This is more for discussion, maybe some of you can handle it
I didn't even game often, but it constantly occupied my headspace. I spent tons of cash on Nintendo and steam just to barely play game but look forward to them. Or I would play them and it would just feel like a huge time sync and not fun.
I'm 40 now with 4 kids. I always justified it as a way to bond with them or something I deserved. I would say it was not as bad as doomscrolling or social media.
What kept me in the most was just memories of gaming. I just couldn't recreate the happy times. But I kept trying anyway. I tried moderation but I just cannot do it.
I decided to quit them all. It's liberating not to try for achievements or set arbitrary time limits. I no longer spend mental energy seeing what slop is too woke And acceptable.
I feel like this is something I should have done when I had my first kid years ago. It's a complete waste of time beyond some good mental exercises many of you cocks shamed vidya, and I salute you for it.
Everyone reading this under 40. Don't waste years like I did.
The biggest reason I don't like it is because of how arbitrary it is, as you said. It's all fake bullshit that only exists in a digital reality marble, and doesn't translate to much real world value outside of peripheral things.
This is actually worse for things like fighting games or shooters, which require significant time investment to get good at. You'd be so much better off learning an instrument, a martial art, etc. Gaming is much closer to watching sportsball, and if you do "skilled" gaming, you're the guy who also plays fantasy football, commits all of "his" team's stats to memory, etc.
And I am biased speaking as a former gamer, late 20s now and haven't touched them since 21. I used to be extremely into competitive Smash Bros. for essentially my entire adolescence, was addicted to gachas (lost hundreds,) and then into my twenties I got *severely* addicted to League of Legends. For all of covid I basically played it from sunup to sundown, getting physically nauseous to the point of almost throwing up on multiple occasions due to continuously staring at a screen for so long.
I wish I had spent those years doing *literally anything else.* If I ever have children, I won't allow them to touch gaming unless it's through a social event where people boot up Mario Party or something.