Anyone ever uninstalled a game that consumed them and their life got better for it?

[Dusk Golem]

EDIT: I misread the question, but I do have another good response for it.

While not due to addiction, I have a tendency to get really into some frustrating games with continual feedback loops and progress. I can play them longer than I should sometimes. I have in a few case after getting sorta' addicted to a game that's not really fun as much as it is stimulating my brain decided to go full cold turkey and drop them on the spot as to not let it go any further, and I've felt good about those decisions and not letting that eat up my free time.

I've never gotten so deep into a game that it was like a tremendous thing (at most something I spent too much time for a few day on), but sometimes I do just make the call that I don't need this in my life.

 

[panda-zebra]

Destiny after going very hard for 4 months after launch through the 2nd raid. Messy at times. Multiple days without sleep, altering my sleep patterns to align with the shifts friends were working, then buying a programmable USB device to auto-grind through the night (we've woken the hive, when you needed to actually use weapons to unlock their potential). One day I ignored a knock at the door 'cause I was "busy" farming relic iron or something lol, I heard my son say "Daddy can't come he's playing Destiny...". Deleted the game not long after.

Went back before Destiny 2 to catch up on things and played with a friend I met playing back then and his mate who had both stuck with it all the way through on multiple accounts on both playstation and xbox doing everything many times over. That month or so at the end was very chill, loads to do and a grind that was very straight forward with people who knew it all inside out. Then D2 was initially a bit shit and easy to drop after 2 weeks or so though I've been back many times, just never that obsessively as the beginning tf.

 

[HanzSnubSnub]

Rainbow Six Siege. Became too addicted to it and I needed a long break from it.

 

[Ra]

yep, I uninstalled Slay The Spire and haven't looked back.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I played nothing but StS for most of 2020 and the entirety of 2021. It's so low impact that it just fed into my 'isolated working from home because of COVID' depression.

Literally had a session running 24 hours a day. Had to uninstall.

 

[Mahaveer RaGOATnatan]

Destiny 1 but not because it was messing up my life. Last time i played it was when one of our dogs died and Ive never gotten past associating that loss when playing destiny. I loved the game but i can still remember that the last thing i ever did was one of those world event on mars where the vip cabal shows up and you have to chase/kill it before it escapes.

Stopped for a few weeks to grieve but whenever i tried to boot up the game i always heard the weird painful howl my dog made.

Deleted the game/got a ps4 a few months after and took up cycling and got in somewhat good shape. Been wanting to go back since destiny 2 seems way complicated with all the expansions and vaulting content. But still cant move on. Maybe its for the better

 

[spman2099]

I had gotten to the point with Genshin Impact that I felt bad if I didn't get in and do my daily tasks. It had become an absolute chore. Thankfully, I was able to separate myself from that game. My life is SO much better without it.

That isn't to say that I regret my time with Genshin Impact. I had my fun with it. I just wish I had quit two months before I did.

 

[Ocirus]

I was -HARD- into Destiny. Had friends that I played with regularly. I'd solo Nightfalls for fun (funny story: I was almost late for a college final because I just finished soloing the weekly nightfall and got a message asking if I could help a couple people through it - it was Mike and Jerry from Penny Arcade. Long story.)

ANYWHO, my regular group was doing the new raid for the first time. Now this group was a few real life friends and a couple online people who just became part of our regular raid group. This was the Crown of Sorrow raid. Oof. I was not a fan right away.

Fast-forward to the boss and we're struggling. A few of us (the IRL friends group) understand what needs to change, and it's not us. We're literally texting each other during this and all come to the same conclusion: one of our members keeps messing up. We try to nicely converse with them on things they could do, we pull double duty across the arena, we switch pairs around - still they're struggling.

It got to a point where people were audibly getting fed up. At one point I try to calm things down and ask how we could change our communication (location call outs, directions, etc.) so they can better understand what they need to do.

They simply respond with "you know what, fuck you"

I immediately come to a realization: I'm easily the best player in the group. Not trying to be a shithead, but it was true. I was also trying to keep things calm and friendly in spite of hours of terrible experiences, continually running into a wall and having to wipe, because the very person who just said "fuck you" was unwilling to pivot and accept suggestions. So I realized I simply didn't need that.

I immediately quietly left the chat, turned off my game, and cancelled my pre-order for the collector's edition of Shadowkeep.

After that they started sunsetting content and other scummy and/or otherwise undesirable things. I got out at the perfect time and haven't looked back.

 

[LiK]

I uninstalled Destiny. Biggest carrot chase ever and now I feel a weight has lifted off.

Click to shrink...

I'm close. Haven't touched it in over a year now.

 

[CountAntonio]

I don't touch MMO's or competitive games with long matches. Basically just play chill games or fighters now since matches are so quick.

 

[ExtremelyBitter]

I quit FF14 in early 2021 after playing a lot for like six years, then later 2021 turned into what ended up being seriously one of the worst and insanely stressful years of my life; my life catching on fire had nothing to do with quitting, but it was super weird to be constantly stressed but not have anything default to sink time into/distract myself. I ended up resubbing for a month and playing through EW in November (because I'd been waiting for the fricking moon since forever) but it definitely felt like I didn't belong there anymore.

I will go the opposite direction of most of the thread and say it didn't really open my eyes to a bunch of new possibilities or make me feel free. I just waste my time on different stuff now. I did briefly play Lost Ark and wouldn't say it consumed my life, but the amount of time sink they wanted to stay current with their accelerated content cycle was just not worth and that I'm happily rid of.

 

[hwarang]

Jokes on you, OP. I uninstall League of Legends atleast 3 times a year.

Click to shrink...

What joke? I uninstalled it 4 - 5 times the past two years. This time FOR REAL

 

[Risitas]

League of Legends and FIFA Ultimate Team

 

[Frag Waffles]

Never had to actually uninstall anything, but I had to to relax on Rocket League.

Chasing ranks is just not healthy...or even all that fun.

 

[OrakioRob]

It never got to the point where it was a problem, but I tried Elder Scrolls Online earlier in the year and got really into that daily loop of researching stuff, doing the daily dungeon, upgrading my equipment, putting some stuff for sale at the guild shop...

I have little time to play every day, and eventually realized I wasn't properly "playing" games anymore. I was just doing the chores in ESO and then, when the time came to go on an actual adventure, I had to go to sleep.

Then came a day when I thought, "hey, since I'm alway so busy doing these chores, maybe I should rebuild my character and turn him into a merchant, so I can focus on all that equipment research and trading at the guild" and THAT'S when I realized what was happening and uninstalled the thing ^_^

 

[zoodoo]

Destiny 1: I really enjoyed it but at the end it was just grinding. Once I got all the lore the repitition was just a chore.

Killer Instinct: my favorite fighting game ever but I plateaued and my crap skills were not getting any better.

 

[Partridge]

Hearthstone, best decision I've made

Click to shrink...

This. I was spending so much time grinding quests to afford more cards, which then became an endless cycle as more new product got released.

So happy I got out.

 

[EraLurker24]

I uninstalled Destiny 2 for kinda this reason, install size was huge and didn't feel worth wasting time on a live service game when I had stuff like Spiderman Remastered to play. Turned out to be the right choice

 

[Rodney McKay]

Surprisingly, no.

Any game I play more than 100 hours of I just end up getting tired of, no matter how much I like it.
I think the longest I've played a single game (in one playthrough) is 200 hours, and by then I was REALLY tired of it.

Some games I'll replay play a bunch of times (like Borderlands 1+2, or the Mass Effect Trilogy), but I usually take long breaks between playthroughs.

 

[SplitYourInfinities]

Street Fighter V, I would get super anxious playing online and competitive.

 

[pants]

I quit WoW cold turkey back in college, just texted my friends "I think we should quit" at the height of WotLK.

Came back a couple times since, but never with the intention of sticking around.

 

[SinnyIndonesian]

Warframe. I can play stuff like Destiny regularly just fine and stop anytime. Warframe, though, is incredibly poisonous to me. It's very FOMO-heavy in all aspect.

 

[Dremorak]

I had to uninstall Smash Ultimate for a while not because of the time I was spending (still probably an hour most days) but because I would most of the time end up absolutely furious about some bullshit I had been hit with or asshole t-bagging me after doing annoying shit that only works online :\

After a break of a couple of months I was able to come back and enjoy it more. That was about a year ago and now TBH I'm starting to feel the same way when I play, might have to take another break

 

[Cidolfas]

WoW for sure, took a lot of my time.

Recently deleted all my Blizzard stuff, Diablo Immortal showed it's dead anyway.

 

[Faith]

I let my life get consumed by Destiny 2 and it just compounded my depression. I finally banished it to the shadow realm just last week in a hope that I can concentrate on getting better easier.

I going to miss the friends I made playing it but, in time, will know that I won't miss the carrot on a stick approach and having to do everything because of the way my mind is wired.

 

[Kor of Memory]

I have a list.

World of Warcraft was the first one. At the time my wife and I were playing every day. We were class leaders raiding 4-5 times a week during Burning Crusade. The whole guild decided to take two weeks off for Xmas one year, and the amount of spare time we suddenly realized we had was so invigorating that we never logged back in. We knew we had to do a clean break, because we had seen people in our guild before try to leave and get sucked back in to help "just this once" over and over again.

Super Monday Night Combat was the next one. I never thought "addiction" to a video game as possible, but that game sucked me and and wrung me out. I turned mean and nasty and my partner at the time told me I was insufferably angry all the time. It was a rough couple of months.

Most recently was probably Crash Royale. I had a government job, but our governor locked everything down and wouldn't sign a budget forever, which meant I did nothing all day but stream netflix at my desk on my phone. Eventually I started playing Clash Royale to pass time, because the 3-4 minute games were perfect. But eventually I was playing it at home as well, and before bed, and during bathroom breaks, and basically I was fully consumed. I knew I was stuck in a sunk cost fallacy with that game so the only way to fix it would be to uninstall and not look back.

 

[Tawney Bomb]

Uninstalled Overwatch a year or two back. Spent way too much time and got way too salty over that game.

 

[Rodney McKay]

Actually I did think of a game: Animal Crossing New Leaf on 3DS.

I didn't even play it that much, maybe an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening, but I eventually got to a point where that was all the time I was playing any games each day and I had to stop to play something new.

I would literally do the same thing every day: gather and sell all the fruit, see if there were any good items to buy, bugs to catch, fish to catch, and then be done.

I even tried to get into Animal Crossing on the Switch (I was SO excited for it, I planned out how I wanted to build my island, made a theme song for it, etc), but then I got it and I played it for many 2 or 3 hours.
I guess once the spell was broken it was broken permanently.

 

[Sonny Cheeba]

MapleStory back in the day. Then MapleStory 2 before it left America servers. I don't know why that series drains me so much.

 

[IMCaprica]

Fall Guys. There was a moment of clarity early on, and I immediately bounced because I knew if I kept playing it was just going to become a bad habit.

 

[TransEuropaExpress]

I had to uninstall Hunt: Showdown to save myself from it for a while recently. I was getting increasingly pissed off because the game can be ultra frustrating.

 

[Takyon]

Dota 2.

 

[Deleted member 41651]

Whenever I would let a game consume me and I poured thousands of hours into it, it was because my life was sucking ass and I didn't know how to or it was impossible at the time to fix. Drastically removing whichever game always put me back in the situation I was escaping from but with no new coping mechanism. So back I'd go.

Like, the guarantee isn't there that your life will get better by uninstalling. It could, depending on how deep you were of course. I feel like this is a lot like dieting. People look at the successes and get the wrong idea that you have to quit everything overnight instead of organically with a plan of action.

 

[SasaBassa]

Fighters with bad online get just frame uninstalls after my rage meter builds up, I'm better for it

 

[RagingAvatar]

I quit Final Fantasy XIV cold turkey. It was tough and I missed my friends (I still do). It was over 2 years ago and it was still one of the best decisions of my life.

 

[Kayotix]

Dota 2, i felt like i had so much more time in my life.

 

[Xshade90]

I've quit FFXIV in Stormblood because lacs of commitment, but will probably return for Christmas season to continue.

 

[JaseMath]

Destiny. For sure.

 

[Multiverse Moo]

I love my time with Skyrim and No Man's Sky in 2D.

However, Skyrim + PSVR alongside No Man's Sky + VR made me start losing a lot of sleep and was impacting my work life.

Made the choice to uninstall both and stick to smaller / more contained VR experiences.

Since then I've done a lot of VRchat and such, but since that is a social game so naturally more draining and I stop as needed.

 

[dsk1210]

Rocket League at one point because it was stopping me playing other games I kept buying, I craved the dopamine.

 

[Dabanton]

Counter Strike almost ruined my relationship...

 

[CreepingFear]

World of Warcraft, but I keep coming back to it. Already purchased Dragonblight and will at least lvl my main to max lvl, again.....

 

[DarkFlame92]

I've finally decided to uninstall League of Legends.

Click to shrink...

2 years now and havent felt better. Its just so much time waste

 

[Bengraven]

Played a gacha called Epic Seven so much that I ran auto battles while in bed. I'd literally set it to run the max amount of auto battles then laid down. When I woke back up I'd run another max amount. To the point that it was interrupting my sleep.

But fuck, I needed to get Rem to 6* and all skills maxed.

 

[LavaBadger]

Warframe

 

[Giga Man]

The only games that had that kind of power over me had died and disappeared before I could quit them.

 

[ShinUltramanJ]

Hearthstone.

Played it daily without fail. Just felt like I was on that treadmill like never before with new themed releases hitting more frequently. Got sick of it and quit cold Turkey.

 

[Gr8one]

Man reading all these replies, I'm just so glad I already had my fill of this shit with MMOs early on so I was able to dodge Destiny and all the gatcha games.

 

[bounchfx]

dota 2 the fuckin madness there i tell you whut

 

[sidephasing]

CSGO, had 1000 hours in it. i was sick of the toxic community and the hackers that i just went all out, downloaded some free hack client and decided to fight fire with fire against hackers and basically banned myself from the game

 

[Zephy]

No because I play single player games only, so they usually just end eventually. For those that don't, I just get burned after a while. It's never turned into an issue for me, usually it's a good experience because I get super immersed in the game and enjoy it to the best. Latest one was Lost Judgment, I took about 3 months to complete most of its contents.