The guy who gave a negative review to Battlezone 98 Redux after playing 8k hours

Can’t help but think that amount of time is better spent elsewhere, and that goes for all video games. A bit sad really.

Outside of extreme cases like this, where someone’s leisure time is presumably wholly directed towards one pursuit, do you typically question the quantity of time spent on entertainment? How about the millions of hours of cable TV every month? Doing sudoku? Playing pool? All unproductive things according to your mindset.

“Better” is a very subjective statement, after a very long absence from playing games, I’ve started again - and the positive impact on my mental health and therefore time spent on other more “serious” activities is both increased and more focused.

Humans (and many mammals) tend to expend vast amounts of time on idle pleasures. I love simracing and flightsims. They tickle my brain and are challenging and a far better use of my downtime than watching mindless TV (which I also do :-)

Everything we have made or will ever make will disappear when the universe goes through the next cycle, however many billion years that will take. Doing something that makes you happy here, now is something that will disappear with you, but at the end of the day, what is the real difference?

Memories I have made in Morrowind, Fallout, Skyrim, WoW, Elden Ring are some of the best memories of my life. They are as real as my real life. I make no distinction between real and imaginary. I’ve done things and experienced things people in the real world could never imagine. I don’t regret a single second spent playing those games. And I value the time I have in my life greatly.

This post made me think about my OG WoW days. My main had over 1 year of play time, and my alts, maybe another 20-30 days, so that puts me at about 9600 hours. I played for 5-6 years intensely in a progressive raising guild, then faded away over about a year after some crazy guild drama, it was such a loss.

It burned me out and I basically quit gaming for the last 10 years, now that I think about it. Some sim or resource games here and there, nothing multiplayer and nothing "reactive". Maybe a few hours a month.

Anyway, I reflected on it as this big waste of time, so I felt I had to grind at life instead. Games are a waste of time, do something productive. I'm only now appreciating the anxiety that caused.

This intern I work with is a gamer and asks me if I play anything. I realize I'm older than his mom so he's really getting a kick of my stories cause "I'm like too old to play games haha, wow that's crazy"

He said something like "you can afford it, how do you not have a gaming computer bro?" I thought, he's got a point.

So I find a tricked out craigslist gaming computer a few weeks ago and download some games on steam. I was floored at A. What games have become and how fuckin good they look B. How much fun I was having and C. How I was able to soothe anxiety

Just do what you like with your spare time, if it makes you happy and doesn't fuck your life up, do it.

“Well, maybe it is true,” Clevinger conceded unwillingly in a subdued tone. Maybe a long life does have to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it’s to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?”

“I do,” Dunbar told him.

“Why?” Clevinger asked.

“What else is there?”

On some deep level I do feel all of these things are a waste of time, so I end up scrolling Reddit and HN instead. Is there a firmware patch for this? ;)

Right! :) But also consider the fact that you should be thankful that you live in a society where you don't have to be productive 100% of your time.

What are your hobbies? Serious question, what do you spend your time on outside of work and obligations, and how many hours have you collectively spent on it?

Everyone needs a hobby, for many that's video games. For some of those, a single / specific game becomes their singular hobby. See also: special interests.

I for one have been in a specific video game community for twenty years now even though I haven't engaged with the games much myself. But I know people who have, who tore the game apart, found unused content and are making mods to restore it [0], who retranslated the game(s)[1] , turned them into novels [2], D&D campaigns [3], play a poorly received spinoff over and over again for years to finish some levels in seconds [4], etc etc etc.

I think it's a bit sad to pooh-pooh other people's passions tbh.

    [0] https://www.shinraarchaeology.com/retransmod.html
    [1] https://thelifestream.net/category/lifestream-projects/translations/
    [2] https://www.patreon.com/posts/52273334
    [3] https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ydIyBrJ0diEYzWz28_4y7Z38rzWCvYXQ/view
    [4] https://www.youtube.com/@Shademp/videos?view=0&sort=dd&shelf_id=3

There aren't any societies like that thankfully. Yet. There's some subcultures, like on HN where at least some years ago there seemed to be a subculture that if you didn't spend your spare time on your side gig or startup, you weren't a real hacker.

That said, the reality for a lot of people living in the US at the moment (and for a while now) is that they have to work multiple jobs and / or gigs like uber to make ends meet.

True! But the simple fact is that I do waste the majority of my time, by my own standards.