how BGA could help me cope with addiction

[chrottepösche]

Hi There

I really struggle with wingspan addiction. BGA profits from the misery of me and people like me, and I think they should try to help. Here is my suggestion on how:

I want to be able to block my self temporarily from playing,...
1. by defining a max of games per day.
2. forcing me to take a break of 15 minutes between games.
3. not allowing me to play at certain day-times, like at night and in the morning.

I know this would not be of help to most addicts because they would simply not use it. But I am sure it would help me and quite sure some others too, while I don't think it would be too difficult to implement. What do you think?

Thanks for reading.

[Ceaseless]

What would stop someone from either turning it off when it's inconvenient for them or just making a new account?

[chrottepösche]

It would of course only make sence if you couldn't turn it off with imediate affect, but only let's say for in two days. Getting a new account is enoying because you have to play against beginners again, so i would only do this is I were cracy lost.

[hoss1]

is this a joke?

there are already solutions for this, lock up your phone/computer/internet.

[chrottepösche]

Locking up devices is far from doing the same. I need my devices for productive stuff as well. While there are solutions to block a specific website, the best of them are expensive, while they don't really do what I want. None of them can block you for a short time between games to force you to take a break. While some can block you at specific daytimes, this is annoying because I don't want a time at which my last game has to be finished, but a limit for starting a game. I would never use a solution that might cut off a running game. Also, I guess that most of them are easy to trick. I once tried one; when I reached the time that would have blocked me, I just turned back the clock on my computer, and that worked. I played the whole night.

[Meeplelowda]

Locking up devices is far from doing the same. I need my devices for productive stuff as well. While there are solutions to block a specific website, the best of them are expensive, while they don't really do what I want. None of them can block you for a short time between games to force you to take a break. While some can block you at specific daytimes, this is annoying because I don't want a time at which my last game has to be finished, but a limit for starting a game. I would never use a solution that might cut off a running game. Also, I guess that most of them are easy to trick. I once tried one; when I reached the time that would have blocked me, I just turned back the clock on my computer, and that worked. I played the whole night.

First: https://boardgamearena.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=42521

Second: it seems you're outside the U.S., so you probably actually have access to mental health services to help you deal with this issue. This is a broader issue than a game on BGA. It's just manifesting itself that way. If Wingspan were removed from BGA you'd find something else to fixate on.

[FrankJones]

A good friend of mine is an addiction counselor.

This is not a joke. Any addiction is a serious matter.

Poker websites allow players to "self-exclude", and it cannot be canceled or turned off. Casinos offer people the option of self-banning, and if they break the agreement and go to the casino, they can be charged with trespassing.

I don't see BGA implementing this feature, but that doesn't mean it's a joke or a bad idea.
Internet addiction and related addictions (such as one specific to one game on the internet) is a real thing.

[jrokholt]

I would also be interested in features like these! Not for a specific game, but starting games in general. Something like max games started per day, or a specific amount of time played per day after which I can't start or join any new games, only play existing ones.

The external tools that can do similar things are definitely not optimal, they would block access to all games, including turn-based ones where people would be waiting for me to take a turn, and games that were started right before the time limit elapsed. Those tools can't plan ahead very well.

I think a feature like this would help people be able to enjoy BGA without getting so deep into it eventually that they'd have to delete their account or block the site entirely.

[SleepyLibrarian]

I think this is a great idea, too. I don't know that I have an addiction per se, but I definitely get obsessed and spend too much time here sometimes. I would love a feature that let me set a limit on games started per day, or even one that reminded me how many I played that day, just to help make me a little more mindful about smashing that "play again" button.

[Dan-Flashes]

I suggest installing the leechblock extension on all your browsers. You can define exactly how long you want to be able to use BGA each day/hour and I have not found a way of circumventing the block.