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Although the angle of: Losing his characters is the best thing that's happening for him due to wasting a very significant part of his life in video games has so

Although the angle of: Losing his characters is the best thing that's happening for him due to wasting a very significant part of his life in video games has some merit (but could be worded differently), this is yet another example on why you shouldn't depend on these platforms for anything of value, specially Google. The immense pressure to transform/re-frame everything as a service, aka: "You'll own nothing and be happy" leads to these situations. Now it's "just a video game", but this is starting to happen to most walks of life.

hintymad 4y ago
> "You'll own nothing and be happy" leads to these situations. I was wondering if how many people buy into the vision "Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better". https://www.forbes.com/sites/worldeconomicforum/2016/11/10/shopping-i-cant-really-remember-what-that-is-or-how-differently-well-live-in-2030/?sh=65b973a11735 https://www.forbes.com/sites/worldeconomicforum/2016/11/10/s...
Entinel 4y ago
> Although the angle of: Losing his characters is the best thing that's happening for him due to wasting a very significant part of his life in video games has some merit It has no merit. Do you look at your hobbies as wasting your life? I certainty don't. My alone time playing video games is just as important to me as when I'm going hiking or camping with friends.
- ElCheapo 4y ago
  I don't beg for my hobbies, that sounds more like an addiction
  - sirsinsalot 4y ago
    If I spend 6k hours coding a project and was making noise because I was about to have access to my source code taken away ... would you say i'm an addict?
    - ElCheapo 4y ago
      You should make noise because, unless you signed some particular contract, the code is your intellectual property and it's illegal to just take it away from you. I bought Stadia and read the contract, I was under no illusion that I could export save files or progress to other platforms. You don't own the games you play, if you cared you'd buy from GoG.
      - marginalia_nu 4y ago
        It's not that far fetched. A lot of people rely on third party services to host and manage their source code.
        ElCheapo 4y ago
        And every time people are advised to keep a local copy. I have a bunch of stuff on an Amazon Glacier account for convenience, but I still keep an HDD in the closet
  - wincy 4y ago
    I mean I think in Red Dead Redemption 2 multiplayer there’s money to be spent? If it’s anything like GTA 5. Has he spent money on expensive cowboy hats and the like?
- martincmartin 4y ago
  At what point does a hobby turn into an addition? People who have spent 6k hours in a casino, for example, would probably be happier if they could figure out why they're doing it, and find a more productive way to address that need. Same might be true of someone who has spent 6k hours in a single video game. [I've spent 450 hours in Factorio, but stopped soon after my partner nick named it Divorcio.]
  - unity1001 4y ago
    > At what point does a hobby turn into an addition? Why should something that unstresses, revitalizes and inspires you should be an addition. With that logic, food is an addiction. Sleep. Rest. Even poetry and art.
    - matwood 4y ago
      Like most things, the dose makes the poison. A little Red Dead is probably great, too much probably bad. Gambling, food, sleep all fall into similar U shaped curves.
      - elil17 4y ago
        Who are we to say how much is the right amount for this person? To play 6,000 hours of this game he must have a reason. Perhaps he's particularly passionate about it, perhaps there is someone in his life he loves to play it with.
        deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
        mikepurvis 4y ago
        I think that argument works a lot better if we're talking about a consumption level in the 10-100s of hours, along the lines of average for this title and most others like it: https://howlongtobeat.com/game/27100 https://howlongtobeat.com/game/27100 6000 hours is multiple orders of magnitude beyond that point, so it feels like a point where it's a lot safer to reach for an absolute judgment that it really is "too much".
- Bakary 4y ago
  What bothers me about video games is that they're so accessible. Sometimes I wonder how I would spend my time if I really had many more options at my disposal. The angle has some merit, it just needs quite a few asterisks and the topic has to be evaluated carefully. I don't doubt that millions of gamers have no such cognitive dissonance and simply enjoy their games, of course. For certain specific games, I certainly have no regrets. Some games such as SOMA were even transformative experiences.
  - praxulus 4y ago
    The interesting thing for me has been the completely unintentional collapse in gaming time as I've gotten older. I was borderline addicted to games in high school, but the low barrier to in-person socializing in college, followed by relationships and rising interest in other hobbies has made video games something I have to actively choose to spend time on. Now I'm expecting a kid and even if my free time doesn't completely evaporate, I'm guessing my gaming time will. It's weird because I still think of myself as a "gamer", but I realized I've spent almost as much time building and tinkering with my current PC as I have actually playing games on it.
- slothtrop 4y ago
  None of that is threatened with the loss of a virtual character in RD2.
  - Entinel 4y ago
    I don't understand the point you're trying to make. If I had 6k hours invested in literally anything I'd be pretty upset with it being taken away.
    - slothtrop 4y ago
      > they'll need to start a new save file on another platform The value added from 6k hours of investment in RDR2 is at best cosmetic and trivial. The real pain here is buying the game on another platform, if that hasn't been done already. At any rate this was a cloud service. Can't trust any of them to maintain the product you want indefinitely.
    - deleted 4y ago
      [deleted]
- PedroBatista 4y ago
  The key point here is 6k hours. The game has been on Stadia for 2 and a half years. No one is attacking hobbies or video games, the argument was: The argument of playing 6k hours of RDR2 in 2 years being too much might have some merit.
  - ramblerman 4y ago
    That’s 6.7h a day
    - LilBytes 4y ago
      Yeah fair that's a fucking lot.
    - dtjb 4y ago
      I know people that read that much but we don't go around telling bookworms they're addicts. It's up to each person to decide where the line is for them, where a satisfying hobby becomes a destructive habit. If someone has no desire to form external relationships and they're completely content with their life, good for them for figuring things out. I'm not going to impose my arbitrary rules on them. I love RDR2 and play it passively (a few hours a week), but I completely get how someone could get sucked in like that. I can't think of any other game that provides such an immersive world, you can get lost in its details for hours on end. Just riding your horse around with no destination in mind is a very relaxing and almost therapeutic way to pass time.
      - morelisp 4y ago
        I know a lot of people who often, like maybe several days a month, will read that much. I don't know anyone who reads every day for >2 years, >6h a day unless it's (part of) their job.
      - jahewson 4y ago
        But in this case it’s more like reading the one same book, over and over again for 6hrs a day, every day.
- ok123456 4y ago
  It is if your hobby engages in psychological dark patterns to manipulate you to keep playing. There's a difference when your hobby is, say, lifting weights a couple hours per week, vs being manipulated into playing a video game 6 hours per day and buying lootcrates every couple of days.
- chillfox 4y ago
  It has even less than no merit when you consider that the guy is a content creator and the math works out to 8 hour week days with the weekend off. Basically a normal work week.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
- dabernathy89 4y ago
  I like video games. They're fun. I also waste time watching YouTube videos, etc. But the number of hours that user put into that game is quite literally 1/4 of all the hours since Stadia launched three years ago. It's nearly 3/4 of an entire year, sleeping and waking, spent on one game. That cannot be healthy or enriching.
- nsxwolf 4y ago
  It has some merit. When Call of Duty 4 came out on XBox 360, I was completely addicted to it. At some point I noticed I had been playing the game for 2 months. I spent 2 full months out of a single year playing a game. It was fun! Yeah, it was a lot of fun. But there are real things I could have accomplished by balancing that time with other things. I have good memories of COD4, but I still can't play piano. And 1440 hours isn't even a lot compared to what some people are doing.
  - 300bps 4y ago
    It has some merit. When Call of Duty 4 came out on XBox 360, I was completely addicted to it. Other than sporadically playing video games with my children, I haven't played regularly since I was a kid. But that's me. I wouldn't presume to know best for anyone else - why do you think your experience is applicable to others? Is someone binge watching Netflix really better for you than playing video games? Death scrolling TikTok or Facebook? Collecting beanie babies? I think there are a lot of things people do for varying degrees of mindless entertainment but for some reason video games are singled out as particularly bad.
    - nsxwolf 4y ago
      At some point you have to step out of the "mind your own business" box and be a little bit judgemental. Just a little bit. Otherwise, how can we ever say we have any concern for others? You can go too far with it. Very easily! But "Meh, you do you" is just as destructive.
      - 300bps 4y ago
        I'm not sure if you meant to reply to someone else because my main point was not "meh, you do you" but rather that there is a lot of judgement regarding video games but not in other things that are arguably even more harmful.
      - mikepurvis 4y ago
        It depends on the nature of the relationship. The obvious one is parent-child, that parents get to have quite a lot to say about where and what their young ones spend time on, and with whom. Though part of growing up is pushing away a good deal of that influence, and then I guess for some, inviting a bunch of it back in if the relationship successfully transitions to a healthy adult-adult one. But I don't think it really stops there— I would hope that my spouse, siblings, and close friends would feel comfortable enough speaking into my situation if they observed me falling into a pattern of behaviour that looked to be self-destructive. We need checks and balances in our lives other than the just the extreme end of having to stage an intervention when someone's bad enough that they're hitting rock bottom.
- fbanon 4y ago
  Case in point: don't choose a hobby that can be taken away from you on the whims of some dickhead Google exec.
- gigatexal 4y ago
  Yeah this take is paternalistic and dumb. Let them do as they please. They’re playing video games.
- HyperSane 4y ago
  What if a person really doesn't want to spend so much time doing an activity but cannot stop due to being addicted to the dopamine it generates?
- bjt2n3904 4y ago
  There's a modern trend to be relentlessly supportive and approving of everything, so long as the person can claim it makes them happy. (They don't actually have to make this claim, or even actually be happy. Society will be more than happy to make it for them, and infer happiness.) Society will say, if you want to have a family of seven kids, awesome! If you want to pull a David Hogg and not have kids, awesome! Affirmation for everyone! I've got a pretty wide tolerance for "you do you", but objectively speaking, no. Not all lifestyles are equally valid and/or good. Six thousand hours in a video game is not good.
- danjoredd 4y ago
  6000 hours sounds like way more than a hobby. I play videogames too, but that is downright obsession
throw10920 4y ago
This is a really good point - regardless of whether you believe that losing his save file is a net good or net bad for this person (and I believe the latter), it's incredibly important to realize that this guy has no control over what happens from this point on - Google does. We want to be in charge of making our own decisions - not Google, or Apple, or Facebook, or some other SaaS provider. (this same argument also applies to the government, by the way)
- avereveard 4y ago
  But he decided on its own to entrust Google with safekeeping its hobby. Too easy now to go 'poor victim has no control' There was a strong chances of this happening and many were heralding the warnings.
sirsinsalot 4y ago
Making those kinds of value judgements usually suggests the person making the judgement has some work to do on themselves. The real question is: Is that person happy/content/comfortable. That's what matters, however they get there.
- password321 4y ago
  Is short lived feel good chemicals all that matters? Doesn't sound like a healthy life philosophy to live by.
  - Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL 4y ago
    It's a brave new world...
  - sirsinsalot 4y ago
    Who said short lived? Why is living with an aim of happiness and contentment unhealthy?
  - godshatter 4y ago
    I haven't played RDR2 or RDR Online, but I doubt it's in the same league as, say, something like Candy Crush. In my opinion it's probably better for you than binge watching a Netflix show because it's less passive.
  - triceratops 4y ago
    Isn't happiness just "feel good chemicals"? As long as a person doesn't hurt others with how they spend their time, who are we to judge?
  - kimbernator 4y ago
    Nobody is prescribing this lifestyle for you, so feel free to return the favor and let them live theirs. It's one thing to talk like this to somebody you know, but randomly speculating about how somebody you'll never meet might be living a lifestyle that you don't approve of is without question a less worthwhile activity than playing video games.
exysle 4y ago
But BioShock is a great decision game. What are you talking about?
datalopers 4y ago
> due to wasting a very significant part of his life in video games He’s a streamer. He makes a living from playing that game. What’s your job? Let’s compare total value add.
- password321 4y ago
  Just checked his channel and a few hundred views on each video. Can one really make a living off that?
  - datalopers 4y ago
    Probably not but it’s still a shit view from OP. I know lots of startup founders than burn a year with a failed idea who only get praise.
  - vintermann 4y ago
    Possibly a very modest one. I know of a couple of small streamers with few but very loyal fans. The views on their VODs or YouTube videos is a very poor indication of their economic success.
danso 4y ago
I think social gaming can have a lot of personal value (especially with the last 3 years being pandemic years). But RDO arguably is showing signs of a sunsetting service, so maybe it's best that this painful loss happen sooner than a few years later.
irusensei 4y ago
You don't get to decide what's the best thing for another person.
jesuscript 4y ago
why you shouldn't depend on these platforms for anything of value I disagree with this. I found it unmanageable to do my own backups without the cloud and remember passwords. I trust my bank because the the government has laws to protect me. We have zero laws for cloud platforms. In the event of a shutdown or request to transfer off to another cloud, laws should be in place where these companies must comply. We are in the cave man era of cloud platforms on a legal level.
- phpisthebest 4y ago
  >>I trust my bank because the the government has laws to protect me. boy are you in for a shock.... Governments has laws to protect the bank... I dont trust any bank, that is why I have mutiple accounts at several credit unions, and other institutions
spaceman_2020 4y ago
I’ve probably logged in thousands of hours watching, discussing, analyzing sports (not playing - that’s a separate metric) Most older people have likely spent even more hours than this. Yet spending 2 hours watching football, then another hour watching a bunch of talking heads discuss the game, is somehow considered “normal”. I’m not a gamer, but what about this hobby is any different from any other passive sedentary hobby? Even reading fiction isn’t any particularly different, is it?
- tehbeard 4y ago
  Games aren't a passive hobby, there's an active component of feedback. This a higher dopamine response compared to "passive" activities like watching sports or reading; arguably that's the only real difference. They are capable of creating addictive tendencies as any other substance using the same dopamine reward would for certain individuals. That and video games being a much younger medium and therefore a waste of time / for babies / the devil's siren call as society loves to berate them.
  - dragontamer 4y ago
    Honestly, if more people wasted time on video games instead of sports gambling, I think the world would be a better place. But yeah: video games are nerd stuff that you are allowed to make fun of. Gambling and sports betting is a bro thing and therefore cool, but seriously is as big a waste of time and probably a bigger waste of money.
  - P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago
    I see you've never watched a group of people scream at the television when someone fumbles the ball.
    - tehbeard 4y ago
      I have been in many a pub during a match, cheering on my team with others. So i can see you have never really considered others as having rich lives, we're all just a 1d background character to you, the star of the show... Agency, is perhaps the better way or reason to describe games being more "addictive", the feedback loop of take action, get result, repeat. You'll be more invested in something you can shape. I can cheer on my team, revel in the drama unfolding, but i have no say in how it goes. A book can feed my imagination, lead me to consider new viewpoints or ideas, but i cannot change the fate of the characters.
AlwaysRock 4y ago
Bad take. If he spent 6k hours whittling or playing chess or reading would it be better? Hobbies are hobbies. Some seem silly to others but the person was clearly enjoying the game.
MangoCoffee 4y ago
>"You'll own nothing and be happy" we are trained to believe everything and anything should be on the cloud and SaaS is the right business model 'cause everything will be taken care for you then we found out that ebook collection on Amazon doesn't really belong to you. you just renting them. those song playlist that you build in Spotify that you paid every month for doesn't belong to you. i think the Media industry finally find the ultimate "DRM". lock you down and lock you into their SaaS. you will keep paying for rights to listen to that song that you've paid more than enough and that song still doesn't belong to you.
mikepurvis 4y ago
I totally feel this in non-gaming spaces too— like, how much effort do I really want to put into "starring" my favourite shows on Netflix to help them recommend me stuff? Is it worth the bother of trying to do anything more than the bare minimum as far as organizing my Spotify tunes into manually-curated playlists? Adding annotations to pictures on Google Photos or Facebook? When you don't own anything and it could all disappear in the blink of an eye, it's hard to feel like it's super worthwhile investing.
kimbernator 4y ago
> Losing his characters is the best thing that's happening for him due to wasting a very significant part of his life in video games has some merit (but could be worded differently) This community has a real tendency towards self-righteousness that is beginning to get on my nerves. You don't know anything about this person. Even if it's a truly unhealthy habit they have, that's none of our business.
- throw10920 4y ago
  Your comment is breaking the guidelines. > Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- pb7 4y ago
  It's out on a public forum, it doesn't have to be our business for us to comment on it. We also don't need to know anything about him in particular to know that's a crazy amount of time to spend. He doesn't magically have more than 24 hours a day.
- PedroBatista 4y ago
  Let's be honest, you probably came here already with an axe to grind. If you calmly read what I wrote, I mentioned the argument as a secondary observation since the main topic is Google and other "-as-a-Service" companies making victims when they change course. >You don't know anything about this person. Even if it's a truly unhealthy habit they have, that's none of our business. I don't know how you even expect to milk some virtue out of that statement, but I'll just say: Having awareness, observing and talking about things is everyone's business since it's a liberty we ( still ) have. Any self-righteousness, victim blaming, etc. are things you added to my comment or misunderstood.
scifibestfi 4y ago
> The immense pressure to transform/re-frame everything as a service, aka: "You'll own nothing and be happy" leads to these situations. Now it's "just a video game", but this is starting to happen to most walks of life. "Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better" That's an actual quote from a member of parliament and posted by the World Economic Forum. https://twitter.com/wef/status/808328302213689344 https://twitter.com/wef/status/808328302213689344
jotm 4y ago
Well, many games won't work when the servers go down so... Just pirate them :D
jacobwilliamroy 4y ago
I do my hobbies because if I dont I'll fill the time by smoking cigarettes which I am really trying hard not to do. I specifically engage in pointless pastimes because they have better health outcomes than spending an equivalent amount of time smoking tobacco on the porch.
jtbayly 4y ago
Yep. This is why 1Password’s recent change to this mode of operation makes me so angry and depressed.
dougmwne 4y ago
Delicious irony, seeing as you are yelling your comment into the digital void. Maybe some AI will one day use it in a training set on the way to sentience and your words here will have some value? Otherwise I wouldn’t cast stones.
rvz 4y ago
> The immense pressure to transform/re-frame everything as a service, aka: "You'll own nothing and be happy" leads to these situations. Now it's "just a video game", but this is starting to happen to most walks of life. Indeed. It is everything-as-a-service subscription, rent-seeking, griftopia created by our tech overloads which "you will own nothing and you'll be an extremely happy user" and all your digital games and save games gone if the service shuts down, bans you or terminates your access.
tablespoon 4y ago
> Although the angle of: Losing his characters is the best thing that's happening for him due to wasting a very significant part of his life in video games has some merit (but could be worded differently) IMHO, that's taking it too far. Anyone who has spent that much time on a video game is probably not going to change their habit because they lost a character.

hintymad 4y ago

> "You'll own nothing and be happy" leads to these situations. I was wondering if how many people buy into the vision "Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better". https://www.forbes.com/sites/worldeconomicforum/2016/11/10/shopping-i-cant-really-remember-what-that-is-or-how-differently-well-live-in-2030/?sh=65b973a11735 https://www.forbes.com/sites/worldeconomicforum/2016/11/10/s...

Entinel 4y ago

> Although the angle of: Losing his characters is the best thing that's happening for him due to wasting a very significant part of his life in video games has some merit It has no merit. Do you look at your hobbies as wasting your life? I certainty don't. My alone time playing video games is just as important to me as when I'm going hiking or camping with friends.

ElCheapo 4y ago
I don't beg for my hobbies, that sounds more like an addiction
- sirsinsalot 4y ago
  If I spend 6k hours coding a project and was making noise because I was about to have access to my source code taken away ... would you say i'm an addict?
  - ElCheapo 4y ago
    You should make noise because, unless you signed some particular contract, the code is your intellectual property and it's illegal to just take it away from you. I bought Stadia and read the contract, I was under no illusion that I could export save files or progress to other platforms. You don't own the games you play, if you cared you'd buy from GoG.
    - marginalia_nu 4y ago
      It's not that far fetched. A lot of people rely on third party services to host and manage their source code.
      - ElCheapo 4y ago
        And every time people are advised to keep a local copy. I have a bunch of stuff on an Amazon Glacier account for convenience, but I still keep an HDD in the closet
- wincy 4y ago
  I mean I think in Red Dead Redemption 2 multiplayer there’s money to be spent? If it’s anything like GTA 5. Has he spent money on expensive cowboy hats and the like?
martincmartin 4y ago
At what point does a hobby turn into an addition? People who have spent 6k hours in a casino, for example, would probably be happier if they could figure out why they're doing it, and find a more productive way to address that need. Same might be true of someone who has spent 6k hours in a single video game. [I've spent 450 hours in Factorio, but stopped soon after my partner nick named it Divorcio.]
- unity1001 4y ago
  > At what point does a hobby turn into an addition? Why should something that unstresses, revitalizes and inspires you should be an addition. With that logic, food is an addiction. Sleep. Rest. Even poetry and art.
  - matwood 4y ago
    Like most things, the dose makes the poison. A little Red Dead is probably great, too much probably bad. Gambling, food, sleep all fall into similar U shaped curves.
    - elil17 4y ago
      Who are we to say how much is the right amount for this person? To play 6,000 hours of this game he must have a reason. Perhaps he's particularly passionate about it, perhaps there is someone in his life he loves to play it with.
      - deleted 4y ago
        [deleted]
      - mikepurvis 4y ago
        I think that argument works a lot better if we're talking about a consumption level in the 10-100s of hours, along the lines of average for this title and most others like it: https://howlongtobeat.com/game/27100 https://howlongtobeat.com/game/27100 6000 hours is multiple orders of magnitude beyond that point, so it feels like a point where it's a lot safer to reach for an absolute judgment that it really is "too much".
Bakary 4y ago
What bothers me about video games is that they're so accessible. Sometimes I wonder how I would spend my time if I really had many more options at my disposal. The angle has some merit, it just needs quite a few asterisks and the topic has to be evaluated carefully. I don't doubt that millions of gamers have no such cognitive dissonance and simply enjoy their games, of course. For certain specific games, I certainly have no regrets. Some games such as SOMA were even transformative experiences.
- praxulus 4y ago
  The interesting thing for me has been the completely unintentional collapse in gaming time as I've gotten older. I was borderline addicted to games in high school, but the low barrier to in-person socializing in college, followed by relationships and rising interest in other hobbies has made video games something I have to actively choose to spend time on. Now I'm expecting a kid and even if my free time doesn't completely evaporate, I'm guessing my gaming time will. It's weird because I still think of myself as a "gamer", but I realized I've spent almost as much time building and tinkering with my current PC as I have actually playing games on it.
slothtrop 4y ago
None of that is threatened with the loss of a virtual character in RD2.
- Entinel 4y ago
  I don't understand the point you're trying to make. If I had 6k hours invested in literally anything I'd be pretty upset with it being taken away.
  - slothtrop 4y ago
    > they'll need to start a new save file on another platform The value added from 6k hours of investment in RDR2 is at best cosmetic and trivial. The real pain here is buying the game on another platform, if that hasn't been done already. At any rate this was a cloud service. Can't trust any of them to maintain the product you want indefinitely.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]
PedroBatista 4y ago
The key point here is 6k hours. The game has been on Stadia for 2 and a half years. No one is attacking hobbies or video games, the argument was: The argument of playing 6k hours of RDR2 in 2 years being too much might have some merit.
- ramblerman 4y ago
  That’s 6.7h a day
  - LilBytes 4y ago
    Yeah fair that's a fucking lot.
  - dtjb 4y ago
    I know people that read that much but we don't go around telling bookworms they're addicts. It's up to each person to decide where the line is for them, where a satisfying hobby becomes a destructive habit. If someone has no desire to form external relationships and they're completely content with their life, good for them for figuring things out. I'm not going to impose my arbitrary rules on them. I love RDR2 and play it passively (a few hours a week), but I completely get how someone could get sucked in like that. I can't think of any other game that provides such an immersive world, you can get lost in its details for hours on end. Just riding your horse around with no destination in mind is a very relaxing and almost therapeutic way to pass time.
    - morelisp 4y ago
      I know a lot of people who often, like maybe several days a month, will read that much. I don't know anyone who reads every day for >2 years, >6h a day unless it's (part of) their job.
    - jahewson 4y ago
      But in this case it’s more like reading the one same book, over and over again for 6hrs a day, every day.
ok123456 4y ago
It is if your hobby engages in psychological dark patterns to manipulate you to keep playing. There's a difference when your hobby is, say, lifting weights a couple hours per week, vs being manipulated into playing a video game 6 hours per day and buying lootcrates every couple of days.
chillfox 4y ago
It has even less than no merit when you consider that the guy is a content creator and the math works out to 8 hour week days with the weekend off. Basically a normal work week.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
dabernathy89 4y ago
I like video games. They're fun. I also waste time watching YouTube videos, etc. But the number of hours that user put into that game is quite literally 1/4 of all the hours since Stadia launched three years ago. It's nearly 3/4 of an entire year, sleeping and waking, spent on one game. That cannot be healthy or enriching.
nsxwolf 4y ago
It has some merit. When Call of Duty 4 came out on XBox 360, I was completely addicted to it. At some point I noticed I had been playing the game for 2 months. I spent 2 full months out of a single year playing a game. It was fun! Yeah, it was a lot of fun. But there are real things I could have accomplished by balancing that time with other things. I have good memories of COD4, but I still can't play piano. And 1440 hours isn't even a lot compared to what some people are doing.
- 300bps 4y ago
  It has some merit. When Call of Duty 4 came out on XBox 360, I was completely addicted to it. Other than sporadically playing video games with my children, I haven't played regularly since I was a kid. But that's me. I wouldn't presume to know best for anyone else - why do you think your experience is applicable to others? Is someone binge watching Netflix really better for you than playing video games? Death scrolling TikTok or Facebook? Collecting beanie babies? I think there are a lot of things people do for varying degrees of mindless entertainment but for some reason video games are singled out as particularly bad.
  - nsxwolf 4y ago
    At some point you have to step out of the "mind your own business" box and be a little bit judgemental. Just a little bit. Otherwise, how can we ever say we have any concern for others? You can go too far with it. Very easily! But "Meh, you do you" is just as destructive.
    - 300bps 4y ago
      I'm not sure if you meant to reply to someone else because my main point was not "meh, you do you" but rather that there is a lot of judgement regarding video games but not in other things that are arguably even more harmful.
    - mikepurvis 4y ago
      It depends on the nature of the relationship. The obvious one is parent-child, that parents get to have quite a lot to say about where and what their young ones spend time on, and with whom. Though part of growing up is pushing away a good deal of that influence, and then I guess for some, inviting a bunch of it back in if the relationship successfully transitions to a healthy adult-adult one. But I don't think it really stops there— I would hope that my spouse, siblings, and close friends would feel comfortable enough speaking into my situation if they observed me falling into a pattern of behaviour that looked to be self-destructive. We need checks and balances in our lives other than the just the extreme end of having to stage an intervention when someone's bad enough that they're hitting rock bottom.
fbanon 4y ago
Case in point: don't choose a hobby that can be taken away from you on the whims of some dickhead Google exec.
gigatexal 4y ago
Yeah this take is paternalistic and dumb. Let them do as they please. They’re playing video games.
HyperSane 4y ago
What if a person really doesn't want to spend so much time doing an activity but cannot stop due to being addicted to the dopamine it generates?
bjt2n3904 4y ago
There's a modern trend to be relentlessly supportive and approving of everything, so long as the person can claim it makes them happy. (They don't actually have to make this claim, or even actually be happy. Society will be more than happy to make it for them, and infer happiness.) Society will say, if you want to have a family of seven kids, awesome! If you want to pull a David Hogg and not have kids, awesome! Affirmation for everyone! I've got a pretty wide tolerance for "you do you", but objectively speaking, no. Not all lifestyles are equally valid and/or good. Six thousand hours in a video game is not good.
danjoredd 4y ago
6000 hours sounds like way more than a hobby. I play videogames too, but that is downright obsession

throw10920 4y ago

This is a really good point - regardless of whether you believe that losing his save file is a net good or net bad for this person (and I believe the latter), it's incredibly important to realize that this guy has no control over what happens from this point on - Google does. We want to be in charge of making our own decisions - not Google, or Apple, or Facebook, or some other SaaS provider. (this same argument also applies to the government, by the way)

avereveard 4y ago
But he decided on its own to entrust Google with safekeeping its hobby. Too easy now to go 'poor victim has no control' There was a strong chances of this happening and many were heralding the warnings.

sirsinsalot 4y ago

Making those kinds of value judgements usually suggests the person making the judgement has some work to do on themselves. The real question is: Is that person happy/content/comfortable. That's what matters, however they get there.

password321 4y ago
Is short lived feel good chemicals all that matters? Doesn't sound like a healthy life philosophy to live by.
- Wxc2jjJmST9XWWL 4y ago
  It's a brave new world...
- sirsinsalot 4y ago
  Who said short lived? Why is living with an aim of happiness and contentment unhealthy?
- godshatter 4y ago
  I haven't played RDR2 or RDR Online, but I doubt it's in the same league as, say, something like Candy Crush. In my opinion it's probably better for you than binge watching a Netflix show because it's less passive.
- triceratops 4y ago
  Isn't happiness just "feel good chemicals"? As long as a person doesn't hurt others with how they spend their time, who are we to judge?
- kimbernator 4y ago
  Nobody is prescribing this lifestyle for you, so feel free to return the favor and let them live theirs. It's one thing to talk like this to somebody you know, but randomly speculating about how somebody you'll never meet might be living a lifestyle that you don't approve of is without question a less worthwhile activity than playing video games.

exysle 4y ago

But BioShock is a great decision game. What are you talking about?

datalopers 4y ago

> due to wasting a very significant part of his life in video games He’s a streamer. He makes a living from playing that game. What’s your job? Let’s compare total value add.

password321 4y ago
Just checked his channel and a few hundred views on each video. Can one really make a living off that?
- datalopers 4y ago
  Probably not but it’s still a shit view from OP. I know lots of startup founders than burn a year with a failed idea who only get praise.
- vintermann 4y ago
  Possibly a very modest one. I know of a couple of small streamers with few but very loyal fans. The views on their VODs or YouTube videos is a very poor indication of their economic success.

danso 4y ago

I think social gaming can have a lot of personal value (especially with the last 3 years being pandemic years). But RDO arguably is showing signs of a sunsetting service, so maybe it's best that this painful loss happen sooner than a few years later.

irusensei 4y ago

You don't get to decide what's the best thing for another person.

jesuscript 4y ago

why you shouldn't depend on these platforms for anything of value I disagree with this. I found it unmanageable to do my own backups without the cloud and remember passwords. I trust my bank because the the government has laws to protect me. We have zero laws for cloud platforms. In the event of a shutdown or request to transfer off to another cloud, laws should be in place where these companies must comply. We are in the cave man era of cloud platforms on a legal level.

phpisthebest 4y ago
>>I trust my bank because the the government has laws to protect me. boy are you in for a shock.... Governments has laws to protect the bank... I dont trust any bank, that is why I have mutiple accounts at several credit unions, and other institutions

spaceman_2020 4y ago

I’ve probably logged in thousands of hours watching, discussing, analyzing sports (not playing - that’s a separate metric) Most older people have likely spent even more hours than this. Yet spending 2 hours watching football, then another hour watching a bunch of talking heads discuss the game, is somehow considered “normal”. I’m not a gamer, but what about this hobby is any different from any other passive sedentary hobby? Even reading fiction isn’t any particularly different, is it?

tehbeard 4y ago
Games aren't a passive hobby, there's an active component of feedback. This a higher dopamine response compared to "passive" activities like watching sports or reading; arguably that's the only real difference. They are capable of creating addictive tendencies as any other substance using the same dopamine reward would for certain individuals. That and video games being a much younger medium and therefore a waste of time / for babies / the devil's siren call as society loves to berate them.
- dragontamer 4y ago
  Honestly, if more people wasted time on video games instead of sports gambling, I think the world would be a better place. But yeah: video games are nerd stuff that you are allowed to make fun of. Gambling and sports betting is a bro thing and therefore cool, but seriously is as big a waste of time and probably a bigger waste of money.
- P5fRxh5kUvp2th 4y ago
  I see you've never watched a group of people scream at the television when someone fumbles the ball.
  - tehbeard 4y ago
    I have been in many a pub during a match, cheering on my team with others. So i can see you have never really considered others as having rich lives, we're all just a 1d background character to you, the star of the show... Agency, is perhaps the better way or reason to describe games being more "addictive", the feedback loop of take action, get result, repeat. You'll be more invested in something you can shape. I can cheer on my team, revel in the drama unfolding, but i have no say in how it goes. A book can feed my imagination, lead me to consider new viewpoints or ideas, but i cannot change the fate of the characters.

AlwaysRock 4y ago

Bad take. If he spent 6k hours whittling or playing chess or reading would it be better? Hobbies are hobbies. Some seem silly to others but the person was clearly enjoying the game.

MangoCoffee 4y ago

>"You'll own nothing and be happy" we are trained to believe everything and anything should be on the cloud and SaaS is the right business model 'cause everything will be taken care for you then we found out that ebook collection on Amazon doesn't really belong to you. you just renting them. those song playlist that you build in Spotify that you paid every month for doesn't belong to you. i think the Media industry finally find the ultimate "DRM". lock you down and lock you into their SaaS. you will keep paying for rights to listen to that song that you've paid more than enough and that song still doesn't belong to you.

mikepurvis 4y ago

I totally feel this in non-gaming spaces too— like, how much effort do I really want to put into "starring" my favourite shows on Netflix to help them recommend me stuff? Is it worth the bother of trying to do anything more than the bare minimum as far as organizing my Spotify tunes into manually-curated playlists? Adding annotations to pictures on Google Photos or Facebook? When you don't own anything and it could all disappear in the blink of an eye, it's hard to feel like it's super worthwhile investing.

kimbernator 4y ago

> Losing his characters is the best thing that's happening for him due to wasting a very significant part of his life in video games has some merit (but could be worded differently) This community has a real tendency towards self-righteousness that is beginning to get on my nerves. You don't know anything about this person. Even if it's a truly unhealthy habit they have, that's none of our business.

throw10920 4y ago
Your comment is breaking the guidelines. > Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
pb7 4y ago
It's out on a public forum, it doesn't have to be our business for us to comment on it. We also don't need to know anything about him in particular to know that's a crazy amount of time to spend. He doesn't magically have more than 24 hours a day.
PedroBatista 4y ago
Let's be honest, you probably came here already with an axe to grind. If you calmly read what I wrote, I mentioned the argument as a secondary observation since the main topic is Google and other "-as-a-Service" companies making victims when they change course. >You don't know anything about this person. Even if it's a truly unhealthy habit they have, that's none of our business. I don't know how you even expect to milk some virtue out of that statement, but I'll just say: Having awareness, observing and talking about things is everyone's business since it's a liberty we ( still ) have. Any self-righteousness, victim blaming, etc. are things you added to my comment or misunderstood.

scifibestfi 4y ago

> The immense pressure to transform/re-frame everything as a service, aka: "You'll own nothing and be happy" leads to these situations. Now it's "just a video game", but this is starting to happen to most walks of life. "Welcome to 2030. I own nothing, have no privacy, and life has never been better" That's an actual quote from a member of parliament and posted by the World Economic Forum. https://twitter.com/wef/status/808328302213689344 https://twitter.com/wef/status/808328302213689344

jotm 4y ago

Well, many games won't work when the servers go down so... Just pirate them :D

jacobwilliamroy 4y ago

I do my hobbies because if I dont I'll fill the time by smoking cigarettes which I am really trying hard not to do. I specifically engage in pointless pastimes because they have better health outcomes than spending an equivalent amount of time smoking tobacco on the porch.

jtbayly 4y ago

Yep. This is why 1Password’s recent change to this mode of operation makes me so angry and depressed.

dougmwne 4y ago

Delicious irony, seeing as you are yelling your comment into the digital void. Maybe some AI will one day use it in a training set on the way to sentience and your words here will have some value? Otherwise I wouldn’t cast stones.

rvz 4y ago

> The immense pressure to transform/re-frame everything as a service, aka: "You'll own nothing and be happy" leads to these situations. Now it's "just a video game", but this is starting to happen to most walks of life. Indeed. It is everything-as-a-service subscription, rent-seeking, griftopia created by our tech overloads which "you will own nothing and you'll be an extremely happy user" and all your digital games and save games gone if the service shuts down, bans you or terminates your access.

tablespoon 4y ago

> Although the angle of: Losing his characters is the best thing that's happening for him due to wasting a very significant part of his life in video games has some merit (but could be worded differently) IMHO, that's taking it too far. Anyone who has spent that much time on a video game is probably not going to change their habit because they lost a character.