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Are games a NET positive or negative for mental health?

Me too, I love games, but staying in and sitting in all day, be it games, movies or books (assuming this is your main distraction)... It would make me feel depressed. Mind you, I have never been one to sit and play for a full day, ever, even as a kid, often half a day at a time, or morning, then evening, etc. but rarely a full day, certainly not two.

I find what makes me feel really good is going outside and see the world, especially mountains and large bodies of water for some reason, I can observe nature downtown too.
Yeah, whenever I have done this myself (playing a game all day or all weekend) I do leave with a bit of a hollow feeling. Almost like regret.

Like when I took a few days off when Ghost of Tsushima launched played through the game over 3 days and then kind of felt like that's a lot of money to spend on what was just an OK experience. Probably would have been better played over shorter installments.

Getting out and about will always provide healthy benefits. Sunlight, exercise, sense of belonging. Better than sitting cooped up in a room trying to work through your backlog.

Thats one of the seldom talked about issues in gaming for me. This thing where people build up a massive "backlog" of games. Possibly it just means most games are worth playing but not worth completing. Or it points to something a bit off within the community and the industry that we are all so willing to just have 1000s of bucks worth of uncompleted games lying around.
 
Ugh not a fan of the OP quote. Games are not better than books or paintings. They can be. They have the potential. But art doesn't work like that. It's not like a movie is inherently better than a painting. It's not like when photography came out all paintings were useless.

Furthermore I don't like the stress on "education and inform" as if that is the role of art. LOL "Serious and wholesome stories"? Seems more like something a propogandist would say.
It is a bit of propaganda, I think, in some ways.

This idea is pushed a lot that games are more informative or educational or that their lessons have more value and can instill beliefs more easily.

I don't see it myself.

I wonder if its just a low key way of trying to put pressure on developers and publishers to make sure their games are political. Especially when anyone claiming their game isn't political seems to get a lot of criticism when they do that.

Its a strange article, actually.
 
Yeah, whenever I have done this myself (playing a game all day or all weekend) I do leave with a bit of a hollow feeling. Almost like regret.

Like when I took a few days off when Ghost of Tsushima launched played through the game over 3 days and then kind of felt like that's a lot of money to spend on what was just an OK experience. Probably would have been better played over shorter installments.

Getting out and about will always provide healthy benefits. Sunlight, exercise, sense of belonging. Better than sitting cooped up in a room trying to work through your backlog.

Thats one of the seldom talked about issues in gaming for me. This thing where people build up a massive "backlog" of games. Possibly it just means most games are worth playing but not worth completing. Or it points to something a bit off within the community and the industry that we are all so willing to just have 1000s of bucks worth of uncompleted games lying around.
That's why I sold my classic games collection (and emulation).

I have a friend who will retreat in gaming when things don't go well, it can last months and it won't get better until we or someone else get him to move his body around.
 

sainraja

Member
I think it depends on the person individually and how much self control they have to prevent their video game habit from affecting other stuff that they have to do
 
It is a bit of propaganda, I think, in some ways.

This idea is pushed a lot that games are more informative or educational or that their lessons have more value and can instill beliefs more easily.

I don't see it myself.

I wonder if its just a low key way of trying to put pressure on developers and publishers to make sure their games are political. Especially when anyone claiming their game isn't political seems to get a lot of criticism when they do that.

Its a strange article, actually.
The article is by the BBC, which is state run media, so this makes sense. They have to frame everything in that way, informing or educating the public. Plus the modern woke crowd thinks this way, that the goal of art is to instruct the public.

I disagree. Art is more abstract that just that. It can express things that aren't simple statements of fact or truth. Also the state should not be in the role of defining truth. But maybe all that is American me going against the British way of thinking.

Games have a potential to express things that cannot be expressed in the other artistic mediums by themselves. Picasso was able to revolutionize art by incorporated mixed media - not just paint but sculpture and other found objects - into his works. Videogames combine visual arts, music, sound design, animation, all the previous artforms combined. The potential is pretty vast and I don't think we have even dipped our toes into what games can do.
 

PapaBungle

Neo Member
As Im someone who suffers from some seriously screwed-up mental health issues, as well as physical ones too, I think from my perspective, gaming has been an absolute Godsend!
From giving me something to get out of bed for, to showing me different sides of myself, and other people's views on the world, to simply giving me an outlet for anger and frustration.
I can truly say, that if it wasn't for gaming, I think I would have topped myself many times over, but having this as more than a hobby, and as a part of a prescription almost, it is saving me and has to be doing good for others too.
 

Silvawuff

Member
I used games for escapism for a looooong time before I was able to dig out of it. Then the pandemic happened and escapism was back on the menu, but for different reasons.

Hey, I finished Breath of the Wild and like 5 other titles!
 

Bragr

Banned
Because boredom is a psychological function to get you to do other things and get off your ass, if boredom drives you to game rather than perform productive activities, it will hurt you long term.

If you go to the root of it, I assume boredom is some sort of ancient mechanism to get you to seek new relationships and new ventures, so that you don't get stuck in the same place for long. Gaming hijacks it and keeps you in the same place by artificial means.
 

jaysius

Banned
Because boredom is a psychological function to get you to do other things and get off your ass, if boredom drives you to game rather than perform productive activities, it will hurt you long term.

If you go to the root of it, I assume boredom is some sort of ancient mechanism to get you to seek new relationships and new ventures, so that you don't get stuck in the same place for long. Gaming hijacks it and keeps you in the same place by artificial means.
Well gaming replaces it, and makes you believe that you're attaining those things in virtual worlds. As digital life becomes more "real" that digital experience becomes more "valid" even though it isn't.
 

Bragr

Banned
And something that's missing from the conversation here is health, gaming for years is gonna fucking wreck your energy levels and turn you into a mushroom. You have 20-year-old's these days with the energy level of an 80-year-old, because of how they spent their teenage years.
 

Alright

Banned
I'm never really sure.

I think some people believe that because games are more interactive then a man playing a game as a female character will gain some kind of insight into the experience of being a woman. As an example.

This kind of ignores real life experiences and connections. Like spending time and connecting with your mother, grandmother, sister, aunt, friends, girlfriend, wife etc would somehow be LESS valuable that spending 5 hours completing some preachy indie game made by some 25 year old in San Francisco.

I think people got this idea that because you "play as" a character that somehow you unlock understanding by default and aren't distracted constantly by your phone or traffic outside or the dog needing attention etc. Like playing God of War won't teach you too much about being a father. Being an actual father will. Or just, you know, listening to actual people will.

The whole Twitch and YouTube segment is disturbing because you have to hope that surely we are not just writing off depressed young people by suggesting they just stay home and watch other people play videogames on Twitch and hope that fixes things.

At least with COD or FIFA they are just games in the same way that table tennis or pictionary are games. Good fun with friends but maybe not quite as good as playing team sports and getting all that physical exercise too.

I don't want to dunk on indies too much but here it's almost like everyone got stuck on this idea since Depression Quest was a thing. The idea that games purporting to be about deep, social, issues are going to teach us all how to understand life and live more compassionately. Like you'll get a handful of games with Humble Bundle and by next week you'll be a true person of the world who knows all about politics and has the solution to every social issue.

Its all just a few clicks away!
Gaming has become a fashion and fad for the popular masses. To get there, the industry had to abandon and leave behind the niche gamers (old school nerds) to make gaming more accessible, let's say that kicked off in the PSwii60 era. From there the industry has expanded its scope of games, to do that it needed to appeal to the next tier of popular gamers, and that's the mobile gaming crowd.

Unfortunately, to get there, mobile gaming 'crutches' have come to console and PC gaming in the form of lootboxes, timed lives and MTX.

Now we see very simplistic games aimed at the masses, often free to play, loaded with MTX. I know that's not every game and there are still old school brain scratchers to play (Divinity for one and Operencia: The Stolen Sun is another) but I'm talking broad strokes.

Gaming, to the masses, and I don't count the COD or Fifa crowd in the 'masses' anymore, is just a rinse and repeat cycle of dopamine hits, aimed at pushing the crutches that mobile gamers have become accustomed to.

IMO its hard to not see how gaming has become a negative activity for the majority of people. I'm old school and prefer the games of yesteryear, so I'm lucky(unlucky?) enough to see the transition and realise it for what it is.

Me as a 6 Yr old playing his first game though, that's a different story. Fantasy zone and Spy vs Spy were my earliest games and I remember them fondly. I imagine we would all react with the same wonder and joy if Fortnite was our first game. If that was the case then you can see how people would think that Fortnite is the norm, even with all the psychological tricks and financial crutches baked in.

Even worse is how streaming is becoming a big thing. People game on their pc/console at home and then game more when on the move. Doing any 1 activity for as many hours as that, is not good for you, regardless of the activity.
 

Alright

Banned
For me, it's a huge positive. They help me chill, unwind, and relax. Just a nice piece of entertainment that requires more attention and reactive interaction.
That could be an important difference on the negative/positive outcome of gaming.

If one person games to pick themselves up because they have very little external stimulation, then that's bad. But if a person games to wind down from lots of external stimulation, then gaming can be beneficial.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
That could be an important difference on the negative/positive outcome of gaming.

If one person games to pick themselves up because they have very little external stimulation, then that's bad. But if a person games to wind down from lots of external stimulation, then gaming can be beneficial.
Most certainly! It definitely depends on a number of variables IMO.

Like the amount of video game time being done.

A decent amount that makes the person happy, while not negatively affecting anything in their personal life is great!

But, if they play a metric ton to the point where it negatively affects their education, work, relationships, etc. it's bad!

Some folks gotta focus on that balance a bit more than others.
 

Alright

Banned
Most certainly! It definitely depends on a number of variables IMO.

Like the amount of video game time being done.

A decent amount that makes the person happy, while not negatively affecting anything in their personal life is great!

But, if they play a metric ton to the point where it negatively affects their education, work, relationships, etc. it's bad!

Some folks gotta focus on that balance a bit more than others.
Subscription services will make it harder to break the gaming cycle, as games will be served up like cheap gruel. Look at how the consumption of TV shows sky rocketed after Netflix et Al took off. I love gamepass, but I can see the dangers, mentally, of having 10 subscription services hitting you with FTP games. It's the main reason I don't want Sony to follow suit with Microsofts gamepass.

Which is another question; what are these people doing between games? Are they sitting on their arse watching TV, or getting down the gym/socialising with friends?

Like you say, having a healthy life isn't necessarily going to be ruined by gaming (Looking at you OG WoW) but having an unhealthy life means gaming can be a cover for facing up and accepting your responsibilities.

Jordan Peterson would agree with the majority of the comments here
 
Games made me type amazingly fast like what Harvard University brag about their students and I'm not joking ,anyone and anyone representing whoever they're or where they coming from and I don't g a f about who they are downplaying video games are morons and deserves all the backlash they get from the media.
 

MiguelItUp

Member
Subscription services will make it harder to break the gaming cycle, as games will be served up like cheap gruel. Look at how the consumption of TV shows sky rocketed after Netflix et Al took off. I love gamepass, but I can see the dangers, mentally, of having 10 subscription services hitting you with FTP games. It's the main reason I don't want Sony to follow suit with Microsofts gamepass.

Which is another question; what are these people doing between games? Are they sitting on their arse watching TV, or getting down the gym/socialising with friends?

Like you say, having a healthy life isn't necessarily going to be ruined by gaming (Looking at you OG WoW) but having an unhealthy life means gaming can be a cover for facing up and accepting your responsibilities.

Jordan Peterson would agree with the majority of the comments here
Right? Man, if these affordable subscription services existed when I was younger it'd be hard to not be overwhelmed and practically drowned by them. Hell, F2P games even more so! I can't imagine being the age of a lot of these kids having access to a HUGE free game like Fortnite, it's insane to think about. It's basically on every device and can hardly be distanced.

That's the BIG question! I think many people don't really focus on scheduling stuff out, which sounds kind of lame in theory, but honestly it can be pretty helpful. For some more than others, of course. In my experience, dabbling with both can be really useful. Though COVID has put a damper on a lot of those external activities. But you can still do many things around your house to fill that void and otherwise.

Totally true! I think that is the reasoning behind people blaming video games for a lot of issues over the decades. When, it's not the fault of video games, but more so the person or situation itself. Again, depending on variables, but it definitely feels that way majority of the time IMO.
 

Jaxcellent

Member
Its positive, if you bored out of your mind, and you can entertain yourself with some games...
Like with everything, enjoy in moderation.
when your not enjoying it, and it gets obsessive, its obviously negative.
 

Bragr

Banned
Well gaming replaces it, and makes you believe that you're attaining those things in virtual worlds. As digital life becomes more "real" that digital experience becomes more "valid" even though it isn't.
Sex, deep personal relationships, personal capability (able to survive on your own, feel proud), these are the sort of things every person is built to pursue, engraved into our psyche for hundreds of thousands of years. A good life, 9 out of 10 times, is built around these sorts of things in some form.

In most of our existence, people had to work the entire day to be able to eat. Then, during the last 100 years, after thousands of years of human development, we have become capable of building societies with 8-hour workdays and more free time. This is what human societies have been building towards since we first moved out of caves.

And then, in our deep wisdom, to fulfill our free time, we make TV's and computers as entertainment products, causing people to spend their time sitting around, watching TV and play games. The precious sacred free time, given to us so we can acquire the skills we need to pursue jobs we want, rather than have to. The time that was given to us, so we can spend time with our friends and family, pursue crafts and hobbies. Doing activities that long term will enrich us in multiple ways. But no, we refuse to be bored. wE WanT FuN, MoM I nEEd V-buCKs!!

WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE ARE DOING!
 

Fractured_Veil

Neo Member
Like most things, the answer isn't black or white. I know people who have mobility issues and use games as a way to have a social life that would be hard for them to have otherwise. I also know people who've let game time trump almost everything else in their life. It's about balance and understanding why you are playing games in the first place.
 

Alright

Banned
Right? Man, if these affordable subscription services existed when I was younger it'd be hard to not be overwhelmed and practically drowned by them. Hell, F2P games even more so! I can't imagine being the age of a lot of these kids having access to a HUGE free game like Fortnite, it's insane to think about. It's basically on every device and can hardly be distanced.

That's the BIG question! I think many people don't really focus on scheduling stuff out, which sounds kind of lame in theory, but honestly it can be pretty helpful. For some more than others, of course. In my experience, dabbling with both can be really useful. Though COVID has put a damper on a lot of those external activities. But you can still do many things around your house to fill that void and otherwise.

Totally true! I think that is the reasoning behind people blaming video games for a lot of issues over the decades. When, it's not the fault of video games, but more so the person or situation itself. Again, depending on variables, but it definitely feels that way majority of the time IMO.
You nailed it. Part of the experience and excitement as a kid was waiting to get games on your birthday or at Xmas. And knowing that you had that game as one of only a few options, often for months at a time, meant you spent more time learning and the trying to break, the game. But with how throwaway games are nowadays, who cares about taking the time to find the fun cheats and tricks?

Writing down a goal/scheduling, means you have a 90% better chance of completing that goal. So it's all very helpful. And, if you know you only have two hours this week to play a game, you damned well make sure that it's a game you really want to play, vs "I'll kill a few hours by playing [insert popular MP game]

Maybe gaming has become caught in the net of instant-gratification. We see it with fast food (more than ever thanks to Uber eats), Porn, TV (who waits until 6pm to watch a show?) and now with games. No instant gratification is good, none of it.
 

Alright

Banned
Sex, deep personal relationships, personal capability (able to survive on your own, feel proud), these are the sort of things every person is built to pursue, engraved into our psyche for hundreds of thousands of years. A good life, 9 out of 10 times, is built around these sorts of things in some form.

In most of our existence, people had to work the entire day to be able to eat. Then, during the last 100 years, after thousands of years of human development, we have become capable of building societies with 8-hour workdays and more free time. This is what human societies have been building towards since we first moved out of caves.

And then, in our deep wisdom, to fulfill our free time, we make TV's and computers as entertainment products, causing people to spend their time sitting around, watching TV and play games. The precious sacred free time, given to us so we can acquire the skills we need to pursue jobs we want, rather than have to. The time that was given to us, so we can spend time with our friends and family, pursue crafts and hobbies. Doing activities that long term will enrich us in multiple ways. But no, we refuse to be bored. wE WanT FuN, MoM I nEEd V-buCKs!!

WE HAVE NO IDEA WHAT WE ARE DOING!
Look up Maslow's heirachy of needs, it spells out what you're saying, I'd link but I'm on mobile. You can't progress up the levels (represented as a pyramid) with first fulfilling all the needs on the current level. At the base of the pyramid you need air, shelter, food, water and sex. A lot of people fail on the sex part and that hampers their personal development.

I don't one a dish washer for this reason. If I put the dishes in, I just watch TV for 30 minutes. So I manually wash up as basic tasks like that are better for you than half an hour in front of the idiot box.
 
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NecrosaroIII

Ask me about my terrible takes on Star Trek characters
Everything in balance. I know too many people that ALL their lives are are video games. You have to be more well rounded.
 
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