It starts great. The game is a banger, and you are having an absolute blast playing it.

But after a while, something starts to feel off, like something is missing.

Later, no matter how much time, money, or energy you spend, the game will always make you feel like it’s not enough .

It seems like it doesn’t respect your boundaries and doesn’t accept that you might have a life or other games to play outside of it.

So after you put in a ridiculous amount of time and money, you understand that it is not you who is the problem — this is a fundamental game design.

You start to realize that you don’t even like the game that much anymore. You feel obliged to play it. It’s old, and the community inside it is awful and toxic.

People you play the game with might disagree and say you exaggerate, but you realize that they are trapped and don’t play other games to compare it to.

And then the healing starts. You play it less and less, or even uninstall it.

And that is when the love-bombing begins!

New, sometimes long-awaited changes and updates, big bonuses for returning players, lucrative events.

You might tell yourself that the game wasn’t that bad, and that maybe you were too invested in it.

And then the vicious cycle begins again.