A tight-knit gaming friend group had a routine: nightly games, voice chat, and years of shared time online. But when one member shifted his focus to developing his own game, the dynamic quietly started to change.

What began as jokes about being “too busy” slowly turned into tension that no one seemed willing to name.

Read on for the story.

AITA for getting into a fight with my friends after I stopped playing games with them?

I’ve been part of the same gaming friendgroup for years. Almost every night we played together, hung out in voice chat, and it was basically how we stayed close. It was routine and something I really valued.

A few months ago, I started working on my own game project. What began as a small idea slowly became serious.

I began spending most of my free time learning new tools, planning features, and building the game. Because of that, I stopped playing as much.

Makes sense.

I still joined voice chat sometimes, but I was quieter, joined late, or left early.

At first, my friends joked about it: “Too busy for us now?” or “Guess you forgot gaming.” I laughed it off at first, but over time it started to feel constant.

Every declined invite turned into a comment, and every short appearance became another joke about how I never played anymore.

So unsupportive.

It stopped feeling like teasing and started feeling like pressure. One night, it boiled over. They invited me to play and I said I couldn’t because I wanted to finish a milestone before the weekend.

Someone said I “always had an excuse,” and another asked what the point was of me even being around if I never played.

I snapped and told them it felt like they didn’t respect what I was trying to do. That turned into a full argument about priorities and how I had “changed.”

Ouch.

Voices were raised, people talked over each other, and I eventually left the call feeling angry and guilty.

I keep wondering if I handled it badly, or if it’s reasonable to prioritize something important to me even if it means less time gaming with friends.

So, AITA?

Now he’s left wondering whether standing up for his priorities crossed a line, or whether his friends crossed it first by refusing to respect his growth.

Reddit has some mixed feelings here.

This person says ESH.

This person says YTA.

And this person says NTA.

Turns out leveling up in real life can upset people who only liked you when you stayed in the same game.

If you thought that was an interesting story, check out what happened when a family gave their in-laws a free place to stay in exchange for babysitting, but things changed when they don’t hold up their end of the bargain.