Video games again

Stinger86 · 2015-07-15T07:57:42+00:00

I think video games are unfairly targeted as a kind of vice, but they are in fact no worse than other harmless hobbies, like watching film or reading books and are in many cases superior because they require interaction, decision-making, and in multiplayer games, negotiation of social dynamics. In other words, they aren't passive.

When should you worry? If you notice that video games (or any hobby) begin to swallow up your time and attention to the exclusion of other areas of your life you need to be set up properly in order to function as a happy, well-rounded human, then you should reassess on what to do.

This has more to do with addictive personality traits and a lack of discipline than it has to do with the object in question (video games).

jons_throwaway · 2015-07-15T09:26:16+00:00

Play your heart out, but do not neglect anything needed to improve yourself. I don't sleep. I mean no more than 4 hrs a night. So I play for about an hour before work while my wife sleeps. I go to the gym after work.

throwaway320_ · 2015-07-15T14:33:53+00:00

A month ago, my "hours played the past 2 weeks" counter on Steam said 80 hours. That's 40 hours a week, as much hours as a daytime job would consume in a week.

I started doing useful things during the day. Productive hobbies like reading, lifting, playing instruments, etc.

I'm much happier with the way I'm spending my time, and I don't even miss bingeing on videogames. The counter now says 23 hours, of which 10 are from playing Rocksmith, which is as much of a videogame as a learning tool for guitar and bass. I'm totally fine with 13 hours over two weeks 'wasted' doing something I enjoy.

And lets be real here, there's a point where you play the games so much it is just an escapism to keep you from doing less comfortable yet more useful things.

NidStyles · 2015-07-14T23:29:13+00:00

Selling all of your systems or uninstalling everything from your PC would be a step in the correct direction at least. Another one would be to stop consuming media that has advertisements in it. Spend more time outside, or doing physical activities.

I can't say, as I don't have this problem personally, but I saw firsthand the degradation of video games from story telling to button mashing. Now, I don't even care about video games. I can watch others play them for a little while, but if I try, I usually fall asleep. I knew a guy that spent 100+ hours of his life playing Skyrim. His "GF" was fucking around on him, guess how I know.

Nothing will beat that first play through of Zelda, a link to the past.

nuesuh · 2015-07-15T09:17:10+00:00

Video games are short term gratification. Cutting time spent on video games down is important.

When you're hooked or in a habit of doing something negative, removing the option to do it makes things a lot easier. Remove the unhealthy food, remove video game consoles, uninstall most or all of your video games.

If you do that effectively, you won't have the urge to do it in a couple of months. Same thing goes for most bad habits.

machimus · 2015-07-15T00:56:31+00:00

Not certain this will work 100%, but every time you die, do as many push-ups or sit-ups as you can. When you have no more left in you, you are done playing.

Title	Video games again
Author	megadeth9999
Upvotes	6
Comments	16
Date	July 14, 2015 11:12 PM UTC (11 years ago)
Subreddit	Posted in /r/askTRP
Original Link	https://old.reddit.com/r/asktrp/comments/3dbbzl/video_games_again/
Archive Link	https://theredarchive.com/r/askTRP/video-games-again.151155 https://theredarchive.com/post/151155

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