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NEW VIDEO: The EASIEST Way to Stop Gaming

So you've quit games... what's next?


Simms

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Wrote something yesterday that struck a chord with my own thinking:

I have a level of cognitive dissonance writing on topics unrelated to gaming on the gaming addiction forum... but it's only the path away from gaming and the consistent effort to stay on that path that creates the energy and consideration for those topics to grow and be nourished. - I imagine that's part of the Catch-22 that is building this type of community.

It's difficult when the common thread of the people in the gamequitters community is their shared desire to quit videogames. - When I see people "quit" playing on the forums, their interests wildly diverge, and suddenly we lack that common thread for discussion. The thing that originally brought us together, is ironically gone. But that's what we wanted all along. - Some deal with it with the exploration of their internal monologue, philosophy, meditation, and trying new hobbies. - My approach has been tracking a daily routine, exploration of fitness and progress in my writing hobby.

Is there a way to keep people united and engaged with each other once they achieve their goal?

- In googling around for this it looks like in substance addiction this is where the role of "sponsors" comes in. - People who've successfully completed the program, and are now giving back through their commitment to clean living and reinforcement of positive behavior.

So how do you strike a common thread to keep people engaged once they quit games, so they stay quit?

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While gaming is the common thread, there are other common areas that people look to as well. Health of the mind and the body seems to be big. A lot of people work on mindfulness, meditation, philosophy as they move away from the constant barrage of dopamine from gaming (from my limited time exploring the forums), and a lot look to improving their physical health by focusing on healthy eating and exercise. So even after 90 days of the detox, there is still a lot to be explored.

So having areas dedicated to lifestyle is a way to keep people around to help others even after they have gotten to where they want to be in gaming. Obviously, this needs to have a focus on the quitting gaming aspect, but there is room for general lifestyle and interest threads. Because, in the end, isn't that what a large part of this is, changing/improving your lifestyle?

So I would say encouraging people to use the 'life outside gaming' section of the forums more would encourage people to stick around and possibly act as mentors/sponsors.  To offer encouragement and tips at least to those still going through their detox. Allow for more categories, maybe have a home page layout that makes them enticing for people to discuss. A lot of people talk about their other hobbies in their daily journals, but maybe encourage some to create dedicated threads to that hobby for further discussion and relay of information and experience.

I'm a big James Bond fan, and have found that there are a number of Jame Bond forums that people can go discuss the movies, books, etc. But there is also a large lifestyle component on those forums, where people talk about their "James Bond" lifestyle. Traveling, martial arts, learning second languages, firearms, fashion, exercise, finances, improving awareness and how to lower stress, etc. These people could go to dedicated forums to talk about each subject, but they do so on a forum where they just share their love of 007.

Plus, on dedicated forums, people can be stuffy. If you start a new thread asking a basic question, it isn't unusual to get snide replies like "use the search function, this has been discussed a thousand times", or if you do use the search button and have follow up questions in a previous thread then you get "don't revive dead threads", like seeing an old thread go to the top is such an inconvenience to their lives. Documenting your journey into a new hobby may be nice to do in a place like this because it does tie in with your moving away from gaming, and you may inspire someone else to take up that hobby. Plus, others with experience in that hobby would be helpful in condensing information. 

So ya, while someone may want to explore rock climbing, someone else who enjoys running may have useful tips or exercises for increasing endurance and stamina.

I'd also assume there are more common interests among gamers than you would expect, especially those who get to the point where they need to quit (or drastically scale back). Whether it is tech, or Anime, or coding, or martial arts, etc. Lots of people fall into various gaming subcultures that may translate to post-gaming interests and hobbies.

 

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