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FWIW I have been spending a lot of time playing games because, well, there's not much else to do.
by brenden2 6y ago
FWIW I have been spending a lot of time playing games because, well, there's not much else to do.
- daxorid 6y agoGardening, home improvements, personal or side development projects, exercise, online courses, playing music, etc. There are plenty of activities to do that moves one's life forward, rather than the utter stagnation that is television and video games. edit: To be clear, leisure activities definitely have their place. But to loosely paraphrase JC, while playing games is fine, it's much better to make them.
- Grimm1 6y agoYour thinking is so antiquated name me a good novel and I'll give a video game that matches it in narrative content. And playing music and gardening? Please.
- justwalt 6y agoGardening and playing music are both timeless activities, what do you mean? Kind of unfair to jump down the throat of someone who’s only offering friendly advice.
- Grimm1 6y agoBoth are equivalent leisure time activities that I would never say improve your life as the OP claimed. They improve your life in so much the same way games do, leisure, so their comment is purely "I don't like them so they can't be good" which is complete crap.
- karatestomp 6y agoI do think, say, acquiring the skill to play piano or guitar tolerably well gains one more general social standing (not just with a subset of gamers) than "I'm fairly good at Rocket League" and also builds a better understanding of music generally, which can be useful and/or pleasant, and gardening produces good food and also carries more social benefits than "I caught all the Pokemon". I'd agree they're not wildly better. Though if I put as much time into one of those activities as I have into games I'd probably be really really good at them, which I bet would open up some doors if I went looking for them, rather than just being alright at games and knowing some stuff about them, for whatever that's worth (nothing at all).
- Grimm1 6y agoI think pursuing leisure for some end goal loses the point of leisure itself and is an unfortunate side effect of the times we live in. That said I'm a workaholic with my job and 2 active projects outside of that who likes to lift and go outside so I can't really take fault with that mode of thinking since I've never quite captured my own idea of how I should be doing leisure.
- watwut 6y ago> That said I'm a workaholic with my job and 2 active projects I kind of dont see how you could play The Witcher while working overtime and having two side projects and going outside.
- Grimm1 6y agoYou've never taken a week off?
- watwut 6y agoWe use weeks off when there is no school to go together somewhere as a family. Around half time with friends too. I don't have that much time off that I could take week off for the game.
- Grimm1 6y agoYeah, that's totally fair, I believe I'm just in an earlier stage of my life where I don't have a family yet so I can sometimes burn the time like that versus prioritizing my social relationships.
- burntoutfire 6y ago> our thinking is so antiquated name me a good novel and I'll give a video game that matches it in narrative content. "Brothers Karamazow"?
- Grimm1 6y agoNier Automata
- option 6y agolol
- Grimm1 6y ago'Please don't post shallow dismissals, especially of other people's work. A good critical comment teaches us something.'
- burntoutfire 6y agoCan you elaborate how the themes in this game map onto themes in Brothers Karamazov? I tried doing that myself, based on plot synopsis in Wikipedia, but was not able to. Not to mention that just equivalence of narrative content does not mean anything in terms of work of art's quality - i.e. one could write the most wretched version of Brothers Karamazov, with technically the same content, but just no substance... The true value of work of art reveals itself in how deep it is - i.e. how much it can deliver to its reader (in terms of richness of characters, jumping points for philosophical thought etc.). BK were studied for over a century now, with countless articles and PhD theses from different angles written about it - a true testament to its richness. One can wonder how deeply "Nier Automata" will be studied.
- fctorial 6y agoLisa the painful
- sebiche 6y agoWii Sports
- billfruit 6y agoWhile I don't agree with any attempt to see games as lower form of culture, I don't think that story telling/ narrative is something that games do well. I personally find narratives in games actually detract from the experience, and many games are better from having no or only minimal story built into it, and more like being sandboxes: -Cities: Skylines -Just Cause 2 -Prison Architect -Kerbal Space Program -Pool Nation -Blood Bowl -Hexcells -Sins of a Solar Empire -Elite: Dangerous -Dungeons of the Endless -Rocket League -Sonic Allstars Racing Literature has immensely more complex narratives than it is likely possible for films and games can hope to achieve. But to be able to provide interactive sandboxes with unlimited possibilities is perhaps one that only games can provide.
- Grimm1 6y agoI can offer some counters to that off the bat, Nier Automata, Deus Ex, Destiny, The Witcher, Stanley Parable, Undertale If anything I think games with the right attention can have better narratives than literature because they aren't limited to words in assisting the narrative with visualization and depiction of events / emotion. Much like pulp fiction and early sci-fi were treated as second class literature games range the spectrum as well. I think we can likely both continue to find examples to fit our points and it just shows the range games have as a medium.
- watwut 6y agoFrom those I played Deus Ex (I decided to not play games anymore) and narrative in that rather average ordinary scifi book with rather normal storyline. I am not saying bad book, but it is not some kind of narrative masterpiece.
- Grimm1 6y agoI can only speak to the reboot, and I found those fantastic, but we are now in the realm of opinion which ultimately is where the conversation is going to wind up anyway so I'm not going to push back on it just that we had different experiences.
- 6y ago
- josefresco 6y ago> Gardening, home improvements, personal or side development projects, exercise, online courses, playing music, etc. I've done all those things AND have spent more time gaming than ever before (well at least since college). Don't hobby shame, celebrate your differences and support those who have unique interests.
- ryneandal 6y agoThis is a tired and archaic take.
- rosseloh 6y agoMakes you wonder what their response would be when I bring up that one of the more common games I play is Stormworks, where I spend most of my time in the engineering screen figuring out how to build fuel control and PID systems to run jet engines properly. Not quite to realistic levels, sure (it's one of my gripes about the game). But it's not on the level of mindless shooters by any means (which I also occasionally enjoy).
- ryneandal 6y agoEven "mindless shooters" have a tangible benefit to cognitive and social function -- https://www.avondwenm.nl/images/avonden/avond-2019/studiemateriaal/5_6_Benefits_of_playing_video_games.pdf https://www.avondwenm.nl/images/avonden/avond-2019/studiemat... The benefits of implementing play are vast and are emphasized in evolutionary psychology. Video games are just one means to leverage play.
- smabie 6y agoGames like CS:GO, Valorant, and Overwatch are far from mindless. In fact, they take so much brain power that I have trouble even speaking when playing. But if you mean single player shooters, then yeah, I kind of agree.
- rosseloh 6y agoTrust me, I'm on your side. When I say mindless I'm just talking about the classic corridor shooter (which, again, I also can enjoy sometimes).
- otachack 6y agoIt's not total stagnation. Sometimes you need to lay back and play some mindless game. Other times it's fun to team up with friends/coworkers and play a co-op game. Or maybe you just want to play some visual novel, which can be on par with reading a book. I definitely would love to put my focus more on something harder like a side project or blog but it can almost feel like a side job at times. I'm trying to tackle those projects by just chipping away at them. Latest has been a blog. I started with Hugo, didn't like the templates, then went for a straight HTML approach to do it bare bones. I'm starting to get ideas of just making my own personal Markdown parser since I start seeing patterns in my HTML that can be generated. I think this way will be more fun! To each their own.
- Cyph0n 6y ago> Gardening, home improvements Not if you’re living in an apartment. > personal or side development projects I write enough code at work, thanks. > online courses, playing music Sure, those are good options. > the utter stagnation that is television and video games The fact that you decided to lump watching television (passive) with playing video games (active, engaging, sometimes social) tells me that you have no idea what you’re talking about.
- ssully 6y agoI have a group of four friends and we have a video game night twice a week. Outside of my wife, it's probably the only social contact I have now that feels "normal".
- C1sc0cat 6y agoLike wise for Roleplaying (TTRPG) - for my groups its a way to keep in touch and have human contact. I have three game sessions for the upcoming week and we are supposed to be starting Startrek at half term.
- brenden2 6y agoVideo games are pretty fun though. They are quite mentally stimulating, and you can play with friends. I take multiple walks every day (I have a dog), but I also live in a 500 sqft rental apartment in Manhattan which limits the kind of activities I can engage in.
- watwut 6y agoThis comment being downvote is incredibly odd. Yes, I can confirm that there are plenty of activities programmer can do at home that are not gaming. Preferring gaming is one thing, getting offended over suggestion it is actually possible to be happy at home without gaming is ... odd.
- detaro 6y agoExcept the comment didn't just suggest alternatives, so don't pretend that's what it was downvoted for.
- seattle_spring 6y agoIt's obviously (and rightly) being downvoted because of how condescending it is to people who choose to spend any amount of their time with video games.
- jfkebwjsbx 6y agoTo compare TV (a passive activity) with video games (an active one) shows how clueless you are.
- gnulinux 6y agoI spend a lot of time watching TV. I WISH I could play more games, the fact is playing games is an active activity, that forces you to focus on something, learn new things, interact with people. I get bored of doing this and end up playing less games and watch more shows. I think your view of putting in the same bin is very wrong.