One Month + One Day
June 15th was my quit day. It's now been 31 days since I deleted my characters. It's been surprisingly hard, even with the help of my husband, my family, and the wonderful folks at OLGANON. I haven't yet used all the resources available at OLGANON and am toying with the idea of asking to become an actual member. I can't pin down what stops me from going whole hog into the 12 step thing except that I'm stubborn and like to try and do things my own way first. I'm probably just making things harder for myself.
I quit Toontown once before. I managed to go for 6 weeks that time. What's different about this time is that I'm not using other games as a substitute. Last time I played a couple of 'offline' games in place of my online game. That didn't work, obviously, because what happened was that when I finished those games and couldn't find any others to interest me I headed right back to TT. This time I'm not playing any games at all, although in a moment of weakness I did try the Sims Online - luckily not at all my cup of tea.
I worry a bit about my excessive use of the internet. A component of online gaming is time spent at game forums. For the first few days after I quit I went to my game forums but since I wasn't playing anymore I quickly lost interest. The time I used to spend on those forums (and more, unfortunately) I now spend on this blog and other forums. It adds up to more time than I ever spent online before I got hooked on Toontown but a great deal less than when I was playing. It's starting to taper off, thankfully, but it still feels like such a huge waste of time...
I quit Toontown once before. I managed to go for 6 weeks that time. What's different about this time is that I'm not using other games as a substitute. Last time I played a couple of 'offline' games in place of my online game. That didn't work, obviously, because what happened was that when I finished those games and couldn't find any others to interest me I headed right back to TT. This time I'm not playing any games at all, although in a moment of weakness I did try the Sims Online - luckily not at all my cup of tea.
I worry a bit about my excessive use of the internet. A component of online gaming is time spent at game forums. For the first few days after I quit I went to my game forums but since I wasn't playing anymore I quickly lost interest. The time I used to spend on those forums (and more, unfortunately) I now spend on this blog and other forums. It adds up to more time than I ever spent online before I got hooked on Toontown but a great deal less than when I was playing. It's starting to taper off, thankfully, but it still feels like such a huge waste of time...
posted by Portia | 9:18 AM
2 Comments:
This too, sounds just like me Portia. I spent (and still spend) a LOT of time just 'surfing' the net. A lot of time spent reading about MMPORPGs and addiction, and support.
I lost interest in the game aspects of my usual EQ forum haunts, but still logged into the forums for heated political debates OOC with them. AFter the election, even that tapered off, and no longer do I visit the EQ info sites, forums, or guild pages.
For a while I was extraordinarily interested in the OLGA scene, but that started to pass as well.
This phase, like everything else about quitting, got better with time. (Ironically I type this to you on your blog about quitting an online game. Nice)
Derek
You all have been fantastic. It would've been much harder to quit without OLGA. It is such a great relief to communicate with others who have the same issues. The acceptance and non-judgemental atmosphere was and is a joy.
It's nice to know the internet obsession also fades with time.
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