I’ve been trying to quit gaming off and on for years now. I am 26 this year. The first time I really wanted to quit was 2020 when the world changed and I was stuck online with everyone I knew waiting for the PS5. I said I was quitting gaming when the ps5 came out, only to last until a game on switch released in 2021 that made me go back. (I never convinced myself to sell the Nintendo switch) When I quit gaming during that time I couldn’t stop watching streamers. Somehow me quitting gaming turned into watching others play. It’s absolutely insane and the goal today is no gaming news, streamers, playing, nothing video game related. Now, 3 years after getting sucked back into the switch……… and I’m still here but worse, I bought 5 or so games that were new to me, so I just blew $200 or so, digital games. For years I would say tomorrow I’m quitting, but sunk cost has hit me hard. I have to accept the loss and move on.

After battling this for years now having watched a gaming stream this morning, I was at work today and before closing somehow my coworker and I were talking about life and she mentioned her son and how he used to do jiu-jitsu and boxing. And now she says his main hobby is sitting on his games, talking to his friends he has never met. And hearing that crushed me, because I know what he has been sucked into. I found it fascinating how he got into all these, what seem to me very athletic and challenging hobbies. I’ve never considered jiu-jitsu in my life, I did try karate however. Only to now have dropped it all because of how gaming ruins lives. I talked to her a little bit but of course I don’t have the power to tell her kid to knock it off please for your own good. It really broke me and I hear about him and I reflect on my dropped hobbies, ruined by the gaming addiction.

I officially am going to get rid of my Nintendo switch. I already deleted the games off my smartphone and PC months ago. I have been stuck watching streamers and playing Nintendo. I need the computer so I can’t just throw it away. The gaming news, videos, streamers needs to end.

TL;DR I’ve tried quitting gaming permanently since 2020. What I heard tonight was an in person wake up call to hear about a coworker whose son is stuck in the addiction just like me. (Read paragraph 2) I am selling my switch, the gaming news, videos and streamers needs to end. I will continue to work on my language learning hobby and I want to start working out even if it’s 15min of weights at home.

Hey @SerinaGold , I ended up reading this post after seeing your post in reader's journal.
Is it still relevant?
-Watching gaming after quitting gaming is as far as I have determined something that meets everyone here. (of course with some exceptions but no such person comes to my mind off the cuff)
-The sunk cost absolutely resonates with me. I experienced the same thing in my last 5 day gaming binge a bit more than a year ago, albeit with time and not money. Then I reached a point where I needed to decide, whether I was going to give two more weeks for an in-game goal, but I just didn't see myself doing it. The goal I have craved for years to achieve (Lead a gang in an RP server on Samp). I was at a point to achieve it really quickly because I played for about 20 hours or so daily and during new years which had boatloads of bonuses) I also have years of knowledge accumulated on this game so I knew exactly which places I needed to progress on to quickly get ahead... But again, I thought about giving two weeks for it, and I just didn't want to give even one more day... So even though I gave about 100 hours (not exactly but somewhat around that) and having gathered a lot of gaming currency, and even receiving the in-game currency of someone who paid real money for it through his donation code... And having a high rank in the Gang, which again took me years to achieve earlier... I gave back the money, I omitted logging in to request reducing my rank, and stopped giving a flying toss about the ongoing new year's bonuses, and unfulfilled bonuses which were possible to trade for in game experience (normally worth hours of work). But all those bonuses are worth nothing, because what really is worth here is the time I invest in the game, and that is a loss for every minute I invest in the game, rather than in my long term, potential fulfilling (as I see it) goals. I guess just knowing my long term goals served as a supporting pillar... For that I would recommend Stephen Covey's book - The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Namely the first Habit: Begin With the End in Mind.
-Deleting games is an awesome decision, aswell as getting rid of your console. A huge step it is and a true declaration of intentions, but only the action, not the intention to do so as of itself. Trust me I know, I remember deleting my steam account, and my whole list of gaming passwords with an infinite amount of games there. Took me years to manage to do that. And allthough I found those passwords in another place later, I thought I removed all of them back then. The Steam account remains deleted though.

This post is a little bit of a mess, as I didn't review and polish it, but I guess you'll have to forgive me :)

Let me know if any of this is at all relevant, as this post was written 2 years and 2 months ago...