I lean toward “efficient entertainment”, but I do sometimes wonder what that chunk of my free time would look like otherwise.
I don’t know but I know if you raise this topic usually you will get stoned to death by downdoots and comments like “I could be doing meth or killing people but I am a gamer instead”
In my opinion it is delusional to not notice that these things are mostly just slop. Sure there are some games that actually enriched your life and changed your perspective but compared to movies they are few and between. It’s the lowest entertainment for pleb in most cases.
Take something like call of duty what does that game brings into your life? It’s nothing just digital heroin straight to the brain. On the other hand there are sophisticated games such as disco elysium.
There’s nothing bad with slop but if you only consume slop your brain will turn into it. It’s all common sense
TL;DR :
-There are good games and bad games but both are inferior to movies since videogames are “the lowest entertainment for pleb in most cases”
-Good games entertain you
-Bad games entertain you, buuuuuut they are bad games
Damn, you sound like that one asshole elitist teacher
I just like to face reality and not pretend that dopamine escapism is cool. Sorry if that personally hurt you but it’s better to be self aware and still do the thing than delusional that it is the same as more worthwhile forms of time spending.
I find the best games are challenging ones where I can watch myself improving at them, like training a skill. It’s not a transferable skill, of course, but I think the act of building your tenacity and accepting success/failure is healthy and good for the ego.
When I try games that I would consider “slop”: fetch quests and walking simulators in between cutscenes, I can feel my brain rotting and I don’t enjoy it.
What this meme is really saying is “the main issue with video games is you aren’t developing skills that can serve capitalistic interests via monetization of hobbies”
I love video games, but creating content for a publically traded brand to post on an advertising company’s streaming platform is inherently more serving of capitalism than documenting bugs.
That’s not a “video game” issue though, it’s a social media issue. Re-reading OP, it is more clear than I initially read it as (when I made this comment I felt it didn’t make up it’s mind who it’s swinging at, gamers or ‘streamers,’) so in context of the image you’re right.
However, I stand by my bigger point of “fuck shaming ‘unproductive’ hobbies.” Let people find their dopamine where they can find it so long as it isn’t bothering anyone.
Normally I would agree, but the deeper implication is contributing meaningful additions to collective human knowledge, and I kinda agree from an objectivist standpoint.
Agreed. It’s like how Emperor Hirohito did very important work.
Not the war. He spent the later half of his life meticulously collecting baseline data as a (rich and connected) marine biologist. It’s not exactly glamorous, but that data is a significant data point on how Climate Change is affecting ocean life. It’s a lot more pointed than “I swear there used to be more fireflies”.
(disclaimer: OP was more clear than I initially read it and maybe my original comment doesn’t hold up in reference to it. I’m just replying in reference to the bigger concept and it’s so long because I’m procrastinating pretty hard right now. I wanted to be clear that I’m not upset or anything, just putting off cleaning lol)
Hobbies shouldn’t have to be “productive,” whether financially or otherwise. Who is to gauge what counts as meaningful anyway? Not everybody can contribute “meaningful additions to collective human knowledge,” especially now. The bar to do so is so much higher than it was in 1820.
While Hypothetical German Lad could go collect beetles and have it be counted as a meaningful contribution as implied, I would have to (realistically, barring some 1 in a million happenstance) need a lab or something to make some big much wow discovery/contribution. If I went outside and collected beetles today, while it would count as a hobby, it wouldn’t be the contribution being implied here, I’d just be a bug collector. Mildly interesting, but no more productive than making some progress in Baldur’s Gate or doodling or whatever else menial pasttime.
I’m not interested in watching people play video games myself, but I’d argue it’s a productive hobby if it brings joy or information to others. In regards to OP: A 26 part youtube series about how to get all the rings in every sonic game is going to be useful to people trying to get all the rings in Sonic Generations or whatever entry they’re playing. There being 26 parts means they know that’s going to be a resource they can come back to when they boot up Sonic 8: The Ocho later. It’s still an addition to collective knowledge, just not all knowledge is deep cosmic understanding. I can have the knowledge of how to reach Burger King from work, bestow that knowledge upon a new coworker, but yknow nobody is going to write a book about me for it and that’s ok!
The world sucks right now and people are struggling, let folks have their silly hobbies without having to justify them. 🤷
The time sink that video games demand
Video games don’t demand your time more than any other hobby… do you avoid woodworking because you’re scared you’ll make an elaborate wardrobe instead of a little box? Do you avoid swimming because you don’t want to go across the English Channel?
You can play small games and you can play for an hour a week, there’s no need to burn every hour of every day on it like a teenager.
It’s way too easy for people to be exploited through video games, just as with gambling, for it to be “just another hobby”. They can also become addicted.
Yes, it can be a very nice hobby; with some games you can even show something for the time spent (As in skills, not “achievements”).
But it can also become a symptom of dangerous reality abandonment. The worst for this is in my opinion still better than substance abuse, but a danger nonetheless.
Yes, it can be a very nice hobby; with some games you can even show something for the time spent (As in skills
Nah, miss me with this mindset. Not every minute of your life needs to be productive, you should have at least one hobby that you can’t show something for the time spent.
Anything can be addicting. I knew a woman who was literally addicted to maraschino cherries. There are people who are addicted to work.
Anything done to excess is an addiction. So choose yours’ carefully.
I can see some indie games as being easy to pick up and put down without a huge time commitment.* However, we shouldn’t discount the fact that a lot of games today, especially some of the “AAA” types, are purposedly designed to be addictive.
*Despite being a small indie game, Cracktorio Factorio will ruin your life. The factory must grow.
Bigger games can also be quick. A match of rocket league is like 10 minutes. There’s no story so you can pick it up and put it down whenever you want.
It’s possible, but it can really change the type of games available to you too. I used to love Skyrim and similar, but eventually found I needed a minimum session of 2-3 hrs, otherwise I hadn’t even done any real playing, just inventory management, or getting crafting supplies. These days, with kids and work, I like rally simulator games, it can be satisfying to just do one or two stages, which can take as little as 5-20 mins. But it’s a whole different thing, no story, character development, surprises…a bit like going from watching Kurosawa films to watching the sports highlights.
I want a TV show about wood working addicts. Please Jeff, you must stop crafting intricate cabinets. No more driftwood tables either. I’m sick of cleaning up resin goddamnit.
I want a TV show about wood working addicts.
If you look around, probably on YouTube, I bet you can find episodes.
People can spend their time how they want, but when I hear people bragging about spending literally thousands of hours on game X and/or Y, it kind of makes me sad.
That being said, sometimes they’re well adjusted and satisfied people and that’s just what they want to do with the majority of their free time.
I do hear people make those kind of comments, but then in other conversations I hear them talking about how they’re dissatisfied, life is unfair, their life sucks, they can’t find a girlfriend, school is stupid, they hate their job, they have no friends, etc., those are the people that make me feel sad.
One of the things I’d like to put on the table is that most people who spend thousands of hours on video games are actively engaging on a mental level, most people spend thousands of hours in front of a TV basically disassociating. Could I be going out training to climb everest sure, that’s not what I want to do, and the same could be said for most people who don’t play video games.
If someone was bragging about the thousands of hours of television they watch and was then later complaining about their dissatisfaction with life, I would feel the same way. It isn’t watching TV, playing video games, or training for climbing everest that’s the problem, per se. It’s how much a given activity consumes of your finite time, how much of an effect that has on the rest of your life, and your level of satisfaction with that exchange.
Learning to play music, having friends and a social life, being really good at video game X or Y, having a significant other, excelling in your career, educating yourself, and so on: these are all time-intensive tasks and there are only so many hours in a day. Letting any element of your life consume a majority of your time necessarily comes with sacrifices in other areas.
I get sad when people can’t seem to connect the sacrifice of having thousands upon thousands of hours invested in various video games with the dissatisfaction in their lives caused by not giving time to other areas. Again, I know people who balance video games into their life and are satisfied. I also know people that basically game and work and that’s it, and they’re satisfied. I’m not judging how “full” someone’s life is, as far as that goes.
I just sometimes see people that think it’s unfair they don’t just automatically get those other aspects of their life, but they are simultaneously unwilling to give up some gaming to spend the time working on them. Sure, gaming is easy, immediate, and can be fulfilling. But, it can also feel like “what did I do for the last ten years that weren’t in-game accomplishments in games I don’t play anymore?” That’s really up to the individual.
Have you ever heard of rat park? People who are deeply satisfied with their lives (good job, happy and stable relationships, food and housing security) don’t typically spend thousands of hours mindlessly playing games or doing drugs or other forms of escapism. Addiction can affect anyone but it has a stronger hold on those with nothing else.
I run a company that does something very specific for some of the largest companies in the world. Key infrastructure is only functional because of what we do. One of the key skills that differentiate our people from the rest is something I often see in some of the top video game and TCG players. I always wonder, “what if they had focused that weird brain of theirs towards X or Y”.
The ability to see the entirety of an environment as a single entity, find synergistic relationships and figure out how to exploit those relationships to force a system to do something it was not designed to do. Like those people that make really niche character builds that suck 99.99% of the time but given this unique set of environmental variables it will suddenly hit you with infinite fireballs with one million points of crit damage or something like that.
The problem is that a mind like that is one requirement, another is years of experience (been there, done that, I know what that is) and really deep and wide knowledge in the field, which is also very hard to find. Finding someone with all of them is like finding a jedi unicorn. These are the people that make very high six or low seven figure salaries.
I’m being relatively vague on purpose.
You can’t just tell us gamers that and then not tell us how to get that bag