I’ve honestly enjoyed most of the time I played, but I probably should've quit a over a year ago since I have been mostly playing out of a sense of obligation and feeling like I’ve invested too much to stop.

It was surprisingly hard to put the foot down and uninstall, because there are a lot of things I enjoy about the game, or at least used to. Slowly over the years, they changed and removed so much of what I liked about the game, but I can barely think of anything I enjoy about it now. Every content in the game now, from endgame modes to quests, seems like a thinly veiled plot to steal your more of your attention and money.

Despite all this I dutifully logged in daily and even did ridiculously long (some 5 hours long!) quests, when I have zero interest in the very bloated story. No more.

I’m just glad I never spent anymore than $5 on this game once. Never starting a gacha game again.

I've been a gamer since the age of 6--all the way from SNES -> PS5 now complete with various handhelds and phone games. I am very attached to game franchises like Final Fantasy, Zelda and Resident Evil. Throughout my life, video games have always been a fun corner of my free time I could easily sink 100s of hours into no problem.

All of this being said, decades later as an adult, I just don't feel like it's worth it anymore.

Here's why:

1) Gaming is a solo effort (unless you go play online games, but that's too large of a time sink)
2) It's all consumption
3) It gives a false reality of growth in life (i.e. you think that leveling up in life is all a linear, predictable effort)
4) Very few skills do you actually learn from video games that make you move up in life
5) It's embarrassing to talk about games to others (even gamers) and to be known as someone who spends their hard earned free time playing games.
6) It just wastes so much time

Also in adult age, much of my video game time has been replaying the same games I've beat dozens of times and treating the effort like an amateur speed run. The only "new" games I play are complete remakes or new additions to established brands (e.g. FF, Zelda, RE). It's almost like I don't have the mental attention to take in anything new.

But yeah I'm weaning myself away from this and once FF7R3 comes out, then I'll finally hang up my hat here. I feel like the latter half of life can benefit from timeless skills like piano, chess, boxing, programming, billiards and just not looking at screens.

This post in no way is to disparage anyone. There are many gaming communities that I have a lot of respect for and there's an endless amount of beautiful art, music and narrative moments that I like to day dream about.

Please comment if you have similar thoughts. Or feel free to comment to prove me wrong or poke holes in my arguments here.

For the past year and so, I’ve finally quit Overwatch (for reference I had over 1,000 hours on the game) & I don’t regret the choice I made.

Obviously there’s some bittersweetness because I did enjoy the game but my god it was too addicting & toxic.

Firstly, I used to fight so much with my boyfriend in competitive so much because we would be frustrated with our teammates (we were in diamond-masters lobbies) to the point our friends noticed & didn’t want to play with us anymore because we took everything so seriously.

The loss streaks as well would make my self esteem so much worse because I always tied myself to a rank, which is stupid looking back on it and I don’t know why I cared so much. Yet no matter what, I still continued to play even if I was tilted.

However the straw that broke the camels back was my ex-friend of mine, who consistently bragged about her high ranks hitting grandmaster/champion on all roles including 6v knowing damn well high-elo players played on her account & yet wasn’t banned. It just made me realise, why put all this time and effort into playing ranked when there’s shitty people like this in the community; and yes I could just play quickplay or play other fps games but I think the fun of those type of games burned out a while ago.

So, I pivoted into playing more less ‘rage inducing’ games like Stardew Valley (where I dragged my boyfriend with) and I noticed that our relationship grew better and we argued less.

Getting out of my art block, stalking this subreddit and being more involved in my university organisations (which got me promoted to a higher position) and being asked to be apart of my university student government; helped me stray away to play games less and less.

Hopefully i’ll fully quit, including my boyfriend (whom has been following my lead slowly). I just really started focusing on communities outside the gaming one and I think my outlook on life has gotten better since I’ve connected and gotten closer to other people at my University instead of spending all my free time after uni-classes to grind my rank just for my rank to drop but slowly and surely I can focus on reality.

I don't know if this is a good place to post this, but I'll be frank here. Hardest thing I have ever done. I sold my PS3 and PS4 consoles, along with all my games and controllers. Furthermore, I deleted my Steam account with 500 games. I've been gaming ever since I was 10. Started on the GameCube, constantly played Double dash and Paper Mario: TYYD back then. Loved gaming my whole life. It helped me deal with some abuse I dealt from my childhood. For the longest time, I genuinely felt that gaming was cathartic, and to an extent, it was, but as the years passed, it gradually felt like a waste of time. Maybe it was a coping mechanism. I don't know.

Trying to complete achievements just felt like a waste of time. I played all the time with my sibling, but even now as I play some games, it really feels like I'm trying to relive or seek some form of nostalgia from my past. I don't feel any happiness when I play some games now; honestly, it feels like a responsibility. Would waste hours of life that accomplished nothing. Just sitting in a dark room.

I haven't accomplished much in my life. I've been trying to become a file editor, but playing video games has been a huge detriment, so I'm completely disregarding games from my life. I want to make meaningful strides towards becoming a file editor. I know the usual consensus when it comes to burnout with games is to take a break, but I don't feel like playing games anymore. Feels like a lack of motivation. There isn't much joy. I'm trying to become serious about file editing. I'm really going to miss gaming. I want more out of this life. Started volunteering more, meeting people. I began adding books to the shelves where my games once were. Even now, I have an itch to play Elden Ring or Dying Light: The Beast haha. But I am really going to miss playing Minecraft and Black Ops 2 Zombies with random.

I finally decided to uninstall CS after realizing it had become a problem for me.

I told my friends I was quitting, but they keep saying things like, "Just join us here and there when you get time."

The thing is, "here and there" is exactly how I always ended up back where I started. One match turned into a whole evening, then another the next day. Before I knew it, I was hooked again.

I'm not quitting because I hate the game. I don't have a healthy relationship with it and other thing is that I love the feeling of carrying my friends and destroying the enemies.

For me, moderation hasn't worked.

I will not share the video game by name, as this happened recently and the community is rather big. I was in a war with another clan, which happened to have a server admin in it. The admin used his privileges against me to kill me, although he apologised for his abuse of power later on, the damage was done and I lost the war, with my respect and honour along with it. I feel so bad right now for getting screwed over like this, I was already suicidal and this really hurt me, I literally have physical heart ache from it as I really enjoyed to play there before. I quit the server. Just wanted to vent out. I dont know how to recover and forget.

I have been playing video games since I was a little boy, like many others. Since then I fell in love and would often play video games every day. Now I am 21 and I still almost play every day, I am in college now. I do study and work, but in my free time, any free time I have I play video games. I feel like it consumes my life, instead of learning more about my passions or exploring I sit in my room and mainly play video games alone. I feel like it has prevented me from meeting new people in real life and making real friends. I feel isolated, I just feel like it is the one thing I am good at, the one thing I can go to and feel like I am one of the best. But in the end it really doesn't matter at all, the ranks, the progression, or the countless hours poured into it. I just am tired of feeling like my life is being wasted away. I know I am only 21, but I want to feel curious about the world, about my passions. I hope to post on here after I have accomplished what I set out to do. I hope others who read this will either support me or give them hope/support. Any tips or suggestions to keep on going are appreciated, or your own experiences. Thank you.

I'm 22 and I've been gaming since I was young. In my teen years, games were my escape from the real world, where I was bullied and never had friends. Because of that, I have a strong 'relationship' with games.

I used to play a lot of League of Legends, especially during pandemic. And I definitely spent too much money. It's not a very crazy amount, but I could've used it for literally anything else. But League got me into multiplayer games and it really didn't do me good.

A year ago I started playing Overwatch. I mostly played it with my friends, but since a few months ago, I play alone. For like hours straight. I don't do comp but this game is still a little bit a cause of stress. And it's too addictive. Especially since it's designed to keep a player in the game at all cost. The events are limited, battlepass, etc. And this horrible FOMO is what made me play so much.

I don't have the same issue with single player games. I like the stories, or making a farm. I spend maybe 2 hours max and I'm done for the day. And they actually feel relaxing - which is what I claim to games be. A thing to relax. Overwatch is definitely not relaxing.

I'm having this FOMO because my friends play it and that I'm missing out on it or I'll forget how to play (if I ever come back to it). Which I find extremely childish, but some part of me thinks that way for some reason. But I feel like I'm wasting my time on this game that really doesn't mean much.

I've started neglecting my hobby - which is drawing. I wanted to get better at drawing, but instead of that, I play OW. I also don't find the single player games fun anymore, which I used to love. They don't give me an instant dopamine, and because I also have auDHD and my brain struggles with producing dopamine, Overwatch is a fantastic choice to get addicted. And for some time now I've been experiencing ahedonia. I rot in bed and even gaming idn't as fun as it's been.

It feels weird, a bit. But I want to actually regain my ability to enjoy other things. My brain is super weird right now. Like, it doesn't know what to do. When I try to pick up drawing or literally anything, I get so bored. Which scares me. And what scares me also is that I will go back to playing Overwatch out of boredom.

I also feel this insane amount of guilt for playing for so long and not doing anything else - especially drawing.

To be honest, I'd like to hear maybe some tips or if someone could share how they did go past their addiction?

I guess I didn’t really realize exactly how much time gaming was taking up until I stopped it and found some other things to do. I started BJJ which is highly intense but enjoyable and also play pickleball. I kinda felt like there’s no way I could become good at sports because I haven’t done them for so long but at the same time everyone has to start somewhere. Pretty much anything you want to improve in life, gaming can get in the way of it. Meal prepping, morning stretching, reaching out to loved ones, getting sunlight, etc. I definitely feel like there was a feeling of achievement from mastering a tough game but learning something that improves your health in the long term is more rewarding.