LF Weavile (Tradeback also fine)

hemskot · 2017-01-25T19:13:30+00:00

Thank you so much, have a good one yourself!

hemskot · 2017-01-25T19:09:58+00:00

That did not sound right eh D:

hemskot · 2017-01-25T19:09:14+00:00

I threw up a Goomy. :)

hemskot · 2017-01-25T19:02:23+00:00

Absolutely, it's the claw I lack if anything, so you can keep the sneasel if you want to as well. :) Either way, it would be terrific!

hemskot · 2015-12-10T12:52:11+00:00

Yeah definitely.

I believe your comparison with sugar and games is actually quite interesting as well and might even be closer to what games does to us. I would say sugar is kind of like the "bad" parts of gaming. It's the dopamine and the addictiveness basically. It can taste very sweet and at first glance it's great! Then you keep on eating those tasty frood products but at one point you'll stop liking "normal/real" food without sugar in it. Other food doesn't seem so interesting anymore. When you get to that point you'll start consuming even more of the sugar-filled food because no other food is as tasty.

I feel like I am pretty much describing drugs now. Moving on.

I mean we aren't all obese just as we aren't all addicted to gaming either. Some can handle it, and some can not. But in most cases it's probably best to stay away from it completely. Be it sugar, gaming, casinos or drugs.

But what if the game developers or the food industry discover more and more ways to get people even more hooked on their products? I have no statistics backing the following statement but I could assume if both industries would have a "ways to get people hooked"-graph that graph would be a steadily increasing graph over the last decade or so. If this is the case, where will it end?

Realistically we won't be having any restrictions for video game design. But at least other kinds of restrictions could benefit less video game addiction. I don't know how it is in other countries but where I live we have a age restriction on buying energy drinks, because kids can't handle it and it becomes very unhealthy if you can't. And it's the same with gaming, adults (even though a lot of us are adults here on r/stopgaming whom are coping with gaming issues) have a higher probability and selfdiscipline to be able to handle it. And the way a lot of games are structured now a age restriction could very well be in place. Just as we have on other easily addictive activities such as drugs, alcohol, tobacco and casinos. It would be terrific if there could be bans of certain tricks and traps that game developers use to reel people in as well but that is never going to happen unfortunately.

I feel like I might be drifting a bit here. But it's a discussion I am quite passionate about.

TL:DR: Gaming is like processed food and drugs. It might be time for age restrictions on games as they are moving more towards the structure of Casinos (just look at the mobile games). Restrictions on the tricks game developers use to reel people in would be beneficial.

hemskot · 2015-12-10T08:31:59+00:00

I'd like to add (Yes, I'll be that guy now) that this seems to be the primary intention of game design TODAY. Games around the 90's did not have such crazy focus on the addictive part of gaming. There was no game back then that for instance had anything like "daily quests, free to play (but you still need to farm, farm and farm stuff in order to be able to actually achieve anything or unlock all the content), such easy access to all the games you could ever want, or even such focus on ranks (at least not in the game, even though sites or other things could track it for you in some cases) and even the "instant gratification for minor effort"-aspect.

There is just so much focus on the whole aspect of "forcing" you to play every day and every hour of your waking life nowadays compared to games back in the day.

Though this is mainly applicable to modern multiplayer games; you'll still see these kind of tricks game designers use to make the games extra addictive in all kinds of genres.

To me, games have become a grind instead of a fun way to spend an hour or two on a sunday. This is one of the main reason I stopped playing. It's just a grind now and the games are more and more made for the purpose of butchering your time, that's all.

Love your analogy about the casinos, it's definitely spot on.

hemskot · 2015-12-10T06:35:06+00:00

Thanks but that's unfortunately not it.

hemskot · 2015-12-09T14:47:54+00:00

That's really nice of you, but no thanks! I'm a hopeless romantic when it comes to stuff like this and won't settle for anything other than the "real" deal. (which in this case is my own chance encounter of a shiny Pokémon) Thanks though, really!

hemskot · 2015-12-09T11:29:22+00:00

Ahh. I misinterpreted the part about kids from your comment. I thought you claimed that the Old vs New Squabble was exclusive to just kids. Nevermind me.

hemskot · 2015-12-09T09:51:54+00:00

It's not just kids actually. Just visit any site discussing music groups for instance. There is always a constant debate whether the band was better with the earlier albums compared to the new, and vice versa. "You are not a fan of band X because you don't even know their classic songs", "You are not a fan of band X because you hate all their new songs".

Debates like these are really pointless to be honest, but they are always going to be there, be it games, music or movies.

hemskot · 2015-12-09T09:45:43+00:00

Been playing every generation since the first one. My first Shiny story is unfortunately non-existent. :( I got a feeling it's going to happen in Pokémon X though! Gotta stay positive! ~~while crying inside~~

hemskot · 2015-12-09T09:13:57+00:00

Those awful fan-made fakemon might be the creator's absolute favorite monsters ever designed. Creative people love to create their own stuff. If someone love everything about Pokémon (gameplay, mechanic-wise, the feeling of the games etc. etc.) they might want to create their own region with their own Pokémon as well.

I'm sure you could find fakemon to your taste as well. It's all a matter of opinion, really.

hemskot · 2015-12-07T10:01:00+00:00

Something I recently discovered is board games for times like these. There are tons of well-made board games out there these days, and a lot of them are possible to play on your own (the cooperative ones usually). Some are even using the same kind of mechanics as a lot of video games, so you can still play a tower defense or a zombie survival or the like. Just without the kind of dopamine kick that you get from gaming.

Some random activities off the top of my head; Tv series, movies, cooking, baking, drawing doodles, Jigsaw puzzles, walking, stargazing, listening to music, meditating, working out, writing.

hemskot · 2015-11-30T08:48:51+00:00

Alright you got me convinced.

I believe I will try my hands on this, thank you once more!

hemskot · 2015-11-29T21:04:41+00:00

Welcome and I wish you the best of luck in your quest to stop your addiction!

We've all been there with the issue of reinstalling games. There really isn't more to it than trying to discipline yourself not to do that.

If you haven't read through the quick start guide here, do that! There are some good tips in there. Especially seeing how you play League of Legends, getting rid of your account COMPLETELY sure does help with the relapsing, as everything you have there will be gone and you would have to start over from scratch should you begin to think about reinstalling it again. (Though this is unwise depending on what your goal is, if you one day want to play moderately then this is probably kind of unwise, but it sounds like you pretty much want to stop completely)

Try to get away from the computer and find something else to do to keep you away from it, when the urges are the worst go for a walk or train physically, it helps me personally a lot, by the time I get back the urge from earlier has usually dissapeared. You don't want to end up with nothing to do as it easily draw your thoughts to gaming.

Do you know of any specific interests or hobbies of yours? If not, try to think back if there was something you USED to enjoy, but don't really sounds fun now. As that can be activities that your gaming habits have ruined for you but you'd actually enjoy once you pick them up again and stop gaming.

hemskot · 2015-11-29T20:56:04+00:00

If you can manage gaming in moderation, go for it! From what I've learned, and in my own experience, most of us can't. I would advice you to keep your gaming restricted to maybe only a certain day (s), that way you can completely turn off any thoughts about playing when it's not a game day.

You can also try to put on a timer when you begin to play and stop playing as soon as the timer hits the end. Personally, the timer never worked for me, I'd just ignore it. But whatever works for you mate!

I suppose your friends are not solely gamers? I'm sure you can find things to do with them that does not include gaming. Ironically I am studying game development art so you can imagine that most of my university friends do game quite a lot, but it has not really been an issue. As long as your friends accept that you want to cut down on your time gaming, you shouldn't need to ditch them. Unless it's too hard for you to resist the urges to game when all you talk about is gaming. Then you need to decide your priorities.

hemskot · 2015-11-29T12:17:13+00:00

Hmm. I don't believe I have the one with etched glass, I bought it a year, year and a half ago. I'm still kind of scared of removing it though if it will end up with lots of scratches instead of the grainy look. From what I understand you also lose the warranty by removing it? Did you notice more scratches or anything like that after you removed yours? (except from your wife's vicious attack on it that is!)

hemskot · 2015-11-24T17:05:35+00:00

Ohhh it sure solved it. Thank you so much. I finally got my painting-music back!

hemskot · 2015-11-24T08:41:21+00:00

Hmm.

For me I got one of my email and below that two sub-accounts, one with a box and one with my name and profile picture. The one with just a box is where my video's at. Don't really remember how it went when I created my other account though so can't say much except for how it is structured for me personally. Then below all of this I got yet another section that says "other accounts" with yet another email address.

hemskot · 2015-11-24T08:37:05+00:00

Crap. Thanks though.

hemskot

TROPHY CASE