From Gaming Fun to Financial Regret

Hi, I’m MayyT, and this is my story about how I used to be addicted to games. There was a phase in my life where games literally controlled my whole day. The moment I woke up, the first thing in my mind was “let’s play a game first.” Even when I was about to sleep, it was still “ just one more game.” 

from: idn.freepik.com 

Because of that, my sleep schedule got messed up. I stayed up late just to level up or chase events. Time that should’ve been used for other things ended up being spent staring at my phone or laptop. My real-life routine was basically just eating, sleeping, and going back to gaming.

The worst part was how much money I wasted. Money that should’ve gone to something important ended up disappearing because of top-ups. I still remember this one monopoly-style game I used to play. I was curious about this super OP card, so I kept pulling gacha until I spent over 500k rupiah, and the result? Nothing. I didn’t get anything at all. I felt annoyed, guilty, and honestly a bit stupid. After that, I immediately uninstalled it and never touched the game again.

But of course, I didn’t stop there. I moved on to a dress-up game,and the same thing happened. I spent a lot again just to get the outfits I wanted. I even bought VIP access just to get rare items. Eventually, I took a one-year break. When I tried to log in again… well, the game had already shut down. All the money I had spent disappeared just like that. I couldn’t even be mad anymore, I just accepted it.

And yeah, it didn’t stop there. There is another game that I still play until today. Back then, I spent millions just to collect a full set of skins which if I think about it now, even if I did complete the whole set, it didn’t actually mean anything in my real life, hahaha.

But from all those experiences, I learn a lot. I still play games now, but I have way better self control. I don’t randomly top-up anymore, even though sometimes I still slip when I see a cute skin and my hand automatically tries to top up, but at least I can stop myself before I spend too much.

My gaming time is much healthier now, I don’t stay up all night just to play games anymore. I have learned to manage my time for sleep, work, study, and only playing games when I’m actually free. Gaming is still my hobby, but it’s no longer something that controls my life. (MayyT)