3 ms·

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.

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.
yborg 4y ago
Spending 2 months learning piano would have left you as a novice piano player nobody would want to listen to in performance except for your mom. I'd argue that your CoD skills would have made you worth watching after that much time.
- nsxwolf 4y ago
  I mention piano because I finally did take up piano. I enjoy learning at my own pace and I impress myself with my continual improvement. I'm not imposing it on anyone else at the moment. I was never a competitive COD player either. To this day I'm just OK at it. My k/d ratio is still < 1 (or "negative" as people oddly say)
- bee_rider 4y ago
  Keep in mind they've built the series off minor iterations on the first Modern Warfare game (CoD 4) over the course of, like, 15 years. I think in the piano analogy, this would be like slightly different brands of keyboards. I wouldn't be that surprised to find I'd played around that much CoD over the course of, like, 2007-2016 and I definitely was not worth watching.
- aardvarkr 4y ago
  Strongly disagree. If it takes 10K hours to become an expert that person has probably spent more than 2k hours across the different COD’s. Apply the 80%/20% rule and you’re going to be at a pretty solid level of playing after investing that much time. I’d say enough to get a gig playing in a local band and more than enough to impress your mom.

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.

yborg 4y ago

Spending 2 months learning piano would have left you as a novice piano player nobody would want to listen to in performance except for your mom. I'd argue that your CoD skills would have made you worth watching after that much time.

nsxwolf 4y ago
I mention piano because I finally did take up piano. I enjoy learning at my own pace and I impress myself with my continual improvement. I'm not imposing it on anyone else at the moment. I was never a competitive COD player either. To this day I'm just OK at it. My k/d ratio is still < 1 (or "negative" as people oddly say)
bee_rider 4y ago
Keep in mind they've built the series off minor iterations on the first Modern Warfare game (CoD 4) over the course of, like, 15 years. I think in the piano analogy, this would be like slightly different brands of keyboards. I wouldn't be that surprised to find I'd played around that much CoD over the course of, like, 2007-2016 and I definitely was not worth watching.
aardvarkr 4y ago
Strongly disagree. If it takes 10K hours to become an expert that person has probably spent more than 2k hours across the different COD’s. Apply the 80%/20% rule and you’re going to be at a pretty solid level of playing after investing that much time. I’d say enough to get a gig playing in a local band and more than enough to impress your mom.