Relinquishing Online Video Games

(Minghui.org) I used to work for a company with a department that developed online games. I often heard people discussing how to take advantage of human weaknesses (without reservation) and make games that trap the players into becoming addicted. The goal is to make players keep adding money to their accounts so that the developers and investors will reap huge profits.

They studied every detail of a game and used human psychological weaknesses to trap the user’s feelings, which then makes them recharge their accounts so they can continue to play. They knew precisely when and how to make the players pay to keep playing. They even invited psychologists and educational experts to study the reward mechanisms for this purpose. The experts talked about how they encouraged children to attend various training facilities and to enjoy the experience. The game developers incorporated the experts’ tips into the games.

I felt creeped out by their discussions. I had always disliked online game apps and now I disliked them more.

Recently, a lot of game ads have poured into social media. At first, I turned them off each time I saw one. However, the big data kept pushing the ads automatically. After six months of this, I relaxed my vigilance. There was a small game being repeatedly pushed. It looked simple so I casually clicked on it to play. However, the simple game was associated with another game and the associated game looked like it was fun. I had some time to spare so I played it casually for a while. I knew it contained reward mechanisms to trap people. However, thinking that I would not recharge the account anyway, I played the game for a while.

The game was designed so that as long as the player played a little every day, he would level up and receive rewards. I thought, “Since I was spending only a little time each day, it would not keep me from anything important.” Three days later, I found a feature that could help me automatically log in and play for 10 days and it only cost six yuan ($0.84). I reloaded my account because it was such a good deal. I intended to play for only five minutes every day and collect the rewards; but each time, I played for over an hour—I was hooked and played more to collect more rewards. I reloaded my account every 10 days.

I have Dafa projects I work on every day and have a fixed schedule on when I read the Fa. My time is very tight and playing the game was obviously a waste of my time. I was very familiar with the game developer’s tricks and I realized that I had fallen into their trap.

One evening, just before midnight, when I was ready to send righteous thoughts, I suddenly saw a scene showing that the moment I joined the game, the door to cultivation closed. I immediately realized that I must stop playing the game.

I stopped for three days. On the fourth day, the social media group said that there were incentives (the game required the player to join a social media group). I was in the restroom at the time. Thinking that I had time to kill, I joined the game to collect the reward and there I was, trapped again.

In the following month, I controlled myself and only played the game during my absolutely free time, such as when I was in the restroom. I thought that it shouldn’t be a big deal since I wasn’t wasting much time. At the same time, I also clearly felt the game grasping and exploiting my human weaknesses.

One night, while reading one of Master Li’s (Dafa’s founder) Fa lectures, I suddenly thought that it was time for a big reward if I joined the game. Thinking that I did not have to really play it, I joined the game and spent 3-4 minutes logged in to collect the reward. Afterward, I felt that I was not respectful to Master and was not serious about reading the Fa. Normally, I require myself to read the Fa with a sincere heart and let every character enter my mind, and I did not do anything else until I have finished reading. I didn’t even drink water.

The next morning, while still in a daze, I heard a very kind voice say, “Okay, your game problem is solved for you. Don’t play it anymore, and don’t recharge with money anymore.”

I was momentarily shocked. I thought, “Obviously, I played the game because I have poor self-control. Will Master help me in this situation?” When I got up and looked at my cell phone, I had been kicked out of the game by the playgroup. They said that I was not as active as the others. I knew that Master had helped me. I quit the game and the social media group. I have not played the game since then.

Online games do everything they can to trap people into continuing to play. They are devils consuming people. As a cultivator, one must be sure to not be sucked in. Cultivation is serious. Whenever I played the game, the door to cultivation was closed to me. If you want to be responsible to yourself, don’t play video games.

Most Dafa practitioners will not touch these things. However, I do feel that some young practitioners may become hooked. I share my experiences so that others can take what I did as a warning. We should be cautious of not only games but also various things online that cause addiction and consume time, such as TikTok and various short video-playing apps. Time is precious. As the Fa-rectification approaches its conclusion, we should use every moment to do things a Dafa practitioner should do, and not be interfered with by the various depravities of the end times.