
Why I Play Video Games - jackmcdade
http://jackmcdade.com/blog/why-i-play-video-games
======
doctorpangloss
There are a lot of things that make videogames special with respect to all
sorts of stress relief and recreational activities. I think games are special
in ways exercise is not, and we should really appreciate why.

Games are uniquely a tremendous exercise of the mind and body. When compared
to a laboratory game designed without violence, Medal of Honor improved the
vision of congenitally-handicapped children while the laboratory game did not.
The author of the study speculated that the violence in Medal of Honor put
kids into more of a neuro-plastic mood, while its emphasis on hand-eye
coordination exercised the brain, the eyes and the hands in a way that
improved senses.[0]

The game trains your strategic and tactical planning and it helps you
socialize through teamwork, but that wasn't tested. Suffice it to say, the
same features cannot be said to exist in yoga, television, or cooking.

Games are also universal. Girls and boys, young and old, physically fit and
physically infirm, poor and rich: pretty much everyone can enjoy a game.[1] It
is a form of entertainment that is capable of demanding zero to full
emotional, financial and intellectual engagement.

Compare to sports, where we can barely figure out how to have men compete
fairly against women. Or playing music, where an instrument represents a
minimum investment that immediately makes it inaccessible to many kids. As the
most successful games favor a viral, free, multiplayer and social design,
games have evolved in a Darwinian way to be as accessible and entertaining as
possible.

I don't think it's bad to exercise or to be outside. I just don't think it's
substitutable, and I think it's trivializing just how different Civilization
is from canoeing. Without a doubt we ought to do both, but you can't learn
diplomacy from an oar.

[0] [http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/science/how-video-games-
co...](http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/science/how-video-games-could-
improve-our-vision.html?pagewanted=all)

[1]
[http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp](http://www.theesa.com/facts/gameplayer.asp)

~~~
alwaysinshade
"Games are also universal. Girls and boys, young and old, physically fit and
physically infirm, poor and rich: pretty much everyone can enjoy a game.[1] It
is a form of entertainment that is capable of demanding zero to full
emotional, financial and intellectual engagement."

Really well put. My wife and I play FPS's as a way to chill out at night.
Despite being violent, fast paced and the lobbies are typically full of boys,
my wife loves it. As a result we purchased a 1ms response monitor, Scuf
controller and new Billion (Broadcom chipset) fiber-ready modem so that we
could play more competitively (financial-intellectual-engagement).

Anecdotally, we've both noticed our reflexes to real-world things such as
driving, traversing busy sidewalks, making quick decisions, catching objects
etc has improved. I guess when the difference between dead or alive is seeing
something, forming a strategy of engagement, and pressing a combination of
buttons while manoeuvering - all in the space of a second - helps you process
unforeseen events a little quicker.

------
lazyjones
There are many good things to say about video games (after many studies about
positive effects on brain development), but I've come to realize that there is
also a huge downside: games satisfy your yearning for accomplishments and
there seems to be a finite amount of that (one could say that they give you a
cheap, false sense of accomplishment, even though what people achieve in games
are often real accomplishments). So by achieving much in games, you will have
less "hunger" left to pursue achievements elsewhere and this will potentially
affect careers, relationships, self-development.

~~~
BillyMaize
I have been stressing this to everyone I work with who have kids somewhat
younger than myself for over a year now (I'm 24) when I realized how many of
my friends ruined their lives playing video games. I have played a lot of
video games since I was 3 years old and I still do every day, but I made a
conscience effort to not let it affect me too much (although my grades in
college could have been better). My brother, on the other hand, has been so
obsessed with World of Warcraft that at the age of 22 he works part time at a
department store without even a high school degree because he stopped caring
about anything else in his life. Another of my friends spent 4 years coasting
in college never choosing a major until he finally dropped out and now has
$28k in debt with nothing to show for it but his own World of Warcraft
characters.

Playing video games is good for you in moderation (it is what led me into a
career in software), but I always try to stress to parents how easy it is for
kids to get lost in the feeling of achievement. My brother is always talking
about how he has "the most gold of anyone on the server" as though he is set
for life but even now when my parents and I constantly try to remind him that
his life isn't that great he is so far gone that there is no hope. Why be
successful in real life when it is so easy to be "successful" in a fantasy
world?

~~~
baldfat
I played video games since 1976 with typing in code from books and magazines.
Some programs were on tape and took 30 minutes to load.

In the late 1990's I wrote for websites strategies and even won several
tournaments and won hundreds in cash and some perks. I even attended the first
World Cybergames as a MVP.

In that time 1993 - 2003, I went to college, went to 7 semesters got a 3.95685
gpa (I could scream still why I got a B+ in my last class). I also started a
non-profit organization gave almost 100,000 pounds of food to poor children in
Florida. Started a record studio in 2000 and helped start two bands' careers
that ended with them touring the world and landing on MTV. I ended up
thousands poorer but it was a good experience and learned I am not the
personality type to sit behind a mixing board and computer.

My Rules)

1) If someone asks me to do something in real life that I am doing on the
computer, real life wins and I do it. So anyone says let's play basketball I
play basketball.

2) I worked out 6 days a week for 20 minutes to 1.5 hours.

3) I volunteered about 5-10 hours a week.

4) I read about 2-3 books a month (Altered between fiction and non-fiction)

5) I did not watch tv or movies (instead of doing passive entertainment I
always want to do active entertainment)

All of these went out the door when I got married in 2003. My wife HATES video
games :) So now I play very sparingly. I started playing board games and those
= video games to her. So I love my wife, kids and life so I choose not to
annoy her with playing video games. I feel like I am less accomplished without
games. I felt that they propelled me to always be an active person mentally. I
missed them but I am guessing I will not be a active video game player in the
future. Video games benefited my life.

~~~
lusr
I think the following separates you from the average games player and makes
your story (interesting as it is) out of place:

> In the late 1990's I wrote for websites strategies and even won several
> tournaments and won hundreds in cash and some perks. I even attended the
> first World Cybergames as a MVP.

That's a productive career and time well spent; it is a fact that not
everybody can have that outcome. (This reminds me of all the guys at school
obsessing over football; the effect under discussion is not limited to
computer games.)

For the average game player, time spent playing games is time not spent
working towards some other achievement. This is precisely why I pretty much
stopped playing games years ago and focus on spending my free time on other
goals.

------
PhearTheCeal
Some basic exercise routines would probably have the same beneficial effects
and a bunch of added ones as well. You can't replace video games with exercise
altogether (2 hours is a pretty long workout), but making it part of your
"unwind" routine would benefit you greatly.

~~~
m_ke
Exactly, especially if your job has you sitting in front of a computer for
most of the day.

Getting rid of my TV, unsubscribing from mailing lists and limiting the time I
spend on reddit/facebook/hn/etc to 10 minutes a day was one of the best
decisions I've made in a while.

~~~
goostavos
> limiting the time I spend on reddit/facebook/hn/etc to 10 minutes a day

For anyone who struggles with limiting the time -- not necessarily for lack of
self control, but simply losing track of the time spent, [this plugin for
Chrome]([https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankej...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/stayfocusd/laankejkbhbdhmipfmgcngdelahlfoji?hl=en))
is a life saver!

I set it for exactly 10 minutes on sites, and once I cross that threshold, it
redirects whatever page you're currently browsing to one that simply says
"Shouldn't you be working?".

[This xkcd comic]([http://xkcd.com/386/](http://xkcd.com/386/)) unfortunately
describes my personality to a tee. I've spent literally _hours_ in a single
day simply arguing with people on reddit over trivial things that don't
matter. Having the abrupt redirect to a page that tells me to question how I'm
spending my time is just the kick I needed to realize that, yeah, I _should_
be doing something else other than arguing with strangers on the internet.

~~~
m_ke
Yeah I also use stayfocused. 10 minutes is just enough to skim my facebook
feed and check if there's anything interesting here on hn.

------
jmduke
People are going to say that there's nothing about this that's specific to
video games, which I guess is the point, right? You can work yourself to death
if you want, but every piece of research I've read says that recreation -- up
to a certain point, of course -- is going to be a long-term investment in your
productivity.

My new post-work ritual is going for a nice run or lift and then ruining all
of that physical activity with a beer/cocktail. On the upside, I'm getting
more fit than I've ever been; on the downside, there are significantly less
explosions along the Puget Sound than there are in Pandaria or Ivalice.

~~~
jackmcdade
Absolutely true. Video games do it for me (I also hit the gym a few times a
week, watch tv, play board games, etc), but they're certainly not a silver
bullet. They just happen to intersect many points of entertainment and self-
involvement, which makes them pretty ideal for clearing your head and winding
down.

------
binarysolo
This article could just well be titled "Why I have a hobby/life".

Gaming, for better or for worse, represents a very low-barrier-to-entry sort
of activity, where in fact good design intentionally structures games in a way
to provide a gratifying learning curve and risk/reward. Yet I feel at some
point in time we need to consider opportunity cost and externalities:

-Assuming that I have finite time and I derive similar amounts of joy playing video games and tabletop games, do I spend time grouping with old college roomies on Halo and shoot aliens, or do I try to coordinate a time with 4 other busy professionals, drive across town, grab some snacks, and roleplay some Call of Cthulhu on a weekly basis? Or maybe I hang out with some buddies at TechShop and we build a robot that uses facial recognition to launch whiskey shots at people?

-If I wanted to enjoy a narrative, do I allocate three hours, send an FB blast for movie buddies, and spend $15 sitting in a dark room with others watching a common story, or do I allocate 20-30 hours over a few days to experience the story of GTA V? Or do I pick up a book and spend a day to let my imagination take me to Westeros or Battle School?

-If I wanted to enjoy some music, do I play some Guitar Hero and press some controller buttons? Or join a structured choir? Or pick up some social dancing (a co-op music game with a social externality, essentially)?

I think gaming is FANTASTIC as an efficient way to get quick jollies, with a
low barrier to entry as well as high skill requirement for advanced levels;
MOBAs such as League of Legends or shooters such as Call of Duty come to mind
for "gaming as a skill". However, I do think other activities such as
swimming, cooking, biking, amongst others, provide different externalities.
And for some people these things are just better in the long run.

PS -- I've had a long history of gaming since the NES came out and love it.
It's just that personally I find it harder to manage and regulate my gaming
consumption (attention span and time are the main caps) vs other activities,
and I also feel that I've had less to show for as a gamer of twenty years (did
the semipro Starcraft thing for a bit but not much more) than as a concert
violinist of ten, or salsa dancer for five; so on and so forth.

That being said, the analytical mindset of optimizing resources given victory
conditions in games probably was the main reason how I ended up being a data
scientist. I feel strongly that a positive way to direct our "fun" towards
something productive is powerful for individuals and beautiful for a
society... but that's a later step in our happiness, and for a different
conversation.

~~~
jackmcdade
Great reply! I definitely agree with you all across the board. Video games do
represent an interesting location on the Venn diagram of hobbies, in that they
can have great storytelling, character development, action, immersion, and
emotional involvement, as well as be just plain fun.

I'm also a big board game geek and will probably blog about that in the
future. I have bi-weekly game nights at my place and really into the new(ish)
wave of Living Card Games like Netrunner: Android. I really love the social
aspect, kicking back for a few hours with beers and buds. And then they leave
and I fire up my PS3 :)

Or you know. Spend time with my wife and kids. Usually that.

~~~
benregn
Would love to hear your thoughts on Netrunner: Android! Been thinking about
getting into it but a bit unsure if it's something my significant other can
get into as well.

~~~
jackmcdade
It's a _really_ cool game with some really interesting mechanics. What other
games does your SO enjoy? Feel free to email jack {at} jackmcdade.com.

------
samgro
I used to play video games a ton growing up (most of the ones mentioned in the
article). I have tried picking up modern games as an adult, but don't get
quite the same thrill/zone as I did as a kid. I haven't felt immersed. I get
that feeling now from rock climbing, cycling and skiing. I think it's because
after spending all day working on programming, staring at a screen and working
through challenges seems too much like work.

~~~
bane
I find playing certain old games I grew up with and have lots of mastery and
muscle memory around unwind me very quickly.

Lots of modern games, puzzle platformers etc. just make me feel stressful.

(I also find watching retrogaming videos and longplay videos on youtube is
almost as good of an unwinder)

~~~
mercer
Indeed. I think this has a lot to do with 'fluff'. More modern games have a
lot of fluff to make the difficulty increase less abrupt and, of course,
because we demand it.

There are a few games, even relatively new ones, that don't have much 'fluff'.
They're often considered very difficult, but because they're so lean and well-
designed, they don't generally feel unfair.

These games remind me of what I used to play growing up, and they often offer
much more satisfaction in a shorter time-span.

A good, new-ish example of this is Ninja Gaiden for the Xbox, which at times
feels overwhelmingly difficult, and yet after playing for a while you notice
improvement. It rarely feels truly unfair, and I find it more enjoyable than
'fluffier' games.

Other examples would be games like Ikaruga, F-Zero.

~~~
bane
I find I like to load up Axelay in an emulator and play a few levels. It has
an amazing balance of playability and difficulty once you get how it works and
is a very relaxing game to play through.

Strangely, I also love playing a few levels of Elevator Action. Something
about jumping around and plugging bad guys from that little side arm is very
satisfying.

------
BlackDeath3
Killer story lines, character development, a few hours of play a day... I
recommend Portal. It's short, but it kicks ass. Not many games have I
considered playing through a second time immediately after the first.

~~~
jackmcdade
Portal and Portal 2 are both great games! Loved em both in every way.

------
Vaskivo
Altough many user have already addressed most of the good and the bad of
videogames, I feel like I must share my mind.

Videogames are an integral part of my life. They are my main hobby. I play
them, I design them and I develop them. They are my main medium and form of
art.

I like them for exploring new worlds. To have a safe place to interact with
stuff, poke them and see what they do. To experience larger than life stories.
And sometimes some tiny really intimate ones.

It's escapism, I know. But I usually escape to places where it would be
impossible for me to go, or to be people I will never be.

To end this, I'll leave you with my favourite gaming add, the one that really
sums up what I feel about this beautiful, expansive and still young medium:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bqq38WZctA](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bqq38WZctA)

------
HeyItsJames
I think "I started playing video games and now feel fantastic and am more
productive" could be generalized to "I allowed myself to unwind after my daily
routine and now I feel fantastic and more productive"

Anecdotally, I've recently started playing TF2 again after work instead of
exclusively working on a side-project, and I'll be damned if I haven't slept
better in months and have had more creativity and stamina to put toward my
projects after work. For me, the takeaway from Jack's post was to just make
sure you're giving your brain enough time to recharge. and think about other
things.

~~~
jackmcdade
Yup, you're definitely right. Video games are almost a short-cut to unwinding,
but they're certainly not a silver bullet.

------
tfb
Holy crap! The author and I are on the exact same page. I reached crazy levels
of burnout over a year ago, and I found out that the only thing that could
take my mind off of my work was fast paced shooters, namely UT99. Little did I
know, becoming an integral part of the old UT99 community (see
globalunreal.com) has actually improved my ability to code tenfold while
giving me some pretty invaluable team-building/management experience.

~~~
jackmcdade
Dude are you kidding me, people are still playing UT99?? That was MY GAME back
in the day! I was ranked in the top 25 and my buddy was #2 waaaaay back. I
even got pretty hardcore into mapping and got a stage or two into regular
rotation on a few servers.

Now I'm going to have to get my old gaming machine back out. Damn you sir.
Damn you.

:)

~~~
ww520
I actually play UT99. There are some of the mods that bring some very
interesting game play.

Gaming certainly helps my reflects and keeps my mind sharp.

~~~
mercer
It probably doesn't have many players anymore, but my favorite mod was
Thievery UT. I've played some rounds that were, no hyperbole, the most fun
I've ever had playing games.

One of the guys involved was actually working on Splinter Cell and I'm pretty
sure much of what we were experimenting with has, in some ways, influenced
that game. And two of the guys ended up doing games full-time for Valve after
working on Alien Swarm, and now Left 4 Dead. If only they'd do a new version
of Thievery! Back to their roots...

------
porter
I watched season 1 of house of cards on netflix. I noticed kevin spacey's
character plated halo late at night to unwind. Realized it would probably work
for me too, so I bought the new metal gear game on xbox the other day. So far
it's working.

~~~
josephlord
I suspect that it was a paid product placement and it seems to have worked on
you although it wasn't HALO or an Xbox itself that you bought.

------
dleskov
You don't have kids, do you?

I have not played anything but short streaks of casual games since the infancy
of my first, maybe with the exception of 2011/12 winter break, when I snatched
a $0 deal on Broken Sword reissued for iPad and played for several days in a
row, which was very recreational indeed.

~~~
Kiro
You just convinced me to never have kids.

~~~
jackmcdade
Oh? Why's that?

------
gazaren
You shouldn't need escapism to be functional. You were burned out, that's what
should be avoided. Like gambling, video games provide a reward loop that keep
people coming back to them, and it only gets worse.

It's odd that people in general want to stop watching television and enjoy
life more, but get involved with video games, which is just as mind numbing as
television.

I also find it very odd that in a website such as Hacker News, where hackers
praise themselves as smart and productive people get carried away by playing
games, which hardly generates anything.

Such as the studies that showed that by playing chess, you get better at
chess, playing video games will make you better at one thing, playing video
games. There are some side gains, but they are negligible. One would benefit a
lot more from other activities.

~~~
mercer
Well, what about _fun_? Both for games and television I'd argue that they're
fine in moderation, and that it depends on _what_ particular game or
film/show.

The Wire? Awesome _and_ very educational. Planescape Torment (or other RPG's)?
Better, in some ways, than a great book.

Also, chess is a game too, so really just a subset of 'games'. I don't really
see what you're trying to point out with that comparison.

------
dnautics
you're probably resetting your brain's systems and reassuring your brain that,
yes, there are systems with a logical flow from action to consequence to
success and reward! Probably not a bad way to avoid burnout.

~~~
jackmcdade
I also think that video games give you small victories and and sense of
achievement, and failure can be undone. It's a good (albeit unrealistic) type
of positive reinforcement that keeps me from getting too hard on myself.

------
orangebox
This article really hit home for me, as I had a similar experience this year:
burnout after high-stress software dev (after which I didn't even want to look
at code), followed by getting back into gaming, then suddenly finding renewed
motivation for (and enjoyment of) programming.

How do I limit my game-time to 1 hour daily? Easy, I set the Family Timer on
my Xbox. I know the password, so I can extend it, but at least it's a
conscious decision. I'd highly recommend this approach to anyone who wants to
try out gaming but is afraid of it sucking away too much time.

------
jamesjporter
The point about having an outlet to destress is a really good one; its
something I struggle with (feeling guilty about "wasting time" even though I
know some amount of relaxation is necessary to stay productive).

Tangentially related, the author's product looks awesome too. I'm probably
going to need to make some websites for my parents businesses soon and I'd
like something that I can maintain happily with emacs but that they can post
to and modify from their browser; this thing looks like it might just be the
ticket.

~~~
jackmcdade
That's the biggest thing I came to grips with, which really has nothing to do
with video games. You need to balance work with the rest of your life. Family
is important. Faith (to me) is important. Friends, fitness, and food are all
important (and all start with "F").

Video games worked as a tool to help me disconnect from a brain that was lying
to me, telling me that I should be working. That I should be billing. That I
should be devoting even more time into my work. When in fact, the opposite was
true. Less of me, more of everything else, and everything began to work out.

And relating to your tangent, let me know if you have questions about Statamic
just shout {at} jackmcdade.com. That sounds like a perfect use case for it :)

------
Datsundere
Why did he pick one up from craigslist? People are overpricing them so much. I
found new ones on amazon for the same price.

~~~
jackmcdade
$250 for a PS3, 4 controllers, and 25 games wasn't a bundle I found on Amazon
:)

~~~
rjuyal
Superb deal. But consider having PS+ one year subscription. Totally worth it.

------
jackmcdade
I've been getting so many recommendations for games I had to update the post.
Thanks for the great feedback, I'm glad my post resonated with so many of you!

[http://jackmcdade.dev/blog/why-i-play-video-
games#update](http://jackmcdade.dev/blog/why-i-play-video-games#update)

------
bsirkia
Jack, you need to finish Bioshock, one of the best story-lines in a game I've
ever played.

My top 3 games:

Red Dead Redemption

Deus Ex (the very first one)

Bioshock

I also think this is why I find myself enjoying good TV so much more now that
I'm full-timing my startup. I can just sit, relax, and totally focus on
something else for an hour a night.

~~~
jackmcdade
I plan to :) I got a little bit caught up in the older-school graphic style,
big chunky HUDs and whatnot, but I think I'm really only a few hours from the
end. I plan to finish it real soon.

I also watch tv with my wife regularly. I'm a fan of many, many good shows.

------
barbs
Sounds like he just needed some stress-relief, rather than video-games
specifically...

~~~
jackmcdade
I really think video games are a sweet spot in the stress-relief category.
Reading (I'm an avid reader) didn't cut it, watching movies or tv, running,
weight lifting... none of them relax me like gaming. Well, maybe drinking, but
that's a different story :)

------
kennymeyers
A bit of self-promotion here. If you're into games, and like hearing two guys
rant about them, you should check out my gaming podcast: www.chips-and-
bits.com and tell me how terrible it is. Feedback welcome, of course.

Hi, Jack.

~~~
jackmcdade
Well hey there Kenny! I'm definitely gonna check out your podcast. I see Joel
and Ellie there on the homepage so I definitely need to see what that's all
about.

