4 ms·

I like your phrasing here a lot. I have come to a pretty similar realization recently. For me a small about of gaming does recharge me, but as you say it’s real

I like your phrasing here a lot. I have come to a pretty similar realization recently. For me a small about of gaming does recharge me, but as you say it’s really easy to get sucked into spending too much time and ending up tired or sacrificing other recharging activities like exercise and socialization. I think it’s possible to weave socialization and accumulated progress into the gaming experience and have it be a fully enriching hobby. But many (most?) single player experiences are just a pastime for me, as you say.

hinkley 4y ago
When I was young I realized I was escaping into games and damaging my life and relationships (one of the tests for addiction) and so I’m always going to hold them at arm’s length. When I realized I needed a change I latched onto the fact that most people wouldn’t understand my excitement for an accomplishment in a video game, it wasn’t something I could bond with people over. But if I stopped fucking around and put that energy into programming, I could have accomplishments people understood (that turned out to only be only partly true. I still have programming accomplishments that my peers and communities don’t understand). Bonding over games has shifted a bit since then. I know a hard of hearing kid who socializes online because conference calls make everyone have the same problem: differentiating two speakers is difficult. Everything sounds like hearing aids sound. But it’s still easier for people to comment on my garden than whether I have finished the Thieves guild or stormcloak quest line in Skyrim, as an elf.
wruza 4y ago
But why is socialization recharging and “pastime” not? My bet is because the former allow you to talk through the issues.
BonitaPersona 4y ago
Regarding that last sentence, it's the exact opposite experience for me. I see multiplayer experiences as just a past time, and singleplayer experiences the one that can have a meaning and are valuable by themselves. I think the key point here is what singleplayer games are we talking about, because the offer is more varied than ever.
Aeolun 4y ago
> But many (most?) single player experiences are just a pastime for me, as you say. By this measure reading books would also just be a pastime? I see gaming more like an interactive story (especially singleplayer).
TaupeRanger 4y ago
I think Seneca would roll his eyes at most of these responses TBH. Who cares if you're just gaming to "pass the time"? When you're gaming, you're having fun and enjoying your life in the moment. It's only afterward when you start the cycle of criticizing yourself for not doing something "productive" with that time that the negative feelings enter. In fact, the whole exercise of feeling bad about yourself for playing a fun game and relaxing is exactly PART of the problem Seneca talks about - unless your gaming habits cause you to destroy your links to other important sources of joy and health, you shouldn't feel bad about having a fun "pastime" activity, that is just as valid as keeping a garden or reading a good book of fiction.
- taberiand 4y ago
  It's been a while since I read Letters from a Stoic, but I have a feeling Seneca would scoff at frivolous pursuits - leave such things to the Epicureans. He comes off as a bit of a (humorously) grumpy old man in that book though.
- hinkley 4y ago
  As an ex WoW player, I’m rolling my eyes and I haven’t been dead for 2000 years. Many games turn into jobs. The sense of fun degrades over time, and the self recriminations aren’t baseless.
  - TaupeRanger 4y ago
    If you're not having fun with the game and you're extinguishing your social and physical health, then you have a gaming problem. If you're admonishing yourself for playing a single player game to recharge and relax, as in the cases I responded to, you have a self-admonishment problem.
    - b112 4y ago
      Replace game with solitaire, is it now viewed differently?
      - 4y ago

hinkley 4y ago

When I was young I realized I was escaping into games and damaging my life and relationships (one of the tests for addiction) and so I’m always going to hold them at arm’s length. When I realized I needed a change I latched onto the fact that most people wouldn’t understand my excitement for an accomplishment in a video game, it wasn’t something I could bond with people over. But if I stopped fucking around and put that energy into programming, I could have accomplishments people understood (that turned out to only be only partly true. I still have programming accomplishments that my peers and communities don’t understand). Bonding over games has shifted a bit since then. I know a hard of hearing kid who socializes online because conference calls make everyone have the same problem: differentiating two speakers is difficult. Everything sounds like hearing aids sound. But it’s still easier for people to comment on my garden than whether I have finished the Thieves guild or stormcloak quest line in Skyrim, as an elf.

wruza 4y ago

But why is socialization recharging and “pastime” not? My bet is because the former allow you to talk through the issues.

BonitaPersona 4y ago

Regarding that last sentence, it's the exact opposite experience for me. I see multiplayer experiences as just a past time, and singleplayer experiences the one that can have a meaning and are valuable by themselves. I think the key point here is what singleplayer games are we talking about, because the offer is more varied than ever.

Aeolun 4y ago

> But many (most?) single player experiences are just a pastime for me, as you say. By this measure reading books would also just be a pastime? I see gaming more like an interactive story (especially singleplayer).

TaupeRanger 4y ago

I think Seneca would roll his eyes at most of these responses TBH. Who cares if you're just gaming to "pass the time"? When you're gaming, you're having fun and enjoying your life in the moment. It's only afterward when you start the cycle of criticizing yourself for not doing something "productive" with that time that the negative feelings enter. In fact, the whole exercise of feeling bad about yourself for playing a fun game and relaxing is exactly PART of the problem Seneca talks about - unless your gaming habits cause you to destroy your links to other important sources of joy and health, you shouldn't feel bad about having a fun "pastime" activity, that is just as valid as keeping a garden or reading a good book of fiction.

taberiand 4y ago
It's been a while since I read Letters from a Stoic, but I have a feeling Seneca would scoff at frivolous pursuits - leave such things to the Epicureans. He comes off as a bit of a (humorously) grumpy old man in that book though.
hinkley 4y ago
As an ex WoW player, I’m rolling my eyes and I haven’t been dead for 2000 years. Many games turn into jobs. The sense of fun degrades over time, and the self recriminations aren’t baseless.
- TaupeRanger 4y ago
  If you're not having fun with the game and you're extinguishing your social and physical health, then you have a gaming problem. If you're admonishing yourself for playing a single player game to recharge and relax, as in the cases I responded to, you have a self-admonishment problem.
  - b112 4y ago
    Replace game with solitaire, is it now viewed differently?
    - 4y ago