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The old and familiar argument pro and anti games arises once more Magical Wasteland says
That is the real reason non-gamers don’t really trust video games. They sense intuitively that they don’t help us grow up. Instead, they help us postpone the end of childhood. People who continue to play games in their adult life are fooling themselves, in a way; games and toys are acceptable for children because they are models of conflict and other systems that represent situations they will soon encounter in the real world. But what business does a mature and sensible adult, who actually lives in the world, have playing games? By continuing to immerse ourselves in them, we turn our back and chase the magical place at the expense of dealing with reality. And that regressive inertia is why video games will always loop back upon themselves in fits of wistful nostalgia.
I am not sure I agree with this. As mature adults (some of us, at least) we have control over our time - thus allowing time for fun and time for dealing with reality.
For me, the best way to wind down, or to take my coffee break, is with a game. I admit, that vary rarely do I sit for hours and hours playing, though that has been known to happen, in my adult life as well, but then, I don’t watch much television - which a lot of non - gamers do, in pursuit of anything but reality…
Whether or not you agree with the above - it is a thought evoking piece of writing.
Thanks GameSetWatch for the hat tip
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"By continuing to immerse ourselves in them, we turn our back and chase the magical place at the expense of dealing with reality"
Can’t you say the same thing about playing poker, watching sports, going to strip club, chess club, going to church, going to Star Trek convention or for that sake, any hobby we decided to adopt?
There are so many ways to keep oneself from dealing with reality.. it could be sex, (over)eating, drugs. Some of the stuff we do to escape reality are quite healthy.. like reading, and listening to music. Some people even make that non-reality into a career by becoming a musician, writer or game designer.
It sounds like whoever wrote the article is bitter about their adulthood.. Just because you are an adult it doesn’t mean you have to deal with adult BS all the time.. and you are free to be whoever you want to be in our private life..in fact we need those outlets to function properly as human beings.
We shouldn’t be ashamed of the kid we have in us.. there is nothing wrong is collecting legos or going to star trek convention or be a die hard fan of a sports team, or playing video games. I thought the important thing about our generation is learning to accept that we are all diffferent and not judge according to our limited world-view. To me that’s what living in a post-modern world is about, diversity and acceptance.
Besides, why should the writer care about whether I or anyone else he’s never met is playing video games at home? Did we do anything to hurt him/her? and what gives him/her the right to pass judgement on us, or gamers in general, when he/she has no clue as to what we are like.
There are plenty of people who live meaningful/successful life playing video games, and they are responsible adults too.
It helps people deal with their lives. No explanation needed.