Quitting Games for good, or just the "toxic ones"?

I truly feel that my life has been enriched in so many ways from games like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 7, Lunar Silver Star Story, Shadow of the Colossus, Metal Gear Solid,

These games have stories, characters, growth. They do a good job usually of reflecting real life back onto us. We can learn something valuable from these types of games if we try. I know for a fact that I wouldn’t be the person I am today if I never played these beautiful works of art. Heck, it’s almost certainly why I became a musician in the first place.

However, games like League of Legends and Overwatch are not the same. Even though there is lore, the game itself is a repeating cycle; there is no end. It’s simply something to do over and over again because we become addicted to it. They are designed that way after all. To spike our dopamine every waking moment.

Be careful, and stay true to yourself. Meditate and practice breathwork, and see if you can gain insight

I think qui all kind of game for a moment is good. You just stop and focus on what you want to do of your life. And when you think it's enough, you have a balanced life that you want, you can play sometime with moderation a good game.

The goal is to have a balanced life, and doesn't let videogames affect it in a bad way.

I think quitting toxic games it the way forward.

If you're playing but leave the majority of games feeling worse than you started or that you're wasted your time, it's a clear sign to drop that game.

Its so typical of competitive style games, which are fun in the beginning as you learn new mechanics, improve and enjoy beating people. But as you get deeper in the initial novel enjoyment is gone, and you expect to be good and end up in a mindstate where playing isn't fun, only being good and winning is fun.

I've gotten rid of cs:go, overwatch, and finally apex legends and I'm not going to play games where winning is the main enjoyment. Competition is fun, but the playing has to be the main part of the fun.

A bit of a ramble, but the main point should be don't play something that leaves you feeling like you have wasted your time. (and be honest when something leaves you feeling this way!!)

I've had to quit completely because even if I limit myself to the games I don't "love", I'll end up loving the games that I've left myself with. For example I'm really into open world RPG games so a couple years ago when I first decided to quit, I got rid of all of those. Then I started getting really into Metroidvania-style games. Escapism is escapism... you'll always find a way to indulge if you leave yourself avenues to do so.

It's up to you to decide how much of that is acceptable, though. Maybe you can moderate your play time with games that aren't like League or Dota. Nobody here can tell you if that's true, that's something only you can find out through trial and error. I've found that I can play games on my phone or on a handheld console like a Switch without getting engrossed in it. Something about it just makes me not want to play anymore after about 30 minutes (I'm used to playing games on a PC so maybe not having a mouse and keyboard tells my brain that it's not the same thing?). I usually choose to not play games on these because I just don't like games anymore.

The good thing about gaming addiction (the only good thing, really) is that it's not going to kill you any time soon, so you can experiment a bit and not lose much. Just make sure you're being honest with yourself and if something does become a problem, you quit that too. I'd recommend keeping a journal of your findings that you update daily.

I have been in a similar boat as you. I have always played video games as long as I can remember but it never has been a huge problem time wise in the earlier days of playing Gameboy, 360, Ps3. The problems started when I began to WoW, Starcraft and over the last few years LoL.

I quit LoL about 3 months ago and it has been a great decision. The game is truly great but I just can´t play only 1 or 2 games a day. I would get up early in the morning to go to university until I start thinking that I could play 1 game before heading of to uni...well you know how that usually turns out.

Since I quit LoL I just play a few single player games on my Xbox (and sometimes Halo Multiplayer with friends) as an alternative for watching a movie after I come back home in the evening. Gaming has not been a problem since then. With singleplayer games I can sit down, play 1 or 2 hours of Batman, Tomb Raider or whatever and just go to sleep when it´s time. Currently trying to shift my competitive nature (have always been in the highest brackets of the eSport titles I played) to gettig good at MMA, working great so far. At least in my case I think competitive multiplayer titles are the problem, I can moderate a good singleplayer game like reading a book or watching a movie.