#10. Addiction to Progression

Tags: addictiongaming

Date Published: 2026-03-28

There are years of content in OSRS.

I liked my one month of grinding in Old School RuneScape, but I figured out pretty quickly that this MMO would suck all the time out of me if I played it. There is so much to do, it can become overwhelming. Still, all that variety is stuck inside the contents of one game.

Having one game to play as part of your whole gaming hobby isn't a bad thing, and can actually give you a place of constant reprieve from life's hardships.

But I like to have variety in a hobby, and playing only one game for me is like drawing only one person for the rest of my life. Furthermore, I think splitting your attention between two games weakens one's enjoyment of both.

When does a game become tedious?

After watching two videos on OSRS addiction,^[1]^[2] I realized that developers can make a game meaningless through pointless content just to keep retention high is a reality that happens far more often than gamers would like to admit.

When this happens, a player has to ask themselves, is the game fun, or does it feel like a chore to play?

If the answer is the second one, you should quit immediately and play something else. Only return if you've seen real change and real action from the developers.

But what if you can't quit?

When gaming start to feel like a job.

It is hard to admit addiction, especially in such a harmless hobby like playing video games. But, it does happen, and it is in the best interest of your health and money to know when to stop.

MMO's make it hard to do so, however. You feel like if you stop now, you're throwing away months, or even years of progress.

But, if the experience was truly fun, a deletion of an account or a pivot to another game cannot erase your good memories.

That is why quitting is not a waste of your progression. Gaming shouldn't be played for progression's sake. Progression is a part of a game's loop that is meant to be fun, so it can give you good memories.

If a game loop starts feeling like a day job, why continue?

Get rid of any hobbies with subscriptions or ads.

There are three types of video games:

Those that you pay for upfront;
Those that you pay for with your time and attention (most often with ads);
Those that you pay for with time, attention, and money;

MMO's are incentivized by the nature of their monetization system to keep you hooked.

In games like OSRS your progression isn't based on skill, but on the time and money you spent. Again, It is in their best interest to keep you hooked, no matter what. In games and services with ads, it is the same story. If you do not pay with money, you pay with attention and personal data.

It bears repeating: a service that requires constant payment (through money or time) will do anything to retain the customer, at any cost, because their business model depends on it.