"The Only Thing I Know..." Let's talk about being a gamer, life balance, and the biz.
polycounter lvl 19
A video on Youtube thats not going in the Thread of Awesomeness, as it has a pretty interesting message some of the professionals here, myself include, might find interesting.
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKBRG_QgEAM&[/ame]
Let me get the ball rolling with a brief comment, and I'll let you guys take it from there.
I'm not a WoW player nor do I play any game 'hardcore' any more, but I do agree with what he's saying... AND I work in this industry! I haven't felt this conflicted in a long time. I know quite a few people who use to post here a ton a few years ago are barely seen, and I often wonder if its because of the reasons Brian mentions in this video (it couldn't possibly be because they don't like Polycount anymore... *nervous laugh*). And if it is for those reasons, how are their lives now?
How do those with a family and this job balance their lives and their jobs, while making sure they're keeping up with the curve? (Something I personally think is one of the most important responsibilities of any artist in this industry).
To focus more on art and less on games, I recently removed all videogames from my PC and have only played the odd XBLA game from time to time. And with the new time I get from this (an hour or 2 a night) I try and replace it with more time with my wife, friends, sleeping, making 3D environemnts at home 100% stress free, going out, etc. etc. etc. and I love it. Things were never "OMG bad!" before, don't get me wrong my life is great, but dropping gaming as a core element of my life has been pretty beneficial.
So, how do you - the videogame developer - feel about Brian's message in this video and how does your life reflect that opinion?
TL;DR.
[ame]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKBRG_QgEAM&[/ame]Let me get the ball rolling with a brief comment, and I'll let you guys take it from there.
I'm not a WoW player nor do I play any game 'hardcore' any more, but I do agree with what he's saying... AND I work in this industry! I haven't felt this conflicted in a long time. I know quite a few people who use to post here a ton a few years ago are barely seen, and I often wonder if its because of the reasons Brian mentions in this video (it couldn't possibly be because they don't like Polycount anymore... *nervous laugh*). And if it is for those reasons, how are their lives now?
How do those with a family and this job balance their lives and their jobs, while making sure they're keeping up with the curve? (Something I personally think is one of the most important responsibilities of any artist in this industry).
To focus more on art and less on games, I recently removed all videogames from my PC and have only played the odd XBLA game from time to time. And with the new time I get from this (an hour or 2 a night) I try and replace it with more time with my wife, friends, sleeping, making 3D environemnts at home 100% stress free, going out, etc. etc. etc. and I love it. Things were never "OMG bad!" before, don't get me wrong my life is great, but dropping gaming as a core element of my life has been pretty beneficial.
So, how do you - the videogame developer - feel about Brian's message in this video and how does your life reflect that opinion?
TL;DR.
Replies
I definitely agree with what he's saying - albeit in some less dramatic way. The solution is just don't play as many games if you want to do other things. pretty easy.
My take on the whole situation is to do what you love. If you love games, play some damned games. Any facet of life is pointless viewed through some perspective. The video is good overall, and does have good points about dire gaming addiction, but i liked the end bit, and it's a major reason why i'm studying this field. Gaming brings us nerds together. 50 years ago this dude would be a shut in building model airplanes with no one to socialize with at all (maybe not, but you get the point.) We're fortunate to live in an age when our geeky minority has the means to rally together and create something we can take part in on a massive scale. I got the bug when i started QA, first job outside of washing dishes i could tolerate and haven't looked back since. Quite frankly most the outside world seems pointless in my view. Gaming and its culture makes at least some sense, in game and out.
Great video adam, sure to raise some good discussion none the less.
one of the easiest ways to manage your time as a gamer is simply to set a day for yourself. All Wednesday evening is your game night, or Sunday afternoon - some defined chunk of time. Spend all of your weekday free time with your sweetie/kids - read a book - clean your apartment - do the shit you want to do in life. But do NOT give up your time. Everyone needs a piece of time for themselves. Just have to make the conscious choice to not spend so much time playing.
Yes, if you total up your hours spent gaming it'd be some ridiculous and probably depressingly high amount, but at the same time, who doesn't need a few hours here or there to kick back and enjoy some entertainment, whether it's gaming, movies, sportscenter, blogging, staring at a wall, etc. Most of us really need that downtime to relax, and shouldn't feel like it was time wasted, sure you could be curing cancer in your spare time, but hours spent WoW should not be considered shameful if that's something you enjoy, if you go too far with it and can't strike a balance between gaming and living or more productive things, it's your own damn fault, not the game's!
As a matter of fact, at the minute a game starts getting dull, I drop the controller and give up on the game almost entirely because from that point on, every second I spend in front of it I am indeed thinking : "I am currently wasting precious minutes of my time".
That sounds rather extreme but that's basically how I pick up the games I feel worth playing. For instance, I am almost done playing Bayonetta and stacked quite a few hours in already. But you'll never make me sit in front of, say, the gambit system in FFXII. Give me a save file with everything unlocked and now we're talking :P I've been trying hard but I have never been able to understand the fascination for such things. I admire the design/thought process behind those intricate branching systems, but how much does that weight (from a developer standpoint, and gamer too), agains crafting OR playing through the next Shadow Of The Colossus ?
Also I find this little video very sad. Not the subject matter itself, as I agree about the wasted time thing especially on games with not much originality or "X-factor" and based only on grinding. It's just that ... seeing that this guy took the time to produce that useless, lesson-giving video instead of doing one of the things he claims he could have been doing instead of playing WoW, makes me feel that he's not clean of his addiction at all :P Also who forces him to play the game till lvl80? That's his very own personal choice, that does not make the game a bad thing in any way...
Plus seriously, "reading 6 harry potter books" ? Hehe what an example
Not only that, but they're a great way to bring people together. There aren't many thing I can do with my High School buddies that are 100 of miles away from me. But we get to play a game of L4D2 or something even though I'm in Indiana, another in California, Arizona, North Carolina... that's awesome!
I think the key moral of the story here is that you can't let anything consume your life. When you start revolving everything you do around one particular thing it's usually bad.
And yet here I am working on CG Art for 12 hours a day trying to get good enough so I can get a job lol... but hey being jobless gives me the time to still hang out with my friends and see my GF! Eh eh that's a plus right...?
Edit: I really think the main root cause is probably MMO's. The combined grind and social factor is pretty addictive, especially for someone who doesn't have a whole lot going for them in real life. Don't get me wrong, I like MMOs, they can be really fun sometimes and my first was an experience to remember, but some people just don't understand... a game is a game is a game.
Totally agree!
The movie is still good though, and it does for a moment let you step back and take a pause at your life.
If you are doing what you love and don't feel guilty about anything then I think its fine in my books
Everything is healthy in moderation.
If I have freelance work on I do that intensely till its done then just hang around the house moaning about being bored.
I only like certain kinds of games, ie adventure type games like tombraider and some driving games, so the kind of releases that i just 'must' have are few and far between.
this.
Today, I spent more of my day off gaming than working on my model, and felt a bit guilty for it.
- To Polycount: Im with you on this one, this movie is appealing to me since, like you I have been sometimes conflicted with the thought of wasting time on games and furthermore on making "art" for games that other people can abuse or waste their time on. So Im practically waisting my time on something others are gonna waist their time on?
But you ask, "Hey C0ldhands,if that is your real name, if you enjoy the time waisted, then the waisted time is not waisted, right?" A rethorical thinking I agree, but its only implying that the time you waste is waisted on something you like to do that does not benefit you. How about you do something you like AND that benefits you and isnt a waist of time.
Like for example play: basketball, beachvolleyball, soccer,(frisbee?) and so on...You will find that it acutally have the ellements of a multiplayer game, with socializing effects,a highscore and you do a decent workout(as long as you dont break anything). How about the ancient art of reading a book? Kick back with tea and enjoy a good book with evolving story, compelling characters, or something that develops your intelect.
My point here is, most of us are in a age (21-30) where our intelect and health should be on the top shelf together with our social skills and state of mind. Games does nothing for us in this stage of life that can contribute to our well beeing.
BUT, a human needs entertainment, specially in this era. Actually, man has always had a need for entertainment, if it was from the collouseum to the invention of the radio, the television and lately a little thing called the internett(dont argue, internett is more about entertainment than inforamtion, comunication comes second I guess). So to put it that way, games are necesarry "evil", like the great romans said: "There are two things people need, bread and circus", and so they build the collouseum.
I actually like to compare the gaming industry with the collousem in a rather dramatic way. Both are magnificent on the outside, but when you start peeking over the walls, its a sad and violent circus, and we have the front seats getlemen.
Now go away, gotta go back to playing Mass Effect 2, those planets are not gonna mine themselfs for minerals.
it's sometimes a tricky one to get a handle onm, but this is so true!
And it's not always because of gaming, just a lack of discipline in life. It's always easier to stay in bed, go party, do nothing, than it is to do constructive usefull things such as school work.
Now I'm not perfect, far from it, but I did get somewhere in life already by passing the course myself (and it's supposed to be tough, with less than 20 % getting to the end) and getting a good job. I do play more games now than I used to while studying, but don't let it detract from my life: I always say yes when somebody asks me to go do something, sport, go out, whatever (I really made a point of that after reading about this guy who says yes to everything and found it to have a very positive effect). And when I game I really prefer to do it with friends, splitscreen, or online with/against a friend.
It would be cool to have a girlfriend that games though, and more than just Wii or The Sims
Also if you had played the Sims you'd know how important games are. If those guys don't get their entertainment they start to go crazy and pee themselves. You don't want that to happen to yourself, do you?
I like this video, it's the same LIFE realization I came to about 8 months ago. For a brief history:
I started playing World of Warcraft 8 months after I moved to NC, in March of 2004. I played moderately at first, since I was new to MMO type games. After it was released, and a slew of people from the office were playing - we found a guild and found some online companions. I was sucked in, and the grip kept getting tighter as we started raiding, getting larger, and getting better. I thoroughly LOVED playing, loved the game, and loved feeling like i was a piece of a different world and team - almost like an athletic team.
Fast forward to 8 months ago (2009), I was still playing World of Warcraft. Different server and character, was on my 5th 80. We had progressed to being in the top 100 US guilds for killing internet dragons, and in the top 500 within the world. I was in leadership roles, organized ideas for killing shit, and managed healing strategies, lead raids, and managed players going in and out of encounters.
Then it hit me; for the past 5 years, i had been completely neglecting everything I love, and wanted a drastic change. It was a hard thing to drop, since i was so in love with how it played, and more importantly to me: the PEOPLE. i kept making excuses for myself that it was "research." Looking back now, I can use it as "research," but at the time i just couldn't let it go.
Not all of my experiences playing so hardcore were bad; in fact i felt it helped develop more leadership skills, organization, critical thinking, social skills, management, but nothing "physical" that i could "prove" to anyone. I could point to a leaderboard and say "Look! I helped get us there by being a strong leader," which makes me feel like "time wasted."However, like that image above says, and I agree, none of my time was "wasted," just misdirected.
I've met several thousand people, chatted with in game, and on the phone, bonded with many, and have both strengthened old relationships and gained a ton of new ones. I can honestly say that if i go nearly anywhere in the world, I can have a place to crash at. I've already done this, I planned a trip to Australia a few years back and stayed with old friends there. My positive experiences are exactly what is described in the last 30 seconds of that video - the community of the people i played with kept me going, and kept me attached. Much like how you'd hate to abandon a group of friends "in the real world," I felt the same about the folks i played with. The nasty underside of the equation comes in, when you also realize that in WoW in particular - people can and do leave at a whim, because there are so many other communities and opportunities available.
I think most people who play games "hardcore," and do not go out much know in the back of their mind they could be doing more. I think it takes some bravery and willpower to push out of it, and exit Plato's Cave.
Now that I have stopped playing wow, I'm doing art again at home regularly, have been fixing up my house and decorating more, and most importantly - I met a woman who has become very dear to me. Had i still needed to be home at 7:45 every day to organize a raid, and stay online until 3am playing and strategizing - i would have surely missed my opportunity with her.
Professionally, i am grateful for being into games so much that i play them and study them intensely - but as of today, I have made sure I do not lose my self in them as i have before. I've "fixed myself" by taking notes while i play of things i like, dislike, comments, criticisms, and i later type them up as a personal review. This makes sure i stay objective when playing games, and not to get lost in the little things and "hoarding" games like WoW, and other RPGs. I also use these notes and experiences for inspiration for my own projects, both personal and professional.
Besides Bayonetta (momentary weakness), I haven't been able to sit still playing a game for longer than 3 hours.
tldr.
Anyway do what you gotta do, just be aware of consequences, so you won't wake up like this guy one morning and wonder where all the years have gone.
The games are pretty inert objects, the 'addictive' qualities you might associate with gaming are present in many other forms, sex, car racing, hot air ballooning, it's not like drugs which artificially introduce a chemical reaction.
Blaming the game(s) as the actual agent for addiction is like blaming Playboy for you being addicting to sex.
So realistically the guy needed to treat the source of his addiction not the vessel it was presented in.
Why did he spend so much time on WoW instead of with his friends and wife?
What in himself made that reality more compelling than his actual life?
Saying that, I do think there is a level of responsibility games developers should shoulder in terms of our failure to recognise addictive patterns and not abuse/misuse them as gameplay.
I know they get slammed for it (A LOT) but WoW does have certain game play mechanics which could argueably be seen to reward addictive patterns of behaviour.
I'm sure it wasn't the goal of Blizzard's designers to actively feed addictive personalities but there is pretty compelling evidence that it does offer a level of attraction to people who are susceptible to these triggers.
For me personally I think it's just as naive to say we have no part to play in the issue as it is to say the blame rests solely at our feet.
As for time wasting...
As long as you aren't escaping from things you really should be trying to fix then enjoy.
Everything in hindsight is 20/20 and we shouldn't live our lives in regret. (feel free to ninja that one if you wish)
Now, onto adam's point. Since my experience in the industry is "0", my views may be slightly off, but the core is still there in response to your initial inquiry for the discussion.
Given I had a kid last year, the struggle to maintain that balance is even greater (I don't know how people like JoshS, KevinJ, and JesseM do it with more than one), and it takes a lot of work and a lot of give and take from you and your spouse. Finding time to actually play, well I agree with Stubbles. Setting a day aside (or at least a given amount of time) to not only play games, but also do what you want to do is important. My wife and I will most always give each other a day to ourselves, because we know we both need that time to mentally unwind and enjoy who we are. Playing games is just part of the process for me in "staying ahead of the curve", as you put it. Recognizing all the elements that make up the game, from the great environments and rpg elements in AC2 for example. To limit my "time wasting", I commit my PC to work only and I stick to consoles now. This does somewhat narrow the playing field, but it allows me to really focus on the work I need to do for my folio without the easily available distraction of an installed video game (as if the internet wasn't distraction enough).
When it comes down to brass tacks, you really have to think about the people that care about you. I love my wife and my kid, and I WANT to spend time with them, so I do. If I have to put down the controller or drop the mouse at the home computer, I do. If she wants to go out to some place to see a particular event, I do, because we are a family. If some friends invite us over for dinner and a movie, we go. I wouldn't be who I am without them, and to disregard my family and friends to play a game or buckle down on my folio for one single night is not only disrespectful to them, but extremely selfish. I work crazy hours, and even travel away from them for weeks to months at a time throughout the year. I miss birthdays and special occasions ALL the time because of work. Work sometimes gets in the way, but we all have bills to pay, and my friends and family all understand that. We all make sacrifices. Maybe it is just me, but I also feel like I owe it to my friends and family to spend time with them because of that missed time. Not only that, but they WANT to spend time with me in return. That in and of itself is worth its weight in gold.
Now if I was in the middle of an art test or the last week of DW, that's a different story.
However what it comes down to really is time and what I want to do with it, as well as the fact of: I don't find most games entertaining anymore. I know, right? what!?!
I just find a large amount to be boring retreads of things I've done a decade ago. I still play the ones that have new mechanics worth trying and of course some favorites that really appeal to me... but when it comes down to it, I'd much rather be doing art or hanging out with friends. It just feels more beneficial, and I don't feel guilty. Yes - I feel guilty like I'm wasting too much time if I go and kill an entire evening on a game (unless I specifically plan for it ahead of time).
I think the only games I play consistently anymore are Rock Band 2 and TF2 (even though lately not even this). As for new releases.. I work on one at a time. It's the only way I seem to get something done (which has been Mass Effect 2 lately.. then comes Bioshock 2.. then GoW3.. then I gotta finish dragon age.. there's obviously a lot on my plate that I want to finish but I pace myself and make these last if I can)
anyway,
tl;dr:
I play way less games now that I have a job life, because I find other things more fulfilling, but I haven't given up games altogether or blame them for anything. I simply limit my time with them to maximize my enjoyment.
First of all, MMOs are evil games, and people who don't realize that and wreck their marriages and/or lives playing them are as much to blame for their problems as heroin addicts. To diss gaming in it's entirety based on one person's experience with WoW is unjust.
I was out yesterday with friends for a quick beer in the evening and we were talking about the games we used to play when we were kids, like the Lucas Arts adventures and X-Com hotseat multiplayer. I've been friends with these guys for over 15 years and we started being friends from being the only kids playing videogames in the neighborhood back then. So, yeah I don't get the "games killed my social life" either.
Sure, our girlfriends might cringe when we go on rants about "the good old times when we were playing duke nukem modem-to-modem multiplayer" after eating at the tavern and prior to discussing the economy and life in general, but it's much more fun to talk about games than soccer at least.
Personally, I don't think there's many good games to play nowdays anyway, so I just play a couple of single player games per year and maybe some multiplayer at the net cafe just for kicks. I used to spend a lot of time playing UT99 and Quake III a couple of years before I went to uni, all competitive and shit, and I mean a LOT. And those also happened to be my most socially and gaming active years.
TL;FWI: Great vid, message is bull though. That guy could have been just as misearble reading books one after the other, and it wuold have cost him more, too. Plus, the way he got rid of WoW was very enviromentally unfriednly.
Right there with ya. I don't know if I'd be playing more if there were any more interesting and innovative games coming out, but as it is, that's more or less my pov.
I still buy new games, but I don't give them the time they demand. I just like checking out whats hot, new and seeing the art within them.
video games are entertaining to a point, just like watching a sunset is. but even sunsets, as beautiful and as awe-striking as they are, is not something u would watch for 3 hours straight, daily (assuming it would last that long). at some point, these "off-duty" activities become an escape, from whatever. each his own problems...
john romero (the one and only) wrote once how good VGs are where u need to organize and clean things. improve & fix --- the videogame, rather than urself. reading 10 harry potter books is not applicable in the resume anymore than 5 lvl 80 WoW chars. there r things to do with urself, introspectively, and dodging it by leveling up a char or winning a level flawless or even owning ur friends in b-ball ain't gonna cut it. u can see superstars acting like jackasses... resume, success, money, that aint it... it all starts - and ends - in the inside...
My gosh, all the time I've wasted doing things when I could have been doing other things!
I totally agree with you adam! If the you as a gamer cant control your own habits this is not the "games Fault" its yours.
I hate it when people try to find excuses for there mistakes and blame it on the wrong things, here is an example:
If someone kills someone with a gun does that make it the guns fault? is the gun evil? NO!! its the persons fault because he decided to go out of his way buy a gun and shoot someone.
My theory is don't blame others/things for the mistakes you make in life, there are millions of people that play games and they are able to manage it!
Lately ive been playing eq2 alot more, But, on weekends i hardly play because i go out with friends, or go to visit the girl friend. Weekdays though, i mix it up between homework and gaming. The way i see it is, there isnt ALWAYS going to be something going on. Something to do. I dont have a family to look after or anything though.
But, why do games get the bad rep in the first place? sure, they have that addiction factor. But what about people that watch alot of movies? or read alot of books? hell... have a hobby of any kind really. Sure, some get you out doors, but in the end, its just another way to "waste" your time. I know in EQ2, there are alot of families that play TOGETHER. for them, its a method of bonding.
really, i dont think its fully about moderation, i think its about what makes you happy. what stage of life you are in. and most of all, how it fits into the life you wish to have for yourself. Not everyone is the get outdoors and be social type... that shouldnt be a bad thing.
I used to raid- loved every bit of it. I ended up turning around after taking an online course on zbrush. The course forced me to cut back from WoW to make my deadlines, and I wasn't about to waste my money. I realized how much more fun I had creating art, and I've been focusing whatever time I find ever since on art. Always trying to be a better artist.
I've had times where I felt like playing games as much as I did was a waste, I see the awesome model by someone who's been modeling for 2 years and wonder why I made the decisions I did, but I don't think I regret it. Being able to tell people that you were one of the ones that downed Kael when it was meaningful can make a nice conversation
I'm going to have to echo the play in moderation bit. Video games are great, like books and movies can be great, but you really need to ask yourself what's important to you when it starts taking up the majority of your day.
I'll decide how I balance my life and what has meaning.
Personally I've stepped back from games in order to make room for other things but that doesn't give me the right to judge others who don't.
I personally don't like golf or building ships in a bottle but that doesn't mean people that do, are wasting their time. It's not that games wasted his time, ruined his marriage or side tracked his body. It's that he's finally finding out the value of balance. Actually I'm not even sure he's learning that. It sounds like he's swung the other way and decided to be just as extreme and BBQ his collection.
If there is an epidemic, its that people aren't being taught how to moderate their behavior. It's this lack of balance that gets people in trouble with just about everything.
Balance isn't some mystical gift that some people have and others don't, people need to be taught it. People can either be perceptive and forward thinking (which can also be taught) or they can be reactive learners and learn only after making mistakes.
We all learn from mistakes, but people shouldn't always make mistakes to learn from them. I think we do too much reactive learning and it builds some bad patterns. This guy is a pretty clear case for that. It never dawned on him while he was making those choices that they would lead to consequences down the road, or that he was even making choices.
Humm if you continually tell your wife, "no go away" she will.
It wouldn't surprise me if he has other videos about troubles with critical thinking.
"Fuck that's hot, why you shouldn't touch fire".
"Hookers give you crabs, my story at the free clinic".
No one teaches choices, critical thinking, decision making or empathy. Where is the school for common sense? Why are we forcing people to remember useless data they forget the second the test is over? Not everyone wants to be a contestant on a quiz show.
People need modern survival skills not useless trivia.
... What the hell where we talking about?
This guy could have made this video about any topic that he found himself addicted to. It could have been about the evils of gambling, alcohol, shopping/debt, porn, masturbation, etc. Basically Anything that has an entertainment factor, people have a potential to become addicted to. Heck, some people are even addicted to working = workaholics!
So this guy had an epiphany, that's wonderufl for him. A lot of "born again"s (christian, virgin) like to preach and prostelyze about their great revelation and try to get others to have the same light bulb moment. I think it makes them feel better about how pathetic they were in the past, to think that everyone else is as similarly addicted and they're absolving their past sins by helping others break out.
So in short, yes, addiction is generally bad for a healthy lifestyle. But not everyone who plays video games is addicted to them and video games are not inherently evil. If you're addicted to anything, you probably need a wake up call and some help to get the monkey off your back.
Yes, there can be a social factor to them that is beneficial. I think more of the industry is trending that way. The huge popularity of social networking games (as lame as they are) shows us that. I keep telling my husband that a game that allows handicap settings would be great and allow a greater age range to play together in the same game. So my kids and my parents can play something equally challenging for their skill levels and get to chat and spend "quality time" together even though they're thousands of miles apart.
In the end of his video he says that life is too short to worry about high scores. Life’s too short for everything isn’t it? If you spend your entire life trying to find some kind of activity that makes you feel enlightened, or justified, or whatever he’s looking for…you’re going to end up just as alone as the overweight, divorced WoW player. At least the WoW player has fulfilled some kind of personal goal, that is personally important, rather than constantly searching for something you'll never find.
So, I guess I don’t really agree with him and I think he’s a pussy. It isn’t video games that made him sit around, waste away and then later try to figure his life out when it all turned to shit. He just has poor self control and time management, perhaps he should have played the Sims rather than WoW.
I’ve never been addicted to games, I’ve gone through spurts of playing them more often – but I would never consider myself ‘addicted’ or obsessed. I’ve never really played MMOs, I’ve played a few to see what the fuss was all about but quickly realized it wasn’t for me. I tend to wait for a game to come out that I really want to play, play it to the end and move on. I’ve always been able to find the balance between work, games and family. Work, if anything, tends to consume more time – but not to the point where other factors in my life suffer.
The other, like all media, video games are not nessesarily "wasted" time, even if you don't consider Jackwhat's point.
All media are forms of communication, which allow people to communicate to mass markets. Through this we can pass complex ideas, thought processes, philosophies, etc... to large markets, without having to go and talk to the people one on one.
Video games are excellent at this. They just aren't always used this way.
Anyone who says that something like video games (or movies, or books, or music) are wasting time has never opened their mind to what they are doing (or has been playing the wrong games). There is much to be learned from all of these media.
In fact, books, movies and video games have probably taught me damn near as much as 15 years of schooling. :P
Oh, also, there is a major difference between playing video games and being addicted to them. I've never had a problem with the latter, but know people who have. It's an important thing to understand. It may be that this video is the result of a guy not being able to understand that addiction is different than just playing. And, like most psychological addictions, my feeling is that video game addiction has little to do with games themselves, and rather more to do with other issues. If it wasn't the video games, it'd be something else. Working out, movies, drinking, whatever. :P
... Well said! Also, that image is now my desktop.
Exactly. "Videogame" part of his message could be easily replaced with overeating, drugs, unresponsible sexual behaviour (OMG SEX GAVE ME AIDS, NOT CHILDREN), etc-etc-etc.
and he had a HELL LOT OF SPARE TIME after reading "war and peace", so instead of moving onto Anna Karenina, dude opened flash.
I think it takes a certain type of person to be able to pass up any social event with real friends to spend time with online friends running raids or beating bosses. I for one, will gladly without hesitation, drop any game I'm playing at any point in time to hang out with friends. Yes, talking on vent and slaying demons with people around the world is fun, but I don't think it can even be compared to real social interaction with real friends.
Unfortunately my current living situation is pretty piss pore as far as real friends are concerned. Everybody I used to hang out has moved away, gotten married or is at school.. meanwhile, I'm at home on my pc, hoping to become the next person to move away from this awful, boring, life draining town I call home. But until that day comes, online games are my next best form of "social interaction." This is probably one of the main reason why I play so many online games.. as far as single player games are concerned, I hardly ever finish one. Could be the best single player game of the year, but the chances of me playing through the whole game is slim to none. I get bored of sitting there 'by myself', not talking to anyone, bitching, or laughing at kids who get raged when I own them.
I hope that games in the future have better social interaction. I think Nintendo has done a great job with the DS, making it super easy to play with REAL friends. Hopefully other companies will notice this and somehow integrate it into their next product.
Anyway, I don't know what else to say. lol. I still like my games, and probably will continue to play them for many years to come, but take over my real social life? Not likely.
Also, I think what Moose mentioned earlier was right on with regards to traveling. Back when I played WoW I had the chance to travel to three different states to visit people I'd met in game, and I had a sister fly from Canada to Peru to meet her main tank*. If it wasn't for MMOs, I likely would have never visited those places.
*This is less sordid than it sounds, I swear.
If you're doing anything to the point where it is affecting your day to day routine in an unhealthy way then it's time to take a look at yourself and is more likely connected to some other problem.
That's it. That video was beyond ridiculous because the subject matter could've been replaced with anything.
from the impression i get here, i am in better shape than this guy.
i'm making progress with art.
i've read more philosophy than this guy.
Playing a lot of videogames, reading a lot of books, watching a lot of tv, =/= giving up health ambition and sleep.
Sounds like a dumbass. He wasted his life wasting his life, and he thinks he's qualified to talk down to us about things he's completely uneducated on just because he has a soapbox, and you all are eating it up? Dont waste your lives, god. Videogames are an immaterial factor, aside from being a possible method of escapism, and constantly running from problems being a way to waste your life.
His resolution is to do things that create value, but the 'value' in this case is an arbitrarily invented concept. What is valuable? This man, self described as lost and depressed and feeling like he wasted the best years of his life, does not seem to have a developed idea of what value is to him. This is a retarded sledgehammer method to his problems he decided to put on youtube in hopes other people would validate instead of manning up and facing that videogames have very little causal link to him being a pathetic hopeless loser who's screwed his life over.
What is the value of reading war and peace? What is the value of reading 7 harry potter books? (god, there isnt any.)
Since we're ruling out doing things for pleasure and morality is certainly not, at this moment in human development, any kind of logical ground to stand on, what is the value of mailing grandma 500 letters?
Do you live in nyc? the hell is waiting for you in LA? being homeless? How much does that cost on gas? Can you run a marathon in your current fitness level? Can any human run 48 marathons back to back without dying?
You could say i'm missing the point by taking these examples literally, but i'm actually trying to establish that there isnt a point. Just a bunch of rambling soapbox-y quips with no logical conclusion, and a made up, false conclusion thrown in instead as if it means something.
Fuck armchair philosophers, this kind of thing permeating our society is more obnoxious than neckbeads wasting their lives playing wow. Maybe his wife left him over him having absolutely no idea about the realities of life and being an being prone to make grandiose videos about subjects he had know education or knowledge pertaining to.
This video should be 10 seconds long, and consist of a single soundbyte of 'do cool shit, meet girls, also pushups.'
also, bonus: what kind of an asshole writes 'i'm not the type to sit in front of a microphone' in a SCRIPTED, CAREFULLY RECORDED VIDEO? You are not playing this off as casual, you spent hours on this. this is no fireside chat, ike
As far as the art side of it goes, you really don't need to play videogames at all in order to make art for them. It's just a job.
Disagree, you don't need to be hardcore about games but it doesn't hurt to know what other people are doing and there's more to see than what people post on message boards.
As far as the video goes the guy seems to be putting the blame on the games when he should take a look at himself and how he manages his own time.
I disagree as well; it's vital to keep up with the latest trends in game art and technology. Never trust a game artist that "never plays games, only does art for them".
yeah, those guys suck...
I think the guy that made it has more problems ahead of him frankly because he's blaming something external for his internal issues and this is a delaying tactic( or spiritual and philosophical thumb sucking) in the progress we ought to make toward realizing what our true identity and will is.
'Do what thout wilt shall be the whole of the law, love is the law , love under will' - Aleister Crowley, The Book of the Law.
Point being that there is no normal or right life. Theres what works for you and theres what doesn't and the hell with anyone that wants to make a judgement on the validity of what yourdecide because their judgements will only shake you out of the 'happy place' because once you get around to questioning and wondering what everyone else thinks of you, well you are lost!
This is especially true for artists.
Once you 'get' that you are free to do as you wish ( as long as you are not stamping on others wishes while doing it ) and that this is right and proper and the real point of life, you can cut yourself off from all that societal noise that is only there to distract and fleece you!