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NEW VIDEO: The EASIEST Way to Stop Gaming

Darn you, Blizzard!


Luny

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I am new to GameQuitters and I imagine I am quite the unicorn here. First of all, I am literally as old af gal, but I am teen at heart! As a young adult in the early 1980’s, I enjoyed hitting the game rooms in the mall. I never played console games. But as a young English teacher during a time when the only technology we had was an electric typewriter, I had no time to even think straight for the first 8 years of my career. But then computers where phased into education and in 1985, I bought my first PC—a Radio Shack Tandy 1000. *giggles at that piece of history* Then Microsoft software was soon the main focus, so my computer at home had to work synergistically with my work computers.

Around this time, a student in my middle school class said, “Mrs. _____, have you ever played Diablo? You would really love this game since it is kinda Medieval and you love that time period. I’ll burn you a disk and you can try it.” (First of all, I was so clueless at this time, I was not aware that this was illegal. Sorry. Blizzard.)  Soon D2 game out and I purchased it and soon made a bunch of gaming friends my own age. Then life brought me a deluge of “lemonade” into my life. Within a span of five years, both of my parents passed away and my husband went off the deep end into full-blown addiction after 14 years sobriety (we never had children)…while I was working full-time teaching and working on a PhD. As crazy as life became, I managed to squeeze in a limited amount gaming time. It was my crutch and online friends were a support along with real life friends. Around this time, my gaming friends convinced me to jump over to World of Warcraft. They had already been playing it for 6 months and I had catching up to do in vanilla wow.

Living in a small rural village and working at k-12 school kept me very busy. Even though I played wow, I excelled at work and won several state educational awards while completing my PhD in medical field. I am an over-achiever. But it is difficult to meet new people for friendship or dating when 85% of the people in town you have taught over the years. The choices are limited in this small “pond.” After the stress of my divorce and the toll of its emotional abuse, I developed terrible anxiety. I still played wow as an emotional crutch and still do to this day.

In 2019, I made the decision to retire after teaching English for 37 years. This decision was bittersweet, because my best friend “M,” a math teacher who I worked with for 33 years, passed away suddenly from an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2017. She and I had planned on retiring together when the Class of 2019 graduated. We taught middle school when that class came to us in 6th grade and taught them in grades 6-8. The school played “musical teachers” and moved us back up to high school. Then taught them until senior year. Sadly my friend could not keep her promise, so I stayed until 2019 for both of us. (The kids really appreciated that.)

I knew after my June retirement, I knew retirement was going to hit me like a brick wall. So I signed up to take some classes online at Cornell that summer and jumped into that and ended the summer with another certificate. Now that I was retired, I promised myself to give myself one year of retirement, without making any plans to work. I needed to let the “dust settle.” Plus honestly, all my teacher friends wanted me to substitute. I really needed time away from my job to ponder that scenario. Plus I did plan a week trip at the coast in Massachusetts (Rockport, Gloucester, and Salem) when school started in September, so I would not cry and miss teaching.

 

I promised my old 11th graders, who were seniors the following school year, that I would help with their college essays in the October. Sadly the English teacher who replaced me would not know the kids well-enough to do that task. I spent a week (free of pay) with the kids in the guidance office helping them get their ducks in a row and essays completed. I loved it! But I knew in my heart, it was time for me to exit stage left…without subbing.  Of course the new word Covid became the new buzzword in December 2019, and my January 2020, the world was rocked with the Covid pandemic.

During the time, I started reading a great deal with a Kindle Unlimited membership.  I explored different genres and authors. I befriended some authors and started doing some ARC (advanced reading copy) and editing for them. Some authors were excellent and some were pretty shitty. I decided, “Heck! I am going to write a novel!” So I started a collage/scrapbook of research, planned out the novel outline, and started the rough draft---3 chapters in!  But I am stuck, and to be honest, wow is not helping. Through the pandemic quarantine and being the introvert that I am, I dove into wow’s last expac because I had the time. I feel as if I lost the ambitious gal that I once was and I feel like a blob that is going to waste. I want to finish my novel and I have some health issues to work on since a bad fall I took May 2021. I need to regain my strength back. With that said, I am terrified of getting Covid because I have a respiratory issue. Yes I got vaccinated and received a booster, but my anxiety is paralyzing.

I want to focus on improving health and my writing. Wow needs to slide into the background or be gone all together. And to be honest, here is precisely where I am stuck. Wish me luck. (Sorry this turned into War and Peace!)  😊

 

 

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Oh! I forgot something really important to add. Two weeks ago, I did a ./time played on my 17 wow toons and almost fainted: 2 years and 45 days plus minutes I had totally played.

That's like someone dying and losing 2 years of their life. This makes me so sad. 🥲

In wow in the beginning when you logged in, that use to show daily. Now it does not show unless you directly type it in with each character.

I also learned that you can request a copy of your data. Blizzard saves all your conversations on wow--just a side note. Talk about Big Brother. 😡

 

 

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Why I need to quit:

  • more time to complete "wants" and "shoulds"
  • work on improving health with regular exercise
  • eat plant-based and try new recipes
  • work on finishing novel #1
  • simplify life
  • plan trip in future to Scotland to visit castles

 

What projects I need to complete:

  • cleaning out closets- donating extra clothes and shoes
  • sort through office clutter
  • finish Scrivner class- 1 & 2
  • finish Plottr class
  • sort through books- donate?
  • clean the house- room by room
  • paint stair case
Edited by Luny
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  • 2 weeks later...
On 12/7/2021 at 1:24 PM, Luny said:

Yes. And deleted game, mods, and all websites... gone.

 

It feels good and I am already being productive. It is a start....

Please keep us updated on your journey, and thank you so much for coming to GQ and sharing your own story- it helps others grow, too! It's never a bad time to quit gaming 🙂

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  • 1 month later...

Good morning friends. I hope 2022 brings you good health and happiness. 😀

I have been having issues trying to get into the gamequitters website for weeks now. Firefox and Edge both kept blocking me with this: 

Quote

 

Secure Connection Failed

An error occurred during a connection to gamequitters.com.

    The page you are trying to view cannot be shown because the authenticity of the received data could not be verified.
    Please contact the website owners to inform them of this problem.

 

Today I found Chrome in the depths of my computer and I was finally able to get in. 

Since my relapse, I have continued to play wow.  It got me through the lonely holiday season in one piece. However, after the new year I knew darn well it was a time waster for me. SO I asked a long time gaming friend of mine to apply parental controls to my account. Yesterday was my day 1. I woke up made coffee and instead of playing wow, I got back into writing my novel. I broke through my writer's block and finished chap 3 and completed chapter 4!  And in the evening, I did play for a while, but I was sleepy and went upstairs to bed. 

I realize it is not 100% quitting but it is a huge step for me that might actually work. As a retired & divorced gal with no children, gaming gives me some socialization during winter since all my friends work. 

I also have begun taking a 10 week course for writers on zoom and have attended 2 classes thus far. It gave me the inspiration for asking my friend to set the parental controls so I can do the writing that I love.

I am a work-in-progress. 😜

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