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12 years ago I quit gaming because decent titles weren't available for Linux. I now have a great job and family, part of which I attribute to spending thousands

by jl6 14y ago

12 years ago I quit gaming because decent titles weren't available for Linux. I now have a great job and family, part of which I attribute to spending thousands of hours learning about life and technology instead of playing games. Give it up people, video games = fast-forwarding your life. (Actually I'm not really suggesting being that strict. I did return to play the occasional top title like Portal 2, but on a strictly controlled diet. Gaming should be a small enough part of your life that such DRM is a non-issue)

lotharbot 14y ago
My wife did excellent work on a training simulator, and regularly impressed both the military customer and higher ups on the corporate side. She credited three video games with building her most impressive skills: Descent taught her to visualize and maneuver in 3D space, Starcraft taught her to think about force composition and disposition, and Nethack taught her to make thousands of decisions (and type thousands of characters) without making mistakes. She still games pretty extensively (she'll be taking Tuesday off for the SC2 expansion), and has a great job and family. And at least part of her excellence is due to the way she uses video games to sharpen her mind.
- lttlrck 14y ago
  Descent... well you needed as certain aptitude to play that game well. A degree in three-dimensional awareness would also have helped.
danilocampos 14y ago
> Give it up people, video games = fast-forwarding your life. While I agree with you in principle – I doubt I play more than one or two games a year – I resent your sanctimonious tone. You've no way of knowing how people are using their games. Modern games present a lot of opportunities for exploring power and morality. Even sexuality. For some, the escapism represented by games may be as close to vacation or therapy as economic reality allows. For others, they're a vacuous waste of time that could be better spent. But you don't know, so don't claim to.
RamseyMcGrath 14y ago
On the other hand, the only reason I first started to use Linux was so that I could run an SRCDS server for Counter-Strike and host Ventrilo. If video games were restricting you from having relationships (or "learning about life") maybe it is better that you stopped. Most normal people game with more moderation.
Tanner 14y ago
To offer an alternate perspective: I owe video games a great debt. I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't thrown myself to whole-heartedly into playing and making video games right out of highschool. My passion for them got me my first job as a developer despite having extremely limited experience. Giving up video games, for me, likely would have meant I was working a menial job for low pay. Games are a huge part of life for a lot of people and it's totally possible to engage with them meaningfully, often and still have it be healthy.
dev_jim 14y ago
25 years ago I started gaming because I was 4 and was given an NES and it was fun and stuff. I now have a great job and girlfriend, none of which I attribute to all the video games I continue to play. Give it up people, trolling the Internet = fast-forwarding your life.
cameronh90 14y ago
You're right, but you don't go far enough. Not only should we mostly give up games, but also film, TV, fictional books, travelling for pleasure, non-procreative sex. All they do is hurt society, cause pollution and produce nothing. Hell, why are you wasting time on a family? Think of all the Ruby books you could have read. Except, in addition to being pleasurable, media shapes our society and culture. That we do more than just working to survive is perhaps one of humanity's defining features, and we should be embracing it. Video games are similar to books or film, in that they have dramatically influenced many of our minds and lives. That's why we get upset when publishers see our obsession and game merely as something to exploit for profit, then throw away, rather than as something that should be preserved as part of society's collective knowledge. Even if the DRM probably won't directly cause us any problems ever, it makes us uncomfortable. I noticed when playing the latest release of Metal Gear Solid, how significant the series has been to me. When I played MG/MGS1, I was young - and, among other games, shared controller gameplay was a bonding experience between me and my friends. These friends are still my strongest, so no doubt it helped cement the friendship. MGS2 was when I was about 10, and starting to think somewhat philosophically. The ideas about AI and censorship, trans-humanism, robotics and nanotechnology significantly changed me and perhaps shaped my beliefs and future (in combination with films like The Matrix which I watched at the same time). MGS3, I played with my girlfriend when we first met - and even now we still talk about it, and have played it a few times since. I played MGS4 relatively recently, now moved out, living with girlfriend and working. That video game series, however, has been there, influencing my life in various ways from the sidelines - and that's just one video game out of hundreds I've played over the years. I remember when playing Sega Megadrive games when I was very young, trying to work out how they were made. It perhaps is when I started to get interested in programming. Sure, you shouldn't be playing them all day every day - but that's just the age old problem of procrastination, living a balanced life and work before play. If you go too far down this path of maximum productivity, you start to burn out. Finding the play/work balance is hard, because on the one side is extreme sloth, and on the other is a path that, I believe, ends up making you a kind of solipsist/nihilist burnout.

by jl6 14y ago

lotharbot 14y ago

My wife did excellent work on a training simulator, and regularly impressed both the military customer and higher ups on the corporate side. She credited three video games with building her most impressive skills: Descent taught her to visualize and maneuver in 3D space, Starcraft taught her to think about force composition and disposition, and Nethack taught her to make thousands of decisions (and type thousands of characters) without making mistakes. She still games pretty extensively (she'll be taking Tuesday off for the SC2 expansion), and has a great job and family. And at least part of her excellence is due to the way she uses video games to sharpen her mind.

lttlrck 14y ago
Descent... well you needed as certain aptitude to play that game well. A degree in three-dimensional awareness would also have helped.

danilocampos 14y ago

> Give it up people, video games = fast-forwarding your life. While I agree with you in principle – I doubt I play more than one or two games a year – I resent your sanctimonious tone. You've no way of knowing how people are using their games. Modern games present a lot of opportunities for exploring power and morality. Even sexuality. For some, the escapism represented by games may be as close to vacation or therapy as economic reality allows. For others, they're a vacuous waste of time that could be better spent. But you don't know, so don't claim to.

RamseyMcGrath 14y ago

On the other hand, the only reason I first started to use Linux was so that I could run an SRCDS server for Counter-Strike and host Ventrilo. If video games were restricting you from having relationships (or "learning about life") maybe it is better that you stopped. Most normal people game with more moderation.

Tanner 14y ago

To offer an alternate perspective: I owe video games a great debt. I wouldn't be where I am today if I hadn't thrown myself to whole-heartedly into playing and making video games right out of highschool. My passion for them got me my first job as a developer despite having extremely limited experience. Giving up video games, for me, likely would have meant I was working a menial job for low pay. Games are a huge part of life for a lot of people and it's totally possible to engage with them meaningfully, often and still have it be healthy.

dev_jim 14y ago

25 years ago I started gaming because I was 4 and was given an NES and it was fun and stuff. I now have a great job and girlfriend, none of which I attribute to all the video games I continue to play. Give it up people, trolling the Internet = fast-forwarding your life.

cameronh90 14y ago

You're right, but you don't go far enough. Not only should we mostly give up games, but also film, TV, fictional books, travelling for pleasure, non-procreative sex. All they do is hurt society, cause pollution and produce nothing. Hell, why are you wasting time on a family? Think of all the Ruby books you could have read. Except, in addition to being pleasurable, media shapes our society and culture. That we do more than just working to survive is perhaps one of humanity's defining features, and we should be embracing it. Video games are similar to books or film, in that they have dramatically influenced many of our minds and lives. That's why we get upset when publishers see our obsession and game merely as something to exploit for profit, then throw away, rather than as something that should be preserved as part of society's collective knowledge. Even if the DRM probably won't directly cause us any problems ever, it makes us uncomfortable. I noticed when playing the latest release of Metal Gear Solid, how significant the series has been to me. When I played MG/MGS1, I was young - and, among other games, shared controller gameplay was a bonding experience between me and my friends. These friends are still my strongest, so no doubt it helped cement the friendship. MGS2 was when I was about 10, and starting to think somewhat philosophically. The ideas about AI and censorship, trans-humanism, robotics and nanotechnology significantly changed me and perhaps shaped my beliefs and future (in combination with films like The Matrix which I watched at the same time). MGS3, I played with my girlfriend when we first met - and even now we still talk about it, and have played it a few times since. I played MGS4 relatively recently, now moved out, living with girlfriend and working. That video game series, however, has been there, influencing my life in various ways from the sidelines - and that's just one video game out of hundreds I've played over the years. I remember when playing Sega Megadrive games when I was very young, trying to work out how they were made. It perhaps is when I started to get interested in programming. Sure, you shouldn't be playing them all day every day - but that's just the age old problem of procrastination, living a balanced life and work before play. If you go too far down this path of maximum productivity, you start to burn out. Finding the play/work balance is hard, because on the one side is extreme sloth, and on the other is a path that, I believe, ends up making you a kind of solipsist/nihilist burnout.