Guest Posted June 16, 2015 Posted June 16, 2015 Hi there,I made my first experience in online gaming with Diablo 2, BroodWar and later WarCraft 3. Before I got Internet I played games on consoles liked SNES or the good old Sega Mega Drive These games were fun, but I never felt actually addicted. In school I was really smart, had good grades, some friends - no problem at all. I treated gaming as a pure hobby and in summer I played football rather than video games.I loved the WarCraft theme and it was a no brainer to go for World of Warcraft when it came out. In 3 years I got a playtime of around 400 days - that's over 8 hours a day for 3 whole years! I once even spent Christmas and New Year in this game ... I played at a really high and competitive level and I saw (and battled) all the available content and bosses (even with some top 100 world kills). I was proud of my guild and myself, so I spent every available minute online.My personal downfall started - I didn't care much about school anymore, didn't showed up and nearly dropped out of school. With some really badass luck I was able to finish school with a halfway good report. Some months later I could finish a traineeship and was eligible for studies. Note: At this time I still played WoW but at a much lower skill level, cause my first guild retired. At this time there was a website called wowdetox.com where people wrote their reasons why they quit. I've read them for many weeks and months and agreed on them. I wanted to quit but I could not.I realized more and more that raiding every night till midnight is much more like a job than a hobby. The people in this guild weren't as cool or fun as the ones from my first guild either. So I quit cold turkey, wrote my guild leader a PM and deleted my toon. Tired at 10 pm? No problem, go to bed Another note: I met my wife in my first guild and she was really jealous that I could go to sleep while she "has" to play until the raidleader called it a night She quit gaming WoW not long after me.That was about 2010 and in my second semester at university (5 years ago? what the fuck ...). Once I quit spending all or at least a lot of my time in online games my grades were really skyrocketing! I was able to finish my studies with a good B and got a job even before I was handed over my bachelor's degree. Around this time I played some hardcore Diablo 3 and made my first post at Cams blogpost, that was in 2012. In favor of my bachelor's degree I quit this game, too.Today? Well, in the past years I played some games when I wanted (StarCraft 2, Dota, some Singleplay like Orcs must die or Serious Sam but not excessively). But today when I remember myself of the time wasted and the really bad feelings I had every day I woke up and just played ... I will never experience this again - it nearly destroyed me. As a said before, in my first school years I was smart, had good grades, was interested in many things, read a lot. It feels like all these experiences vanished while I played so much. Today I feel really stupid in comparison. That's why I will never allow games to control my life again - and I recommend "The slight edge", it really helped me to find my focus again.Honestly, I had a little relapse last weekend where I played some Blizzard Dota, but I quit and deleted the game. You really need to find another hobby to replace gaming. If not, you will be bored and play again (happens to me). My hobbies: My wife (<3), meeting friends, gardening (summertime!), reading (I love fantasy novels), work out, Lego (you are never too old!) and ... my job. I really love my job and I am willing to spent my freetime if I have to. Also working on a IT certification to improve my skills and value for my company. I keep track of my days since last played with smartphone app and now it's time for the 90s RegardsMarcus
Cam Adair Posted June 17, 2015 Posted June 17, 2015 Hey Marcus! Thanks for sharing and joining us here! Always love your updates. If you relapsed this weekend make sure you keep this in mind.
PureDiscipline Posted June 24, 2015 Posted June 24, 2015 Hi Marcus welcome, hopefully your accomplishments can provide insight to everybody else
prime_marco Posted June 26, 2015 Posted June 26, 2015 Hey welcome to the community bro! I know it's really hard to quit games, but this is a really positive step. What helped me permanently quit all gaming was deleting & trading in all of the games that I could, & throwing out the rest (I actually did this, haha). If you still have games in the house, I suggest you do this you'll feel much better
Cam Adair Posted June 26, 2015 Posted June 26, 2015 What helped me permanently quit all gaming was deleting & trading in all of the games that I could, & throwing out the rest (I actually did this, haha). If you still have games in the house, I suggest you do this you'll feel much better?100%. It's like eating healthy. If you have a bunch of junk food in the house you'll want to eat it. If you don't and only have healthy food, you'll eat that instead.
Guest Posted August 17, 2015 Posted August 17, 2015 Hey guys,small update: 65 days without touching a game since counting. Feels good Had a little motivation problem in the last days to get things done, but I am back on track.
Cam Adair Posted August 17, 2015 Posted August 17, 2015 Hey Marcus! Great to hear your update! Congrats on 65 days.
wookieshark88 Posted August 19, 2015 Posted August 19, 2015 I'm ten days behind you, and it feels awesome! I love seeing all the new introductions lately! Also, The Slight Edge is excellent reading!
Guest Posted September 20, 2015 Posted September 20, 2015 If you are a geek like me - maybe check out these youtube videos:https://www.youtube.com/user/elithecomputerguy This guy is amazing and full of knowledge - something you do not achieve with online-gaming He also suggests to learn new stuff (e.g. reading) at least one hour a day.
Guest Posted November 20, 2015 Posted November 20, 2015 (edited) Earned my ITIL (2011) Foundation certificate today - yay(That is not the one I talked about in the original post, but it's great anyway^^) Edited November 20, 2015 by Guest
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