Playing games is not an accomplishment: How video games make you retarded.

[Kane]

So, this is the story of Matthew Duhamel, unemployed and player of video games. Video games made Matthew literally retarded.

At age thirteen I was introduced to the first game I took seriously by a well-meaning teacher who taught at my Jr. High School. He made the whole class a deal each day: if we finished our lessons we could play on the private server he hosted on a small Pentium 3 computer in the corner near his desk. I quickly signed the manilla waiver that said Ultima Online may contain content that was not suitable for kids my age.[...]

To me, UO felt less like a game and more like an extension of my neighborhood; a real world with rules I was just beginning to understand and internalize.[...]

The next year was filled with a series of troubles and anxieties – from professional rejection, to typecasting based on my weight, and finally my mother’s diagnosis with terminal cancer. These events combined to create a strong sense of fearful pessimism about the future; not so much a hopelessness but a deep and terrible panic. Fortunately, UO provided me with the daily routine and positive reinforcement that I so desperately craved. It became a hiding place where I could pretend that I didn’t feel powerless and incompetent in real life. [...]

All I could think to do was keep practicing. At this point I began what I now call “The Cycle.” It can be outlined in seven steps.

A. Decide life is too (difficult, troubling, unfair, hopeless, etc.) and choose a game that is easy, repetitive, and comforting which provides a high level of wish fulfillment. The protagonist must normally end up accomplishing things I feel incapable of.

B. Grow increasingly disillusioned with the experience and stop playing.

C. Find a new game that embodies that is incredibly difficult. Usually this means a complicated flight sim or a competitive online game. Either way it must have an incredibly high bar for success.

D. Slowly realize that I am not that good at the game from part C. Become intensely focused on succeeding, and start playing constantly. Refrain from normal activities and avoid work to spend more time practicing.

E. Come to the conclusion that success is not coming fast enough, and even if it does – which it probably won’t – the reality is I am devoting my time to a fantasy. Decide that if I am going to devote myself to something it should have something more real at the core of it. Quit what I have been playing since step C and attempt to find success in education or professional life.

F. Grow frustrated with my lack of success and depressed with the indeterminability of my future. (Unlike game universes, the real world has no clear designer’s intent. There is no single walkthrough, and success is not guaranteed.) Begin to long for gaming experience like the one I found in my teacher’s Ultima Online server, where objectives are clear and success is inevitable and imminent.

G. Return to A.

So as point A tells us, if you play dota or wow you're already on the road to retardation. But RPGs are no expempt from this, no in fact they're even worse:

The ease with which games and especially RPGs allow us to feel powerful and to repeat ad infinitum these rituals of self-empowerment are part of what makes them so successful. It also makes them capable of becoming so tightly wired into our perception of reality that they can alter our psyche.[...]

The difference between my own experience, and that of a typical hyper-successful ivy-league-bound student is that my sense of self was built around fabricated success. Video games present a fictitious sense of trial that produce a baseless sense of accomplishment. Saving the world feels like it’s worthy of note but it is simply the outcome for every person who plays the game and doesn’t turn off the console.

I chose to define myself by my gaming successes as a way of displacing the definition given to me by my circumstances. This has brought with it all the consequences Deresiewicz describes, but without any of the benefits gained from the hard work real-world success requires. I still craved the type of success that Ivy League schools looked for, but the ease with which I could turn on a video game and feel successful without any of the work was (and still is) incredibly difficult to pass up.

I’ve read about how video games are shaping culture in positive ways, and heard from countless people on Twitter and in person that games have opened their eyes to new ways of viewing the world. Deep down, I feel none of this. Games have allowed me to hurt myself in ways that I am not sure I will ever recover from. At the same time, they are such a core part of my life that I don’t think I can ever give them up. So instead I pretend to agree. I talk openly and loudly about how games are one of the highest forms of art; I defend the position that games will change the world for the better; I keep writing cover letters telling game companies how excited I am to work for them. I pretend because admitting to myself that I’ve screwed my life for good is worse. I begin the cycle again.

The whole story here: http://nightmaremode.net/2012/12/the-negative-influence-of-games-an-autobiographical-essay-24380/

 

[potatojohn]

A wise man once said

We learn that for everything we have we give up something else, and we are taught to set the advantage we gain against the other advantage we lose, and to know what we are doing when we elect.

Clearly, this sir didn't know what he was giving up when he elected to play vidya games all day. But there's no used being butthurt now. Video games never promised to make you rich or to make you irresistible to womyn. Video games aren't jesus bhrist incarnate and they can't save you.

What they do, however, is entertain.

 

[waywardOne]

1. Discover / Accept that you are a loser.
2. Blame a symptom as the cause.
3. ???
4. Prophet

 

[Humanity has risen!]

Have you played a lot of MMORPGs and Diablo clones, raw?

 

[Kane]

Have you played a lot of MMORPGs and Diablo clones, raw?

I don't play MMORPGs and regarding Diablo clones, the only game I have comitted more than 100 hours into is Diablo 2. I never played a game religiously like this Matthew dude though. I can play couple of hours most - then I am bored and have to do something else. It's not that I haven't tried in my younger years -- but video game addiction simply doesn't seem to work on me.

 

[Konjad]

RAW, what aer the news abour the Middle East? These are more interesting.

 

[Kane]

RAW, what aer the news abour the Middle East? These are more interesting.

Today is Sunday. The Middle-East will have to wait.

 

[Kattze]

raw, Krugman is dying of loneliness. Will you love him tonight?

 

[Kane]

raw, Krugman is dying of loneliness. Will you love him tonight?

Not tonight - because I am already booked to make love to someone else.
But tomorrow night looks good.

 

[taxalot]

So this guy is basically a lazy cat, and it's video games' fault ?

 

[Creamy Muffin]

"Boo hoo, vidyagames ruined my life." What a pile of bullshit.

And calling this guy retarded is an insult to mentally disabled people.

 

[JarlFrank]

C. Find a new game that embodies that is incredibly difficult. Usually this means a complicated flight sim or a competitive online game. Either way it must have an incredibly high bar for success.

D. Slowly realize that I am not that good at the game from part C. Become intensely focused on succeeding, and start playing constantly. Refrain from normal activities and avoid work to spend more time practicing.

E. Come to the conclusion that success is not coming fast enough, and even if it does – which it probably won’t – the reality is I am devoting my time to a fantasy. Decide that if I am going to devote myself to something it should have something more real at the core of it. Quit what I have been playing since step C and attempt to find success in education or professional life.

F. Grow frustrated with my lack of success and depressed with the indeterminability of my future. (Unlike game universes, the real world has no clear designer’s intent. There is no single walkthrough, and success is not guaranteed.) Begin to long for gaming experience like the one I found in my teacher’s Ultima Online server, where objectives are clear and success is inevitable and imminent.

I think that's the actual problem. The problem is not video games, but the guy being so bad at everything that he cannot even be good at video games that require some thought or skill put into them.
Also that he's a stupid retard who thinks that success should come without effort, which is just incredibly retarded. Well hey, if you don't have any talent for anything, you suck. Practice may overcome that, but if you're getting frustrated because success doesn't come fast enough and then quit to try something else, which you also fail at due to lack of dedication and the expectation that you will achieve success without actually putting effort into it, it's not the fault of games that your life sucks, it's the fault of you being a stupid idiot who feels entitled (hurr) to success without actually deserving it.

The fact that he fails at everything that is actually challenging - be it challenging games or real-life careers - and then longs for an easy experience that allows to succeed without much effort shows that he's just incapable of achieving anything in life, ever.

 

[Angthoron]

1: Guy suffers depression
2: Guy finds a way to counteract depression with X
3: Guy becomes mentally/physically dependent on X to stay comfortable
4: Guy notices drawbacks from relying on X as sole source of comfort

HUM HUM, why does this sound generic.

 

[DraQ]

tl;dr:

Drugs are bad for you, kids.
Even if they are games.

 

[mondblut]

typecasting based on my weight

Why I am not surprised?

 

[Angthoron]

typecasting based on my weight

Why I am not surprised?

I suppose he might have been upset by that article. He does sound like what was described as a "Whale", after all.


Edit: OH SHIT I AM TYPECASTING, maybe he's like real thin and wishes people stop asking him if the wind might snap him in two. Or maybe he's a bodybuilder and hates it that people think he doesn't enjoy a good, thoughtful tbRPG.

 

[dibens]

Choose your own poison. You either become a gamer, a drunk, a sports fan, a roid monkey, a metalhead, an auto tuner or an obsessive pussy chaser. Life is boring for the most part, gotta fill it with something. Not every person's job has to be his hobby. In fact I don't think it's even possible for me. Take anything I love to do, slap a deadline on it and it becomes a chore.

Also, who the fuck cares. This is the problem why everyone's depressed and suicidal nowadays. They feel like they don't meet some obscure standard of accomplishment, like they failed at life, whereas if they weren't jealous of the people around them, they'd enjoy wasting time on vidya gaems just as much as faggot would enjoy Saturday afternoon in an antiques store. We're all gonna die anyway, just enjoy it while it lasts. Ebrace your asocial fat ass, chug a beer, hire a hooker. Life's beautiful!

 

[Konjad]

Choose your own poison. You either become a gamer, a drunk, a sports fan, a roid monkey, a metalhead, an auto tuner or an obsessive pussy chaser. Life is boring for the most part, gotta fill it with something. Not every person's job has to be his hobby. In fact I don't think it's even possible for me. Take anything I love to do, slap a deadline on it and it becomes a chore.

Also, who the fuck cares. This is the problem why everyone's depressed and suicidal nowadays. They feel like they don't meet some obscure standard of accomplishment, like they failed at life, whereas if they weren't jealous of the people around them, they'd enjoy wasting time on vidya gaems just as much as faggot would enjoy Saturday afternoon in an antiques store. We're all gonna die anyway, just enjoy it while it lasts. Ebrace your asocial fat ass, chug a beer, hire a hooker. Life's beautiful!

Words of true wisdom

 

[buzz]

snip

Seriously dude, what's with the denial?
Hedonistic leeches who're going for that Lebowski persona. I never understood the appeal behind being a culture-shock bum. It's depressing how today it's a culture-shock phenomenon to be upstanding and actually giving a shit about things in a world where "life is short".
I mean, you play video games and you wank off to furry porn. How ... I just can't see how can one be satisfied with just that sad state of living.
It's not like the world of video gaming is this uncharted sea full of beauty. That contradicts the very dogma of this website. At the very best what you can do is go to the past and cling to whatever was produced back then, just like I or some of you did. But after that, what? You reach your late twenties and all you can do is whine on the internet how Mass Effect 3 has gay romances. You reach a point where you replay your favorite RPG for the hundredth time and you don't feel the fun anymore.

Life is short and beautiful, I agree. Which is why you should get out of your ass and enjoy more than what you have on the table. Moping and being depressed that you can't do so isn't good, but it's miles better than settling for a random common denominator.

 

[Johannes]

So as point A tells us, if you play dota or wow you're already on the road to retardation. But RPGs are no expempt from this, no in fact they're even worse:

Isn't DOTA more of a class C game?

 

[dibens]

There is nothing wrong with vying for accomplishment.

No one said it is. Having goals in your life is great. I wish everyone had one. But stop putting 85% of the population in the shoes of those 15% who are talented/privileged enough to strive for *real* accomplishments. Each individual fills a role in society. I'd love to see you create a prosperous colony where people only were playing with magnets and climbing rocks.

 

[UserNamer]

I don't play many videogames anymore. Months pass between games for me. I am open to the possibility of playing videogames for hour regularly can be detrimental to you, it's not that weird to assume that playing videogames for hours on end every day is not healthy. Of course it can also be a symptom and not a cause, but it must be some of those vicious circle type scenario. Of course banning games is out of the question, but as individuals there is nothing bad in discussing how games can be unhealthy- some of them are undeniably addictive as hell.

 

[Bruticis]

I don't play MMORPGs and regarding Diablo clones, the only game I have comitted more than 100 hours into is Diablo 2. I never played a game religiously like this Matthew dude though. I can play couple of hours most - then I am bored and have to do something else. It's not that I haven't tried in my younger years -- but video game addiction simply doesn't seem to work on me.

No, just play horrible semi-MMORPGs.

 

[buzz]

But stop putting 85% of the population in the shoes of those 15% who are talented/privileged enough to strive for *real* accomplishments.

But this is more about the 5% of the population out of those 85 who can't achieve even mediocrity.

 

[Kane]

I don't play MMORPGs and regarding Diablo clones, the only game I have comitted more than 100 hours into is Diablo 2. I never played a game religiously like this Matthew dude though. I can play couple of hours most - then I am bored and have to do something else. It's not that I haven't tried in my younger years -- but video game addiction simply doesn't seem to work on me.

No, just play horrible semi-MMORPGs.

They forced my hands I swear!

eve i could probably get addicted to if it wasnt so goddamn boring
eve i played bout 6 months total, that would be 6 hours/day though in reality its more spikey cause i know i pulled some weekend allnighters and had about a dead month every time i lapsed my subscription.

250 hours are ~10 days btw

edit: what's shocking is that apparently played more dota2 than ps2. this will not stand

 

[Kane]

snip

Seriously dude, what's with the denial?
Hedonistic leeches who're going for that Lebowski persona. I never understood the appeal behind being a culture-shock bum. It's depressing how today it's a culture-shock phenomenon to be upstanding and actually giving a shit about things in a world where "life is short".
I mean, you play video games and you wank off to furry porn. How ... I just can't see how can one be satisfied with just that sad state of living.
It's not like the world of video gaming is this uncharted sea full of beauty. That contradicts the very dogma of this website. At the very best what you can do is go to the past and cling to whatever was produced back then, just like I or some of you did. But after that, what? You reach your late twenties and all you can do is whine on the internet how Mass Effect 3 has gay romances. You reach a point where you replay your favorite RPG for the hundredth time and you don't feel the fun anymore.

Life is short and beautiful, I agree. Which is why you should get out of your ass and enjoy more than what you have on the table. Moping and being depressed that you can't do so isn't good, but it's miles better than settling for a random common denominator.

it's an understandable act of defiance caused by the ever widening gap between rich and poor, an ever increasing connection between your chances in life and the amount of money you have and last but not least the so-called ~pillars of society~ living the role-model of hedonism and shallow fun that you despise so much readily to see for everyone across all the media.

 

[Cool name]

it's an understandable act of defiance caused by the ever widening gap between rich and poor, an ever increasing connection between your chances in life and the amount of money you have and last but not least the so-called ~pillars of society~ living the role-model of hedonism and shallow fun that you despise so much readily to see for everyone across all the media.

To willingly embrace acedia is anything but an act of defiance.