Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by martyb on Monday January 07 2019, @07:43PM   Printer-friendly
from the Figured-it-out dept.

ArsTechnica:

Gaming was like breathing. It was the biggest part of my life as a teenager, one of my priorities as a college student, and eventually one of my most expensive “hobbies” as a young professional.

Then all of a sudden, after thousands of hours spent playing across genres and platforms, boredom hit me hard for the very first time in my early thirties. Some of my favorite games soon gave me the impression of being terribly long. I couldn’t help but notice all the repeating tropes and similarities in game design between franchises.

I figured it was just a matter of time before I found the right game to stimulate my interest again, but time continued to go by and nothing changed.

Is it that games have failed to innovate, or that real life is ultimately more engaging?


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 07 2019, @09:32PM (8 children)

    by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday January 07 2019, @09:32PM (#783386)

    One of the things that put me off of Starcraft / Starcraft II was that my mouse hand would go cold from clenching the mouse for 20-30 minutes straight - in really good matches my neck would also get stiff from holding a screen-stare pose for unnatural lengths of time.

    Something like Hearthstone you can play without devoting 99.999% of your attention, a lot lower stress.

    Other time and money sinks are arguably of more benefit to you.

    I think there's a certain psychological value in "screwing off" - doing something that's explicitly frowned upon by respectable society - like drinking alcohol, smoking, etc. Of course, balance in all things, the serious WoW dwellers definitely have taken it too far - once you've had your Saturday night fling, you're supposed to go to confession Sunday morning, then work for your bread Monday through Friday...

    --
    🌻🌻 [google.com]
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Interesting=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 2) by mth on Monday January 07 2019, @09:57PM (7 children)

    by mth (2848) on Monday January 07 2019, @09:57PM (#783399) Homepage

    One of the things that put me off of Starcraft / Starcraft II was that my mouse hand would go cold from clenching the mouse for 20-30 minutes straight - in really good matches my neck would also get stiff from holding a screen-stare pose for unnatural lengths of time.

    Some people scoff at the term "eSports", but StarCraft is actually a sport, including risk of physical injuries...

    • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Monday January 07 2019, @10:42PM (5 children)

      by Immerman (3985) on Monday January 07 2019, @10:42PM (#783421)

      Meh, if you don't sweat, it's not a sport.

      And if you while sweat playing Starcraft, then you're doing something very wrong.

      Golf... maybe - but you better be making good time, and not using a cart.

      • (Score: 4, Insightful) by JoeMerchant on Monday January 07 2019, @10:54PM

        by JoeMerchant (3937) on Monday January 07 2019, @10:54PM (#783426)

        Unless sweaty palms count, I don't sweat in Starcraft, but the physical stress is real, and the mental focus required just isn't compatible with parenthood.

        --
        🌻🌻 [google.com]
      • (Score: 3, Funny) by c0lo on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:34AM (3 children)

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 08 2019, @02:34AM (#783529) Journal

        Meh, if you don't sweat, it's not a sport.

        Are you saying that playing Starcraft in a sauna makes it a sport?

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
        • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Tuesday January 08 2019, @06:54PM (2 children)

          by Immerman (3985) on Tuesday January 08 2019, @06:54PM (#783784)

          Ha! I almost made that joke myself.

          Breaks the logic though
          "If !a then !b" does not imply the inverse statement "if a then b"
          It does however imply the contrapositive: "if b then a".

          In this case, "if it's a sport, then you will sweat" is an equivalent statement
          but
          "if you sweat, then it's a sport" is logically unrelated to the original claim.

          • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday January 08 2019, @11:19PM (1 child)

            by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday January 08 2019, @11:19PM (#783879) Journal

            That's why the question.
            Which didn't get answered, btw.

            --
            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
            • (Score: 2) by Immerman on Wednesday January 09 2019, @03:44AM

              by Immerman (3985) on Wednesday January 09 2019, @03:44AM (#783972)

              Fine, fine, I'll go with "No". But only because otherwise reading in the sauna should count too, and I'm not buff enough to be an athlete. :-D

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @10:43PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 07 2019, @10:43PM (#783422)

      Yeah, no, this doesn't change our minds: we still scoff at it.