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The original was posted on /r/2007scape by /u/Significant_Crow9694 on 2025-05-25 01:00:43+00:00.
Hello fellow scapers. Just wanted to celebrate that I'm 10 weeks sober. I have easily clocked over 10k hours in oldschool runescape, and 10 weeks ago I decided I didn't want it to be a part of my life any more because it saps my motivation for other things.
I wanted to post this because I know a lot of you suffer with self-loathing stemming from your relationship to this game. If that doesn't apply to you, then please, disregard this post. I'm not trying to convince people to hate themselves -- I'm trying to convince people that already hate themselves that they can make a change for the better.
I have a main with an infernal max cape (maxed in 2020) and also an iron that was about 75% of the way to maxing with a solid melee setup; nox halberd, burning claws, rancour. I left that all of that, and I am now living a more meaningful, love-enriched, and happy life.
Since quitting, I've been much more content to do random chores around the house, and much more willing to do things in general.
I still play video games (a lot of them, frankly), but the very specific thing about RuneScape that makes it different from many other video games is that it encourages you to do things that you don't actually enjoy -- and it asks you to do a lot of that. I didn't kill tormented demons 2.2k times on my iron because it was fun -- I did it because I felt I had to do it. I didn't get 99 agility on my main because it was fun (it made me want to fucking neck myself), I did it because I wanted the max cape, and so I had to do it.
In my 10 weeks of being sober, I've probably still played video games for like 15-25 hours a week (I work full time and have a wonderful family life.) But I've only played games for the enjoyment of the game. That is the difference. I've also played way way more games with my wife -- who is also a gamer, but who I often didn't play games with because, well, she didn't play RuneScape.
A couple of points on motivation because learning about this stuff is actually what led me down the path of deciding to quit:
You actually need to use your 'motivational resources' in order to activate the desire to grind in OSRS. Those motivational resources can be used elsewhere -- to do a course that will increase your employability, to go buy your wife a great present for her birthday, to go weed the garden like you keep telling yourself you're "going to do this weekend" (to be clear this isn't me, I don't give a fuck about gardening, I'm just saying.)
Dopamine is a motivation drug, not a happiness drug. Dopamine gets you to do things. It is a reward that your brain gives you for accomplishing something you set out to do. But your brain can only give you so much dopamine per day; it's literally a chemical, and your brain only has so much of it at-the-ready at any time. It then has to be recreated.
So you can decide, through your actions, what to "spend" that dopamine on. Do you want to spend it on watching numbers go up in runescape, or do you want to spend it on hanging those pictures that you've been putting off hanging for 2 weeks? You know you'll feel better when you hang those damn pictures, dude. That's dopamine!
I need to say this as well, for anyone who takes my advice and quits: I have had many hard days. Many times now I have experienced a very strong urge to log back on. It has been very difficult, frankly -- for a few days it actually made me feel very upset, and dare I say, even depressed. But on those days, I just kept reminding myself: there is a reason I'm doing this. If the reason is still true, then I have to stay strong and just get through it. Eventually, I know that I will stop experiencing those negative feelings; OSRS will be far enough in the past that those urges will simply not happen.
Anyways, guys. I love you all. If you're suffering from self-loathing associated with playing OSRS, just know: you are capable of changing it. You are the only one in control of your own freedom. Freedom requires responsibility, as Kant says; if you do not hold yourself responsible for your own actions, you become a slave to your basest animal instincts, and by definition a slave is not free.
P.S. HealthyGamerGG's youtube channel was great for me. He has some videos on motivation, and I recommend them.
