I stopped playing fortnite (and all other video games)

[Hotsauce]

It got to where I played it everyday. I’d always, every day without fail, find some time to play a few matches.  Before the family woke up, after everyone was asleep, whenever I was bored on the weekends, on my lunch break I sometimes came home, made me late a few times coming back.  I played it for one year exactly.  I let my Xbox gold expire, deleted it from my iPhone too.

I noticed that my kids, who are still too young to play, would always want to watch me play as well.  I was setting a bad example to them by ignoring them to play a video game.  I remember telling my son no to playing with him outside on a Saturday because I was hungover and wanted to play video games by myself.  My wife probably got pissed at least 100 times over the last year that I was playing the game instead of doing something. My wife would bring it up to my friends sometimes and embarrass me about it (none of my friends play video games). 

Anyway, I haven’t played in at least 5 weeks, and TBH, I miss playing it everyday.  It was a good stress reliever and it was fun!  But seriously that poo is addictive, like cigarettes.  

I hope I can stay strong and continue to stay away.  

 

[Cary Kollins]

Yeah sounds like you made the right call to step away. Next stop might be going all Quinn Pitcock and putting your xbox in the microwave.

[CRA]

5 minutes ago, Hotsauce said:

It got to where I played it everyday. I’d always, every day without fail, find some time to play a few matches.  Before the family woke up, after everyone was asleep, whenever I was bored on the weekends, on my lunch break I sometimes came home, made me late a few times coming back.  I played it for one year exactly.  I let my Xbox gold expire, deleted it from my iPhone too.

I noticed that my kids, who are still too young to play, would always want to watch me play as well.  I was setting a bad example to them by ignoring them to play a video game.  I remember telling my son no to playing with him outside on a Saturday because I was hungover and wanted to play video games by myself.  My wife probably got pissed at least 100 times over the last year that I was playing the game instead of doing something. My wife would bring it up to my friends sometimes and embarrass me about it (none of my friends play video games). 

Anyway, I haven’t played in at least 5 weeks, and TBH, I miss playing it everyday.  It was a good stress reliever and it was fun!  But seriously that poo is addictive, like cigarettes.  

I hope I can stay strong and continue to stay away.  

 

when my son turned 1 I got rid of my playstation.   I didn't mind playing when he was a sack of potatoes but didn't want him to grow up watching me do that.  And I was pretty into gaming.  I am from that generation. 

I got him an XBox One when he turned 7.  He can play on the weekends only and I limit the time.  He likes it but frankly he forgets about it since I limit his use so hard.  I play with him but we play some real kid friendly stuff.  Minecraft or a Lego game. 

I'll be honest.  I still think about buying the new COD or Madden and treating myself when the family goes to bed. Playing was a good a stress reliever after a long day.  But I know if I did, I would get sucked back in.   

Just kinda keep searching and find a new activity or hobby that lets you veg out. 

 

[Zaximus]

Video games are perfectly fine if you set up boundaries or play times, usually if it's not interfering with something else more important but yeah if you can't set those, good to step away.   

[countryboi]

everything in moderation, i dont game nearly as much as I use too but when i do its normally late at night on weekends or in short 30 min to 1 hour long sessions. that said i dont have any kids so

[Lumps]

When I was 14 I got hardcore in PC gaming and programming. I knew codes, learned operating systems. I had a passion for hacking and got into trouble hacking into servers and even had authorities show up at my house for getting into a high security local power company and fuging up their system and controls, turning off people’s power. 

I did it for fun, was amusing and thrilling to me to be a hacker. After that final day my dad shut me down and scolded me and completely limited everything network related activity and it killed my drive to even learn or try.

While I understand whye he did that now, if I could have been taught, molded or guided in what I did I feel like it could have landed me in an extremely lucrative job.

Electronics and computers are the future, it should be accepted. While there’s something to say for building social skills, ‘Going outside’ and playing isn’t as sound advice as it was in the 70s/80s.

that said I’m not married and don’t have kids, I quit hardcore gaming through college for 5 years and am just coming back to it and it’s fuging awesome.

[motocross_cat]

Everyone is different.  Some pass time gaming, tv shows, working on a project.  As long as it does not mess with other responsibilities who cares?

[lightsout]

@motocross_cat nailed it. It's entirely about what you have going on. Currently, I am about to get married and we have no kids. If I'm not working, I am home alone a lot of the day. I get the household stuff done, run errands, and once everything that needs doing is done, I play some (or I game first and make sure I get everything else done before the wife-to-be gets home. She doesn't require me to get everything done, but I set a bad example if i sit around gaming all day while she's at work and I expect her to pick up the slack on the nights that I work). 

I game a lot. At least 2 hours per day, as many as 8-10 hours depending on what else is going on (nights that I'm off, I keep my same sleep schedule so that means 6-8 hours of being awake by myself in a small town with nothing to do). If I'm off work and she walks in the door, I finish up whatever I'm doing in-game and turn it off immediately. If somebody invites me out to do something, I don't even turn it on beforehand because I dont want to risk making some excuse to cancel just to play. 

Once I have kids, my gaming may change or it may not. I know when I was working day hours, I wasn't gaming as much as I had more time to hang with family and friends. Just can't let gaming dictate life. It's something you enjoy for stress relief (as it is for me) so don't deny yourself, just control yourself. It's a "only when there is literally nothing else to do" kind of thing at that point.

[Shocker]

My son plays this literally all the time...I hate fortnite with a passion 

[Jangler]

 

 

[Dex]

On 4/5/2019 at 4:34 PM, Zaximus said:

Video games are perfectly fine if you set up boundaries or play times, usually if it's not interfering with something else more important but yeah if you can't set those, good to step away.   

Well said.

 

Gaming (and my online friends some of which I've known for over a decade) have been a significant part of my life since I was a kid. I'm still able maintain a healthy life balance. I guess it's just not for everyone.

[Greatman77]

Before I had kids (21+ years ago), I loved to play Doom, and would sometimes play for hours at a time. After having two kids, lost both the time and interest in gaming. I don't think online gaming is inherently good or bad, but it is a huge time-suck and it saddens me to see how much time my kids spend online instead of doing things in real life.

[TbTeRRoR]

I too quit Fortnite......and now I play Apex Legends entirely not ENOUGH!!!!!! muahahaha 

[Zaximus]

3 hours ago, Greatman77 said:

Before I had kids (21+ years ago), I loved to play Doom, and would sometimes play for hours at a time. After having two kids, lost both the time and interest in gaming. I don't think online gaming is inherently good or bad, but it is a huge time-suck and it saddens me to see how much time my kids spend online instead of doing things in real life.

I think it depends.     I have friends I met online like 14 years ago that are some of my closest friends and when I game it's usually with them.    I see that as value added to my life since it's still social.     If you get on and really don't socialize with anyone then I can see it being becoming a bad thing with too much time invested.       I think online gaming is a big outlet for people/kids that have a hard time in real life getting to meet people or dealing with social norms/gatherings.