TruthfulPirate

I run into this same issue with my personality, I have the habit of sacrificing my happiness to ensure that others are not upset or let down by me. Just remember to put your needs first, if you are wanting to cut back and aren't that interested in the game, you might take a look at what is in your best interest. Maybe you could find out what her other hobbies are, who knows, maybe you two will have even more in common than just gaming. Sounds like you had a pretty solid day!

Sounds like you have this down to a perfect, precise, execution! Just reading that made me more pumped and motivated hah. Your positive attitude and high energy coming from your personality really seem to show in your writing. Looking forward to seeing the progress KO!

@WorkInProgress That is good advice as well Thanks for the feedback! I have been trying to be a bit more flexible in my schedule and willing to go outside my comfort zone. Today was a pretty easy day to stay away from video games. I haven't really thought about them until I came here mostly. Even my real life friends haven't been curious why I haven't been online so that is a huge plus. I haven't told two of them yet that I am done gaming for good. I honestly don't think either of them will really care too much. My whittling stuff should show up in the mail tomorrow, and today I plan to go grab some comics with the girlfriend. Now that the console is out of the house and it isn't even an option I don't think I will really be having any more desires to play. When I have trouble regulating myself it seems to be in that grey area. Not knowing if I want to quit something or not. Once I make up my mind to give it up, it seems fairly easy to move on from it. Alcohol was the same way. I was to the point where I was having too many drinks every night, one would lead to five or six pretty easy. When I tried to cut back and put rules on it but still allow it in my life I couldn't handle it, I always found an excuse to drink more. Once I decided I wasn't going to drink anymore I didn't really crave it at all. There are times when I am at a bar with my girlfriend, she is a bartender who also doesn't drink, and although I would like to try a new craft beer it is pretty easy to say no. Now that the PS4 is on its way to a new owner and I have decided to quit I don't really have the urge to play. I could be more productive, but overall I have noticed a drastic improvement in my mood. Looking forward to my three day weekend

The website, despite being all about quitting games, seems to have a retro gamer feel or homage to it a bit which I think is pretty cool. What if the symbol was more reminiscent of unlocking an achievement to keep in line with the gaming reference? ie. a star with a scroll banner across the bottom or maybe a trophy? Just spit balling in order to get some brain storming going. I really dig the three arrows, it has a "level up" or "power up" feel to it without being such a blatant reference to gaming.

Hah easier said than done

@quittintime absolutely! We are both very lucky

That is a great idea, I should probably be creating a "To do" list for myself of smaller goals I would like to accomplish when I get home. I have been actually trying to plan a little bit less lately and play it by ear. I have a habit of planning out my day mentally and then getting frustrated when it doesn't go as planned. My cure for that was trying to be a bit more laid back. Having a list prepared of small goals for when I do have down time that I could refer to would help a lot though, and I might not get as frustrated if I don't have the time that day to work on them. Luckily my girlfriend is off work tomorrow and we have plans to go out in the evening, so that is a big plus

Welcome to the community quittintime! I can definitely relate to a lot of your story, especially not really enjoying time with my girlfriend when we hung out. I would always be thinking about gaming and feeling jittery about playing again. You are 100% doing the right thing, especially if you want to start up your own business again. It sounds like you have a good head on your shoulders and a lot of talent. Keep up the good work on the detox!

Welcome to the community You should start sketching out a rough idea of the painting you see in your mind the next time you feel like you might want to game. If your real life friends are interested in being artsy too, you could always invite them over and crank up some music while you all work on some projects. Two birds, one stone!

@KO That really is an epic post! Reminded me of Office Space when they do the video montage to that song Welcome to the community! There are some really awesome people here.

The @ feature is incredibly helpful! I love the option, these forums are very user friendly

Haha @Cam Adair yeah its not a very popular hobby, at least it doesn't appear to be when you look at the sub reddit's for whittling. It is a fairly inexpensive hobby to get started on, pretty much just need a basic pocket knife and some wood. I sometimes have downtime at work/home with nothing to do and it is easy to stay mobile with it. My goal is to get decent enough with it to make little art figurines. It would be a bonus if it turns into a small side hustle! @AlexTheGrape Thanks for the words of encouragement! Yeah the PS4 sold fast on Ebay and it is already out of the house so that helps a lot, completely takes the option away. Maybe once I get decent at whittling I will post some of the projects on here. Seems like it may take a while to master hah. I will say, today was a little hard to break some old habits. Had a long day at work and was excited to go home and realized I didn't have much to do. My mind started to wander towards gaming for a brief moment. Luckily, I don't really have any options for gaming. I probably watched too much TV today to fill the void but I have decided to set aside an hour or more tonight to reading and writing. I have a three day weekend ahead after work tomorrow, so I may need to read or paint to fill the time. I am allowing TV but I am trying not to trade in one bad habit for another. I plan to stay a bit more active once I get a few more supplies for my hobby.

@Leyla hah the name, TruthfulPirate, definitely warrants cheesy jokes be made Thanks for the words of encouragement!

After some careful deliberation today I decided on my next hobby. I am taking up whittling! I wanted a hobby where I could work with my hands, required low start up, and could be done in an apartment. I treated myself to a new Boker pocket knife and sold my PS4 today. I think whittling will allow me to relax and be creative when I have down time and I can do it almost anywhere. All in all today was a pretty solid Independence Day, especially towards my independence from gaming. Back to work

Let's just jump right in. I didn't play any games or watch any streams on my first day of the 90 day challenge so that is really promising. However, in the process of figuring out how I want to get rid of my PS4, I contacted Vintage Stock to price an in store trade-in for my console. I figured I would just use the money to get some Magic the Gathering cards and maybe reignite my old hobby. Before I knew it I was looking to see if they had any "retro" consoles like SNES or NES in store. Old habits die hard. I ended up listing the console on Ebay, and I will just pocket the cash for future hobbies. I would like to give up gaming forever, that being said my main addiction centered around MMO's specifically (as well as other online genres). When it comes to video games I get extremely bored of single player games in less than an hour. This is why I originally made the switch and sold my PC and picked up a PS4 a while back. I figured I would play less on a system that was known for its strong, single player titles. I should have known I would immediately gravitate to an MMO and waste countless hours, days, weeks, and months. Now that I have quit gaming I want to make it through this 90 day detox and re-evaluate my feelings on "retro" consoles at the end of it. My hope is that I will lose any interest in gaming and lack the time for it due my interest in other hobbies. It is astonishing how many remnants of my hobbies I have lying around the apartment that I never use. Here is the list of my old hobbies I gave up for gaming: Rock ClimbingBicyclingHarmonicaUkulelePaintingDrawingMagic: The GatheringLegosCodingReading Fiction (I have 3 books I just purchased that are sitting on a shelf)Writing FictionThat is a huge list! That doesn't even include the things I started and then sold. It is shocking how much of my free time I gave up to play video games. Luckily I never neglected my awesome dog Daria, but she will also benefit from me quitting gaming. Time to shower that pooch with love while I figure out what hobby to start back up first. -Ryan the Truthful Pirate

@WorkInProgress That is an impressive list of commitments! You got this

@WorkInProgress Wow you basically read my mind hah. It is actually scary how on point you were with your suggestions. I actually use to do the Nerd Fitness body weight workout and I kept it up for a while, I never did stick with it. I need to start back up. I like body weight workouts a lot, they don't require a lot of equipment or motivation to go to the gym (cuts out excuses too if you can do it at home). I tried to get into Python and more recently ReactJS but the coding might not be for me. I might have to give it another go, I gave up on it pretty early. That actually sums up a lot of my past hobbies, it may be time to re-visit all of them over the next couple of weeks! I loved the PvP aspect of MMO's specifically in video games but I actually tend to shy away from competition in real life because I take competition too seriously sometimes, which is another way of saying I hate losing heh. I like improving myself as well so that might be where I will probably focus at first. Writing definitely helps to layout my ideas and do some soul searching. Thanks for all the great advice Mario! @Abimael Nice, sounds like you live a busy life. I can definitely second the climbing suggestion, I have some rock climbing gear sitting in my closet that I gave up on due to gaming, I need to check the gym near me again. That is definitely a challenging and engaging sport, if you like running because it clears your mind, you might like climbing for the exact opposite reason. It definitely requires a lot of focus and problem solving. @dullage Thanks for the kind words! I am about to go post my first journal entry now. Giving up the alcohol was actually a really easy decision, it was pretty apparent how awful it made me feel and my bank account definitely felt the pain too. The sneaky addiction was video games, they seemed so harmless but I actually filled the void of not drinking with gaming even more. My gaming habits got much worse, very quickly. It wasn't until my girlfriend mentioned how unhappy I seemed, that I finally noticed I didn't even enjoy gaming any more, but was spending more time and money doing it. @Cam Adair Thank you for bringing us all together and being so active with us as well. I really appreciate that you seem to go out of your way on reddit, twitter, and your website to interact with your community.

I will take you up on the challenge, I decided to quit yesterday evening and just finished watching the 90 Day Detox video you have on Youtube. The video made a lot of sense and could explain why other hobbies do not sound interesting. What is your commitment? No games? No streams? Anything else? I am committing to giving up gaming and watching gaming streams. When I had free time I would play MMO's and when I couldn't game I would sit and read about gaming and watch streams. Giving up both, I believe, will be essential to the overall idea of the program. How long do you want this challenge to last? By default it is one month, but 90 days is recommended for your detox. I would love for the challenge to last forever, but lets start with 90 days. I have no interest in going back to gaming at this point in time but I am sure later on down the road the thought will cross my mind at some point. I would like to see how I feel at the end of the 90's re-introducing retro gaming consoles into my life. My main addition stems from online games like MMO's and MOBA's. What are your goals? My main goal is to find something to fill the excess void with. Finding something to do when I would normally game shouldn't be difficult for the first few weeks. I enjoy reading and writing so filling the initial time should be easy to do. I am concerned about long term hobbies though. After reading through several lists of hobbies nothing really seems to jump out at me so finding a skill to focus on will be challenging. I will probably need to do a lot of soul searching and get down to my root interests outside of gaming. Why are you doing this? I noticed that I was spending too much time and money on video games. I was also developing an odd dislike for other people around me. I honestly believe a major change in my attitude lately has been caused by gaming. I have been extremely dissatisfied with life in general and I would feel even worse after gaming for hours on end when I realized that I hadn't actually accomplished anything. I want to do something meaningful with my life, whether it is for me or those around me I want to do something I am proud of. The challenge is finding out what my new focus will be. I set up my Stop Gaming badge today and I am pledging to give up gaming for 90 days. 7/3/2016 Ryan the Truthful Pirate

@Abimael its really easy to get sucked back in, I have tried to scale gaming back in the past and do it in moderation, but I personally can't manage it. Writing is a good way to fill the time it seems. I think it is mainly just filling the time with something, and writing helps to organize my thoughts. For whatever reason putting my ideas down in a concrete way helps me to move past them. I still need to find a hobby to fill the rest of my time but for now writing gives me something to focus on, it might work for you too! What sort of hobbies and interests do you have? I ask because I am interested and I personally need some ideas @usernameforworldpeace! Hah yeah that is my 10 year old chocolate lab Daria, licking my eye. Might be why I am a pirate now come to think of it, had to give up the eye. (Kidding of course :P)

Hey GQ's, Sounds so fancy and formal! My name is Ryan and I live in Kansas City, Missouri. I work some pretty odd hours at a job that allows a lot of time to reflect on my thoughts while I work. Due to the odd work schedule, gaming was a natural source of entertainment. It was cheap, rewarding, and social for me much like it was for a lot of you. Recently I found that I had been distancing myself even more from people in real life as well as my online community. It has been a big month for me. I gave up drinking on my 30th birthday. Today, inspired by this website, I have also decided to give up gaming. I started to make the transition away from gaming last year when I sold my PC. I noticed I was spending too much time on various MMO's and it had to go. I replaced it with a PS4, thinking I might not play it as much, and then promptly started a gaming community and got hooked again. I don't really do anything in moderation, my friends constantly tell me I am "all or nothing" and that I dive in at 200%. Part of me wants to believe that is a compliment or an endearing quality, but I am sure it means I lack balance in my life. I am still figuring out a lot in this new territory, but writing seems like a good place to start. For whatever reason that seems like the easiest way for us to sort through our thoughts, troubleshoot, and reflect. I am hoping I can find another hobby that I can be as passionate about as I was gaming, but in a healthy manner. After reading through some hobby ideas today nothing jumped out, but finding something to fill the time with is definitely my next goal. While I am new to quitting gaming, and alcohol, I am actually very happy about it. Part of it is excitement of the unknown, but the majority of it is being happy that I am taking steps towards being a new and improved person. If any of you need someone to talk to I love to listen! On the flip side, thank you all for the support and allowing me to get this all down in written form. I hope you all are having a great 4th of July weekend if you live in the US. If you live in the UK, happy recent independence as well! Thank you! Ryan the Truthful Pirate PS. If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask!