Not only that, but I found that after about a month of consistently playing, my typing skills had improved, I seemed socially more confident for some reason (no idea if that’s related), and in general it was easier to think about programs + web-applications as a system of processes (something game configuration files, mechanics etc. Not the healthiest thing, but after a long day - that seems like an acceptable time to sit for a little while. When I went back to gaming during the evenings this year, at first it felt stupid. The balance for whatever reason as I get older feels easier. More than anything, I try to make time to be away from a computer - for the sake of my eyes, posture, and social life. I spend time with my partner, I have fiction-books I try and read, and a lot of tutorials I work through. I make time to make dinners that take a lot of prep-time, take care of the pets. Now, I still work at my computer pretty well all day, but my life-balance is a lot different. When I would study from my dorm, I would fire up a game in between chapters, or keep a schedule of roughly 2 hrs of study followed by 30min-1hr of breaking. That was an issue, undoubtedly, but with time I slowly became less interested, and the problem disappeared.Īs I went on to college, I would play occasionally - especially during the winter months. However, I would stay up way too late on Fridays, often times continuing to play with friends on Saturday morning when I eventually got up. My reflex-time probably benefited from it, and thankfully at that time in my life, I was very active with sports etc., so bodily strain was likely not an issue. I was able to play fairly well after a lot of practice - something that remains gratifying when you get in the zone. I had friends online - specifically in Counter-Strike: Source. And granted, maybe it wasn’t always a waste of time. Most of the time I spent during my day was in front of a computer for either work or school, so to sit back down at a computer and put that strain on my body + eyes - you name it - ultimately wasn’t the best use of my time.īut we all have to take time to do something that we may call leisure. And for good reason: I probably was wasting time. When I used to play when I was younger, I began to think I had wasted a lot of time. Think of the time you could be doing something else, something more social, learning about something else, etc. There’s lots of reasons not to play games. I think this is something every gamer should ask themselves seriously at some point.
To address the reasons I play specifically, I’m going to break down a typical gaming session from: what I play, why, when and how, and most importantly what brought me back to it after taking a ~5 year hiatus. You’re running around looking for head-shots, using weapons, inflicting digital-harm, calling someone a n00b under your breath - what exactly is so fun about that and why? The truth is, there are a lot of reasons to play games. Lots of stuff is fun - going out to see friends, watching a movie, playing sports - and if all you could say about these activities is that they’re fun, you’re missing so much of it. So with all of this night after night, my partner started asking me “Why do you play games?” A simple question, that typically has a simple answer: “Because it’s fun.” Ultimately, that is the answer I gave, but there’s clearly more to the story. There’s just a lot to play right now (PUBG Season 5, Battlefield V ‘Pacific’, Modern Warfare, CS:GO). Recently, I’ve been on a bit of a gaming rampage - pulling in 1-2hr sessions each night after I finish up the last of my day and evening.
It’s a question every gamer (and especially the relatives of a gamer) ask: why do we play games?
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