What are some unusual things you've done to break your own addiction to a game?

[cowuponacow]

For me, it was Diablo II. I played the game twice: first with a Necromancer, with whom I got to Act IV before giving up on (I was pretty bad at the game and had made a horrible build). Second with an Assassin, with whom I beat the game and the expansion. This was all strictly single player. I immediately started a new game, with a new class. Druid, I think. But I found that I wasn't enjoying the game at all; I felt like I was just grinding through the levels so I could try out all the high-level Druid skills. And I knew that, after that, I'd have to start a Sorcerer and level her up and try her high-level skills, and so on. But somehow I couldn't bring myself to just stop playing, even after I realized that I wasn't enjoying the experience.

 

So I found a different solution: I used a save game editor. I gave myself a roster of high-level characters. I tried out an ice-Sorc, a fire-Sorc, and a lightning-Sorc. I Leaped around as a Barbarian. I tried every Paladin Aura. I gave myself crazy items, weapons that did five types of damage at once, or gave skills to classes that normally didn't get them (like Whirlwind to an Assassin). I tried full sets that would probably take me literally years to find legitimately. I boosted skills to levels not normally possible (ever tried amassing 99 skeleton minions simultaneously?). In total, I spent probably three or four hours, I saw every high-level skill in the game, I killed Diablo like he was nothing, and I think I crashed the game twice. And when I was done, the urge was gone, and I was able to put the game down and walk away from it.

 

I had a very similar experience with Rogue Legacy, which is a fine game, but easy 5x-10x too long. After I'd gotten about 15% of the upgrades — and seen 90% of the content — I used Cheat Engine to give myself infinite gold, which I used to level my character up and beat the game. Only then did I feel free to stop playing it.

 

So does anyone else do this sort of thing?

[thorn]

Nothing like that. But I did make a conscious effort to delete my Animal Crossing DS savegame and trade in the cartridge so that even if I got tempted to play it again, I couldn't.

[Roderick]

I'm genuinely surprised at Animal Crossing, which is designed to max out your daily play experience after 20 minutes. Surely that's a manageable addiction? Now Diablo 2, there's one. Though I always vastly more enjoy the road to building up my character than the endgame. Having instant complex and godly characters isn't something that appeals to me, I think. I like tinkering with skill trees and pining for that next level.

 

Neither did I need a trainer to make the game crash my system. Back then I had an outdated PC and the necromancer was perfectly capable of flooding my memory with only a handful of summons.

 

To answer your initial question, I've never been so much in the thrall of any game-related addiction that I had to take steps. Usually my enjoyment of a game diminishes after a few weeks all by itself.

[thorn]

I'm genuinely surprised at Animal Crossing, which is designed to max out your daily play experience after 20 minutes.

I was spending 30-60 minutes daily. But what really bothered me was that I felt I had to play it daily. And if I missed a day, I had to adjust my DS's clock to catch up. One day I was planning out my evening, listing out my tasks like "I've got to go to work, finish that bit of homework, read up my notes for class tomorrow... oh, and I have to play a bit of Animal Crossing". The moment I realised that it had become something I had to do, I knew I had to get rid of it.

[taterdactyl]

I was spending 30-60 minutes daily. But what really bothered me was that I felt I had to play it daily. And if I missed a day, I had to adjust my DS's clock to catch up. One day I was planning out my evening, listing out my tasks like "I've got to go to work, finish that bit of homework, read up my notes for class tomorrow... oh, and I have to play a bit of Animal Crossing". The moment I realised that it had become something I had to do, I knew I had to get rid of it.

I've been playing New Leaf (actually haven't picked it up in about a month), and I can easily spend an hour just on the island. If there's an item I want that costs 48 medals, that means I need to go on 4-6 tours and they range from 5-10 minutes each. Then I run around searching for the expensive bugs and fish (mainly bugs) to maximize my island earnings for the day. It can be a time sink for sure.

But back to the main poster's question... I usually just keep playing the game until I get bored with it. :/