Why not just play video games all day?

[preventingdiabetes]

I've been playing some video games lately. 

If I asked myself what I would do with my time if I had $100 million, I think I would play video games all day.

It's easier than working on your Life Purpose, so why not just play video games if it still gives you a sense of progress? 

Life Purpose gives you a sense of progress. Video games also give you a sense of progress.

Life Purpose work gets you into flow states. Video games also get you into flow states. 

 

The thing is, I wasn't like this before. I used to be pretty hard working, but it all feels pointless now. The future is just in our head, so why not live in the present moment and play video games? Or am I deluding myself? 

 

So I'm wondering if this is the most fulfilling thing I can be doing, and whether it will make me the happiest I can be. 

Questions I have:

• Is this just hedonism at its finest? Or can video games be eudaimonic? They require skill and practice to be good at. 
• Would working on my Life Purpose instead of playing video games make me a happier, more fulfilled person? 
• There is a hidden cost to everything. What is the hidden cost of playing video games?
• What is the game plan to living the best life possible? As in, being the most fulfilled and happy one can be?

[SamC]

2 hours ago, preventingdiabetes said:

I've been playing some video games lately. 

If I asked myself what I would do with my time if I had $100 million, I think I would play video games all day.

It's easier than working on your Life Purpose, so why not just play video games if it still gives you a sense of progress? 

Life Purpose gives you a sense of progress. Video games also give you a sense of progress.

Life Purpose work gets you into flow states. Video games also get you into flow states. 

 

The thing is, I wasn't like this before. I used to be pretty hard working, but it all feels pointless now. The future is just in our head, so why not live in the present moment and play video games? Or am I deluding myself? 

 

So I'm wondering if this is the most fulfilling thing I can be doing, and whether it will make me the happiest I can be. 

Questions I have:

• Is this just hedonism at its finest? Or can video games be eudaimonic? They require skill and practice to be good at. 

Experiment and see what's true for you.

2 hours ago, preventingdiabetes said:

• Would working on my Life Purpose instead of playing video games make me a happier, more fulfilled person? 

Probably.

2 hours ago, preventingdiabetes said:

• There is a hidden cost to everything. What is the hidden cost of playing video games?

 Sure there is nothing else to do, but that doesn't mean you can't do other things that is more meaningful to you. 

Also, If you spend all of your time playing video games you will not find and develop your LP and then forced to work at starbucka instead of playing video games and that will suck either way.

2 hours ago, preventingdiabetes said:

• What is the game plan to living the best life possible? As in, being the most fulfilled and happy one can be?

I can only answer this from my own perspective but playing video games all day makes one miserable.

When I feel my best, I am meditating. When I feel my second best is when I am doing stuff that I know makes me feel good, like exercising, eating well and working towards my LP and in my zone of genius.

I do love to watch YouTube and play video games too, it's just that after I've done it I feel like shit.

"8 hours of civ 5 a day makes me depressed, night and day - eventhough I love playing it everyday" ~ very wise person.

[SaltyMeatballs]

3 hours ago, preventingdiabetes said:

I've been playing some video games lately. 

If I asked myself what I would do with my time if I had $100 million, I think I would play video games all day.

It's easier than working on your Life Purpose, so why not just play video games if it still gives you a sense of progress? 

Life Purpose gives you a sense of progress. Video games also give you a sense of progress.

Life Purpose work gets you into flow states. Video games also get you into flow states. 

 

The thing is, I wasn't like this before. I used to be pretty hard working, but it all feels pointless now. The future is just in our head, so why not live in the present moment and play video games? Or am I deluding myself? 

 

So I'm wondering if this is the most fulfilling thing I can be doing, and whether it will make me the happiest I can be. 

Questions I have:

• Is this just hedonism at its finest? Or can video games be eudaimonic? They require skill and practice to be good at. 
• Would working on my Life Purpose instead of playing video games make me a happier, more fulfilled person? 
• There is a hidden cost to everything. What is the hidden cost of playing video games?
• What is the game plan to living the best life possible? As in, being the most fulfilled and happy one can be?

Have you tried playing video games all day? Is it really that satisfying to you?

[hyruga]

Well, sure if you have lots of money and can afford to play video games all day.

But even if you do so, you cannot really feel fulfilled unless you become really good in gaming and find some purposes through gaming.

 

Edited August 30, 2021 by hyruga

[SgtPepper]

Way too limiting for a lifestyle.

When we play videogames, we pretty much limit our senses to several buttons on a controller and scripted events. 

 

[kamwalker]

I bought a PS4 a few years ago. For the most part I don't touch it, but there have been a few games that did a very good job of pulling me in (The Last of Us series, God of War). I find there is just way too many other things I'd rather spend my time on that are more fulfilling than video games. I don't think doing only one thing could give me the type of life I'd enjoy. 

[Goldzilla]

Let's do it ?

[preventingdiabetes]

8 hours ago, SamC said:

I do love to watch YouTube and play video games too, it's just that after I've done it I feel like shit.

@SamC Why?

7 hours ago, SaltyMeatballs said:

Have you tried playing video games all day? Is it really that satisfying to you?

@SaltyMeatballs Yeah. But I'm not sure if it's the most satisfying thing I can be doing. I don't know what to contrast it with. 

[Thought Art]

Cuz ur uninspired

[preventingdiabetes]

@Leo Gura You used to play video games in your youth. What would your perspective be on this?

Am I wasting my life? Are there more fulfilling things to be doing? I do want to be as happy as I possibly can be. If pursuing our Life Purpose instead of playing video games can aid in making us more fulfilled and happy then that's what I will do. 

[SamC]

12 minutes ago, preventingdiabetes said:

@SamC Why?

 

https://nypost.com/2018/02/27/binge-watching-leaves-you-anxious-stressed-and-lonely/amp/

It's like setting yourself in a light depression. 

[Leo Gura]

Why not jerk off all day with a heroin IV while floating in a bathtub of liquid chocolate?

[mmKay]

@preventingdiabetes I'll give you a perspective. 

I've been playing video games since I was 3 till' 19. Ridiculous ammounts. I talking more than 12 hours a pretty much every day. 

Now I'm 23 and I regret it , not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I reached a point where they no longer give me that sense of purpose and progression since I've glimpsed how good life could be if I had put that effort into developming some serious skills.

Fulfillment is directly proportional to your degree of mastery. And once you're outside that digital bubble your video game skills mean nothing. 

Life can be infinitely more fulfilling than winning some League of Legends matches. 

You can do two things : drown yourself for a couple of years in videogames  to learn the lesson of how you piss your life away, or wisen up today 

 

[preventingdiabetes]

1 hour ago, Leo Gura said:

Why not jerk off all day with a heroin IV while floating in a bathtub of liquid chocolate?

@Leo Gura

Because it doesn't give you a sense of progress via practice, nor does it put you into a flow state. 

[Leo Gura]

@preventingdiabetes There is no difference between jerking off and video games in terms of flow state.

[preventingdiabetes]

1 hour ago, SamC said:

https://nypost.com/2018/02/27/binge-watching-leaves-you-anxious-stressed-and-lonely/amp/

It's like setting yourself in a light depression. 

@SamC

Binge watching is a completely different matter in my opinion. I can see how one would be depressed from that. 

But with video games, you don't just passively sit back. Video games can put you into a flow state and give you a sense of progress (because you are getting better). Did you still feel like shit after playing video games? 

37 minutes ago, mmKay said:

@preventingdiabetes I'll give you a perspective. 

I've been playing video games since I was 3 till' 19. Ridiculous ammounts. I talking more than 12 hours a pretty much every day. 

Now I'm 23 and I regret it , not because I didn't enjoy it, but because I reached a point where they no longer give me that sense of purpose and progression since I've glimpsed how good life could be if I had put that effort into developming some serious skills.

Fulfillment is directly proportional to your degree of mastery. And once you're outside that digital bubble your video game skills mean nothing. 

Life can be infinitely more fulfilling than winning some League of Legends matches. 

You can do two things : drown yourself for a couple of years in videogames  to learn the lesson of how you piss your life away, or wisen up today 

 

@mmKay 

Wisen up how? At the moment I don't know what I'd be doing if I had $100 million with freedom to do whatever I want other than play video games. 

[preventingdiabetes]

2 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

@preventingdiabetes There is no difference between jerking off and video games in terms of flow state.

@Leo Gura 

In my experience, there certainly is. Jerking off doesn't require much skill, nor is it challenging. Video games can be. 

 

If video games will negatively affect my consciousness, psychology, spiritual practice, or potential for living the best life possible, I'll drop it on a dime.

Will there come a point when I will enjoy contemplation, meditation, yoga, journaling etc. more than playing video games? 

[momster]

 

12 hours ago, preventingdiabetes said:

So I'm wondering if this is the most fulfilling thing I can be doing, and whether it will make me the happiest I can be. 

 

The answer to this is it depends upon why and how you are playing video games. Video games are a little different from other forms of entertainment as sometimes it presents actual ways to grow. But at the same time it is still entertainment, and designed to keep you in flow state such as gambling is.

Are you playing video games for real growth or fake growth(rank)

Are you playing video games to escape from reality?

The thing with video games is that it tends to not provide any happiness in the long-term. Once people are addicted to it, they feel like they are not in control of their own lives at that point if they have other desires in life that they want to pursue instead.

 

Ultimately I have no idea about what you should do 

[Matt23]

Would it really fulfill you? 

I'm wagering that it would eat away at your happiness and fulfillment in life and you'd end up becoming depressed and just miserable.  

You'd probably also get bored of it real-quick.  Like, video games all day, every day, for months, even just weeks, on end... how long do you really think that would last before you got sick of it?  

[preventingdiabetes]

33 minutes ago, momster said:

Are you playing video games for real growth or fake growth(rank)

@momster How do you distinguish the two?