Wallflower501

I'm going back to College today. Back to being surrounded by Video games. I think this is getting easier though. I don't really feel any drive to play a game. Again, I think the biggest struggle will be to just not forget about the pledge and play something on accident. I have to be constantly reminding myself not to play a video game. These blogs are getting shorter and shorter, mainly because I don't have much new to say on the subject, but I'm going to continue to keep up this record of my experiment.

Well I was thinking yesterday about Rock Band and I remembered that I wanted to get an S rank is RB2 before RB3 comes out. I only have 2 achievements left ( endless set list on Hard and on Expert) It sucks that I won't be able to do that now but I can always get those achievements afterward. Other than that I feel good, I've been listening to a lot of music and watching the 4th season of Dexter to keep my mind off video games. I would say that I'm trading one distraction for another but I did those things just as much before, plus since I'm on fall break, I don't really have much else to do anyway. It will get harder not to play when I go back to college on Monday but until then, I'm enjoying my break from school and video games.

Fortunately ( Kind of) my gaming desktop is not running right now and with my 360 and DSi in another city, it is almost impossible for me to play a video game. I haven't been having any urges to play either because I've been keeping fairly busy. I'm really glad that I decided to do this and have kept it up. I see commercials and posters for Fable 3 and Rock Band 3 but instead of making me want to play video games, it only reminds me of my pledge and makes me want to reach my goal even more. The only thing I'm worried about is getting together with my friends here in town, our usual thing to do when we get together is to play a game like Rock Band or Call of Duty.

I'm on fall break until Monday and am back in my home town. This means I'll be away from all the game systems in my apartment. This will make my pledge very easy. I'll have more things to do and less time to waste by thinking about video games.

Yesterday was a little harder than I thought it would be, but not because I felt an over whelming urge to play any particular game. I found myself trying to think of things to do between classes and constantly having to remind myself of my pledge. I'm so used to walking in my living room when I'm bored and turning on the Xbox. I think the hardest part of these first few days will be trying not to forget about my goal and accidentally playing a video game. But other than that, I'm enjoying the break.

Last night I decided that for the next two weeks I would not play any video games. I have both Fable 3 and Rock Band 3 pre ordered at my local gamestop and i know when those games come out I will play them to an unhealthy extent, but currently I have no games that I feel any desire to play. So until those games come out I will not play a video game.  

To most people, this would seem like a very simple goal. But I think ( i hope) that the subscribers of a gaming community like GiantBomb would understand the difficulty that this holds for someone who has become reliant on the sense of freedom and exploration that video games offer. I've been a gamer all my life but for the last few years, my interest in video games have been growing to a near addictive state. 4 or 5 hours a week turned into 6 or 7 hours a day.  Because I live in an apartment that has all three current generation gaming systems as well as a Sega genesis, i feel constant pressure to indulge.
 
The purpose of this experiment is not to quit playing video games, it is just a break. I play video games so much i feel like I'm losing touch with reality. Sometimes I feel like I'm just watching myself and those around me, that my actions have no impact on the real world but rather a predetermined situation as in a video game.
 
So far I don't feel a very strong  desire to play. I anticipate this being difficult. I hope that this blog will keep me on track. I wil update this daily with feelings about video games.

I play the Trumpet, Baritone/ Euphonium, Bass Guitar, and Ukulele