Lucas' journal

[LucasFlama]

Hi guys, I'm Lucas, from Argentina and its been exactly 52 days since the last time i played. I'm studying industrial engineering, had a girlfriend until april (now we are trying to repair the relationship and be together again), and my life was a mess until 14 days ago, since i started to reorganize my life again to the basics when i had a schedule and most of my life was going well. by those times i used to play without feeling guilty or anxious because the rest of my days were organized by schedule, and i had time to play the guitar, sing, go to the gym and play in my free time. The mess started when i broke the schedule and i started to improvise work and study times. Thats when i started to feel guilty when playing or even when going to train or do whatever else besides studying. Now i could organize my schedule again and i think im going back to gaming but i think i'll only play offline games, not community addictive online games. In these times i didnt play i got bored sometimes but not much to be honest. But i feel like there will be no problem if i add normal and not so much gaming into my life. What do you think? cheers!

[Hitaru]

Hola Lucas! Welcome to the forum!

Congrats on those 52 days! As you've personally experienced, it's not that much about the day count (though is important, it's not called detox as a joke) than the process of getting your life back in order. You put the pieces of the puzzle together and bam, "suddenly" things are working again. Am I right? 

Then, about offline games. Online provides the social connection, which is a crucial factor into developing a dependency, because not only you have an attachment to the game, also to the people you play with, if only the brief interaction of matching against a stranger. The challenge of a real competitor is rewarding, and the reward process is the key of the whole thing. If someone doesn't have many friends outside the gaming world (which are not exactly easy to find, 97% of the youth plays videogames) or doesn't like to go out that much, those people are in greater risk of becoming addicted.

But if you're not looking for the social connection but the entertainment (avoid boredom), what makes you think offline games would be less addictive? I can count the times I played against other people with my hands, yet I was addicted for 16 years, playing up to 16 hours a day.

Of course I'm not saying you'll end like me. When considering to play games in moderation (a 100% respectable option) you want to think first of all "What am I looking to achieve by playing?" "What needs do I have that games can satisfy?" "Can I take care of those needs by doing something else, equally or more satisfying?" Games are perfect to kill time and being instantly entertained; nothing wrong with that, so if you think you're already using your time well then sure, why not, try gaming. But if you feel that nagging in the stomach that makes you think "Maybe I should be doing something else" or you believe there's an undeniably high risk of things getting out of hand again, then don't. If it's about boredom, there's a million things you can do instead.