I was never a game. I hated games. But Fortnite had me hooked and stole a chunk of my life.

[JayOne]

I was never a gamer. I'm in my mid 30's, and was never really interested in gaming at all. I sucked at games all my life. And then came Fortnite. I played Fortnite on my sons PS4 and I became hooked. I played with my brother during the school holidays. He is a teacher and was off school and as we rarely speak I enjoyed spending days playing Fortnite with him. When he went back to school to teach I continued playing.

I'd put my life and business on hold during the holidays and was due to resume when my son went back to school. But I didn't resume my business. I played Fortnite. I'd spend the odd day writing software (that's my job) and then go back to gaming. I saved up and purchased a high end PC and switched to gaming on PC. I could now work and code at the same time. But I didn't do much code.

My business went under and I didn't really care. I lost clients. I enjoyed Fortnite too much. I then started to hate programming, and hate anything I was doing in life. I was only happy playing Fortnite. On days I didn't play I got angry.

But I quit. I had a day of bad play and deleted the game. It's impossible for me to download it again as I don't have the bandwidth to do it anymore. I also deleted GTA, but to be honest I played it for 5 hours tops. I loved it on PS4 but wasn't keen on PC version. It's more of a chill game when bored, but I didn't want to turn to GTA to fill the Fortnite void. I had plans to mod GTA and code my own mods but I think it's a dangerous path for little reward.

I've spent the day producing content for Youtube teaching others how to write software. I did 3 videos and all well received, and learned a tonne with After Affects. My plan is to get another 200 subs and apply to monetize my videos to make some pocket money.

I'm sharing this because I still can't quite believe how Fortnite took a chunk of my life like that. I'm well aware of game theory and the psychology used in these games as I studied them at University and at points in my career. But even still the game got me. It's literally like a drug.

I am glad my child hates the game. I think he's seen what it does. I taught him what the game does before I was hooked, and he watched me go through the things I taught him.

Urgh!

Oddly though I'm not facing any type of withdrawal. I've hit that point where enough is enough now.

[keechy1231]

I wish you luck on giving up games.  Great job on teaching your kids about the dangers of gaming.  I will be trying to do this also when my little one is old enough to understand. 

Link the YouTube channel  I would gladly subscribe and maybe learn a thing or two about coding ( I have 0 knowledge of coding).