Hey folks,
I recently decided to quit online gaming. Those that know me might be thinking;
"Bailey? Seriously? But why...what else do you do?"
Well I do...do other things but it is true that I wasted my time on games when I could have been do something more constructive. A dear friend once said that they like to wake up early so half the day is not wasted/gone. The problem with games like League of Legends (Average game between players can take anything from 20 minutes to 1 hour!) Is that if you play one or two games you can find so much you day wasted.
I think that if I refrained from gaming whilst hunting for work and took up something like reading or writing or painting than I may not have been so miserable or felt so unproductive. Some online games have you grind repetitive tasks in an attempt to get something cool within the game. Usually whatever you unlock would make the game more fun or give you abilities that other players lack. Some games take this "grind" to an extreme level. There are the horror stories of students dying from dehydration due to overplaying a game but they are probably suffering from psychological addiction. I have seen folks like that, not dying but in pretty bad states. 0___o
One game I quit a while ago (last year) I referred to as "my stupid little card game". That card game is on Kongregate and if it was a game of Chess then half the pieces would be Queens and both players would want to smash the board. I won tournaments but I do not feel that my life has been enriched by playing games such as League of Legends or Tyrant (the card game).
I played because these games have a hook. Just for logging in each day you tend to receive something that helps you out with something you are already doing within that game. In League of Legends you are given tokens that help you unlock Champs that would normally takes a dozen games (480 minutes) to unlock.
I sat down the other day and read through some more of The Count of Monte Cristo. I read Chapter 38 of Volume 2 in about the same length of time that a league game would have taken. Within those pages I visited some Coliseum, an old yet remarkable beautiful hotel, I witnessed bandits kidnap a man and within that same chapter the same man was rescued by the main character! Within those pages I saw gentleman, damsels and cultural references that I did not quite comprehend. A book gave me more within a few pages than what League of Legends...or card games have given me in years.
Within that same length of time on League of Legends I would have been screamed at by other players...or witnessed other players shouting at other players. I would have done something repetitive and eventually have gotten nowhere because the whole game is about repeating the same process.
I am certain that if I spent the same amount of time on other things as I have done on gaming I could probably accomplish some neat things. When I was teaching I took my students on adventures through snake infested islands, practised some theatre, sang Lady Gaga songs (not my cup of tea but you have to meet the kids half way sometimes) and I felt a great sense of accomplishment.
When I see "Achievement Unlocked" after doing something on a game I now wonder to myself:
"What else could I be doing with my time?"
I could have been talking to someone close, I could have been talking with my mother about the family and her dissertation, I could researching eating disorders and assisting my mother in getting my brother to eat properly. (So far I just keep bringing him sammiches but there must be some literature regarding Autism and Eating issues).
I guess I played games because it was easier to sit there and effectively do nothing than get up and try something even though I might fail. At school I did not feel confident in my abilities as a student and so I used video games as an escape because within that fantasy world one's own perceived faults do not exist and you are an entirely different person. I think with each day I spent interacting with ones and zeros though I lost sight of the real people I ought to be interacting with.
Games come and go but so do human beings and I know which of those two I would rather hold onto.
It kind of stings that it took me a while to realise this but I recently received a shock that brought this epiphany about. I am also working on other things besides simply quitting gaming but I will save my constructive ideas for another blog.
Thank you for reading,
Have a great weekend,
Michael
p.s
Naturally I have a lot of friends that are gamers and so I understand if there is a backlash . This is purely my own personal experiences unfolding and what you have read dear reader are my reflections.
I recently decided to quit online gaming. Those that know me might be thinking;
"Bailey? Seriously? But why...what else do you do?"
Well I do...do other things but it is true that I wasted my time on games when I could have been do something more constructive. A dear friend once said that they like to wake up early so half the day is not wasted/gone. The problem with games like League of Legends (Average game between players can take anything from 20 minutes to 1 hour!) Is that if you play one or two games you can find so much you day wasted.
I think that if I refrained from gaming whilst hunting for work and took up something like reading or writing or painting than I may not have been so miserable or felt so unproductive. Some online games have you grind repetitive tasks in an attempt to get something cool within the game. Usually whatever you unlock would make the game more fun or give you abilities that other players lack. Some games take this "grind" to an extreme level. There are the horror stories of students dying from dehydration due to overplaying a game but they are probably suffering from psychological addiction. I have seen folks like that, not dying but in pretty bad states. 0___o
One game I quit a while ago (last year) I referred to as "my stupid little card game". That card game is on Kongregate and if it was a game of Chess then half the pieces would be Queens and both players would want to smash the board. I won tournaments but I do not feel that my life has been enriched by playing games such as League of Legends or Tyrant (the card game).
I played because these games have a hook. Just for logging in each day you tend to receive something that helps you out with something you are already doing within that game. In League of Legends you are given tokens that help you unlock Champs that would normally takes a dozen games (480 minutes) to unlock.
I sat down the other day and read through some more of The Count of Monte Cristo. I read Chapter 38 of Volume 2 in about the same length of time that a league game would have taken. Within those pages I visited some Coliseum, an old yet remarkable beautiful hotel, I witnessed bandits kidnap a man and within that same chapter the same man was rescued by the main character! Within those pages I saw gentleman, damsels and cultural references that I did not quite comprehend. A book gave me more within a few pages than what League of Legends...or card games have given me in years.
Within that same length of time on League of Legends I would have been screamed at by other players...or witnessed other players shouting at other players. I would have done something repetitive and eventually have gotten nowhere because the whole game is about repeating the same process.
I am certain that if I spent the same amount of time on other things as I have done on gaming I could probably accomplish some neat things. When I was teaching I took my students on adventures through snake infested islands, practised some theatre, sang Lady Gaga songs (not my cup of tea but you have to meet the kids half way sometimes) and I felt a great sense of accomplishment.
When I see "Achievement Unlocked" after doing something on a game I now wonder to myself:
"What else could I be doing with my time?"
I could have been talking to someone close, I could have been talking with my mother about the family and her dissertation, I could researching eating disorders and assisting my mother in getting my brother to eat properly. (So far I just keep bringing him sammiches but there must be some literature regarding Autism and Eating issues).
I guess I played games because it was easier to sit there and effectively do nothing than get up and try something even though I might fail. At school I did not feel confident in my abilities as a student and so I used video games as an escape because within that fantasy world one's own perceived faults do not exist and you are an entirely different person. I think with each day I spent interacting with ones and zeros though I lost sight of the real people I ought to be interacting with.
Games come and go but so do human beings and I know which of those two I would rather hold onto.
It kind of stings that it took me a while to realise this but I recently received a shock that brought this epiphany about. I am also working on other things besides simply quitting gaming but I will save my constructive ideas for another blog.
Thank you for reading,
Have a great weekend,
Michael
p.s
Naturally I have a lot of friends that are gamers and so I understand if there is a backlash . This is purely my own personal experiences unfolding and what you have read dear reader are my reflections.
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