I got suckered into playing 800+ hours of GTA Online and paying thousands of SEK for shark cards over a year or two before I realized what a terrible game it is.

I was addicted to it, and paid money every month to buy shark cards.

When my work situation improved however, I took a few steps back and realized that I had wasted a lot of money on it and that I was only chasing the dragon that was just out of reach, kept away from me by carefully crafted mental mechanics of the game.

I was disgusted and refused to participate further.

I uninstalled it right away and have never looked back.

[–] Caboose12000@lemmy.world 3 points 9 hours ago

I never spent a dime on it, but I did play for over 3000 hours before rock star blocked linux. I enjoyed the grind rather than the reward, so it sort of became my little safe-space game when I was really stresses out. could always just go hang out with my buds for a few hours and grind out a million bucks. I'm still kinda torn up about the anticheat situation tbh, I would gladly play alone if there were any way to play the same game. but story mode just doesnt compare for me, completly different game :(

[–] Shooie@lemmy.world 50 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Super proud of you internet stranger. Addictions fucking suck and are hard to break. Congratulations!

[–] stoy@lemmy.zip 12 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Yeah, I never let it spiral out of control, but I did let it take all of my lessiure money for a year or two, not fun.

But educational.