Actually, the Streisand effect occurs when trying to restrict access or remove incentives when it comes to habits. Essentially, you are more likely to do something if you are specifically told not to do it. So, making it harder for your future self to commit to a habit would actually make it more desirable to relive that habit.
As for genuine advice to combat addiction, you need to locate the root cause. Playing a 2D shoot-em-up is usually not the underlying issue. Moreover, that is generally some sort of coping mechanism to fill an empty void in someone’s life. Having friends to talk to, meditation, exercise, and expressing emotions are all considered healthy coping mechanisms. Playing video games could also be a coping mechanism, but if it needs to be avoided, you have to replace it with something else. Getting involved in something you care about will greatly fill that empty void.
This statement is going to be flat: Some people have boring lives. And that is okay. Modern day life does not require us to give much effort to survive. In order to make life more interesting, you can start small. Clean your room. It will feel really good when you organize and clean up everything. Then, clean up your house. Take inventory of your supplies. Take note of what you need. Write down whatever comes to mind. Keep track of your short-term goals. And then pretty soon, you will start to clean up your life. It is a fairly basic concept: If you have things to do already, you will not occupy your time with bad habits or poor coping mechanisms.
As in the case of drug addiction, everything I said above was true. However, depending on the drug, the withdrawal effects can be pretty severe, making it more tempting to go back to that habit even if you filled the empty void in your life. This is exactly why you do not cut out drugs entirely. The first step of becoming clean with drugs is to realize that you want to become clean, and then slowly remove it from your life until you do not require it anymore. Take Portugal for example, they have a very radical drug policy in which all drugs are decriminalized for personal use. This makes hard drugs very accessible to the public, yet statistics show that the rate of people getting addicted is decreasing. Here are some other videos which address drug addiction: Is Decriminalising all Drugs a Good Idea? Portugals Radical Drug Policy Explained - TLDR News and 3 Arguments Why Marijuana Should Stay Illegal Reviewed.
I would agree with you and argue that “removing as many incentives as possible” to solve a personal addiction is the correct solution if (and only if) the mental health of the person in question is in great condition. However, if Stuartcat (OP) had high resilience to withdrawal, is not contradictory that they would not spend 9 years and so much money playing video games, let alone RotMG?
The point (and my entire opinion on this stance) is that committing so much to something you obviously have enjoyed, then destroying all of it, is the biggest waste of time I could ever imagine. Could you imagine going through a domestic relationship with your significant other for a long time, only to lose interest and remove all the possibilities that stemmed from what you have built together? What about working for a company and going through the ranks to become the CEO, only to quit because there was nothing to work towards? Or saving money your whole life to finally buy that dream house you always wanted, only to realize you hate living in a large house and would prefer a small apartment?
For those three examples, I am not saying the aftermaths are a bad thing at all! It is a good thing if you acknowledge that you do not like your partner anymore, but you can communicate those feelings and plan ahead of time to see what works best, rather than breaking up altogether. It is a good thing that your enjoyment from working in a company was to conquer to heights, but once you are at the summit, you can help make the company better and set forth new challenges, rather than quitting while you were ahead. It is a good thing that you found out your dream house did not satisfy you at all, but you can live in it with someone else or put it up for rent, rather than selling it off and living somewhere else.
So, is the same not true for someone’s commitment to a video game? It is a great, WONDERFUL conception that playing the worst video game of all time (no iframes btw) is not something you want to do anymore. But, rather than throwing away everything to remove you from that game as much as possible, you can fill your life with equally, if not, more enjoyable things to do. Am I wrong? People make decisions all the time, but I believe some decisions are higher quality than others.
