Why I've decided to sell my gaming PC

[buznezGopher]

I have a top notch gaming PC (RTX 3080, Ryzen 9 5900X for you nerds) that I built 8 months ago. It's a beast of a PC that plays anything and everything thrown at it, on ultra graphics. I've played some demanding games like the latest MW2 and MW1, and I've spent some hours in Ready or Not, probably my favourite game which tries to be a successor to SWAT4. Gaming has always been part of my life, but now it's time to put the brakes on.

Most of the time I've actually not spent playing graphics demanding games out of interest and curiosity, but I've actually been addicted to League of Legends. Not only is it stupid that I was addicted to such a stupid thing, but especially since I built such an expensive beast of a PC only to play that crappy game all day long.

I've tried to uninstall LoL multiple times, but it's just so easy to install when playing LoL all day long has become routine and my fingers itch for playing more of that game since it's so stimulating and familiar. Since gaming became routine about two years ago, I would just jump on discord when I woke up to play with whoever was online or just play alone until someone appeared in the discord chat. I unfortunately have been prioritizing gaming over my studies, over my promising remote job (short term), and over my promising small software company that has paying customers waiting for updates...

The simplest solution I've decided to go with: sell my gaming PC, and instead buy a top notch MacBook Pro, a machine inviting to be productive instead of being a consumer. It was eating me alive, but now that I've posted my PC for sale and I hope that I can get my life back on track. This solution is simple because it removes the distraction altogether just like deciding to not buy candy and chocolate at the store instead of trying to resist at home when it's already in your house. I tried breaking free before with uninstalling the game and I've had multiple (fake, it turned out) FTEs (F*ck this events) before, but without any lasting results.

However, even with me being such a gaming addict, I'm not quitting gaming altogether. I'm planning on getting a VR headset and playing RoN through GeForce Now, but only as entertainment AFTER I've had a productive day. The actual problem is with competitive games like LoL, WoW and such that makes you think you are making progress in life. I came to realize that after actually thinking about what I spend my time on and why I decide to give all my time to gaming. It's because it gives you the feeling that you need to improve further and play more, and it does sometimes give you the feeling of improvement, but it's only in a fake digital world. It doesn't improve your life in any way, and I don't remember any special moments after gaming the entire day. It's like the day just disappeared, as I watch some more LoL videos in my bed trying to sleep. The funny thing is that with LoL, it doesn't even feel good to win... it just fkin' sucks to lose, so you play again and again to get back your lost LP (elo points) or out of spite. I actually believe most of LoL players are caught in this addictive feedback loop, because I cannot see how anyone would genuinely find that game where your teammates and not you can be the only reason you lose a 30+ minute game. It's as bad or potentially worse as gambling, because you lose something more precious than money: your time. There's so much wrong with that game that it makes me angry just thinking about it, and I'm not going to spend a single more minute of my life, even if all my friends are on discord playing that game.

It hopefully seems obvious to you in here that playing that much is ruining your life, but it's damn hard to realize when you're in that situation. I know I'm not alone after seeing many others in the same position both here and other forums, so I hope this post can be helpful to others in similar situations.

So to recap, I'm selling the thing capable of tricking myself into fake, highly stimulating progress, and I'm now only using gaming as relaxing entertainment. That is, an alternative to watching a movie or something similar. Hopefully I can now be productive during the days working on studies, my job or building my company, instead of routinely playing LoL all day every day.

 

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[AhmedBella]

It’s crazy how I can relate to that. When covid struck I got addicted to video games because it gave me a sense of fulfillment during a time when I wasn’t really doing anything with my life. I eventually got fed up and had my FTE during another sleepless night. I ended up learning a bunch of useful things, launched a startup (we eventually failed) and got back to competitive swimming the second pools opened. I’m still obsessed with business and my life really took a turn for the best after I dropped gaming. The dopamine I get from actually doing real things to level up in real life is so much better. We have a natural drive to better ourselves and wasting it on a game isn’t good.

You’re on the right path. You played the best move you could. Congrats

 

[loop101]

I have a top notch gaming PC (RTX 3080, Ryzen 9 5900X for you nerds) that I built 8 months ago. It's a beast of a PC that plays anything and everything thrown at it, on ultra graphics. I've played some demanding games like the latest MW2 and MW1, and I've spent some hours in Ready or Not, probably my favourite game which tries to be a successor to SWAT4. Gaming has always been part of my life, but now it's time to put the brakes on.

Most of the time I've actually not spent playing graphics demanding games out of interest and curiosity, but I've actually been addicted to League of Legends. Not only is it stupid that I was addicted to such a stupid thing, but especially since I built such an expensive beast of a PC only to play that crappy game all day long.

I've tried to uninstall LoL multiple times, but it's just so easy to install when playing LoL all day long has become routine and my fingers itch for playing more of that game since it's so stimulating and familiar. Since gaming became routine about two years ago, I would just jump on discord when I woke up to play with whoever was online or just play alone until someone appeared in the discord chat. I unfortunately have been prioritizing gaming over my studies, over my promising remote job (short term), and over my promising small software company that has paying customers waiting for updates...

The simplest solution I've decided to go with: sell my gaming PC, and instead buy a top notch MacBook Pro, a machine inviting to be productive instead of being a consumer. It was eating me alive, but now that I've posted my PC for sale and I hope that I can get my life back on track. This solution is simple because it removes the distraction altogether just like deciding to not buy candy and chocolate at the store instead of trying to resist at home when it's already in your house. I tried breaking free before with uninstalling the game and I've had multiple (fake, it turned out) FTEs (F*ck this events) before, but without any lasting results.

However, even with me being such a gaming addict, I'm not quitting gaming altogether. I'm planning on getting a VR headset and playing RoN through GeForce Now, but only as entertainment AFTER I've had a productive day. The actual problem is with competitive games like LoL, WoW and such that makes you think you are making progress in life. I came to realize that after actually thinking about what I spend my time on and why I decide to give all my time to gaming. It's because it gives you the feeling that you need to improve further and play more, and it does sometimes give you the feeling of improvement, but it's only in a fake digital world. It doesn't improve your life in any way, and I don't remember any special moments after gaming the entire day. It's like the day just disappeared, as I watch some more LoL videos in my bed trying to sleep. The funny thing is that with LoL, it doesn't even feel good to win... it just fkin' sucks to lose, so you play again and again to get back your lost LP (elo points) or out of spite. I actually believe most of LoL players are caught in this addictive feedback loop, because I cannot see how anyone would genuinely find that game where your teammates and not you can be the only reason you lose a 30+ minute game. It's as bad or potentially worse as gambling, because you lose something more precious than money: your time. There's so much wrong with that game that it makes me angry just thinking about it, and I'm not going to spend a single more minute of my life, even if all my friends are on discord playing that game.

It hopefully seems obvious to you in here that playing that much is ruining your life, but it's damn hard to realize when you're in that situation. I know I'm not alone after seeing many others in the same position both here and other forums, so I hope this post can be helpful to others in similar situations.

So to recap, I'm selling the thing capable of tricking myself into fake, highly stimulating progress, and I'm now only using gaming as relaxing entertainment. That is, an alternative to watching a movie or something similar. Hopefully I can now be productive during the days working on studies, my job or building my company, instead of routinely playing LoL all day every day.

Macs are so terrible at gaming, they are a good way of breaking a gaming addiction. Linux can work too, though a lot of games still work. When I played Windows games on Linux, it was a really good way to learn Linux. The game became, "Can I get this Windows game to work on Linux?".