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NEW VIDEO: The EASIEST Way to Stop Gaming

I started my journal before I introduced myself here, sorry!


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I'm a biology student from Spain. I stumbled into the reddit page first, so I will copy the first message I wrote there:

 

Hi StopGaming!

I'm not a native English speaker, so I apology in advance for any grammatical atrocity I may commit in this post, sorry. I was watching a WoW guide on YouTube and suddenly a video called "The Minimalists Podcast" appeared on the recommended videos section. I was painfully bored so I gave it a try... "Let’s see what this minimalism thing is about", I said.

One of their first sentences was "live a meaningful live with less", and in my mind appeared images of those people who don't want to own more than X material items. I wasn't very moved by that statement, but I went on listening anyway (I was playing it on the background while farming apexis crystals ingame, and I didn't felt like going back to youtube and look for another podcast to hear).

After a while my perception of their message had changed a bit. They weren't talking about getting rid of their material possessions just for the fun of it. Their aim was to focus all their energy in what was truly important for them and not waste it mindlessly watching TV, playing videogames, browsing the internet, etc. The get-rid-of-your-things part wasn't the main point.
I realised that during the last eight years I have spent a huge part of my time (almost 6 hours a day, weekends included) improving the life of a bunch of characters who doesn't even exist, in a virtual planet called Azeroth. Maybe if I had invested a little more of that time "leveling" myself or "farming" things for myself everything would be far different.

Self-disgust crept up on me. How had this come to happen? I was a guy who loved to read and learn, I read a lot of books yearly, I loved the feeling of losing myself in a good novel or of being awed by the workings of nature described in biology books. But since I started playing wow the only things I had read were Icy Veins, WoW Head, MMO-Champion and every single Warcraft novel I could put my hands on.

I was failing miserably at my college courses because I was too busy farming cloth, ore, leather, or whatever it was. How was it possible that I hadn't noticed this catastrophe? I needed to take the reins of my life once again. This couldn't go on like this. I stopped playing WoW on the spot. But what would I do then? I tried to read like I did before, I even signed up on the nearby gym. But every time I had some off time I felt a huge need to play, or to watch someone else play on YouTube or Twitch.

Soon I noticed that my attention span had diminished horribly. I found it difficult to read for a respectable amount of time. And I realized that I was spending almost as much time watching people play WoW on youtube than what I was formerly spending playing myself. Again? Really? Had I fallen in the same trap again? I quickly googled "quit videogames". Surely someone had struggled with this issue long before me.

I found the StopGaming reddit page and I started to read it, then came the Game Quitters YouTube channel. It was wonderful, this was precisely what I wanted. I made a reddit account and proceeded to drown you in this mountain of paragraphs (I'm writing this in Microsoft Word and it is already almost one full page, sorry!). I have unfollowed every single gaming channel on YouTube (my feed is so empty now...) and asked the Badge Bot for a flaming new badge. Today I start my detox. Thank you!

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Welcome!  I have been a fan of The Minimalists for over a year now.  Since then, I've donated or sold many items in my home that were of no value to me.  I realized that these extra items just added more clutter to my small space.  I like The Minimalists'  philosophy about living with less and limiting time on the computer.  After doing that purge, I instantly felt liberated from clutter, and felt like I could 'breathe' again.  I feel very stressed around clutter. 

I was glad to read your journal entry as well as this introduction.  You'll find many people on this forum have moved on from gaming while doing the Detox. Others have discovered that moderation works for them with gaming after they completed a certain period of abstinence from computer games.  It's interesting that many of us now see the 'ridiculousness' of gaming excessively.  For example, all that farming for ore, making leather, and crafting in a game was such a time sinker.  That's why I think writing a daily journal will help us see how we are allocating our time to do other things.  I was amazed at how much a person can get done in ONE day, and tasks that are unrelated to gaming but are more meaningful and productive.  We're all in this together and hopefully you'll feel well-supported in this forum.  Cheers!

Edited by Dannigan
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I'm a biology student from Spain. I stumbled into the reddit page first, so I will copy the first message I wrote there:

 

Hi StopGaming!

I'm not a native English speaker, so I apology in advance for any grammatical atrocity I may commit in this post, sorry. I was watching a WoW guide on YouTube and suddenly a video called "The Minimalists Podcast" appeared on the recommended videos section. I was painfully bored so I gave it a try... "Let’s see what this minimalism thing is about", I said.

One of their first sentences was "live a meaningful live with less", and in my mind appeared images of those people who don't want to own more than X material items. I wasn't very moved by that statement, but I went on listening anyway (I was playing it on the background while farming apexis crystals ingame, and I didn't felt like going back to youtube and look for another podcast to hear).

After a while my perception of their message had changed a bit. They weren't talking about getting rid of their material possessions just for the fun of it. Their aim was to focus all their energy in what was truly important for them and not waste it mindlessly watching TV, playing videogames, browsing the internet, etc. The get-rid-of-your-things part wasn't the main point.
I realised that during the last eight years I have spent a huge part of my time (almost 6 hours a day, weekends included) improving the life of a bunch of characters who doesn't even exist, in a virtual planet called Azeroth. Maybe if I had invested a little more of that time "leveling" myself or "farming" things for myself everything would be far different.

Self-disgust crept up on me. How had this come to happen? I was a guy who loved to read and learn, I read a lot of books yearly, I loved the feeling of losing myself in a good novel or of being awed by the workings of nature described in biology books. But since I started playing wow the only things I had read were Icy Veins, WoW Head, MMO-Champion and every single Warcraft novel I could put my hands on.

I was failing miserably at my college courses because I was too busy farming cloth, ore, leather, or whatever it was. How was it possible that I hadn't noticed this catastrophe? I needed to take the reins of my life once again. This couldn't go on like this. I stopped playing WoW on the spot. But what would I do then? I tried to read like I did before, I even signed up on the nearby gym. But every time I had some off time I felt a huge need to play, or to watch someone else play on YouTube or Twitch.

Soon I noticed that my attention span had diminished horribly. I found it difficult to read for a respectable amount of time. And I realized that I was spending almost as much time watching people play WoW on youtube than what I was formerly spending playing myself. Again? Really? Had I fallen in the same trap again? I quickly googled "quit videogames". Surely someone had struggled with this issue long before me.

I found the StopGaming reddit page and I started to read it, then came the Game Quitters YouTube channel. It was wonderful, this was precisely what I wanted. I made a reddit account and proceeded to drown you in this mountain of paragraphs (I'm writing this in Microsoft Word and it is already almost one full page, sorry!). I have unfollowed every single gaming channel on YouTube (my feed is so empty now...) and asked the Badge Bot for a flaming new badge. Today I start my detox. Thank you!

Welcome friend! :) I was pretty much like you, at one point the only thing I watched and read was WoW guide and videos. You nailed it on the head as well, we spend so much time leveling fictional characters, that we actually forget to level ourselves up.

I used to have a notepad on leatherworking, blacksmithing and enchanting recipes...since I went into business for myself and quit gaming I now have a notepad full of goals, life tasks and accomplishments :)

Instead of the having a list of locations for rare mounts and spawns...I know have a list of goals I need to reach before years end.

I may have to check out The Minimalists stuff soon too, it sounds enlightening!

Anyways Welcome and I'll pop over and check out your Journal. :) 

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