection, that could go towards other things, home improvements, getting a second 4-door car to more easily transport the kids, her student loans, etc.

*I first wrote a book's worth, but decided to move that to daily journal and condense it here. Hey all, I think I am at a point where I am ready to say goodbye to games. Maybe not 100% forever, but to the level that it isn't even considered a hobby, maybe just "ya, I'll play Mario Kart if it is rainy out and need to relax" or my PS4 is a glorified Blu Ray player that gets used for games every couple months. But if I can't handle that, then it is gone for good. I started playing at the age of 4 (older siblings) back in 1989, well maybe 3 in 1988 when my family got our NES that Christmas. Playing games likes Mario Bros, Contra, Double Dragon 2, Ninja Gaiden, Dragon Warrior, etc. were great. However, what stole my heart was Zelda. From there I played Commodore64 games, and PC games (Wolfenstein, Doom, Quest for Glory, etc). Later it was N64 with Goldeneye, Ocarina of Time and Harvest Moon, and Playstation with with FF7 - FF9. In my later high school years it was GTA3, Gran Turismo 3 and Vice City, and in college I spent a lot of time playing full length 15min quarter games in NCAA Football and Madden, Dragon Quest 8, and lots of Halo/Halo2. Post college, it was exploring as Nathan Drake or fighting gods as Kratos. Lately it has been GTA5, Skyrim, etc. and now all I have left is the final Castle/Gannon in Breath of the Wild on the Switch. I think coming full cycle from Zelda nearly 30 years ago to ending on Zelda is a good time to put it down. I have a 2.5yr old and another kid on the way in July/August, so my time to game will drop from an hour or two a day to 0 for awhile anyway, so I figured it is as good a time as any to detox. Plus, I think back on my life and the effects gaming had on me (not doing my best in high school or college, taking time way from working out, not expanding my mind, etc.), and I don't want my kids to be like that. I don't mind if they play games with friends when they get older, but I rather they be the kids who can say in college "ya, I used to play games", " I remember that game, they still make new ones?", instead of those like me who stayed up all night playing Halo with roommates instead of studying and getting a good night's rest. I think I will start selling off my collection (spans from Atari 2600 to current), I'll start with stuff I have acquired since high school and will work my way back. Selling off my childhood N64 and NES will be hard, so I may just box them up with the games I had growing up and sell the games I have acquired since. I probably have $8k-$10k in games/consoles/memorabilia, so having the cash at hand instead of games on a shelf that I will not have the time to get to will be a good motivator. Plus, having those games I haven't played yet loom over me just adds pressure and occupies real estate in my mind. However, the thought of not playing Ocarina of Time for the 100th time is just weird... foreign, but whatever, its just a game and I had good times with it. I need to lose weight (50-60lbs), my brain has been thirsty for expanding my knowledge, and I would like to get games and other content consumption out of my brain's real estate so I can concentrate on my work better and be more efficient so I don't have to work so much unpaid overtime to just keep up. I don't prioritize games over my family now, but there have been a few times where I would be playing a game on the couch after a long week at work, and my daughter will walk up to me and reach for my hand and say "come play with me" and my first reaction is "no, dada is playing a game" and then I immediately catch myself and think "wtf is that?" and I put it down to play with her. So while I haven't let it interfere much, I have come close. I'm not one to play for 10hours every day and log 500 hours in a multiplayer game, but I just don't think video games are a good usage of my free time now and ready to start a new era where "gamer" isn't part of an identity anymore. Sorry for the long length, and thanks for reading. I think I just needed to air my thoughts out to get a better grasp of what I really want.