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You can apply this logic to all kinds of things though. Why waste time learning chess when you can join the military? Why type into a box on Hacker News when

You can apply this logic to all kinds of things though. Why waste time learning chess when you can join the military? Why type into a box on Hacker News when you can have conversations with people face-to-face? Why waste time watching any movie when you can do those kinds of things in real life? Why even bother with the abstract nonsense of money at all instead of just growing your own food and learning to make things for yourself. Different people get pleasure from different things and if you're going to judge one it seems weird not to do so evenly.

asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago
It goes even deeper. Most of our drives are there simply because they made our ancestors more likely to survive or reproduce, therefore increasing the likelihood that those drives would be more common in subsequent generations. Some people seem to think that using an MMO is unnatural, but wouldn't even blink at the thought of, e.g., sex with birth control. But both are a subversion of the natural courses of the drives we've inherited from our ancestors. People whose chosen redirections of their own drives give them high social status -- the builders and commanders -- like to look down on those who choose activities that don't lead to power. IMO, this is conservation of ego, nothing more. We want to feel good about ourselves, so when we gain power beyond that which is required to propagate our genes, we say, "this is because I was a better person than that other guy." We don't like to acknowledge that we're just masturbating a slightly different way. IMO, the important question is whether playing an MMO actually fulfills your individual values. I know for me with EVE the answer was no, but that's not to say I can't picture an MMO that would. I would bet that for many currently playing it the answer is also no, because we do have addictions, us humans. But I wouldn't turn up my nose at the whole playerbase by any means. After all, who are we on this site to point fingers?
- galaxyLogic 7y ago
  > I wouldn't turn up my nose at the whole playerbase I don't think anybody's doing that. It's more like we should be asking questions about what is going on with this thing? Does it make sense that a lot of people spend so much time on it? Or does it not? Can the games be made better? How? If the games are good for the society at large then maybe tax-payer money should be used to support their further development. Would make sense right?
  - wybiral 7y ago
    That argument has been made about video games long before the modern gaming industry. People were freaking out about young people playing too much pong, space invaders, tetris. Then the whole console generation... And before that the same argument was made about television. And before that the same argument was made about comic books. My dad and his friends used to just ride their bikes and play games with the neighborhood kids. Can you believe it!? People doing things not directly related to corporate success hierarchy!? It must seem so pointless to you... For what it's worth, I'm not a gamer myself, but I don't see how it's any worse/better than people reading a bunch of fiction books or any other leisure activity. Some people get really into jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, Sudoku, solitaire... Other people play online video games.
onion2k 7y ago
Why type into a box on Hacker News when you can have conversations with people face-to-face? I tried that once. It was awful.

asdfasgasdgasdg 7y ago

It goes even deeper. Most of our drives are there simply because they made our ancestors more likely to survive or reproduce, therefore increasing the likelihood that those drives would be more common in subsequent generations. Some people seem to think that using an MMO is unnatural, but wouldn't even blink at the thought of, e.g., sex with birth control. But both are a subversion of the natural courses of the drives we've inherited from our ancestors. People whose chosen redirections of their own drives give them high social status -- the builders and commanders -- like to look down on those who choose activities that don't lead to power. IMO, this is conservation of ego, nothing more. We want to feel good about ourselves, so when we gain power beyond that which is required to propagate our genes, we say, "this is because I was a better person than that other guy." We don't like to acknowledge that we're just masturbating a slightly different way. IMO, the important question is whether playing an MMO actually fulfills your individual values. I know for me with EVE the answer was no, but that's not to say I can't picture an MMO that would. I would bet that for many currently playing it the answer is also no, because we do have addictions, us humans. But I wouldn't turn up my nose at the whole playerbase by any means. After all, who are we on this site to point fingers?

galaxyLogic 7y ago
> I wouldn't turn up my nose at the whole playerbase I don't think anybody's doing that. It's more like we should be asking questions about what is going on with this thing? Does it make sense that a lot of people spend so much time on it? Or does it not? Can the games be made better? How? If the games are good for the society at large then maybe tax-payer money should be used to support their further development. Would make sense right?
- wybiral 7y ago
  That argument has been made about video games long before the modern gaming industry. People were freaking out about young people playing too much pong, space invaders, tetris. Then the whole console generation... And before that the same argument was made about television. And before that the same argument was made about comic books. My dad and his friends used to just ride their bikes and play games with the neighborhood kids. Can you believe it!? People doing things not directly related to corporate success hierarchy!? It must seem so pointless to you... For what it's worth, I'm not a gamer myself, but I don't see how it's any worse/better than people reading a bunch of fiction books or any other leisure activity. Some people get really into jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, Sudoku, solitaire... Other people play online video games.

onion2k 7y ago

Why type into a box on Hacker News when you can have conversations with people face-to-face? I tried that once. It was awful.