Introduction

[Dennis]

Hello My name is Dennis.  

 

I have been playing video games my whole life, I am 36 now.  I started realizing I had a problem a few years ago and even quit gaming for awhile.  I guess you can say I realized I had a serious problem was when World of Warcraft was first released.  My first girlfriend and I broke up (a real bad life choice when I think about it), and in that extra time I discovered "World of Warcraft".  I literally played 20 hours a day, slept for about 4 hours a day.  Back in vanilla I raided every night and had one of the most geared Warriors on Tichondrius.  I was a top PVPer as well as a I guess you could call it "hardcore" raider.  Everytime I try and go back it is never the same.  Nostalgia is just a killer.

Every once in awhile i relapse and go back.  This past time was harder than last not because of covid, but because of my separation from my X.  

 

Well here i am again.... back at Day 1 all over again.  Figured I would give this a shot along with praying and just trusting in Jesus.  

[Bird By Bird]

14 hours ago, Dennis said:

Everytime I try and go back it is never the same.  Nostalgia is just a killer.

Really sucks huh. Whenever Nostalgia gets ahold of me, I remind myself of the horrible times I've had gaming, bullshit deaths, lag, loading screens, grinding, running through fields of nothing. Anti-Nostalgia is a great solution.

[mrmmartin]

Head up Dennis, you'll get there mate. I myself wasn't into hardcore raiding as such but when I did play I felt as if my character needed to have everything, max professions, mounts, toys and decent rating in arena. It becomes a time sink every time you go back because you have to catch up to be relevant for anything.

As you mentioned the nostalgia of first playing wow will never be there again, playing wow for the first time is unlike any experience I've ever had in gaming. The way I see it, that really helps me to not play, in 10, 20 years time will you be proud to tell your children or even family and friends that you are the most geared player on wow with almost everything completed? I certainly wouldn't be, and that is what stops me from pouring hours into the game again. I'd rather tell them about where I've travelled, what I've studied, the cool things I've done in my life that I've actually done not virtually. 

Best thing I ever did was delete wow, it's so hard considering the time and money you put into that account but I promise you it's worth it.

Best of luck.

[alvayuso]

Hey Dennis, I have read your story, a lot of us passed through similar situations. For me were shooters, from there to LoL, then Rocket League, I have always been highly competitive, but luckily enough, I always saw WoW as a 'life eater' (even more than regular videogames), so I managed to stay away from it (even if later I was playing LoL as much as I could). 

You know? Regretting about past bad choices is like regretting life lessons you needed to learn by heart. Who knows? Maybe your relationship with that girlfriend would have ended even worse due to something else, so do not think about the past, watch the hopeful future you have in front of you! The opportunity to develop your true self and new healthier habits, with new and closer friends that will bring you true happiness in life, not that plastic-like happiness that videogames, drugs or vices in general provide!

And most important, be present, enjoy the moment. You know time never comes back.

Lastly, I would suggest you a couple of books that helped me a lot during the journey, the first is '12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos' by Jordan B. Peterson, and the other is  'Atomic Habits' by James Clear (I highly recommend you to listen this last one as an audiobook, but if you really enjoy audiobooks, you could listen to both).

Stay strong bro, you are not alone.

[mrmmartin]

@alvayuso Atomic Habits absolutely brilliant book, would definitely recommend as well.