To preface, this post isn’t a bash on gaming. I’ve been gaming since I was 3 years old on the NES. It was (and still is) a part of my life. That said, while I turned out ok in the end, I would play games every free moment I had. I’ve spent thousands of hours in World of Warcraft during the TBC-WotLK era. My pattern would be school-home-eat while playing wow-sleep thinking of wow-repeat. My whole social circle formed around WoW and LoL/dota2 later. I would often listen to music while playing. Of course, we grew up and we became distant over time. I more or less ended up with barely any friends.
I don’t play games much nowadays because it’s simply better for my own mental health. I still play but with a lot more moderation - occasionally booting my PS2 or playing a run or two of Binding of Isaac. Most of my free time goes towards creative hobbies.
15 years later, whenever I hear music from that time, I get jittery and think about the fun I had in wow. I’ve fallen into that trap. Private servers galore, I used to play in them back then too, they’ve gotten even better since then. I start playing, ditch all my other hobbies, go out only for work, and in the end not have fun at all, and spiral into depression. The itch barely gets scratched. This cycle has been repeating over and over. I don’t want it to happen again and I just got the jitters again.
I don’t want to stop listening to music I like just because monkey brain associates it with WoW.
Random thoughts:
Cheat, in the worst kind of way—Full god mode, BFG with unlimited ammo, etc. That can ruin a game pretty easily when there’s no challenge and the story might not be new or interesting. Might lead to boredom and wanting to do something else.
Play games you don’t like much and can only stand to play in small increments.
Play casual, relaxing games like Dorfromantik that you can quit playing easily after a round or two.
Get into game design. Make your own game so you’re creating something that you can share with others. It’s still related to your gaming interests, but could be more productive.
Make friends with someone or a group of people who have a different hobby in common so you have a reason to socialize that doesn’t drag you back to playing games.
Make a bucket list and start pursuing one of the items on the list like writing a novel or painting a landscape or building something practical.
Set time limits for your gaming and force yourself to do something else that doesn’t allow for gaming, even something simple like taking a walk without a gaming device. Make gaming a reward for being responsible rather than an addictive obligation. Focus on learning to appreciate delayed gratification.
Creating your own game will help against gaming addiction? That’s like telling an alcoholic they should get into microbrewery.
If the goal is to spend less time with the diminishing returns of gaming, it could be effective while utilizing their interest and experience and possibly inspire other creative projects.