Consume Product

contrarily I have been trying to get back in to gaming a bit lately

deconstruction

but I have been trying to "decontruct" it (?) to see what it is I am really looking for

mental puzzle-y games

Firstly I'd suggest you could still "game" but switch to "valuable" games like chess, which are good for your general mental abilities that can translate in to doing other things in life

physical coordination workouts

But that's just mental stimulation, there's also the physical eye-hand coordination aspect. I think choosing "any" game within reason that exercises this ability might be good to do periodically. Also alternatively or in combination, "any" activity within reason that exercises your physical abilities like this like practicing shooting hoops. Something that can also double as exercise; I think of these as also "background music" for thinking about more important things

artistic experience

another aspect of games is the experience of the sound, music, visuals, video, artwork. So instead you might listen to music, view pieces of artwork, read literature, things like that.

real world activity

another thing I've thought of is instead of like playing a hunting game, you can just go hunt or do some of the activities related to preparing to hunting or processing an animal after hunting.

gamification: making work more "game-like"

another approach has been to make certain chores or work more into a game. This hasn't worked for me necessarily but I see some other people enjoy it.

life as a "game"

and finally I was reading some game design books or articles that ultimately broke gaming down into being a kind of (maybe fun?) "problem solving". So I've been kind of instead of gaming, maybe "playing the game" of trying to identify and work on problems in life? It's maybe like a "gameful" way of looking at work or life? Or a shift from gaming to focusing on problem solving as a kind of alternative purposeful human activity?

playthroughs

I've also been surprised to notice that I kind of enjoy watching playthroughs and having them on in the background while I do other things. Mentally I can kind of see what a game is about and what it would be like if I played it, without having to buy it or put in the effort to beat the game. It kind of allows me to "play the game mentally". A lot of games are just solving puzzles and manual dexterity, so I could think for a bit how I might solve a puzzle and then just see the solution, or gauge if I could physically beat a game or not by watching others play.

board games and role-playing games

Some people are also unplugging with board games and roleplaying games. While video games sometimes get a bad rap, I hardly see as many people getting mad about people playing something like Monopoly, even though it might "waste the same amount of time". So there's something about physical board games that seem different that people are ok with at times. Roleplaying games I think can promote harmful themes although that's true of games in general; I'm not aware of D&D alternatives but I am aware of concerns people raise about D&D promoting magic and the occult. But anyway I have seen online people seem to play roleplaying games which seem to stimulate the imagination and act as a kind of "collaborative way to write a story" in a way. So those could be alternatives that scratch the itch in a more wholesome way? (Maybe for example like an electromechanical chessboard would be where I would go with a board game that's still mentally good for you?)

conclusion

Game industries are bigger than film and music combined currently. I do think there's a place for games and they should be ordered towards serving God and other people. Some moderate recreation is ok. A philosophy of games should probably be discussed and pinned down. Especially educational games (like about religious topics?) could be fun and beneficial, for example (like religious trivia?).

The Benedictine motto is "ora et labora" (prayer and work). Recreation does have a place in that vision, but also some have lived without it, and prayer is probably the kind of "recreation" they go to outside of work and other duties.

So I don't have an overall verdict on games, I think perhaps shorter games that manage some of the above thoughts I've shared will become more popular and appropriate as people's lives become busier.