Have you ever been playing a computer game that you thought you loved, only to realize that you’re wasting your time? That, after 300 hours of grinding for the perfect sword or leveling up the perfect character, you have created nothing of value in the world and have left nothing behind – that you have lost 300 hours of your life, sitting alone in a dark room, gaming?
In this community, there are some people who take their experience with gaming and create permanence with it – they write long essays, and some even make a huge magazine; all about their experience playing video games, their feelings now tangible and imprinted on the world. But the average “gamer” is just staring at screens, not thinking, barely feeling fake feelings conjured by huge multi-million dollar publishers.
It is sad is all. I imagine if this post offends you, then you likely fall into this camp and should do some soul searching.
i appreciate you considering this as constructive! was a little scared of it coming across as too negative
I just feel that, overall as humans, we have a tendency to judge peoples vices and hobbies. im not going to act like im above this, im a progressive metalhead so iykyk. the fundamental idea at play here is that something is better than nothing. if its not video games, it could be something worse like drug abuse or even, at the risk of sounding dramatic, ending their life. there are certainly healthier things than video games but its important we not shame people for their interest or act as if video games are, in themselves, harmful. most often when you shame things like that and say “but you could be doing (healthy and often difficult to attain thing)” the listener will end up backsliding, because shame is not how you help people who are ultimately victims of nightmare-capitalist-hellscape.
there can be a whole argument about “what isnt a waste of time” and my opinion is that everything and nothing are truly a waste of time. everything has an effect that will magnify itself, but that depends on the timescale youre thinking on and your opinion on what is meaningful. these are all personal philosophy questions that largely cant be debated because philosophy is more of an art form than a science. id encourage anyone reading this to consider what you believe to be a waste of time, and if you care about the universe millions of years from now or just want to make it to tomorrow.
when it comes to computer games and being hooked, id rather not argue that thats entirely the fault of the user. there are definitely things the user can do to avoid it. i try to avoid games with gacha mechanics, i try to avoid youtube shorts/reels/tiktok, etc. there are habits we can cultivate that will help us long-term. on the other side of the screen, this is entirely a societal thing relating to, again, our nightmare-capitalist-hellscape (can you tell i like talking about this? lol). when user retention is incentivized with money, and dudes want more money, theyll abuse certain mechanics that may not even be entertaining nor enjoyable but encourage the user to check in again. im sure i dont even need to talk about this, its so damn common to see gambling and economies in games lately, youre perfectly aware of this. i do think this is something that users should actively protest when they can. ultimately games are an art form, yes, but mechanics made to prey on the most basic human survival functions take away autonomy to an extent. again, dont need to talk about this too deeply cause youve definitely seen and experienced this before if youve tried the more popular video games since like 2016 (as far as i know, if you know even earlier examples of obviously predatory ideas and things like battle passes do tell me). we should try to hold companies accountable for this when we are capable.
sorry for the essay, this is fun to think deeply about and i of course care about this subject. thank you for sharing your thoughts! no idea how i pulled out like 4 paragraphs worth of text from your comment, but eh lemmy is all about expressing your ideas so its worth a try.
nice essay! this is a community about writing, so there’s no need to apologize.