I haven't touched a video game since October 3rd.

Not because I quit. Because something else took over.

The Before

WoW mythic+ and mythic raiding, League TFT, pushing keys until 3am and min-maxing builds. You know that "one more run" feeling where you look up and it's 4am.

I led a guild for years, calling pulls, explaining fights, and keeping twenty people from wiping. It was actually fulfilling work.

Dark Souls and Elden Ring hit different though, because those aren't about optimization. They're about being human: you die a hundred times with no shortcut, just you and the boss and slowly getting better. Humility through repetition.

But at the end of the day it was all leaderboards, achievements, and numbers that reset next season.

The Shadow

I failed out of Virginia Tech and stopped going in 2014.

The wound was specific: I told myself I'm not a real engineer because I can't code like they can.

It took me six years to finish my undergrad, and I got my Masters in 2023. I didn't find a workaround; I did the hard thing the hard way.

The Shift

ChatGPT dropped in late 2022, and I started using LLMs immediately with copy-paste workflows, building systems, and figuring out what works. Two years of scattered experimentation.

In September 2024 I started testing every coding agent I could find, and in October I went deep.

October 3rd, 2024. That's when it clicked.

The copy-paste stuff, the agentic workflows, and the patterns I'd been building for two years solidified into something real. I realized I hadn't thought about gaming in weeks.

Now when I look up at 4am, there's a thing: a system that works, a tool someone can use.

It's the same flow state as gaming with a different output.

The Skills Transfer

Gaming trained me for this.

Pattern recognition. WoW boss fights are pattern matching: watch the animation, know the mechanic, and react correctly. Code is the same thing, where you see the pattern and know the solution.

Flow state. Gamers know how to disappear into something for hours, and that's exactly what vibe coding needs. You're not coding in 15-minute bursts; you're in it.

Optimization loops. TFT is pure optimization: build the comp, hit the timing, and adjust to the lobby. Prompt engineering is the same loop of adjust, test, and improve.

Coordination. Leading a raid is managing 20 people doing different jobs toward one goal, and multi-agent AI is the same thing with different specialists orchestrated together.

The ADHD Connection

This is the part I don't usually talk about.

ADHD brain craves tight feedback loops, and gaming provides them perfectly with constant reward signals, clear progression, and immediate consequences.

Traditional coding has long feedback loops: write code, compile, debug, wait. My brain checked out.

Vibe coding compressed the loop. Describe what you want, see it appear, and iterate immediately. The feedback is instant, and my brain stays engaged.

Traditional Coding:
Write → Compile → Debug → Wait → Test → 30-60 minutes
Gaming:
Action → Result → Adjust → 0.5-2 seconds
Vibe Coding:
Prompt → Output → Iterate → 10-30 seconds

I'm not saying vibe coding is for ADHD people specifically. I'm saying the tight feedback loops that make gaming addictive also make vibe coding sustainable for brains that struggle with traditional development cycles.

Why It's Fun

Gaming taught me that you only keep playing if the loop feels good, and the fun isn't optional because it's what makes it sustainable.

Vibe coding has that loop. Ideas become real fast, and every session opens new paths. I haven't felt this engaged since discovering WoW.

Life 3.0

I read Tegmark's Life 3.0 in 2017, where he writes about different kinds of intelligence working together, humans and AI complementing each other.

That idea stuck with me for years, though it felt theoretical at the time.

Now I'm living it. Human brain and AI brain coordinate together, with each filling gaps the other has.

Eight years from reading about it to actually doing it.

The Difference

It's the same high with a different artifact.

The leaderboards reset every season, but the things I build don't.

The Counter

I haven't gamed since October 3rd. Not because I'm avoiding it; I just don't want to. The counter is for me to see how long this new thing has held my attention.

It's holding.

Why This Matters

Gaming gets dismissed as wasted time: millions of hours, billions of players, and nothing to show for it.

That's wrong.

Gaming trains real skills including pattern recognition, flow state, optimization thinking, and coordination. The output just wasn't real.

Vibe coding changes the output. It's the same skills with a different artifact.

If you game, you already have the foundation, and the question is what you point it at.

The Invitation

Joseph Campbell said follow your bliss, and he undersold it.

The walls aren't opening; they're dissolving. Every direction is a door now, and behind each one is a skill tree I didn't know existed.

Neo downloads kung fu in seconds, and I'm not that fast, but vibe coding compressed years into months. The feedback loop is so tight that learning feels like remembering.

Try It

Gamers already know how to recognize patterns faster than they can explain them, how to stay in flow for hours without noticing, how to optimize obsessively, and how to coordinate toward shared objectives.

Vibe coding needs exactly that.

Start here
npx @boshu2/vibe-check --since "1 week ago"
Track your sessions
npx @boshu2/vibe-check profile
Watch for spirals in real-time
npx @boshu2/vibe-check watch

The skills transfer. You just have to point them somewhere.