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Finally managed to kick my Clash of Clans habit the other day. I realized I had been logging in 1-2x/day for multiple years with maybe a couple weeks of breaks

Finally managed to kick my Clash of Clans habit the other day. I realized I had been logging in 1-2x/day for multiple years with maybe a couple weeks of breaks after buying shields around the holidays. My life has become increasingly cluttered with feeds, needing to login to games I like to get bonuses and such, and it has started to pile up so I decided I needed to make some changes, starting with CoC. At first I had a lot of anxiety because the mechanics of the game would penalize me pretty harshly if I was away for a few days/weeks and wanted to come back. The lizard part of my brain started urging me to play it in a way that was so urgent it felt like I could almost reach out and touch it. But I had deleted the app from my device, and I sat myself down and told myself that those urges had no weight because the consequences would never be felt since I wasn't going to play the game again. Now I'm past the hump, and while I still have many more things on my list to extricate from my life in my path towards simplifying things, I definitely feel a bit better. One less responsibility. Don't get me wrong--I'm still a gamer, and likely will always be to some degree. But I'm so jaded by games with super transparent mechanics like this that they are starting to lose their hold over me. Started playing Pillars of Eternity last night and it was refreshing to get into something story-driven that didn't devote a significant chunk of the initial gameplay to introducing me to various IAP mechanics.

siquick 11y ago
At first I had a lot of anxiety because the mechanics of the game would penalize me pretty harshly if I was away for a few days/weeks and wanted to come back. The lizard part of my brain started urging me to play it in a way that was so urgent it felt like I could almost reach out and touch it. But I had deleted the app from my device, and when I sat myself down and told myself that those urges had no weight because the consequences would never be felt since I wasn't going to play the game again. The second sentence is the most important here - good work on getting rid.
- shostack 11y ago
  Thanks! I consider myself fairly self-aware and the most fascinating aspect of this for me has been observing my thought process as I went through this. The way I laid it out above makes it seem rather simple. Like, I had a five second mental conversation with myself and was like "oh, ok, no consequences so I don't need to care anymore." However the reality was that it was something I needed to continually coach myself on until I internalized it over the course of a day or two. The initial realization of this came pretty quickly, but actually breaking the hold it had on me took real repeated effort. I have newfound respect for those who are able to kick much more harmful addictions where the body's response is "pain and agony" vs. just "an annoying nagging feeling."
seivan 11y ago
I gotta ask you, as a gamer, don't you find Clash of Clans to be... well kinda bad? I mean the tech stack behind it, with replay functionality and async multiplayer is cool together with its "Battle.net like" integration is also working great for mobile. But as a game, it isn't better than any random mod on WC3. It's essentially build, purchase crap, and attack. Sometimes they give you the false notion that anything you do impacts the game itself as you attack. You get "bombs" to drop and etc, but as a game... it's essentially just a shallow graphic layer on top of numbers. I understand you can say the same thing about most games, but somehow my brain just rips apart Clash of Clans or Boom-beach easily, while it won't treat Star Craft same way. Just needed to ask.
- shostack 11y ago
  Oh, 100% awful. The urge it solved for with me was the part of my gamer mind that likes to see visual progress over time from upgrading various things. Recently started playing Torchlight 2 again to get that same leveling up my appearance effect. As someone who does digital marketing for a living, I'm not only acutely aware of all the tricks they are using, but also the "shallow graphic layer on top of numbers" as you described it. Sometimes I can even visualize it kind of like Neo in the Matrix. Initially there might be some stimulus for me, but it tends to wear off quickly and that has been my big issue with finding a good long-term game to sink my teeth into. It also is incidentally the reason why Casinos hold no appeal. I tried slots once and the moment my brain registered that I didn't need to wait for the wheel to spin, and I could hit the button as quickly as I wanted to generate the results, I thought "wow, this is like a game with absolutely shitty graphics I have to keep paying for that has no skill involved." And just like that I had zero interest in Casinos. So I see all this going on in my head, but then there are things like Dungeon Robber[1] that for some reason keep attracting me back. And they literally give you the tables and such for the dice rolls as they are occurring. There is even less of a veneer of graphics on top of the numbers (although in this case I love D&D and I think it reminds me of my younger tabletop days). That is what makes a lot of this stuff insidious for those that are less self-aware. I can recognize when I'm getting the dopamine hit, and it can be fun to experience, but for people who don't see it for what it is, I can only imagine how devastating that could be. These days I find myself (with few exceptions), gravitating towards team-based games that are played in rounds (like Rocket League) that have a heavy emphasis on skill so I can pick it up, put it down, and not feel obligated to grind at all. Those seem to hit the sweet spot at the moment. [1] http://blogofholding.com/dungeonrobber/index.php http://blogofholding.com/dungeonrobber/index.php
marshray 11y ago
I can relate. I deleted my Twitter apps when I wanted to take a break a few months back. But with social, it's even harder. I literally had my mother calling me to complain "I miss following you and hearing about what you're doing on Twitter honey."
jacquesm 11y ago
> One less responsibility. It never was a responsibility.
- shostack 11y ago
  Good point Jacques. I guess that's another aspect of this--it sure as heck felt like a responsibility towards the end. And that was a large contributor to why I deleted it. If a game feels like a responsibility, it is no longer a game in my mind. It is also why I never understood why my friend enjoyed being an MMO guild leader when I was young. It seemed like real work. Once a game crosses the "work" threshold, I tend to lose interest pretty rapidly. The fact that it took this long for it to get bad enough where I could kick this game to the curb is perhaps testament to the efficacy of the game systems they have in place to drive DAU/MAU.
  - jacquesm 11y ago
    I have an extremely addictive personality, no matter what, if I like something I have to be really careful not to get sucked in. My way of dealing with those things is to ruthlessly cut them out of my life, if I have to spend the energy required to fight the addiction then I might as well give in, the end result is a net reduction in energy available for useful stuff. So, I did what you did when I realized that computer games had this power over me, and got rid of them completely (early 20's at the time). Since then I got sucked in exactly once, the game of Mahjongg, and as soon as I recognized that I was being sucked in I deleted that as well. (this happened when I was 28 or so.) It's super annoying that I can't seem to set myself limits on what is ok and what is not, but in the end I come out ahead because I then have to be utterly ruthless about it which saves even more time (and in the case of alcohol and other goodies it saves me my health and money too). When I got sucked into computer games the world of games was a lot friendlier than it is today. I worked for a game company for a while, and in the end realized that that world really wasn't for me (though I enjoyed the programming immensely, the only addiction that I've allowed to run completely without restraint). Computer games nowadays are more like crack cocaine compared to the ones that were available when I was a kid. Congratulations on your recognition, it's going to be an interesting time for you now that you have a really large chunk of extra life that you can allocate in whatever way that you see fit.

siquick 11y ago

At first I had a lot of anxiety because the mechanics of the game would penalize me pretty harshly if I was away for a few days/weeks and wanted to come back. The lizard part of my brain started urging me to play it in a way that was so urgent it felt like I could almost reach out and touch it. But I had deleted the app from my device, and when I sat myself down and told myself that those urges had no weight because the consequences would never be felt since I wasn't going to play the game again. The second sentence is the most important here - good work on getting rid.

shostack 11y ago
Thanks! I consider myself fairly self-aware and the most fascinating aspect of this for me has been observing my thought process as I went through this. The way I laid it out above makes it seem rather simple. Like, I had a five second mental conversation with myself and was like "oh, ok, no consequences so I don't need to care anymore." However the reality was that it was something I needed to continually coach myself on until I internalized it over the course of a day or two. The initial realization of this came pretty quickly, but actually breaking the hold it had on me took real repeated effort. I have newfound respect for those who are able to kick much more harmful addictions where the body's response is "pain and agony" vs. just "an annoying nagging feeling."

seivan 11y ago

I gotta ask you, as a gamer, don't you find Clash of Clans to be... well kinda bad? I mean the tech stack behind it, with replay functionality and async multiplayer is cool together with its "Battle.net like" integration is also working great for mobile. But as a game, it isn't better than any random mod on WC3. It's essentially build, purchase crap, and attack. Sometimes they give you the false notion that anything you do impacts the game itself as you attack. You get "bombs" to drop and etc, but as a game... it's essentially just a shallow graphic layer on top of numbers. I understand you can say the same thing about most games, but somehow my brain just rips apart Clash of Clans or Boom-beach easily, while it won't treat Star Craft same way. Just needed to ask.

shostack 11y ago
Oh, 100% awful. The urge it solved for with me was the part of my gamer mind that likes to see visual progress over time from upgrading various things. Recently started playing Torchlight 2 again to get that same leveling up my appearance effect. As someone who does digital marketing for a living, I'm not only acutely aware of all the tricks they are using, but also the "shallow graphic layer on top of numbers" as you described it. Sometimes I can even visualize it kind of like Neo in the Matrix. Initially there might be some stimulus for me, but it tends to wear off quickly and that has been my big issue with finding a good long-term game to sink my teeth into. It also is incidentally the reason why Casinos hold no appeal. I tried slots once and the moment my brain registered that I didn't need to wait for the wheel to spin, and I could hit the button as quickly as I wanted to generate the results, I thought "wow, this is like a game with absolutely shitty graphics I have to keep paying for that has no skill involved." And just like that I had zero interest in Casinos. So I see all this going on in my head, but then there are things like Dungeon Robber[1] that for some reason keep attracting me back. And they literally give you the tables and such for the dice rolls as they are occurring. There is even less of a veneer of graphics on top of the numbers (although in this case I love D&D and I think it reminds me of my younger tabletop days). That is what makes a lot of this stuff insidious for those that are less self-aware. I can recognize when I'm getting the dopamine hit, and it can be fun to experience, but for people who don't see it for what it is, I can only imagine how devastating that could be. These days I find myself (with few exceptions), gravitating towards team-based games that are played in rounds (like Rocket League) that have a heavy emphasis on skill so I can pick it up, put it down, and not feel obligated to grind at all. Those seem to hit the sweet spot at the moment. [1] http://blogofholding.com/dungeonrobber/index.php http://blogofholding.com/dungeonrobber/index.php

marshray 11y ago

I can relate. I deleted my Twitter apps when I wanted to take a break a few months back. But with social, it's even harder. I literally had my mother calling me to complain "I miss following you and hearing about what you're doing on Twitter honey."

jacquesm 11y ago

> One less responsibility. It never was a responsibility.

shostack 11y ago
Good point Jacques. I guess that's another aspect of this--it sure as heck felt like a responsibility towards the end. And that was a large contributor to why I deleted it. If a game feels like a responsibility, it is no longer a game in my mind. It is also why I never understood why my friend enjoyed being an MMO guild leader when I was young. It seemed like real work. Once a game crosses the "work" threshold, I tend to lose interest pretty rapidly. The fact that it took this long for it to get bad enough where I could kick this game to the curb is perhaps testament to the efficacy of the game systems they have in place to drive DAU/MAU.
- jacquesm 11y ago
  I have an extremely addictive personality, no matter what, if I like something I have to be really careful not to get sucked in. My way of dealing with those things is to ruthlessly cut them out of my life, if I have to spend the energy required to fight the addiction then I might as well give in, the end result is a net reduction in energy available for useful stuff. So, I did what you did when I realized that computer games had this power over me, and got rid of them completely (early 20's at the time). Since then I got sucked in exactly once, the game of Mahjongg, and as soon as I recognized that I was being sucked in I deleted that as well. (this happened when I was 28 or so.) It's super annoying that I can't seem to set myself limits on what is ok and what is not, but in the end I come out ahead because I then have to be utterly ruthless about it which saves even more time (and in the case of alcohol and other goodies it saves me my health and money too). When I got sucked into computer games the world of games was a lot friendlier than it is today. I worked for a game company for a while, and in the end realized that that world really wasn't for me (though I enjoyed the programming immensely, the only addiction that I've allowed to run completely without restraint). Computer games nowadays are more like crack cocaine compared to the ones that were available when I was a kid. Congratulations on your recognition, it's going to be an interesting time for you now that you have a really large chunk of extra life that you can allocate in whatever way that you see fit.