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Why do we play video games?


Heijoushin

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How are you gentlemen,

 

On a philosophical level, why do we play games?

I’m of the opinion that most of what we do is connected to gaining reproductive advantages (money, sex etc.). It's built into our DNA, right? (Even if some of those instincts are a little outdated.) The only thing on my schedule that seems to contradict this is video games. After all, isn’t WoW famous as a method of retaining one’s virginity?

 

So why do we pour so many hours into video games?

I mean, you can ask this about any hobby, but most other hobbies have other benefits. Sports make you healthier, playing a musical instrument allows you to entertain people, etc. 

 

The world “escapism” is used a lot when talking about this, and I agree that games are relaxing, and help you to zone out and/or live vicariously in a fantasy world. But is that it?

 

I read an interesting article the other day, which stated that most of what we do, including video games, is for 3 invisible needs:

 

The need to feel competent: We want to feel that we’re good at something. In the real world, there’s always someone better, and learning a new skill requires a lot of failure and stumbling along the way. But in a video game world, you can be the best. And especially in RPGs, there’s a distinct feeling of growth and becoming stronger.

 

The need to be autonomous: People love choice and freedom in their games right? That’s why open world games like Skyrim are so popular.

 

The need to be related (or to matter): People want to have fulfilling relationships and to matter to other people. Apparently even NPCs count. I think J-RPGs especially cater to this, since they often put you in the middle of a harem, and heap praise on you from every angle. “Heijoushin-kun, just being near you relaxes me… you’re the only one I can talk to about my troubles <3 ”.

 

What do you guys think?

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Yes, I like video games for the sense of escapism, control, tactical problem solving, sense of accomplishment, and novelty they provide. Especially when the weather is too dreary for outdoor activities, and the TV shows are lame. Books and movies provide some of the same enjoyment factors as games, but you're entirely in the hands of the writer/director.

"It has just been discovered that research causes cancer in rats."

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Because they're fun and able to play on your own.

"Akiva Goldsman and Alex Kurtzman run the 21st century version of MK ULTRA." - majestic

"I'm gonna hunt you down so that I can slap you square in the mouth." - Bartimaeus

"Without individual thinking you can't notice the plot holes." - InsaneCommander

"Just feed off the suffering of gamers." - Malcador

"You are calling my taste crap." -Hurlshort

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"Don't forget the wakame, dumbass" -Keyrock

"Are you trolling or just being inadvertently nonsensical?' -Pidesco

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"I refuse to buy from non-woke businesses" - HoonDing

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"Oddly enough Sanderson was a lot more direct despite being a Mormon" - Zoraptor

"I found it greatly disturbing to scroll through my cartoon's halfing selection of genitalias." - Wormerine

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For me its not just about playing them, I want to know everything about them, I think about video games constantly, more than womyn. They are fun, like board games. I don't feel that I play video games to compensate for my lack of real world success or to achieve anything. Many wealthy people and successful athletes play games. Like board games, just fun. I hate that when critics of video games say gamers are just living in a fantasy world because they can't cope with reality, like some kind of pseudo psychologist. Do i role play and pretend that I'm an elf? Yes. Do I wish I could really be an elf? Yeah i guess i do

Edited by BrotherFerg
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Why does a chair have arms and legs like a man, but can't walk or hold things?

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Heji, you are seriously overthinking this. We play computer games for the same reasons we watch TV shows, read fiction, go to movies. It's just light entertainment.

Edited by Guard Dog

"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

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Heji, you are seriously overthinking this. We play computer games for the same reasons we watch TV shows, read fiction, go to movies. It's just light entertainment.

GB  wouldn't you also agree its because we get access to forums like this where random strangers who dont even live in our own countries help to change and improve our views on politics and SJ issues ?

 

 

:teehee:

"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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They won't allow me to shoot people with guns in real life, and joining army or police is no guarantee. And getting a license is just too much hassle y'know.

 

 

Heji, you are seriously overthinking this. We play computer games for the same reasons we watch TV shows, read fiction, go to movies. It's just light entertainment.

If we want to abstract things to a biological imperative (such as the initial precis that everything is tied to reproductive advantage), I'd argue that enjoying entertainment comes from the fact that ultimately entertainment is a form of narrative storytelling that ties in with our language processing skills. Since communication is a way to impart knowledge without experience ('don't eat those mushrooms, they killed Uncle Grognark!'), there is probably some tie to our language processing centers and a need to gather information for simple survival that is triggered through communication and manifest itself both in a desire to consume stories (real or fictional) and to communicate with other people (widely or narrowly) as communication serves as a way to pass experience on in the face of being born without broad instinctual knowledge.

 

Or, you know, something.

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I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do "must" and "cannot" meet? Yet I must - but I cannot! ~ Ro-Man

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What if we are inside a video game right now and something else is using us as the characters?

 

 

:lol:

 

That would mean your actions and decisions aren't your own, in other words you arent responsible for either what you do or what you think...and that includes the outcome

 

Consider that for a second and think of what it could mean?

"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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That would mean your actions and decisions aren't your own, in other words you arent responsible for either what you do or what you think...and that includes the outcome

 

Consider that for a second and think of what it could mean?

I like.
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Heji, you are seriously overthinking this. We play computer games for the same reasons we watch TV shows, read fiction, go to movies. It's just light entertainment.

GB  wouldn't you also agree its because we get access to forums like this where random strangers who dont even live in our own countries help to change and improve our views on politics and SJ issues ?

 

 

:teehee:

 

Nah, that's just the icing on the cake :lol:

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"While it is true you learn with age, the down side is what you often learn is what a damn fool you were before"

Thomas Sowell

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Distraction from the ruin that is my everyday life

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Why has elegance found so little following? Elegance has the disadvantage that hard work is needed to achieve it and a good education to appreciate it. - Edsger Wybe Dijkstra

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What do you guys think?

How do those three points explain Pong? :unsure:

“He who joyfully marches to music in rank and file has already earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake, since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice.” - Albert Einstein

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What if we are inside a video game right now and something else is using us as the characters?

 

 

:lol:

 

That would mean your actions and decisions aren't your own, in other words you arent responsible for either what you do or what you think...and that includes the outcome

 

Consider that for a second and think of what it could mean?

Would it even make a difference? I mean, we couldn't ever know for sure. So would it make a difference?

Everybody knows the deal is rotten

Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton

For your ribbons and bows

And everybody knows

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What if we are inside a video game right now and something else is using us as the characters?

 

:lol:

 

That would mean your actions and decisions aren't your own, in other words you arent responsible for either what you do or what you think...and that includes the outcome

 

Consider that for a second and think of what it could mean?

Would it even make a difference? I mean, we couldn't ever know for sure. So would it make a difference?

 

It would matter hugely to many people who now could commit any crime or wrongdoing and then claim its " fatalism ". Bennie are you really going to suggest you wouldnt  have some kind of breakdown and break the law ?

 

In WW1 fatalsim became the religion in the trenches due to the appalling and incomprehensible slaughter in the trenches 

 

http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-the-front/trench-conditions/faith-and-fatalism/

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/fatalist-at-war-first-world-war-diaries-german-soldier-rudolf-binding

"Abashed the devil stood and felt how awful goodness is and saw Virtue in her shape how lovely: and pined his loss”

John Milton 

"We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing.” -  George Bernard Shaw

"What counts in life is not the mere fact that we have lived. It is what difference we have made to the lives of others that will determine the significance of the life we lead" - Nelson Mandela

 

 

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I thought this one is simple:

 

Crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentation of the women! (usually your own)

Edited by Chilloutman
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I'm the enemy, 'cause I like to think, I like to read. I'm into freedom of speech, and freedom of choice. I'm the kinda guy that likes to sit in a greasy spoon and wonder, "Gee, should I have the T-bone steak or the jumbo rack of barbecue ribs with the side-order of gravy fries?" I want high cholesterol! I wanna eat bacon, and butter, and buckets of cheese, okay?! I wanna smoke a Cuban cigar the size of Cincinnati in the non-smoking section! I wanna run naked through the street, with green Jell-O all over my body, reading Playboy magazine. Why? Because I suddenly may feel the need to, okay, pal? I've SEEN the future. Do you know what it is? It's a 47-year-old virgin sitting around in his beige pajamas, drinking a banana-broccoli shake, singing "I'm an Oscar Meyer Wiene"

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What if we are inside a video game right now and something else is using us as the characters?

 

:lol:

 

That would mean your actions and decisions aren't your own, in other words you arent responsible for either what you do or what you think...and that includes the outcome

 

Consider that for a second and think of what it could mean?

Would it even make a difference? I mean, we couldn't ever know for sure. So would it make a difference?

It would matter hugely to many people who now could commit any crime or wrongdoing and then claim its " fatalism ". Bennie are you really going to suggest you wouldnt have some kind of breakdown and break the law ?

 

In WW1 fatalsim became the religion in the trenches due to the appalling and incomprehensible slaughter in the trenches

 

http://www.warmuseum.ca/firstworldwar/history/life-at-the-front/trench-conditions/faith-and-fatalism/

 

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/oct/30/fatalist-at-war-first-world-war-diaries-german-soldier-rudolf-binding

That's... simply wrong.

 

If we DEFINITELY don't live in a videogame, that breakdown will never happen.

 

If we DEFINITELY live in a videogame, that breakdown won't happen either, since we aren't programmed to realise that we do.

 

If we CAN NOT know for certain, it remains all but a philosophical concept, thereby never leading to the breakdown

Everybody knows the deal is rotten

Old Black Joe's still pickin' cotton

For your ribbons and bows

And everybody knows

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You can't even prove you exist (and aren't products of my imagination) much less prove we don't exist and are products of a video game.

(Solipsism FTW!)

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I cannot - yet I must. How do you calculate that? At what point on the graph do "must" and "cannot" meet? Yet I must - but I cannot! ~ Ro-Man

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How are you gentlemen,

 

On a philosophical level, why do we play games?

 

...

 

What do you guys think?

can't speak for others, but prostitutes were getting a bit expensive and a conviction for solicitation mighta' hurt our job prospects.  

 

HA! Good Fun!

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"If there be time to expose through discussion the falsehood and fallacies, to avert the evil by the processes of education, the remedy to be applied is more speech, not enforced silence."Justice Louis Brandeis, Concurring, Whitney v. California, 274 U.S. 357 (1927)

"Im indifferent to almost any murder as long as it doesn't affect me or mine."--Gfted1 (September 30, 2019)

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Because life is mostly a void and filling it with sound and fury has become a practical solution where prostitutes are expensive and a conviction... 

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