"It's not that you stop yourself from addictions as much as it's about you are engaged in something productive so much that you forget all about it."
- ni6hant
What good things will happen if I stop gaming
Mentally preparing for it
So it's 23rd March 2026 at 20:38 and a few minutes ago I was about to start my contination of Death Stranding which I have been playing a lot lately, but something changed a few days ago.
I decided to give my developer career a second try. What I realized with Death Stranding is that I really like building stuff that other people use, even if that's inside a video-game. That's who I really am at heart: A Creator.
And it doesn't matter to me if I am creating highways inside a virtual video games that others might use or a simple browser extension that blocks web-pages,
A free and open source android app that just shows system information, and so much more stuff that I will share on on Developer Blog.
I guess that's what I was afraid about! That if I write this blog I might simply decide not to play games anymore and if you check the negatives below, I don't want to simply replace with something even worse!
Hopefully, I can stop being an Extremist and maybe figure out a way to balance those things.
Update: I am still struggling with this and will update this as I overcome this by myself in my life. For now I am also stuck.
Guess I just needed to mentally prepare for such a grand even in my life. So, I started the challenge of No gaming and no youtube after many days of fully getting overloaded with youtube and gaming. Guess I did that on purpose. You don't see the harmful effects of something until you don't fully plunge into it. I have done this many times in my life and I guess I needed to do this so I say, "Enough! I have had enough of this".
To be clear ever since a little kid when I got into gaming, that's what I have always done except for the few months when I quit my job and was so engrossed into creating content that I simply forgot about it.
This is different however, this is where I am making a conscious decision to do so this time. To be honest, I really have played so much games in this lifetime that I don't really need to play it anymore. Maybe I will pick it up more for social reasons but if I am being honest non-video games are much better at that.
So, I guess finally I will be able to answer, what good things actually happen if I stop gaming, now.Here are good things that happened when I experimented with no gaming and no youtube/social media:
I started to enjoy songs/music again!
I must have heard Darkside which I just found in my unsorted library around 20 times or so. It was already in my library for the past many weeks but I never actually got around to listening to any of them.
I used to start the songs but used to turn them off because I had to play some game.I enjoyed going on the roof in the evening
What bad things might happend if I stopped gaming
I was struggling to write this blog for quite some time mainly because I knew if I wrote the subconscious thoughts inside me that is happening on a website, it will be sort of like declaring that gaming is completely bad and that's why I didn't want to do it. However, while I watched this video and the guy sharing his experience with gaming when he was struggling in life. And that's when I started to think about the things I might have done looking at colleagues and friends who are doing such things.
Friends, families and relatives that don't actually game or those who do play Games that play them have sort of addiction in life. It's one thing to hear about it on the internet which is now full of fake stuff anyways, but it's another to witness it happening around you with people you know. I know many around me with the following:
- One of the well to do friend who is in a big governemnt position right now has always struggled with smoking. I have not checked with him recently but yes, he smokes a lot and got in trouble with his girlfriend for this a lot.
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The other one, also in a government position by the way plays those Games that plays him like PUBG, has gone through a lot of adversities in life but is addicted to smoking and drinking a lot which has led to other vices like [redacted] on wife when they have a kid.
Recently, I learnt he sold his gaming consoles also a long time ago. - A distant relative is addicted to drinking in Bihar, India(where liquor is banned "officially") is often heard every few weeks shouting.
- A young cousin of mine is completley addicted to Gambling which all started with the betting apps and is in huge debt even before he went to college. It was so bad that he had to drop out of college and all he does is spend all his parents' money. Recently I learned he has also started taking drugs.
I don't give gaming enough credit. Yes, it's just entertainment but it's a form of entertainment that doesn't harm in such egregious ways as some other forms of entertainment. As long as you're aware that "Gaming is entertinment" and "Entertainment Comes at the end of day".
And I don't give myself enough credit for not going into these routes. I in fact lived near a place in Delhi that was famous for selling drugs(Subhash Nagar Metro Station) but never was I tempted once to go and try them. I was tempted to try out the gaming parlour when I was in my first job.
I have tried some alchohal, most I rejected just based on taste because they smelled like Dettol Antiseptic and I was like, "If I am going injest something that's antiseptic, I might as well put Dettol inside me."
One other time I tried flavored alchohal which I just enjoyed because of the taste of cranberry and what not but never went back to it again.
I actively reject games that make me hooked on them, this includes roguelites, roguelikes, casino, gambling, card games, management games and games that get in your way of life. If I can't put it down if there is something important to be done, I am never touching that game again. I have already covered these in Game Genres to avoid.
I didn't even want to try smoking or drugs. I don't care what the "relief" they give but I don't want it. I should note that I have been called "weak" and I should never let girls know that I don't Drink, smoke or do drugs otherwise they will never want to be with me.
Well, I was scared to let gaming go because I kept thinking I will get into some other addiction that might be worse than gaming but as long as you also nuke other stuff like social media along with gaming and have a purpose in life, I feel like it won't matter.
Well, that's what at least feels like into my first day of No gaming, No Youtube Experiment.