https://public.psych.iastate.edu/caa/abstracts/2010-2014/12agd.pdf

Several studies have documented a negative relation between amount of time playing video games and school performance among children, adolescents, and college students.

The displacement hypothesis, which states that games displace time on other activities, is the most typical explanation for this relation. It could be argued, however, that the relation might be due to the children themselves, rather than to game time. It is highly likely that children who perform more poorly at school are likely to spend more time playing games, where they may feel a sense of mastery that eludes them at school.

I think the same can be argued for why men who are unsuccessful with women are more likely to play video games. Men are more likely to gain esteem, and thus power, through their ability to gain competence and dominate in some activity. Competitiveness being a drive inherent in the behavior of men moreso than women.

My theory about why there are so many loser men who play video games is because video games offer a safe, rejection free environment with clear, directly solvable problems and infinite retries. This makes them, by their very nature, more straightforward than life challenges (especially with women), which can often be only attempted at once and where the conditions for victory are much less clear.

You very rarely find truly successful people who make video games a key cornerstone of their lives and identities. And yes, there are some outliers, but for most part, men who obsess over video games are likely to lean more anti-social.

Not all gamers, but a significant portion of them (enough to create the stereotype of a toxic, creepy, fat weirdo), gravitate towards games because they offer a substitute for a consistent lack of success in solving real world systems. For these people, games are a means of escape from their lives.

A significant portion of men are voluntarily going mgtow as a way of escaping the cruel and unforgiving nature of the sexual marketplace. Very subtle mechanisms and changes in the environment including upbringing, current social climate, menstrual cycle down to the wrong tone of communication can result in a swift and painful rejection from women. The thought of constant rejection and permanent romantic death in pursuing intimate relationships is not only scary, but unacceptably frustrating to many gamers. So rather than risking this game where the stakes are high, there are no respawns, and no clear conditions for victory, they prefer to stick to the systems they know.

Should video game addiction be taken more seriously?

The most comprehensive study to date in the United States used a national sample of over 1,100 youth aged 8 to 18, in which 8.5% of video game players were classified as pathological (Gentile, 2009).

Today we see many platforms successfully capitalizing by converting male sexuality (competitiveness, dominance, competency in a specific activity) into a commodity for men to consume and compete against each other.

Does this do a disservice to women and men alike? Does this new environment explain the rise in anxiety, depression, panic attacks and anhedonia men report feeling?

General discussion on any thoughts about how you're triggered about a discussion on the negative effects of video games and any other thoughts.