I stopped playing games for 15 years because I didn't want something that could be so addictive to be competing with my passions.
It was the right decision at the time, but after all those years, I realized I really wanted to play again. Two things always made me love games, being more immersed in a story than even a movie or book, and the challenge of solving problems.
I realize now that I should be applying a lot of that energy solving problems to my real life, but games can be good practice!
Now I also have an appreciation for the symbolism and world building of games, especially since I write stories myself.
I'm experiencing something now that I haven't experienced with games before although I experienced it with TV shows and movies at one point when I was younger.
The games I want to play has grown to a point where I feel exhausted thinking about it. I have a list of over 30, and I've played at least 30 in the past year. It's kind of going too far.
I don't think games are a total waste of time, but playing them more than an hour a day is. But with all these games to check off the list, games I genuinely want to play, I feel addiction seeping back into my experience.
I don't want to give up on my own experiences or sacrifice time meant for my own creation because of these games so I am making some changes.
First of all, I am not looking at any more gaming news or videos related to gaming. The more games I know the more I end up wanting to play, and honestly, while many are not a waste of time, many are. I don't need to play everything in existence. Some games look cool at first but end up being a waste of time.
Second, I'm cutting out any game that wasn't in the top half of my list. So My list of games will go from 30 to 15.
I'm going to spend more time away from gaming in between games. It's when I play every day that addiction creeps in.
I'm going to get the idea of a PS5 out of my head for the foreseeable future. The PS4 has plenty of games I still want to play and PS5 games aren't even at the top of my list. That eliminates 3 or 4 from the bottom. I'll check out PS5 in 2030 when PS6 is coming out
Instead of saving games at the top of my list for later, I'm going to get them all out of the way first. I think without those there dangling in front of me, it will be far easier to pull myself away from this damn machine.
I think I need to set more rules for myself as well. No games until I've worked on my own projects. Only 1 hour a day. Only 4 days a week.
I've kicked this habit once and then rebuilt a healthy relationship with it. I can do it again :-D
Posted Using InLeo Alpha
