No I'm not trolling, I'm dead serious. I've been an avid gamer for all of my teenage years and now that I'm going to college I don't want to play them anymore. I can't help myself sometimes though. I managed to quit WoW a year ago (so glad I escaped that addictive trap). I want to be able to focus on the more important things. Video games have taken priority in my life, and I can't help it, I keep playing. Video games have become to me, what cigarettes are to a smoker and I always need to feed that craving.

What can I do to quit my habit?

Now I know there are going to be a few smart ass remarks on this one, though I would appreciate being spared a few...

Find another hobby that allows you to focus on more important things while you enjoy it, but prevents you from playing games while you enjoy it.

Ideally that would mean taking an interest in the important things. That's never going to happen with me, so I settled for music. I can do light studying and research while I listen, but can't play games. Well, except some crappy games where sound doesn't matter.

If you think it's a serious addiction that affects your wellbeing than the obvious answer is try to see a counselor or therapist or someone.

Otherwise, you could find a new hobby (reading, hanging out with friends) or become passionate about what you're studying in college and make that your thing...Or just learn to game in moderation. Don't really know what else to tell you, mainly it's something you'd have to do yourself, but if you physically can't, then the obvious answer is to get some help.

You will not be spared.

Pay someone to taze you every time you try to play a video game.

There's your problem.

Do you really want to stop playing video games all together? It's entirely possible to focus on the important things and continue playing video games as well.

Every time you think about video games, punch yourself in the gut as hard as you can, it worked for me.

Stick to EA games.

I can't see a counselor if I want to be a commercial pilot. That automatically disqualifies you or at least makes it a big [censored] pain in the ass to get your medical.
Now I'm not at the point where I can't function. Its more like instead of doing homework, I'll play video games until 11pm or instead of working out and staying in shape, I'll play video games for 4 hours.

The thing is, I get too wrapped up into them if I play them at all. Once I start, its tough to pull away from them or focus on something else.

Seek professional help if you fell that it is adversely affecting your life. I believe that there is a push to have computer addiction recognised formally which would open the door to expert services. But if you do feel this way then you have already won half the battle.

See the post above yours about the professional help

Get a computer from 1991 and get rid of your consoles. Then sell your phone and get a old one that can't get games. Then sell all of your games. Not only will you make some money, but you'll remove the ability to play games.

Well clearly you need to smash your console/PC. Or just sell all your games and delete all the memory on them. Sometimes I have a hard time replaying something knowing that I have done it a few times already.

How old are you? Chances are you'll just grow out of it as you get older.

I used to game for almost 100 hours a week, but now I'm lucky if I rack up 100 hours in a month.

Then you need to go extreme and get rid of your gaming systems completely (maybe even disconnect if you have similar issues with social networks).

Solution to your problem: Sell or dispose of all your video games. If it is as serious of a problem as you make it sound, and you really do want to quit the hobby, then make it so you cannot access those games.

I'll put it to you this way, what's more important to you, your health and well-being or a possible career? I'm sure there's someone you could see that can keep it confidential, I would start by approaching someone at your college and seeing if they can recommend you to someone. They want to look out for you and will (or should) do anything they can to help you. I'm certain you could get the problem taken care of and still pursue your career. If video games get in the way of you doing well at school / future job training you will not get into your career anyway. Get yourself taken care of first and then worry about a career.

...or forums.

Just like any habit, it requires willpower to break. Get some.

I'm not trolling either, but maybe a girlfriend will do the trick? I dont have one and havent for a while, and sometimes I think maybe the warm embrace of a lover would perhaps ease my dependance on computeronomy a little bit.

So, you're procrastinating on the important stuff, because of the availability of a distraction? Well you're in college right? Does your campus have any student available computer facilities? or dead zones where your laptop wireless won't work? If you want to work on homework and not be distracted by games, the best immediate solution is to be somewhere where you can't play video games, and all you have is what you need to do homework. IN the end, you're going to need to work up the willpower to stay focused on work and other important crap, but for now, being physically apart from your games should ensure you have little else to do but work.

Sell all your games, consoles, delete your Steam account (can you do that? I don't know) - try to go cold turkey. Also, I'd say stop visiting video game forums, news sites, blogs, the lot. Probably won't work, but that's all I got.

if you're a pc gamer, i can say hands down the best way to stop playing video games is to break your computer and start using a laptop. i get that you might not want to do that because you spent money on it or something, so sell it instead and buy a laptop. productivity will increase tremendously. seriously, even the most gaming-capable laptop is a big hassle to actually use for gaming.

sell either your consoles or your console games. you won't make jack [censored] off PC games second-hand so they're not worth the trouble of trying to sell. console games still have a good used market.

cut out video game forums, they're awful. kotaku, joystiq, g4, gametrailers, whatever - [censored] em. cut out reddit and [censored] (why is that even censored) if they're a thing for you. you can't do anything about your Steam account short of changing the password to both Steam and the email account you used to sign up to something completely impossible to remember.

find a hobby. music is good because it takes [censored] forever to do anything and you'll lose all will to do anything else except sleep. take up an instrument (not guitar that's a loser instrument for losers take up the cello or something). buy a Macbook and write a [censored] indie folk album using GarageBand loops. drawing is good because you don't need a computer for that.

actually just in general - computers are [censored] and you should just stop using computers entirely and get a tablet or something. you wanna be a pilot? you probably don't need anything more than a basic netbook.

more than anything you pretty much just need to man the [censored] up. cold turkey is tough but it works. if you can't do it yourself, back up everything important and get a friend to wreck your [censored] for you. seriously - the biggest motivator to go do something else is when everything you use on a daily basis suddenly just stops working. video games svck, they're not worth wasting time on if you've got something more important you should be doing.

To be very honest - you have to have willpower to break a habit to videogaming. I see a lot of people saying to just break or sell your stuff, but if you are truly addicted, you'll just replace them or find some other place/way to play. This is coming from someone who developed a true addiction to the MMO game, Dark Age of Camelot. Woke up, logged on, and while I waited for it to connect and load up my game, get something to eat.. then I'd literally game until the wee hours of the morning... or the late afternoon of the following day... crash for a few hours and do it all over again the next day. THAT'S addiction... which it doesn't sound like you have. The way I've stayed away from doing that again is to NEVER play a game that has online/multiplayer. I don't tend to get cracked out on things that don't have player to player interaction. (Which is actually how I ended up playing the Elder Scrolls series in the first place.) If you have a more general issue with all types of games and you don't think you can do it in moderation (I absolutely can't play MMOs in moderation) then you have to stop playing all together. Eventually, and especially if you get busy with other things, you don't really "crave" to play anymore.

But this all hinges on the issue of whether or not you're a strong enough person to stop. If not, and you can't/won't get professional help, then you're honestly out of luck.

Get a girlfriend.

I don't understand. Find the willpower within yourself to not play. I know where you are coming from, I used to come home from school and drop everything to play video games. Nowadays though, I'm working, and even though I can come home and svck away the rest of my afternoon with games, I don't. Mostly because I'm damn tired, but also because I can feel the Want in me, but I'll just sort of tell myself no.

Willpower, it will work. Once you exert control over what you like, then you'll pretty much be set.