I definitely have a problem.

[Neostarwcc]

I hate to say this but I DEFINITELY have a problem. I'm addicted to video games. Not playing them because I only really play video games when my wife is at work and for an hour or two after work. I don't spend 18-20 hours a day playing video games anymore like I did for most of my child and young adulthood.


But I'm addicted to Google play and Kongregate games. Basically games that are "pay to win" where you have to spent thousands of dollars to really get anywhere in the game. But, I just hate being somebody who plays these kind of games "for free". While you certainly are within your rights to play them for free I think of that as taking advantage of video game developers who spend years of their life making video games for other people to enjoy. I mean, making video games is not an easy task whatsoever. It's time consuming and requires a lot of programmers and money to keep online video games afloat. So while I do get a high from being boosted in the game I do it to support the developers

Imo there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But, then there's me who is majorly addicted to spending money on video games. I added my Google play balance from April 23rd of this year and I spent $8,050.05 since April 23rd just on google play. I made at the time like 10k a year from ssi. Thats a LOT of money and the worst part is, most of this money i was spending from my SSI check and i was spending probably 90% of my income at the time just on video games because thanks to my disability I had gotten free money and I had to spend it or the government would take it away from me. So why not spend it on supporting video game developers and giving them a salary?

Again, nothing wrong with my motivations what's wrong with me is this addiction. I don't want to quit video games because a majority of my friends and spouse play video games. But I do want to quit spending money on video games or at least play video games with a flat monthly fee or better yet, only cost $60-$80 and you can play them forever.

I actually don't want to know how much money I've stuck into video games during my entire life. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if I've spent well over 100k playing video games. Just, wouldn't surprise me. It's probably a lot higher than that. I'm just... addicted and I can't stop. Now that my spouse is working i can't spend our money on video games anymore. Especially when our goal is for her to make enough for me not needing SSI anymore. It would be nice to be able to save money without the government breathing down my neck saying "spend this money or we're taking it away from you." Just... not a good place to be in at all.

 

[sandman]

For myself ...Many times I have to put myself in situations where I act ....
(i.e) When I quit smoking (in Tucson) I had some friends drop me off in the middle of the Sonoran desert with camping gear and water (no smokes) ...for 4 days.
With video games I had to do the same (not in the desert silly)
I bought a gaming set up for my kids along with a few games (this was unusual for me because I never let my kids watch cartoons, almost no tv, and only selected videos) .... for two nights in a row my wife and I stayed up all night gaming. On Friday morning.... when I realized we couldn't control ourselves (which is not a good example for the kids) ..... I took everything and threw it the contractors dumpster. ... To watch it get picked up and dumped ... was a complete relief ...like being set free.

That's me ...I am not saying that is what you should do ...I guess you have to figure out what will work for you.

 

[Psalmofmercy]

A sense of helplessness often precipitates addiction. Do you feel out of control or helpless in some aspect of your life?

 

[Lost4words]

Have you sought professional help / advice? This is an avenue you should consider.

Remember, you are in a relationship. Its not just about you.

Please try and get some help now before it destroys your relationship with your wife/family.

Also, turn to God and seek His guidance.

God bless you

 

[YorkieGal]

Replace the games with the gym. Save money and get your life back.

 

[timewerx]

You know that developers still makes money even if you play for free right? They still make money through ads. And even with the ads, it can be quite substantial enough to make you rich if the game is popular. So don't feel guilty.

The only reason you should be guilty of is not using your money as Jesus would have wanted.

I used to play World of Warcraft and the main reason I got hooked into the game is for the attention. I used to crave attention from other players.

And then the game also made me feel like stepping into another world. A fantasy world. I even sometimes dream of it when I sleep. It's amazing.

Yet, I'm not recommending this hobby. It's bad distraction. You probably won't be playing video games if you're accountable for the lives of other people like having your own children and money isn't so easy.

 

[har_habayit]

Replace the games with the gym. Save money and get your life back.

Fantastic advice. I was obsessed with video games when I was younger. I could never, EVER substitute video games for the enjoyment I get from working out. It's not always "sexy" nor is it free from pain but the way you feel afterwards is like nothing a video game or a TV could give you.

 

[AlexB23]

I hate to say this but I DEFINITELY have a problem. I'm addicted to video games. Not playing them because I only really play video games when my wife is at work and for an hour or two after work. I don't spend 18-20 hours a day playing video games anymore like I did for most of my child and young adulthood.


But I'm addicted to Google play and Kongregate games. Basically games that are "pay to win" where you have to spent thousands of dollars to really get anywhere in the game. But, I just hate being somebody who plays these kind of games "for free". While you certainly are within your rights to play them for free I think of that as taking advantage of video game developers who spend years of their life making video games for other people to enjoy. I mean, making video games is not an easy task whatsoever. It's time consuming and requires a lot of programmers and money to keep online video games afloat. So while I do get a high from being boosted in the game I do it to support the developers

Imo there's absolutely nothing wrong with that. But, then there's me who is majorly addicted to spending money on video games. I added my Google play balance from April 23rd of this year and I spent $8,050.05 since April 23rd just on google play. I made at the time like 10k a year from ssi. Thats a LOT of money and the worst part is, most of this money i was spending from my SSI check and i was spending probably 90% of my income at the time just on video games because thanks to my disability I had gotten free money and I had to spend it or the government would take it away from me. So why not spend it on supporting video game developers and giving them a salary?

Again, nothing wrong with my motivations what's wrong with me is this addiction. I don't want to quit video games because a majority of my friends and spouse play video games. But I do want to quit spending money on video games or at least play video games with a flat monthly fee or better yet, only cost $60-$80 and you can play them forever.

I actually don't want to know how much money I've stuck into video games during my entire life. It honestly wouldn't surprise me if I've spent well over 100k playing video games. Just, wouldn't surprise me. It's probably a lot higher than that. I'm just... addicted and I can't stop. Now that my spouse is working i can't spend our money on video games anymore. Especially when our goal is for her to make enough for me not needing SSI anymore. It would be nice to be able to save money without the government breathing down my neck saying "spend this money or we're taking it away from you." Just... not a good place to be in at all.

Well, I was never addicted to videogames, and will never have an addiction for them, but setting your phone screen to greyscale can help. Bright colors can lead to more screen time. My cellular device is black and white since late October 2023, so I can avoid reading the news too much or watching YouTube too much.

Greyscale to curb addiction: Grayscale option could reduce cell phone screen time

How to set phone to black & white: How to turn your phone screen grayscale across Android and iOS

 

[timewerx]

Fantastic advice. I was obsessed with video games when I was younger. I could never, EVER substitute video games for the enjoyment I get from working out. It's not always "sexy" nor is it free from pain but the way you feel afterwards is like nothing a video game or a TV could give you.

I sometimes get some sort of "high" or out-of-body-experience (OOBE) purely from exercise and I'm not taking any meds at all and been alcohol free for few months now.

But that's NOT the main reason I exercise!

 

[timewerx]

Well, I was never addicted to videogames, and will never have an addiction for them, but setting your phone screen to greyscale can help. Bright colors can lead to more screen time. My cellular device is black and white since late October 2023, so I can avoid reading the news too much or watching YouTube too much.

Greyscale to curb addiction: Grayscale option could reduce cell phone screen time

How to set phone to black & white: How to turn your phone screen grayscale across Android and iOS

I've been doing it for a year now. I even put the screen colors into "negative" as if you're looking at black & white thermal images.

Yet I didn't do it to stop myself from playing video games on the phone but to make my phone look spooky or haunted

I still play some games on my phone, 15 minutes a day on average, like single player Tetris so it's non-addictive.

 

[AlexB23]

I've been doing it for a year now. I even put the screen colors into "negative" as if you're looking at black & white thermal images.

Yet I didn't do it to stop myself from playing video games on the phone but to make my phone look spooky or haunted

I still play some games on my phone, 15 minutes a day on average, like single player Tetris so it's non-addictive.

Awesome. That is a good idea to make a phone look spooky. I am not into spooky stuff, but the greyscale works well for making the phone easier on the eyes. Computer monitors can also go greyscale, but I watch science or history documentaries on lunchbreak or a wholesome innocent anime (currently on Azumanga Daioh) and prefer the colors. Tetris is a cool game, and I might download it onto my TI-84 CE calculator. Yes, graphing calculators can run certain 2D games. There is something special about physical buttons for games. Pac-Man also runs on my calculator, as well as a pandemic simulator.

 

[Neostarwcc]

Have you sought professional help / advice? This is an avenue you should consider.

Remember, you are in a relationship. Its not just about you.

Please try and get some help now before it destroys your relationship with your wife/family.

Also, turn to God and seek His guidance.

God bless you

I've seen a therapist for many reasons. I don't really think therapists are much help. However I can bring this up to the Elder of our Presbytery and see what he has to say. He's very easy to talk to and we're kind of friends so it would be really easy to talk about it with him and see what he thinks.

You're right though, I have been thinking of just myself and now that I barely get anything from SSI I'm touching my wife's money instead of my SSI check. So she has every right to be angry at my problem. She's trying to get us out of debt and in a stable place not further and further into debt.

 

[Neostarwcc]

I've been doing it for a year now. I even put the screen colors into "negative" as if you're looking at black & white thermal images.

Yet I didn't do it to stop myself from playing video games on the phone but to make my phone look spooky or haunted

I still play some games on my phone, 15 minutes a day on average, like single player Tetris so it's non-addictive.

Flash games and games on your Phone/Tablet are just the worst. Most of them con you into playing for "free" and then charge ridiculous prices for in game content that you probably won't be using/playing 5 years in the future. I'd much rather spend money on a game like World of Warcraft where its a flat fee every month and their cash shop is purely cosmetic and you don't need it to get ahead of everyone else and you don't get that "high" of being the "best". To be the "best" you have to play more than everyone else and everyone has an equal chance of being able to clear content. Idk why I quit WoW before the 2nd season of Dragonflight tbch. I was stupid and could have saved all kinds of money.

 

[Neostarwcc]

Well, I was never addicted to videogames, and will never have an addiction for them, but setting your phone screen to greyscale can help. Bright colors can lead to more screen time. My cellular device is black and white since late October 2023, so I can avoid reading the news too much or watching YouTube too much.

Greyscale to curb addiction: Grayscale option could reduce cell phone screen time

How to set phone to black & white: How to turn your phone screen grayscale across Android and iOS

I honestly don't use my tablet that much aside from messaging my mom on Facebook. Back in April I was spending all kinds of money on Google Play games for my tablet and when I added it up I was like.... "Yeah... this problem has gotta stop."

I've had this problem on Kongregate before too. I spent so much money on Flash games on Kongregrate that I'm a Kongregate plus member forever. And they normally charge like $20 a month to be a Kong + member. So... yeah. If I found out how much I've spend on video games over the course of my life I probably would faint. It's gotta be at LEAST 100k even buying games at $40-$50 a pop in the 90s probably adds up to tens of thousands. I'd much rather just pay a monthly fee to play video games. It would only add up to hundreds a year vs... God knows how much.

 

[AlexB23]

I honestly don't use my tablet that much aside from messaging my mom on Facebook. Back in April I was spending all kinds of money on Google Play games for my tablet and when I added it up I was like.... "Yeah... this problem has gotta stop."

I've had this problem on Kongregate before too. I spent so much money on Flash games on Kongregrate that I'm a Kongregate plus member forever. And they normally charge like $20 a month to be a Kong + member. So... yeah. If I found out how much I've spend on video games over the course of my life I probably would faint. It's gotta be at LEAST 100k even buying games at $40-$50 a pop in the 90s probably adds up to tens of thousands. I'd much rather just pay a monthly fee to play video games. It would only add up to hundreds a year vs... God knows how much.

I am lucky that gaming never piqued my interest. But since it did, there are open source games that you can find such as 0 A.D. and SuperTuxKart. Open source is best explained as where the software is free for any programmer to edit, and is vetted by a community. The company releases the software for free typically, and doesn't charge any monthly fees or DLC charges. You can donate to some open source projects, but that is optional.

Wikipedia is not good for everything, but they have a list of open source games: List of open-source video games - Wikipedia

 

[timewerx]

Flash games and games on your Phone/Tablet are just the worst. Most of them con you into playing for "free" and then charge ridiculous prices for in game content that you probably won't be using/playing 5 years in the future. I'd much rather spend money on a game like World of Warcraft where its a flat fee every month and their cash shop is purely cosmetic and you don't need it to get ahead of everyone else and you don't get that "high" of being the "best". To be the "best" you have to play more than everyone else and everyone has an equal chance of being able to clear content. Idk why I quit WoW before the 2nd season of Dragonflight tbch. I was stupid and could have saved all kinds of money.

There is no con in Tetris, It's a very simple puzzle-solving game with no elaborate graphics. No upgrades of any kind you could possibly spend money on.

I used to play WoW. That one is addictive. I played WoW in both the Blizzard servers and the free "private servers". Most time I played is the free private servers. They're nearly as good as Blizzard servers. The free servers are actually LEGAL because the host servers are all outside of USA. Blizzard don't even mind them because some of the people who played on private server eventually play on Blizzard servers.

The one thing I like better in free private servers is that some of them host legacy expansions like the WotLK, classic (vanilla), MoP, BC, you name it. I liked the WotLK and MoP the most. Had the most fun in MoP playing prot paladin in Arena with a very unorthodox build and playstyle.

I stopped playing WoW, like I said, it's very addictive and not healthy for me.