Tenant cuts Wi-Fi access to gamer roommate after he's late on rent for 6 months in a row: 'No Star Wars Galaxies for you!'

Author image for Ben Weiss
Ben Weiss • Writer and Editor
Feb 28, 2026 8:00 AM EST

This frustrating roommate paid the price for not having his priorities straight.

As someone who is very much not a gamer, I know that I am in no position to judge folks who repeatedly shell out hundreds of dollars on their "game zone" setup (although it's certainly tempting to do so). 

Still, I know what it is to have an uncontrollable passion for something outside of your central responsibilities (work, family, friends, etc). I understand the need to carve out time, energy, and even money to fulfill that passion because of the joy it brings… within reason.

This roommate's inability to understand that prioritizing his gaming over paying rent is a problem that needs to be confronted head-on.

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  • A young man sits at his game zone setup with his headset on.
    via Unsplash+ (Jordan González)

    A young man sits at his game zone setup with his headset on.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • As important as maintaining hobbies is, sometimes, you do need to know when you have to draw a line. 

    A good litmus test for this is to check if your actions or priorities are actively affecting your living experience or that of the people in your life. The gamer in this anecdote had been late 1-2 weeks on paying rent for 6 months in a row after spending a ton of money on the latest edition of his new favorite game. 

    That most certainly qualifies as an extreme example in which the gamer was not exactly playing his cards right.

  • Don't pay your rent? No Star Wars Galaxies for you!

    I used to have a roommate who was always late with his rent and always had an excuse. Every month I'd hit him up for rent and
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  • bills and would end up coving most of it myself while he figured out his finances. I paid all the utilities including the internet.
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  • This was back when the Star Wars Galaxies video game had just came out (I think it was the 1st star wars MMORPG?) and he went ape-st for this game,
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  • playing almost all his waking hours. Not sure if it was the game or not but he started getting really late on his rent. Not just a couple days or a week anymore but sometimes paying a week before rent was due again.
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  • After about 6 months of this, it started bothering me a bit. He had told me that he would pay his rent (being about 2 weeks late) but when I went to collect, he
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  • only gave me half. I did notice he had purchased a couple subscription cards for his star wars game though and felt a little fed up.
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  • I googled what network ports the game used to access the remote servers, then blocked only those ports on my router. I heard him say 'WT in the other room
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  • seconds after I saved the settings. He came in asking if there was something wrong with the internet so I showed him by screen and said everything looked fine from here.
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  • A gamer plays on his computer as his roommate looks on.
    via Unsplash+ (Jordan González)

    A gamer plays on his computer as his roommate looks on.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • For days he was Googling and calling Sony tech support to try and fix the issue and could not figure it out. A couple times he'd ask me to reboot the router and I'd say 'Sure buddy! no problem!". He could do anything
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  • else on his computer or play any other online game. He was only blocked from playing his favorite one. Every couple days he'd pop his head in my room and ask if i could check the settings or reboot the router one more time.
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  • I'd agree then tell him everything looks fine on my end. Which is was. I ended up never unblocking those ports and he had to move back to WoW or something. He
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  • moved out long before the game shut down in 2011 so maybe he got to use those game cards after all.
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  • We're still friends but I never told him I did that. I'm pretty sure he'd say he suspected I did something but oh well. Pay your rent on time, bh.
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  • Before we judge the tenant for cutting off network access to his roommate, let's first acknowledge the fact that he has been more than generous for several months now. 

    In fact, the gamer is lucky that the author hadn't done something like this sooner. He could even have gone further and cut off all his internet access entirely. 

    Still, the author knew that what would really infuriate his roommate the most would be to prevent him from playing that one game. It's almost more sinister than cutting off all Wi-Fi access.

  • A gamer clicks using his mouse while gaming in front of his computer.
    via Unsplash+ (Jordan González)

    A gamer clicks using his mouse while gaming in front of his computer.

    Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.

  • bobk2. Late for the rent? Game over!
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  • NoTimeForPost 10/10 right up there with changing someone's contact in a phone so it looks like the girl/guy that person likes is texting them. But in reality it's just you.
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  • DrHarryCooper Tell him. You can play your little games when you pay rent. Rinse and repeat every cycle...
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Tags

adulting tenant gamers petty revenge apartment living payment roommates money
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