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There's this huge class of video games that feature: skill-building, leveling-up, acquisition, and when networked, involve team dynamics, assessing other's skil

There's this huge class of video games that feature: skill-building, leveling-up, acquisition, and when networked, involve team dynamics, assessing other's skill, leadership, earned respect, and a social hierarchy that's based on a meritocracy. Have these type of games become incredibly good over the last ten years? Yes. Have jobs / "the world" gotten less good at providing these rewarding type of experiences? I'm not sure.

dropit_sphere 9y ago
The world doesn't have to have gotten worse. It can simply not optimize for it. I doubt whoever tracks "young male labor engagement" is taken as seriously in their sphere as some game company's engagement czar. And it's for reasons that should be very familiar to HN users: in games, they're the customer, in the rest of the world, they're the product.
ArlenBales 9y ago
A good example of this is the recently released game Monster Hunter: World. It features everything you mentioned. Some players have spent an undeniably unhealthy amount of time in that game in just a few weeks. They boast "I'm High Rank 100 after only 200+ hours!" as if playing a video game for 15+ hours a day was something to be accomplished and proud of. I feel sad for these individuals when they realize all that time was meaningless.
- nradov 9y ago
  Someone would literally have to pay me to get me to play a game like that. It's literally like work. Except for some volunteer activities I don't work for free.
samhain 9y ago
"Skill building" and "Leveling up" are nothing more than operant conditioning on a reward schedule. It's nothing more than a skinner box that has two rooms that you walk between with "level up" being the doorway you'd like to go through. No real work is being done, but the facade of work is enough to trick your brain into thinking it's accomplished something. That real effort could have been expended to do something that could actually benefit the organism, but no, it's wasted on an illusion.

dropit_sphere 9y ago

The world doesn't have to have gotten worse. It can simply not optimize for it. I doubt whoever tracks "young male labor engagement" is taken as seriously in their sphere as some game company's engagement czar. And it's for reasons that should be very familiar to HN users: in games, they're the customer, in the rest of the world, they're the product.

ArlenBales 9y ago

A good example of this is the recently released game Monster Hunter: World. It features everything you mentioned. Some players have spent an undeniably unhealthy amount of time in that game in just a few weeks. They boast "I'm High Rank 100 after only 200+ hours!" as if playing a video game for 15+ hours a day was something to be accomplished and proud of. I feel sad for these individuals when they realize all that time was meaningless.

nradov 9y ago
Someone would literally have to pay me to get me to play a game like that. It's literally like work. Except for some volunteer activities I don't work for free.

samhain 9y ago

"Skill building" and "Leveling up" are nothing more than operant conditioning on a reward schedule. It's nothing more than a skinner box that has two rooms that you walk between with "level up" being the doorway you'd like to go through. No real work is being done, but the facade of work is enough to trick your brain into thinking it's accomplished something. That real effort could have been expended to do something that could actually benefit the organism, but no, it's wasted on an illusion.