Introduction - quitting online games only?

[Racooni]

Hello! I am M., I am currently working through Respawn and this is my attempt at finally quitting most Video Games. I am 26 years old und gaming has been a major part of my life for about 20 years. 
This was all fun and games until I was around 12-13 years old and started playing online games, especially MMOs and competitive shooters. I want to leave most of this behind me now to have more time, strength and attention for real life: Learning a 3rd language, working out for the body i desire, reading, finding more friends (maybe even finding a partner? who knows..) , studying, finding a proper job and whatever else I might set my mind to in the future. 
There are 2 exceptions though I would like to make: 
The first is I still want to play Overwatch: I have been playing this game with a friend of mine (and only with her, not alone) and we are having a blast. I am afraid of losing a part of my connection to her if i stop playing overwatch, too. Overwatch doesn't seem to have the same power over me as other stuff. I exclusively play it with my friend. 
The second is I still want to play games on the Switch. Mostly offline and story games. They don't give me the urge to log in every day in order to compete with random strangers online and to this day they create awesome memories for me. Plus they help cope with bad days of course 😛
Does anyone else have experience with quitting only certain types of games? I am kinda afraid of half-assing my attempt at quitting and just finding excuses... 
I'd love to hear your opinions!

Big thanks to Cam for writing Respawn and creating this platform. I wish everyone who reads this the best of luck and health!
 

 

[Wildermyth]

It all depends on how easily you can cope with this reality that you are aiming to shape. Trying to resist and moderate a behaviour takes potentially lots of energy which might be better spent elsewhere. The tradeoff might be unrealistic if we believe that it's worth our hardest effort to control a situation when the best outcome is a bit of entertainment. There are loads of other fun activities you can do where you don't even have to engage with this conflict, like some of the things you mentioned in your post.

Gaming in moderation is not impossible though but I believe we should at least try for a period of time to be completely without games to find out if they are truly necessary for us to be fulfilled and happy. Sure, you might lose that special context you have with your Overwatch friend, but it might also potentially open up a new path for your friendship. The thing is to focus on what you will gain from quitting games and not what you will lose. By your own words you've stated 2 things that you will lose and 6 things that will potentially be improved if you quit. There's clearly lots that can be gained even if you lose out on those 2 things.

In the end you'll just have to try and see what you can manage, but understand that gaming is fundamentally designed to give you a sense of gratification and progress that amount to little more than a feeling of entertainment. Needless to say it's easy to be swayed by their mechanics and give up lots of your time with little of real value in return. And the things we argue that we will gain will most likely always be found in other more healthy activitvies that don't demand even half the same time investment.

Edited September 13, 2022 by Wildermyth

[Lobares2]

I am reading journals on and off here since years. I really rarely hear that gaming in moderation worked for anybody. usually this only works if gaming was never really your big problem. 

You say overwatch and those offline games have not much power about you. The problem is right now they might not. Because you have all those more entertaining games. But once they vanish your body will try to get that dopamin in youtube netflix etc AND those games you allow yourself to play. 

You can try it of course. But I also dont see any benefits in gaming. You shouldnt cope with anything external, cope while solving the problems actively. 

[baronjake]

It might be possible to do what you're thinking. I'm hoping to do something similar. I'm quitting all games except for visual novels. My justification is that I want to read more as part of my goals for quitting gaming and visual novels are basically stories without much in the way of gameplay other than following the story to it's eventual conclusion. I'm still going to try and go 90 days without games regardless just to give myself a reset, and I encourage you to do the same.

I found this cool tool where you can take a quiz and it will tell you what kind of gamer you are, and that can help you find new hobbies to replace your specific reason to keep playing. Personally I like to build things, characters, empires, and etc, and get engrossed in single player games so I couldn't follow your strategy. As long as you can stay away from your main reason for playing, be it social or competitive, I think you can build a healthy lifestyle in moderation. Who knows though, I'm just starting again, and my situation is different than yours.

Here's that tool though if you want to give it a try: https://quanticfoundry.com/