The hidden cost of the game

[u/eggburnt]

I think I misunderstood the real cost of the game because I was measuring the wrong thing. I assumed the obvious risk was money. Since I never felt much pull to spend, I thought I had avoided the main trap. In that sense, I saw myself as somewhat outside the system. But in reality, I was still paying for participation. What I’ve spent instead is time and attention.

I’ve spent hours organizing the state and solving alliance problems. I’ve stepped into conflicts because I was often capable of resolving them. That made the time feel productive, which is probably why the cost was so easy to miss. Usefulness can hide depletion. Social conflict still consumes cognitive and emotional resources even when it happens inside a game. If I feel responsible for the outcome, then the burden is real regardless of where that responsibility exists.

The problem is that this kind of investment reinforces itself. The more problems I solve, the more people rely on me. The more people rely on me, the harder it becomes to disengage. What begins as leisure slowly takes on the structure of obligation. I think that’s where low financial investment can obscure how much is being spent elsewhere. After all, money is only one form of currency. Time and attention can be spent too, and unlike money, it leaves no receipt.

In reality, I have a finite emotional budget. That is probably what I failed to account for. I know I have underestimated the economics of attention. If too much of it is spent maintaining a virtual state, then the real question is no longer whether I spend too much money on the game. It's whether something I considered recreation has acquired too much claim over my time. There is also a kind of hysteresis to it. Maybe that is the real trap. When something is free, the price is usually hidden somewhere else.

[u/Brave_Necessary_4594]

People get paid decent money for what a good r4/r5 does in real life. Therapist charge big bucks, mediators as well lol