Like for every blog post, firstly please be sure to read blog info to understand my blog.
⏱️Overview
I write about (mainly video and PC) games as an addiction here with some of my experience and advice.
Games 🎮🕹️
Video games on consoles, PC, smartphones, cabinets, as well the old sport games, cards or board games, etc. There is simply no end here and beginning was likely in ancient times or earlier.
General⚙️
Video games are not realistic, never will be, and honestly you might go out more often (or watch more science) to notice better the complexity of physics involved in lighting effects, atmosphere (air flow), water, dirt surface, how big and detailed real world is, etc. Games are just a bunch of recent algorithms for recent hardware emulating something that mimics real world for better sales. Obviously other styles exist too to cover more people’s preferences and to add variety.
Games provide either a simple logic puzzle, or a basic world with some rules. Of course logic games get difficult with more combinations (like chess) and randomness plays a big part in all games (e.g. cards). Looking at a typical ARPG game where you kill monsters and bosses, or even most other games, there is a path or logic in each level you need to follow. Vehicle simulations tend to be more complex in computation but your steering inputs will always be slightly different and random.
For any game, if you try enough times then you’ll learn the path or logic eventually. Sadly the main obstacle for games is spending more time (or in recent more money to win). It’s not like in life that a choice can effect rest of it. In games you usually just need to continue and later games tend to be more endless since this brings more profits. Not like in old days where games had an end or would become simply boring.
Addiction
Playing games can easily become and addiction, even a lifetime one.
It’s no wonder: games are (and were since cabinets) made to be addicting, to make the most profits. The best playable games (for me made about 1989-2004) are just fun, enjoyable, well made, and had one (or no) cost. But all games still have a simple, capturing world, way easier than the real world. Also games are more rewarding instantly (quicker and more flashy) than dealing with real life problems or continuing your creative projects which can take a lot of time, determination, knowledge and learning.
Lastly I have to mention the Steam virus here, which I never used and would simply avoid like poison. Its only goals being: spreading addiction and huge profits. It seems to be a monopoly at that too. Here is a longer video about it (how sick it’s company got).
👉Recommendations
I got one quote here: “stop playing a game before it starts playing you”, meaning it consumes your life and you don’t control it anymore.
There are already a few websites on how to stop playing video games (e.g. here or here).
But if you still want or do play, I recommend 2 videos with much needed info for nowadays made games:
- What Went Wrong with Gaming? Explaining history since when games were okay, until now when they put so much abusive, anti-human, shit into all the modern games that it just makes me throw up not even look and only continue my/our game or any other FOSS game.
- if you were even thinking of making games for a job or liking big game companies, here is a video for that: Which Video Game Company Has Done The WORST Things: A Tournament. It’s a toxic work environment that brings huge quite random profits but only for few people and creative people’s ideas don’t matter only those sick, unhuman, retarded marketing practices.
Before playing a game, I’d recommend researching it first, watching gameplay (after its release) and only if you like every aspect then playing. But for me since years just watching somebody’s gameplay, longplay, play through or walk through (usually just partly) of a game is enough. Some other movies about games mechanics are interesting too, even more than games themself. And glitches (e.g. here) are much funnier too.
I would also highly recommend staying away from the most popular games. There is always more danger of loosing money or getting addicted in them. Instead I would recommend FOSS games. Like with every Free Software alternative, it does bring crucial benefits, you can learn how it is made, or even modify it (after time, eventually). One way of making sure (or more difficult) you don’t get commercial games (that easily) is moving to Linux. I could probably install some big free commercial game if I had still Windows, but since I’m on Debian, I likely can’t play most (not supported) or would need some serious trouble to do it, and lastly I don’t want to contaminate my OS with commercial crap.
⌛Conclusions
For me it was always (since I was about 11) more fun and better rewarding experience to create and develop my games rather than just playing. This way it was an incentive to learn and gain at first programming knowledge, and later in few more areas (like having contributors, artists, forum and website for our game Stunt Rally etc).
I did play many games for sure, but not too many, especially later in life, and none of those poisoned by marketing and payments. When I did play, I also always noticed: technology, visual artifacts, game logic, how they did implement things, bugs (sometimes very funny) and hardware limits.
Obviously, having played or watched quite many games, I have to add that games are quite entertaining adventures. Games can enrich our life, show different worlds (just like books and movies) and possibly can help learning e.g. logic, reflexes, even selling (items), communication (if with real people), language or how they implented it all. Especially for younger people. Of course there are way better ways of learning (just more boring): books, tutorials, websites, online courses, etc.
But it is important to not stretch this into an addiction. Just like I only enjoy movies and don’t watch series at all, I also enjoyed games that just ended, had a definitive finish. Seems so long ago. Now games have lots of paid DLCs (far more expensive than game itself), in game transactions where you can spend a lot too (but shouldn’t at all). Lastly online chats and mulitplayer games can get toxic too.
Sadly current way for most of latest commercial games is making them playable for years, putting as much content as possible (e.g. as collectible items for gambling), also to add hundreds of hours of playing by adding randomization, or making people play daily. Too many games now are just a graphically advanced framework over a very simple slot machine at its core. And it is crucial to not fall for this or setting yourself a limit before and knowing when to stop.