Gaming the System: Gaming Addiction & Screen Time

Episode 38 of Gaming the System, Brought to you by Game Quitters - Dealing with Gaming Nostalgia In this episode I cover: Why you get nostalgic about games How to practically overcome nostalgia and avoid going back to gaming Resources: Guide to Video Game Addiction Game Quitters Forum How to Quit Gaming Want to find out more? Follow us on Twitter Subscribe on YouTube Listen to more episodes

Episode 37 of Gaming the System, Brought to you by Game Quitters - Why Are Some Games More Addictive than Others? In this episode I cover: The 4 reasons why you get addicted to gaming The Game Quitters addiction model and how it can help you identify games you should avoid External and internal factors that contribute to a game's 'addiction score' Resources: Guide to Video Game Addiction Article o...

Episode 36 of Gaming the System, Brought to you by Game Quitters - The #1 Habit to Start When You Quit Gaming. In this episode I cover: Why I hated journaling in the past How I've implemented it into my routine so that it has become effortless The benefits of journaling The best way to get started Resources: Game Quitters Forum How to Quit Gaming Want to find out more? Follow us on Twitter Subscri...

Kids are at home and uncertainty is in the air... how do you find balance with technology use without constantly fighting and being stressed? 1) Get in the right mindset! Reframe this crisis as an opportunity for you and your family to develop a deeper connection. It might be painful at first, but don’t lose hope. Be prepared for bickering and decide how you are going to show up. We like the mantr...

I couldn’t see myself spending more than a few hours on something like Solitaire, but if you put me in front of Dark Souls then it’s a disaster waiting to happen. At Game Quitters, we see the same names pop up over and over again when people are talking about the most addicting games. Modern video games are a far cry from the games of old. They’re no longer just intended to provide a few hours of...

How can you overcome cravings for video games? I've spent over 5 years battling with a video game addiction, and almost 1 year working with Game Quitters. I've learnt a lot about how to overcome certain problems in this time, and cravings are definitely at the top of the list for most common struggles. Here's what we cover in this episode: Understand why you have cravings; what needs are you missi...

What do you think the average gamer looks like? A man in his early 20’s, perhaps a college student? Wrong. It’s actually a woman in her mid 30’s.  Why is it then that the average gaming addict is a 24-year-old male? With men making up over 90% of the population of gaming addicts, scientists have been prompted to undertake research into why this is the case. As it turns out, there may actually be u...

It's one thing to quit gaming and find some new hobbies to fill your time, it's another to develop these hobbies into meaningful passions that bring you fulfilment, motivation, and growth throughout your life. The problem is, it's difficult. Gaming warps your ability to gain happiness from other things. Nothing can compete with video games on a primal level when it comes to meeting your basic huma...

With tens of millions of teenagers playing violent video games such as Call of Duty, Grand Theft Auto, and PUBG do parents have cause for concern? Does playing video games make you violent? If you are playing violent video games, are you at risk of committing horrific acts of murder?  As it turns out, the answer isn't quite so black and white. There has been a huge amount of research done on the t...

The question of whether or not you can play video games in moderation is one of the most common problems we get asked at Game Quitters.  People post on our forum , on social media, and on the Stop Gaming subreddit about it almost daily asking for help. If you're in this position, where you want to play games but aren't sure how to go about doing it, then you'll want to listen to this podcast. You'...

When you quit gaming it often means leaving a lot of your old friends behind. Whether it's because you can't cope with them talking about video games all the time, inviting you to play, or because you're trying to shed your old identity as a gamer, it's never an easy process to go through. So what can you do? Ultimately it comes down to one thing. You have to become someone that can attract new fr...

You might think the biggest problem with Twitch is that you're spending too much time on the website, but you'd be wrong. In reality, the Twitch community with their crabs-in-a-bucket attitude is holding you back in more ways than you think. When you spend your free time listening to people talk about how poorly their life is going and being proud of that fact, it's going to wear down your mindset...

To say Pauline's story is inspiring would be doing it a disservice.  Having started her first 'side hustle' at 8 years old by learning how to turn HTML into websites, it seems like she was destined to be a part of the tech world. However, when school came around she found herself at one of the lowest points of her life.  Constant bullying, poor grades, excessive gaming and bad eating habits led he...

I've relapsed far more times over the last 5 years than I'd like to admit. However, what was once a painful barrier accompanied by months of pain is now an opportunity for me to build self-awareness and overcome my problems much faster than I did in the past. When I relapsed in the past, I always assumed that it was because I was a failure. I wasn't meant to quit gaming, and I should just stop try...

We're back! Hope you didn't miss the podcast too much over the new year's break, but after getting severe food poisoning and having to travel across the country, I thought I'd use the opportunity to take a bit of a break. In this episode I'm going to go through my exact process for reflecting on 2019, why you need to do it, and what questions you should ask yourself. I'd recommend taking some time...

So many people struggle to find new things to do after they quit playing video games that it even has its own name - The Void. You're so used to getting a certain level of stimulation from gaming, anything else you do just feels boring in comparison. In this episode, I go over a few of my favourite hobbies that I think you should try if you want to quit gaming. They focus on the major needs that v...

Take a few moments to think about the people who see you gaming every day. Your parents, carers, friends. Whoever it might be. Now imagine you've swapped places. What would you say to this person? Would it be an encouragement? Reflection? A simple "okay no problem"? So, why aren't you saying it to yourself? In this episode of Gaming the System, James explores what life is like for the people outsi...

In all of my friendship groups, I was always known as the gamer. I never stood out in any way, and whenever someone talked to me it'd usually be about video games. At the time I didn't see anything wrong with it. But, when I look back on how different my life could have been if I just took it upon myself to be more, to do more, to aim higher and really achieve the things that I was capable of... I...

Growing up, Christmas was always a time for three things; no school, food, and gaming. I'd always ask for gaming-related presents from my family and eagerly look for the game-shaped present in the pile of gifts under the tree. But, after battling against a gaming addiction for the last 5 years, I've come to place a lot more value on how important family is over Christmas.  I think about all the ho...

When it comes to talking to your friends about your gaming problem, it's really freaking difficult. It's easy to convince yourself that you'll be laughed at and stigmatized, that your friends will kick you out of their life, or even abuse you. So, how do you go about opening up this communication? In this episode, I discuss some of the mistakes I made during my time in university and how you can a...

It's time again to talk about everybody's favourite surprise mechanic, loot boxes.  Parents hate them, governments hate them, gamers hate them, and yet publishers continue to shove them down our throats at every chance they get. They might seem like harmless fun, but more and more research is being done into their link with problem gambling. So today I'm going to look into what the science is sayi...

Are you someone that rewards themself with a week of hard work by sitting down in front of your computer or TV and spending the entirety of your weekend playing video games? Maybe you think there's no harm in playing 2 days a week. You've worked hard, so why not reward yourself? You might be surprised to know that gaming is actually rewiring the internal mechanisms of your brain. It's can cause: -...

It's one thing struggling with video game addiction yourself, but what can you do when you see someone you love destroying their life with gaming? Maybe they're still living at home, struggling to get a job, overweight and are losing the will to live. No matter how much you want to help them, the painful truth is that you can't convince someone to change. You can give them all the information you...

I don't usually get too personal on this show. I never really thought it was the place to be emotional... However, a conversation with a friend of mine, shortly followed by him urging me to share my story, prompted me to create this episode. I realised that there are hundreds, if not thousands of people in our community that are in the same position I was just a year ago. I was horribly depressed,...

I didn't want to make this episode. I didn't even EXPECT to have to make this episode. But, here we are... This week I relapsed hard. Although I had been playing in moderation (5 hours a week) prior to it, I didn't count it as a relapse because nothing had changed in my life. However, just a few days ago something happened that altered my perspective completely. Listen to the episode to find out w...