Are hardcore gamers immature?

[quantumspiral]

I'm kind of baffled how some people can sink so many hours into games and remain excited for upcoming releases, year after year.

While I enjoy games, something about sitting there playing them intuitively feels wrong and I end up uninstalling everything. Most likely the feeling I'm wasting my life.

I'm trying to pinpoint the psychological reason that drives people towards hardcore gaming.

If you think they do lack maturity, what exactly about their psychology is it that makes them so?

Edited June 20 by quantumspiral

[Rafael Thundercat]

This topic is for off topic entretaiment and fun.

[quantumspiral]

@Rafael Thundercat Is it? I'm interested in discussing psychology of gamers, not the actual games they play.

[Rafael Thundercat]

1 hour ago, quantumspiral said:

I'm trying to pinpoint the psychological reason that drives people towards hardcore gaming.

You can speculate or you can ask them and listen. But I guess there is some Dopamine, Adrenaline and other things that grab the psyche and the guys cant stop.. Is like when a Topic about Solopsism or Non-Duality is open here. Guys just cant stop playing, is to much exciting 

Edited June 20 by Rafael Thundercat

[DocWatts]

1 hour ago, quantumspiral said:

@Rafael Thundercat Is it? I'm interested in discussing psychology of gamers, not the actual games they play.

Can speak from experience here (probably would have fallen into this camp in my teens and twenties), but there's a few different ways you could parse this question.

So what is a 'hardcore gamer'? In my my mind, I can think of three buckets that one might be referring to. Note that these aren't mutually exclusive, as someone could fall into just one or all of these.

1) Folks who treating gaming as a hobby, like how someone might treat golf or woodworking or Dungeons and Dragons as a hobby.

2) Folks who treat their opinions on gaming as an identity. Think of folks who get emotionally invested in the console wars between Xbox and PlayStation, or who are very ideological and defensive about their hobby.

3) Problematic gamers - basically folks who haven't developed healthy technology habits, where their gaming is interfering with other aspects of their life such as school and relationships.

In my experience, I don't see really any correlation between #1 and immaturity, at least any more than someone who's heavily invested in home improvement or science fiction is likely to be immature. Categories 2 and 3 seem to be more closely linked to immaturity, but keep in mind that folks in these two categories also tend to be younger as well (hopefully growing out of these as they mature).

 

 

Edited June 20 by DocWatts

[Leo Gura]

Of course. It's an eacape, like drugs.

Playing games all day is much more fun than building a life.

Edited June 20 by Leo Gura

[quantumspiral]

@DocWatts nice breakdown, thanks for sharing

[quantumspiral]

@Leo Gura But of course, in the long term the opposite is true 

 

[Nemra]

@quantumspiral

I think playing games all day to ignore your situation and problems every time as an adult is linked to having family issues in the past, which can be hard to deal with as a child.

[Chives99]

Shallow , trivial form of happiness 

[Leo Gura]

Gamer culture tends to be very immature and toxic overall.

It's by man-children for man-children.

Even game developers tend to be immature boys. Look at how Blizzard is run. The president of Blizzard would whip his dick out at business meetings to impress investors. That's the level of maturity you're dealing with here.

Just look at gamer culture overall. It's pathetic.

Edited June 20 by Leo Gura

[Schizophonia]

It is if it prevents you from having a more cool and healthy life.

Like any activity 🤷‍♂️

Edited June 20 by Schizophonia

[mmKay]

7 hours ago, quantumspiral said:

I'm trying to pinpoint the psychological reason that drives people towards hardcore gaming.

If you think they do lack maturity, what exactly about their psychology is it that makes them so?

I can't talk for other people but I can talk for myself.

I have spent most of my free time till age 17 playing videogames. That's about 12h or more per day if I physically could.

My reason ( revealed in a trip ) was that I had a weak fragile Ego , caused by a lifelong soft bullying by my older brother and then hard bullying at school ( plus parenthood issues )

So when I got into competitive videogames, my fragile Ego went on the offensive and got inflated , compensating for being weak in real life. In the online world  I could scratch that itch for need of  revenge or humiliating others , finally being better than others , feeling superior,  having "a big name", etc

There is way more thing appealing about videogames. They help you meet many needs in a very straightforward way ,which is not very conscious or healthy really 

Social needs, need for archivement, they are very good at getting you in flow state ( challenge matches skill level ),  they are hyper stimulating ( scientifically optimized to create addictions via known dopamine triggers ) , constant adrenaline rushes, big emotional fluctuation... These days there is also the promise of making an income or career that way, get famous and get poosay

And much more 

 

 

[emil1234]

@Leo Gura i bet u play an undead rogue 

[Nemra]

@mmKay

I have played all sorts of games for hours, sometimes a day, but on weekends or in the summer. But I just had my laptop and no one to play with. I think the problem is the group mentality and competition.

I think you can grow up by playing games.

[Rafael Thundercat]

Maybe some games like to get variety and the excitement of always solving challenges. Is like an addiction of keeping the neurons on fire all the time :

https://www.actualized.org/insights/requisite-variety-and-creative-laziness

[quantumspiral]

The real issue is none of us have the time to invest into gaming if we're really taking our living into our passions and lives to the fullest extent.

Moderation (say 30 minutes a day) isn't realistic for many gamers, it will quickly lead to more gaming and more mental bandwidth being taken up outside the game.

I have a deep philosophical problem too with investing time and energy into virtual realities- it seems to always, no matter how innocuous it seems on the surface, come at the expense of your investment into reality and your own life.

[quantumspiral]

I find the obsession with achievement hunting and game lore to be quite repulsive too. These are virtual realities. Why would you obsess over them when actual reality is infinitely more complex and beautiful? In my opinion, it has to come from escapism.

[Leo Gura]

50 minutes ago, emil1234 said:

@Leo Gura i bet u play an undead rogue 

No. And I don't play Blizzard's trash games.

[DocWatts]

38 minutes ago, quantumspiral said:

The real issue is none of us have the time to invest into gaming if we're really taking our living into our passions and lives to the fullest extent.

Moderation (say 30 minutes a day) isn't realistic for many gamers, it will quickly lead to more gaming and more mental bandwidth being taken up outside the game.

I have a deep philosophical problem too with investing time and energy into virtual realities- it seems to always, no matter how innocuous it seems on the surface, come at the expense of your investment into reality and your own life.

Most human beings cant spend every waking moment pursuing their life purpose , recreation is a normal and healthy aspect of living a balanced life.

Of course, there are better and worse ways to use recreation. The question is how well your gaming is integrated into the rest of your life, along with your intentions when you dive into a game.

Are you using games because you enjoy engaging with an interactive piece of art? Are you using them to socialize and bond with your friends? Or are you habitually using games to disengage from Reality, and avoid dealing with real world problems?

Cultivating mindful habits around how one engages with virtual worlds (whether that's a game or social media) is key.

Edited June 20 by DocWatts