The "Waste of Time" Paradox

[KartoTolmex]

Allow me to start this with a scenario.

I decide to play X game for 1 hour, whilst my girlfriend watches Y TV show for the same duration. After the time period has elapsed, I'm asked "Why do I waste my time on computer games?" and thus this begins my topic.

Why is it that games are seen as a waste of time to individuals, but their pursuits are the Holy Grail of time consumption?

Over the years I've gone through different levels of game playing. When I was twelve or so, played for two hours a day. This time steadily grew until I left college and took a gap year, at which time I played Final Fantasy XI non stop, and I mean 5 out of 7 days were spent playing it constantly.

I've now simmered down to playing mainly on weeknights, or when I can't sleep.

Do I see any of the time I've spent on games as wasted? No, because they provided an enjoyable means to ease the passing of time. And surely that's all we can ask for in our life?

Of course, this attitude is present in people who do partake in game playing, just manifesting in slightly different ways such as console hate.

I guess what it boils down to is that someone needs to justify their activities by attacking someone else's.

Are you of similar stature? As a game player do you frown upon people that play Magic the Gathering for example? What spurs your hate towards an inanimate object? Is it the insecurities and self doubt rooted within you that causes it?

[PenguinKommando]

I think its because "gamers" are seen as a different group in society, where everyone watches TV. Yeah both are sort of time wasting, and you both get the same enjoyment I would assume, but you could always be pursuing a hobby like painting or drawing or woodworking, or something, the type of things they did "before computers were popularized". But then, pursuing those as hobbies provides the same enjoyment if you actually do mean to like it, and they actually provide improvement at a skill, or you seem more intelligent if you read a lot, where if you become proficient at that game, it's seen as not translating to any other corporeal form. Also, when I said that they were seen as a group, I was going to point out its like a morbidly obese person saying a smoker is slowly killing themselves. Its just that one group sees itself as more normal, or better than the other, when we are all the same, I guess. At least that's how I see it.

[Raguel]

Technically, playing video games is a waste of time when you consider that you could be using that time to enhance yourself in terms of learning a new language, studying a course at home or any other amount of stuff that could make you a more widely knowledgeable person.

Obviously this only applies to people who spend hours of their time playing games everyday instead of just a short while. A person who spends the same amount of time watching soaps and crap on TV is wasting their time in the same exact way though.

I play video games a lot and I do feel that my time could be better spent, but at the same time I don't really feel too bad about it. There are certain games that I see as a real waste of time though.

Guitar Hero for instance. You spend hours upon hours perfecting a technique to get a high score. Why not put that time into learning to play a real guitar?

The Sims is a bit fucked up too. You get up, go to work, make dinner, keep your house clean, make sure you have enough sleep and so on. Why not just live a real life and make actual money and acquire actual items?

[somemember]

Some TV shows teach you facts and helpful info like Survivorman and Mythbusters whereas some games teach you hand-eye-coordination such ad Rock Band. So, they can waste time or not depending on what it is.

[dmansland]

Everything is a waste of time in my opinion. Whether you play games, watch a movie, learn a language, tutor, help others, it's all a waste of time. In the end, we will all die and nothing we got will help us once we are dead, since it's the end. It is all about enjoying your time now, which is considered wasting it. I enjoy playing games, watch some TV, go out and play sports, or beat the crap out of people. But in the end, it will only benefit me for a while. Same with everyone else. It's all about living luxiuriously and happily for the amount of time we have.

[djack]

At 8/10/09 06:56 PM, somemember wrote: Some TV shows teach you facts and helpful info like Survivorman and Mythbusters whereas some games teach you hand-eye-coordination such ad Rock Band. So, they can waste time or not depending on what it is.

Yes because knowing that 30,000 match heads in a barrel will create a giant fireball is so useful. And games like Rock Band don't improve hand eye coordination as well as sports and other active things. When you could be doing that or learning, video games and tv do seem like a waste of time but really we are taught a lot more than we would have been taught just 10 years ago. The knowledge of the human race is expanding rapidly and we need time to relax and rest our minds otherwise we couldn't handle such a vast intake of information. But like all things there is such a thing as too much and if you spend 100K hours getting your WOW character to level 50 you have probably spent too much time on video games and should find something more productive to do.

[Gustavos]

What about playing a game you already beat? Is it wasting time because you know what's coming up and how the story ends, or is it not because you're still having fun to some extent?

But I agree on one thing you said. There's no point for people to bash other people's hobbies just because they're insecure about their own. That's why I never question the reasons behind why people do things for entertainment, unless there's something entirely negative about it. Killing a cat because you think it's fun, isn't entirely positive. Great that you're enjoying it, but at the cost of an innocent cat's life.

And then there's also the topics of getting high or drunk. But since I don't want to stray off topic, or talk about something I've never tried, I'll stay off that one.

Are video games a waste of time? No. They're fun electronic stimulators. And I don't quite see how any other hobbies could be a good substitute for long, but again, it's not justified for me to question.

[Aci6]

Video Games are just below all that other sub-cultural technology crap. I don't go out of my way to play games in there's something going on, I play only when its MY free time (leisure time/whatever) such as of a night time, when home alone (not to say I don't get stuff done) etc.
Its kind of funny though how the brain's more stimulated playing video games than say, watching TV and its seen as the lesser of the two.
Waste of Time indeed, its an interesting subject anyway.

[DirtySyko]

The irony is that most people who tell you video games are a waste of time are as equally as worthless as you when it comes to the distribution of their time and the activities they do. And if they have the time to tell you that you're wasting time, than they're wasting time themselves that they could be using to do something constructive, like text on their cell phones. Lol.

I never saw video games as a waste of time, but sometimes I felt like I was wasting too much time on one game. It's one reason I stopped playing WoW. I didn't think, "Fuck, I'm sure wasting a lot of time..." I thought, "Fuck, I'm wasting a lot of time on this one game when I could be playing others!"

I used to play games a lot more than I do now, but I still never felt like it was time wasted. And throughout my game playing, I read books, watched movies, learned new talents, etc, etc. Just recently I learned how to juggle, and I can do it pretty well with 3 balls. But, me taking the time to learn how to juggle wasn't anymore productive than playing a video game. I'm not going to become a professional juggler, I just learned a useless talent for self satisfaction. And that's what it's all about, satisfying yourself. Fuck anyone who tries to bring that down.

At 8/10/09 06:49 PM, Raguel wrote:

The Sims is a bit fucked up too. You get up, go to work, make dinner, keep your house clean, make sure you have enough sleep and so on. Why not just live a real life and make actual money and acquire actual items?

I do, and it's boring :(

[Raguel]

At 8/10/09 09:44 PM, DirtySyko wrote:

At 8/10/09 06:49 PM, Raguel wrote:

The Sims is a bit fucked up too. You get up, go to work, make dinner, keep your house clean, make sure you have enough sleep and so on. Why not just live a real life and make actual money and acquire actual items?

I do, and it's boring :(

Me too. Why I would feel the urge to pay money for a game that simulates that is beyond me.