Fell into the Video Game Trap

[Evil_Jester]

Confession: Star Wars Battlefront 2 is awesome. It's addicting, rewarding, the graphics are amazing, and I could play it all day.

I had to uninstall it today. I was still getting good work done, but I would say I was 50% efficient with this game installed on my PC.
If you buy cake from the grocery store you are going to eat it. Don't tempt yourself.

 

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[Eskil]

It's addicting, rewarding, the graphics are amazing, and I could play it all day.

If you think that game is amazing, you need to try Battlefield 1. Even better graphics too IMO.

And by the way, the wrong approach to video games is using it as to cope with avoidance.

Video games be incredibly fun, a great stress reliever, and a good way to recharge your mental batteries - but they should be used only to reward yourself in the evening or on a weekend after you have worked hard to accomplish a lot in your business.

I play a few hours every week, but only after ALL else I need done has been accomplished, and only on evenings / weekends.

 

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[JAJT]

Good for you for realizing you have a problem and solving it.

Although I will say that @Eskil and I quite enjoy the odd game of Battlefield 1.

Nothing wrong with video games - provided you play them and they don't play you.

 

[Choate]

February 2016 - went to the Fastlane summit and was climbed Camelback Mountain with a fellow member (highly recommend it to anyone going this year). Had a conversation about habits, spoke up about my xbox and how i was thinking about selling it. he said thinking? that's not the kind of words you use when you want to take action (roughly said something about that).

He was right. It wasn't until Summer of 2016 that I finally gave in, and I took my xbox out to the back yard and took a literal sledge hammer to it after it was keeping me up all night. I also had a problem with League of Legends. My laptop fell victim to the same sledge hammer, and I replaced it with a Chromebook which is not game compatible.

2 months later bought a new Xbox fell into the trap again. I sold it by the end of the year. Was console free for all of 2017 after that. But I still played card games on my phone which carried over from my PC - such as Hearthstone. Got rid of my entire collection and ditched it. Have been game free for all of 2018.

As someone who started off with a Playstation on my 6th birthday, I am telling you that you have to just ditch the console. Sell it. Or take a sledge hammer to it and make a point to yourself. Every time you play you are reinforcing reward circuits and neural pathways that will take away from your fast lane goals.

 

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[MoreVolume]

Video games mean different things to different people
Some really get a thrill from the competition, strategy, etc.
Others use it for an escape.

When things started really rolling with my business, I really lost interest in playing games. I realized that for me, I had been using games as an escape.

Murking a bunch of people in a GTA Online session or destroying someone in FIFA is fun as hell, and gave me a sense of accomplishment ( ). But that feeling is nothing compared to the feeling of making money around the clock.

I had a list full of consoles, games and accessories that I was going to purchase when I "made it". I purchased everything in December and I haven't touched anything since they've arrived in the mail. I just have no desire to play anymore.

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

Listen to audiobooks x2 while playing.

Change it from unproductive time to studying.

 

[MarkM]

Just sold my last video card from mining crypto on eBay. I was going to build a gaming PC with it but realized I don't have time for that right now. Felt good to let it go and not get sucked back into gaming right now. Maybe some day on my yacht.

 

[Trevor Kuntz]

How would you go about getting your friends/business partners to play less video games? I run my site with my brother and he's logged over 250 days (6,000+ hours) of playing time on Runescape...its sad. Trying to get him as excited about online business as he is about online gaming but its a tough shot. If he would have put half of those hours into learning and online ventures, no doubt he'd be killing it.

He sounds a lot like me ten years ago.

I speak as a mostly-stabilized video game addict. When I was 16, I played Runescape every day instead of visiting my grandfather, who I was very, very close with, as he slowly passed away from jaw cancer over the course of six months. Out of three siblings, I was the only one to not write him a goodbye letter because writing it might mean missing a f***ing quest. Today, it is the biggest regret in my life. I am sure your brother is missing things in his life and once, if ever, he leaves gaming behind, he will likely have regrets also.

The only way to get out of addiction gaming (or probably most addictions) is to find the base motivation that makes someone more interested in the addiction than in other aspects of life. For some, it is the communities they find in MMORPGs that they cannot find in the offline world, for others, it is the competitive nature of gaming and being good at something and accomplishing things, and for others, it is the pure escapism. It can also be a mixture of all three.

As I mentioned in my other post on this thread, it is about finding balance and trying to figure how to gain the same sense of contentment and adventure that I previously found in gaming and instead finding it in business. I still struggle to find that balance sometimes, and have to work very hard to not go to gaming in challenging times and also not to reward myself with it when I have huge successes.

Here are two things that have successfully kept me from returning to binge gaming:

1. Delayed satisfaction
I came to a realization that throughout the history of gaming, it has only become more compelling and satisfying over time. Games 30 or 40 years from now (when I am in my 60s/70s) are almost guaranteed to be phenomenally better than they are now. I would rather work my a$$ off now and reward myself down the road when gaming is even better and my mind and body are unable to do real-life things than reward myself now with games that by future standards are boring and obsolete and waste my youth and fall behind to the point that I have to spend the rest of my life trying to catch up.

2. Replacing rewards
I have always known that my personal primary drive in life is internal recognition of accomplishment in competitive fields. I really don't give a shit about recognition from others and actually tend to hide my accomplishments from others. In high school, my entire sense of self-worth was in competitive sports (football special teams and soccer). It was my addiction, and for two years, I spent four hours a day, 260 days a year developing my skills, getting down to 5:50 mile times and working my way up to team captain status. But then I tore my PCL at 16 and that was over, so I turned to competitive gaming instead, spending 4 hours a day and 260 days a year developing my skills there. One addiction replaced the other. Today, I spend 4 hours a day and 260 days a year on my ecommerce business that did 80k revenue last year (not exactly Fastlane, but I love it and run it while also working a full-time job). I also spend the least-productive 30 minutes of my day playing World of Tanks because I really enjoying using it to recalibrate and potentially defusing before going to bed. I've found my balance and am at nearly total contentment in both areas.

The hardest "reward" to replace is probably community. Runescape is a very communal game (or at least, was when I played), so your brother could have some very strong connections with people that he only finds in that game. If that is the case, the likely best way to help him out of that world would be to find productive business people that he can develop strong friendships with.

I'm not an expert, but I can relate to him, so I'm happy to give you any insight I can that you think might be helpful.

 

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[Evil_Jester]

Good for you for realizing you have a problem and solving it.

Although I will say that @Eskil and I quite enjoy the odd game of Battlefield 1.

Nothing wrong with video games - provided you play them and they don't play you.

I realized that I played it more than usual lately because I have a challenging task to do. The thing you are scared of doing the most is what needs to be done NOW.

 

[Van Halen]

The best thing I ever bought was a mac mini,

Can't play anything on it. It also doesn't have those disgusting loud fans. Ew

When you're playing video games, you're ultimately just sitting there vegetating.

You may aswell be sitting there staring at a wall for 3 hours, it would probably be more productive.

 

[Evil_Jester]

...Every time you play you are reinforcing reward circuits and neural pathways that will take away from your fast lane goals.

It seems like the fastlane route is best taken by learning what not to do, instead of what to do. If you tell me exactly how to start a business, it won't matter. I have to finish getting all the guns in the video game first lol. But if you tell me what not to do (things to avoid) the only thing on my mind will be business

 

[masaldana2]

bro, i love total war games.... build stuff and destroy

 

[Xeon]

For those who don't want to abstain from games (#nogame), how bout going YouTube to watch the gameplay videos of the game instead (the ones where they walkthrough from start to end)? It's not exactly the same as playing the game but it consumes much less time and will quell your lust for gaming.

 

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[Scot]

I picked up a new game recently, Elite Dangerous. Beautiful space sim.

I use it to Destress after the day job. Put in about an hour, then put the controller down and get to work.

I still managed to get everything done for my launch. So, it’s all about time management IMO.

 

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[Trevor Kuntz]

I’ve found that forming a balance that works for you is better than complete abstinence. The longest I’ve ever gone without playing was six months, but that led to a serious two month binge. Here are some tips that have worked for me:

1. Find which games bring the most contentment with the least commitment. Like Eskil, I find Battlefield 1 to be an amazing game, but my beef with it is that I could easily play 1.5 hours and only go through 2-3 rounds. Same with Battlefront, Skyrim, Total War (I literally have 1000 hours in combined Total War on Steam). For me, the game that best fits is World of Tanks because each round is 15 min or less (average 7 minutes) and I can get my “fix” in 30 minutes or less.

2. If you love certain game soundtracks, listening to those while working can “scratch” your “itch.” I love listening to the Skyrim, Battlefield 1, and Medal of Honor Frontline soundtracks while working simply because they are great soundtracks and put me in a positive mood.

3. Try to limit your gaming to your least productive times of the day. I am most productive in the morning and least productive right before bed, so I play 30 minutes every night up until 30 minutes before I plan to fall asleep.

These tips might not work for everyone, but they have helped me find balance in my life.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

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[RobD88]

Confession: Star Wars Battlefront 2 is awesome. It's addicting, rewarding, the graphics are amazing, and I could play it all day.
I had to uninstall it today. I was still getting good work done, but I would say I was 50% efficient with this game installed on my PC.
If you buy cake from the grocery store you are going to eat it. Don't tempt yourself.

I'm so glad my video game days are over. At 47 I lost the itch years ago when Civilization III was a top game. That kept me up at night. Today's games are so much more advanced I can see how they would be addicting and mezmerizing.

Now I'm addicted to working on my biz and this forum. I guess we all have something.

 

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[Xeon]

...you're playing video games, you're ultimately just sitting there vegetating.

You may aswell be sitting there staring at a wall for 3 hours, it would probably be more productive.

The problem with games is that they give a false sense of accomplishment and achievement. When you slaughter monsters and save an entire village, won the heart of the girl, conjure up cooking recipes to heal your team and amassed 490,461 coins in the game, it makes you feel super empowered and successful, until you put down the controller and step out the door into the sun, and realize you're still at the same spot, probably worse off than you were before you began playing.

If I had not spent $$$ on games, DLCs and consoles back then, I could have more money now for inventory.

Able to connect a tight combo into shinkuu hadouken does nothing for me in real life lol

 

[AgainstAllOdds]

I will add to this. Listen to audiobooks ALL THE TIME, especially when you're eating.

How do you do that? Two words.

Wireless. Headphones.

It depends what point you're at in your journey. If you're in the "student" phase, then do that. But if you're in the phase where you have an actual business, then habits like that can subconsciously lead to wantrepreneurship vs kicking a$$.

 

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[Your Boy George]

Have you heard about "the gamification of work"?

If you have problems stopping playing games, why don't you transform your work into one?

5 apps to gamify your personal and work lives

This is Jane McGonigal with her TED talk speaking about the benefits of her game (SuperBetter):

This is 100% true.

I can't even play video games anymore because my work essentially a video game. Video games feel like work and F*cking stress me out. Although, when I used to game I played really "grindy" games, MMOs like Runescape and RPGs like the Total War Games and also Roller Coaster Tycoon. Honestly sorta prepared me for running a business.

When I was younger I thought I'd never quit video games and in a way I kinda never did. My work is my new video game. But like 10x harder than any game I've ever played.

 

[The-J]

I honestly think some people have a problem with moderation. Some people need to cut things out completely otherwise they won't get anything done.

I've been enjoying Slay the Spire recently. It's not getting in the way.

 

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[Eskil]

The best lan party I had consisted of about 15 PC players, and we also had 2 XBOX connected with people playing Gears of War. I had maybe 30-40 people that night and everyone playing video games until 8am.

Ah, LAN parties.... they were a blast, and something I enjoyed very much in my younger years, lol. I used to go to The Gathering in Norway, one of the world's largest of its kind (5000-6000 people each year usually, started in 1992).

Edit: Nerd Level: 9000, lmao

 

[Mr.Brandtastic]

A long time ago, it came out that Tobacco producers had altered their formulas to make cigarettes more addictive. They noticed less people were smoking. So they made it more addictive so those who did smoke would keep smoking and those who started would find it much harder to quit. Movies like "The INSIDERS" portray this problem.

But no one really talks about it with other things. I can't blame companies. You want to sell something that people can't get enough of. With video games they are highly addicting now and highly sophisticated. Most video games addicts (while they deny that there is such a thing, which there very clearly is) have some type of addiction which is a mix between gambling addiction and porn addiction. Gambling addiction due to RNG (randomness) of game boxes, loot, and even getting certain weapons. And porn addiction due to the dopamine rushes.

It's not good, harmless fun. It's designed to play on your mind and make you crave more and more and more. Bigger and better and more stream-lined. You crave that dopamine hit from killing a boss, winning a fight, or leveling up. And the more you play, the more addicted you get.

Only problem is, it's not real.

Ultimately while video games won't kill you, one must battle this addiction. Limit your time you play every day (say two hours). Then limit it to once every other day. Then once or twice a week. Then lower and lower. I'm of the firm belief now more than ever that life is not meant to be lived playing silly video games. Or as MJ said (paraphrasing), "killing Orcs in the latest dungeon of Doom." It's an activity that rarely if ever lends itself to a positive social and material outcomes. Uninstall it.

 

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[JM35]

How would you go about getting your friends/business partners to play less video games? I run my site with my brother and he's logged over 250 days (6,000+ hours) of playing time on Runescape...its sad. Trying to get him as excited about online business as he is about online gaming but its a tough shot. If he would have put half of those hours into learning and online ventures, no doubt he'd be killing it.

 

[Dunkafelics]

I'll tell you all a little story...

In 2014: I downloaded a game called Hearthstone and played it quite a lot throughout the year while pursuing wantrapreneur opportunities of creating Kindle books. I even wrote an ebook on Hearthstone which sold about $300 dollars worth of copies. END RESULT: Gave up on pursuing the Kindle books when faced with adversity, a year lost in creating a viable business.

In 2015: I added Heroes of the Storm to the mix and was literally playing 30 hours of video games per week. END RESULT: No business pursued, another year lost.

In 2016: I managed to drop Heroes of the Storm and added a bunch of games from Steam to fill the void. END RESULT: No business pursued, another year lost.

In 2017: I STILL played a decent amount of video games even when having a newborn. The big difference was I also read Unscripted in June which really rocked my world and immediately pushed me to a higher level of maturity. The belief that you are achieving things in a virtual world, rather than the real world was a wake-up call.

It took me awhile to figure out the path that I wanted to pursue and I didn't completely ditch Hearthstone. However, I rarely play more than a half hour a day and have changed my mindset to find more joy and achievement from reading books and connecting with the world. END RESULT: Loss of wantrapreneur tendencies and the development of a viable business.

My thinking is that IF and only IF you have a high level of control over your life and have a bigger drive and passion for your business and your life, then use video games as a small outlet to relieve stress and all those other things.

If you are addicted and do not have control over the amount of time you spent playing video games, then you are going to be stuck in a phase of being a consumer and probably missing out on a lot of the best moments of your life.

 

[J.Sark]

I think Starcraft 2 represents the perfect video game. If you want to be a bit competitive, it's really exhausting, and if you get a bit into the game and understand the mechanics, strategies... that thing has to develop your mind in beautiful ways, it's like Chess x1000. And anyway, after a few hours of it, I'm so mentally exhausted that I don't want to play anymore (I haven't played in months, and don't plant to do it anytime soon, as I have bigger fish to fry).

Be selective with what you play, in my case I really believe that Starcraft helps you keep your mind sharp, you have to learn how everything works, learn from other people... it feels like work if you want to be good at it, and you really have to push yourself to improve.

I recommend avoiding endless games that just want you to play non-stop and grind, getting nothing out of it in the process. Some video games have the most incredible, immersive and beautiful stories that you will ever find. You can think about them as a long, immersive movie.

The Mass Effect trilogy, for example, it's an experience in itself, and I believe it's something everyone should taste. The problem is when you don't want to play a particular video game, but you want to play video games, just to kill time, avoid reality or escape.

That being said, you could learn some business related skill in that time, but you have to aim for consistency and not perfection right?

 

[masterneme]

Have you heard about "the gamification of work"?

If you have problems stopping playing games, why don't you transform your work into one?

5 apps to gamify your personal and work lives

This is Jane McGonigal with her TED talk speaking about the benefits of her game (SuperBetter):

 

[Vermilion]

Been addicted to games is a serious problem, especially if u are in mature age when u have much bigger responsibilities in your life then games. I played a lot of games in between 18-24. That's why my collage suffers in one hand. I literally quit overnight. It was just too much for me, and i am so grateful for that.

For you who are still into the games, just find something to occupy your day so you can focus on that thing instead of games or any other addiction you have. It really helps.

 

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[luniac]

Originally played on PC but my game save got corrupted about 60% complete , The game on my phone I am at the Star Forge I played as dark as possible on this run trying to be the most untrustworthy backstabbing a**hole to everyone lol

star forge is the very end, less than 1 hour of game left. lol if u deleted might as well see ending on youtube or something.

dark side eh... killed the wookie didn't ya.

 

[ZF Lee]

For those who don't want to abstain from games (#nogame), how bout going YouTube to watch the gameplay videos of the game instead (the ones where they walkthrough from start to end)? It's not exactly the same as playing the game but it consumes much less time and will quell your lust for gaming.

I do that!

I even learn some great tips on winning the games lol. And tips on marketing games as well.

The walkthroughs give great exposure to newbie gamers, and some Youtubers hype things up with a live chat or giveaway. Pretty insane marketing. I wonder how they can translate into my biz.

Saves a lot of money too. No need to buy games. But it still gives the risk of action faking lol.

These days, though, I prefer listening to Piano Guys or London Real interviews. On the latter, there was a good one on Oren Klaff's Pitch Anything.

 

[Longinus]

For those who don't want to abstain from games (#nogame), how bout going YouTube to watch the gameplay videos of the game instead (the ones where they walkthrough from start to end)? It's not exactly the same as playing the game but it consumes much less time and will quell your lust for gaming.

I hate to spend energy by learning to be good in a game, as a result I rarely play games (with the exception of games I learned when I was young, like CoD or Total War: old games haha). This is a good alternative, but gets boring quickly.

Saw some posts here about Battlefield 1 and was triggered by the WWI aspect. But I just don't have the courage to set everything up and feeling bored after playing 30 minutes.