Gamers...why do you play games?

[redneckdevil]

For me it's less escapism per se as it is just ... like I said, I can't shut my brain up a lot of the time. I'm one of those people who can't "relax." Chronic depression since a child - I'm not bipolar but there are still ups and downs that have me either sleeping all day or mind-jittering like I've had 20 pots of coffee (the latter is why sometimes I'm here babbling inanely on the forum). Without something to really focus my attention I go mad, one way or another.

 

Reading was helpful because it makes my brain focus on imagining/painting the picture the words represent so I form movies in my head, but it only works if I read non-stop (reading a novel a chapter a night does not work at all). Photography helped a little because I have to focus on technical things like light, angle, and with digital cameras, editing if I feel like it. Games help because I focus on the obsessive tasks of leveling, hunting, combat techniques, building characters towards being uber, designing cities, fast paced decisions, analyzing data, etc. Games in terms of just stories or lore don't usually work very well because unlike books I don't have to imagine the world/faces/places inside my head, it's all drawn out so to speak so my attention wanders a lot. Same with movies/TV.

 

I loved Baldur's Gate, it was probably the first "serious" CRPG I played that was less action oriented than some others. But even there my focus was stats, tasks, builds, self-found humor/amusement re: chrs and battle situations, erasing every dot of the map black space. I don't even remember the plot at this point, tbh. Heh.

That's become my main reason to play games. It's the only time where I can done out and actually focus on a single thing without my mind going in 20 directions.

[huang]

There are good books, music, movies [...] but the thing with games is they have something no other medium has. Interactivity. If you put 10 people in front of a movie they might laugh at different parts, but ultimately they will still have seen the same movie. In... let's say BioShock Infinite there's a scene in which the player can just keep running towards the next mission objective, or (for seemingly no reason) explore an unremarkable side street. This will lead to a bar and this bar has a cellar. In it Booker can grab a guitar and Elizabeth will start singing while he plays. Only people who get sidetracked will ever find this, it's no problem to complete the game without doing this. But because it's something that only happens if you make it happen, this moment feels like it becomes yours. No movie can do this. Movies finish if you fall asleep while they are running without you.

This obviously can be even more intense in good RPGs, which can allow so much player choice.

 

Oh and of course there's also the "it keeps the voices at bay" thing people have already mentioned.

[LadyCrimson]

Out if sheer curiosity, if I may. Was there ever a medical person involved with the words 'chronic depression?'

Yes, when I was 12-20ish, including hospitalization. I think these days they'd put the major down periods under the variant of "atypical" (which doesn't mean it's really uncommon, heh) or maybe I bounce back and forth between atypical and melancholic with weeks/months of almost "normalcy" but I dunno, for a while there they seemed to redefine and relabel such terms and categories every 6 months, haha. I stopped paying attention.

 

Haven't done a doctor routine in 20 years. It's just ... part of who I am at this point, like an old sweater that lies in the corner that I occasionally wear. And age mellows even this, sometimes.

Edited January 31, 2018 by LadyCrimson

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

 

Out if sheer curiosity, if I may. Was there ever a medical person involved with the words 'chronic depression?'

Yes, when I was 12-20ish, including hospitalization. I think these days they'd put the major down periods under the variant of "atypical" (which doesn't mean it's really uncommon, heh) or maybe I bounce back and forth between atypical and melancholic with weeks/months of almost "normalcy" but I dunno, for a while there they seemed to redefine and relabel such terms and categories every 6 months, haha. I stopped paying attention.

 

Haven't done a doctor routine in 20 years. It's just ... part of who I am at this point, like an old sweater that lies in the corner that I occasionally wear. And age mellows even this, sometimes.

 

 

That was my suspicion. Medical practice can be rather careless giving names without truly studying individual and environment from a symbiotic perspective. Maybe these 'conditions' are not bad? 

 

Anyways, it's a good realization to have. Glad things worked out in the end. 

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

There I was, drinking my coffee in the morning at 3 o'clock(in the afternoon) and having my breakfast. The book I was reading gave me this and I quote:

 

 

Of what use is the universe? What is the practical application of a million galaxies? Yet just because it has no use, it has a use—which may sound like a paradox, but is not. What, for instance, is the use of playing music? If you play to make money, to outdo some other artist, to be a person of culture, or to improve your mind, you are not really playing—for your mind is not on the music. You don't swing. When you come to think of it, playing or listening to music is a pure luxury, an addiction, a waste of valuable time and money for nothing more than making elaborate patterns of sound. Yet what would we think of a society which had no place for music, which did not allow for dancing, or for any activity not directly involved with the practical problems of survival? Obviously, such a society would be surviving to no purpose—unless it could somehow make a delight out of the "essential tasks" of farming, building, soldiering, manufacturing, or cooking. But in that moment the goal of survival is forgotten. The tasks are being done for their own sake, whereupon farms begin to look like gardens, sensible living-boxes sprout interesting roofs and mysterious ornaments, arms are engraved with curious patterns, carpenters take time to "finish" their work, and cooks become gourmets.
 

A Chinese philosophical work called The Secret of the Golden Flower says that "when purpose has been used to achieve purposelessness, the thing has been grasped." For a society surviving to no purpose is one that makes no provision for purposeless behaviour—that is, for actions not directly aimed at survival, which fulfil themselves in being done in the present and do not necessarily imply some future reward. But indirectly and unintentionally, such behaviour is useful for survival because it gives a point to surviving—not, however, when pursued for that reason. To play so as to be relaxed and refreshed for work is not to play, and no work is well and finely done unless it, too, is a form of play.

 

 

​​Imagine the incident. Found it curious, regardless, and thought of adding it here.

Edited January 31, 2018 by Hulk'O'Saurus

[SonicMage117]

Well, Rpg's are becoming more and more extinct. How, you ask? By developers injecting or changing up the formula too much and replacing pieces with other genres or qte's. The most true Rpg I've played in recent years is Sunless Sea, where it's total freedom while pertaining to a well-crafted story.

 

Most "Rpg's" forsaking a reputation system for mine-crafting is the new. Most communities these days do not know what is truly an rpg or not an rpg. I ran into people who think Far Cry 3 and 4 are rpg's because you level up and unlock perks... or Telltale games are rpg's because you make decisions. Such is not the truth though.

 

 

 

 

Now... Back on topic,

 

I suppose I don't really have a true answer as to why I game. Sometimes the stories and characters of certain games draw me in, sometimes I like to play mindless shooters just to pass the time. So there's no real definite answer besides Entertainment.

[Malcador]

Most communities these days do not know what is truly an rpg or not an rpg.

These days ? Hm, ok.

[SonicMage117]

 

Most communities these days do not know what is truly an rpg or not an rpg.

These days ? Hm, ok.

Yes, as in genres years back were less mixed making it harder for people to get confused.

[Malcador]

Well was more a comment that you'd see threads bickering about that in the 90s, so is nothing new.

[Hulk'O'Saurus]

Well, Rpg's are becoming more and more extinct. How, you ask? By developers injecting or changing up the formula too much and replacing pieces with other genres or qte's. The most true Rpg I've played in recent years is Sunless Sea, where it's total freedom while pertaining to a well-crafted story.

 

Most "Rpg's" forsaking a reputation system for mine-crafting is the new. Most communities these days do not know what is truly an rpg or not an rpg. I ran into people who think Far Cry 3 and 4 are rpg's because you level up and unlock perks... or Telltale games are rpg's because you make decisions. Such is not the truth though.

 

 

 

 

Now... Back on topic,

 

I suppose I don't really have a true answer as to why I game. Sometimes the stories and characters of certain games draw me in, sometimes I like to play mindless shooters just to pass the time. So there's no real definite answer besides Entertainment.

 

Don't mean no disrespect to what you're saying, but the more simplistic description we provide for role-playing game, the more all-encompassing it becomes. Decision making from the perspective of an assumed person in a given fictional setting with outcomes determined through an established system of rules. You can go really wide with this. Could be I'm wrong about it all, too. 

 

One could argue about difficulty and hand holding, instead...maybe? Freedom and creating your own story, yes, of course. Through I am not trying to impress a better way one should think about RPGs, the genre itself can be incredibly varied, thus making description through formulaic means difficult. Hell, one could even argue they are all RPG with subsequent additions of genres--fps, 4x, rts, ect. 

 

Thanks for pointing me out to another game; it looks interesting. I am going to fish for it on sale and check it out.  

Edited February 2, 2018 by Hulk'O'Saurus