I'm becoming convinced that games are a tool to pacify us

Himuro

Himuro

Member
I want to say that I love video games. I also want to say I'm not an addict or anything. I can go weeks or months without playing games. I fell out of love with games in my 20's. I still play them but I understand their limitations.

So yeah, I love games every now and then for a treat.

Which is why it pains me to say I think I'm becoming anti-video games and not just super into them.

I have some business to do (graphics for project, figure drawing samples for art school application;etc) and yet during my time off and not working my brain goes back to Resident Evil 1 Remake, which I started a new game of.

I am becoming wholly convinced that games help pacify men and steer us from our goals. Rather than being useful and doing important things in your downtime like the men of the past did, we wind down with video games. Many gamers cope by saying "that's no different than tv" but I don't really think about tv in my off hours. Games are unique in that you hit goals within the game. In REmake's case, it's solving puzzles, avoiding zombies, limiting crimson heads, resource management. The video game hijacks your brain dopamine so that when you've had a successful session you feel as if you've done a good job even though it's not something real or tangible. Afterwards I feel depleted and can't get to work on things that are tied to my actual goals because it's easier to achieve a goal within the game. No. Instead, my brain goes back to the game. Even during a walk I'm thinking about puzzle solving and doing the ultimate run of REmake.

I'm convinced the elite uses porn and video games to pacify men. Utterly convinced of it. Why go out and meet women when you've got porn? Why go out and do your own adventures when you've got video games? I started sailing as a hobby and it's nothing like sailing in a video game.

Since I have high aspirations I'm not sure what this means about my future relationship with video games. I'm still half convinced to sell my entire collection (goes as far back as SNES, Genesis). I'm still on the fence.

The more time passes the more I am fully convinced games are no different than porn. Just like porn isn't real love video games aren't real...anything and yet both manage to hijack your dopamine like nothing else. In a way tv, social media, books, whatever else don't seem to do.
 
How can mirrors be real if our eyes aren't real?

You have a point that video games can be very addicting and will adversely impact some people, especially gacha, but you swerve into crazy territory with your claims that the "elites" are using it to control the masses.
 
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The biggest pacifier is the internet in general and social media in specific, which you are using since you're here. People, especially teenagers and kids, spend quite a lot of time "doomscrolling". Maybe even more than gaming.
 
Britney Spears What GIF
 
Zathalus said:
How can mirrors be real if our eyes aren't real?

You have a point that video games can be very addicting and will adversely impact some people, especially gacha, but you swerve into crazy territory with your claims that the "elites" are using it to control the masses.
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Games hire psychologists to make games even more addictive.

I don't think it's a stretch at all. Video games and the industry prey on their users.

The elites like Hillary Clinton used to hate video games. Remember Jack Thompson? But these days the elites are reallllll quiet about games. This is why the elite used to hate video games and considered them a recipe for violence but these days now that they see the potential and how much money games make you don't hear the elites decry video games as much. This is also why they normalize porn and allow porn to be acquired for free.

Hudo said:
The biggest pacifier is the internet in general and social media in specific, which you are using since you're here. People, especially teenagers and kids, spend quite a lot of time "doomscrolling". Maybe even more than gaming.
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I do not have social media on my phone and I barely post on it.
 
I disagree. I think video games are played by alot of people who suffer from depression and used as an escape from there real life. Going to work 4 to 5 days a week in a place you don't wanna be and dealing with asshole bosses, employees, and customers can wear you down and destroy you mentally. So people like to go home and game on there consoles or pc's to try and forget about there shit job or shit life because they need something to hold onto and get them through there day. Mental health as a society isn't taken seriously, and people try coping with it by gaming, drinking, doing drugs, etc and it's leading to the collapse of alot of people sadly.
 
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Himuro said:
I want to say that I love video games. I also want to say I'm not an addict or anything. I can go weeks or months without playing games. I fell out of love with games in my 20's. I still play them but I understand their limitations.

So yeah, I love games every now and then for a treat.

Which is why it pains me to say I think I'm becoming anti-video games and not just super into them.

I have some business to do (graphics for project, figure drawing samples for art school application;etc) and yet during my time off and not working my brain goes back to Resident Evil 1 Remake, which I started a new game of.

I am becoming wholly convinced that games help pacify men and steer us from our goals. Rather than being useful and doing important things in your downtime like the men of the past did, we wind down with video games. Many gamers cope by saying "that's no different than tv" but I don't really think about tv in my off hours. Games are unique in that you hit goals within the game. In REmake's case, it's solving puzzles, avoiding zombies, limiting crimson heads, resource management. The video game hijacks your brain dopamine so that when you've had a successful session you feel as if you've done a good job even though it's not something real or tangible. Afterwards I feel depleted and can't get to work on things that are tied to my actual goals because it's easier to achieve a goal within the game. No. Instead, my brain goes back to the game. Even during a walk I'm thinking about puzzle solving and doing the ultimate run of REmake.

I'm convinced the elite uses porn and video games to pacify men. Utterly convinced of it. Why go out and meet women when you've got porn? Why go out and do your own adventures when you've got video games? I started sailing as a hobby and it's nothing like sailing in a video game.

Since I have high aspirations I'm not sure what this means about my future relationship with video games. I'm still half convinced to sell my entire collection (goes as far back as SNES, Genesis). I'm still on the fence.

The more time passes the more I am fully convinced games are no different than porn. Just like porn isn't real love video games aren't real...anything and yet both manage to hijack your dopamine like nothing else. In a way tv, social media, books, whatever else don't seem to do.
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Well so feel happy that modern gaming is giving less and less shit about you being a man .. in fact shame on you.
 
I'll be happy and pacified, just raze to the ground any DEI initiatives in games. Because all they induce in many gamers is the opposite of pacification.
 
Sebastian1295 said:
I disagree. I think video games are played by alot of people who suffer from depression and used as an escape from there real life. Going to work 4 to 5 days a week in a place you don't wanna be and dealing with asshole bosses, employees, and customers can wear you down and destroy you mentally. So people like to go home and game on there consoles or pc's to try and forget about there shit job or shit life because they need something to hold onto and get them through there day. Mental health as a society isn't taken seriously, and people try coping with it by gaming, drinking, doing drugs, etc and it's leading to the collapse of alot of people sadly.
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Do you think video games are in way predatory?
 
Himuro said:
Do you think video games are in way predatory?
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Hmmm i think gacha games and online games with microtransactions are predatory but i don't think games overall are predatory. I think games are used as a coping mechanism like i said to deal with depression, anxiety, etc and people use them as an escape from real life.
 
I think games are good value for money.
They are just Interactive toys and some game are story's.

Just set a time limit on the games you play or change the type you do.

MTX gacha games are designed to get your cash and get you hooked. Lay off those.


Play some retro gameplay first games.
 
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Wrong.

Plato wrote "to play is divine"

Heraclitus observed "Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play"

This is the spice of life, this is the good stuff, this is what we work for!
 
Sebastian1295 said:
Hmmm i think gacha games and online games with microtransactions are predatory but i don't think games overall are predatory. I think games are used as a coping mechanism like i said to deal with depression, anxiety, etc and people use them as an escape from real life.
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So you don't think video games do not have the capacity to be a societal band-aid?

If you're rejected by society why improve your situation? Just feast on porn and video games. In the past, men would rise up or try to improve themselves. Now many addicted to ways to experience what they want to feel like through fake images.

Video games and porn are done pacify men as a band-aid to hide men from what they're experiencing rather than encouraging to get better.

Today's society has made it harder to get the usual milestones of adulthood: family, a house, retirement. So throw video games at you like you're a pauper and say,"here, play this to escape reality."

The fact that games can be used as a tool to escape reality is evidence in itself.
 
Himuro said:
The more time passes the more I am fully convinced games are no different than porn. Just like porn isn't real love video games aren't real...
Click to expand...

You sound like a real goal-oriented go-getter. I bet your could replace your HDD with a real girl AND return your copy of Monopoly for Nintendo Switch for the real board game on the same day.
 
winjer said:
The tech that is being used to control the masses is social media. Not videogames.
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My argument is that video games now fall into the same bucket.

Social media, porn, video games, it all saps dopamine. The fact that games increasingly use predatory money tactics like Fifa Top Team, gacha, loot crates;etc. to get that DING! when you hit it is even more proof in the pudding. Going by that argument and those examples how are games any different than social media?
 
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Himuro said:
My argument is that video games now fall into the same bucket.

Social media, porn, video games, it all saps dopamine.
Click to expand...

I don't think you understand the difference in level of control that social media has over the masses, when compared to everything else.
Just look at the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Then realize that was just the tip of the iceberg.
 
Mmm, while games sure are a great escapism system and a good way to combat stress and anxiety (or the opposite :messenger_grinning:) they surely have a great potential for addiction like, mostly, everything else that exists (food, smoke etc).
Maybe you need a professional advice on properly managing your relationship with games and to reframe how you consider games and if after that you think that is good for your mental health, probably leaving gaming could be a good solution for you.
 
Can you tell the elites to make better games? Cause lately the drama and overall clowning on games has been more entertaining than actually playing them.
 
I agree with the reasoning that any dopamine / engagement / and so on, is drawn from the same limited pool. So by that logic it's a zero sum game and any activity that draw from this engagement pool will interfere in some way with the engagement of other activities.

But to jump and say that this means games are designed to pacify us ? Hell no. Games are designed to engage us (or our brain) the most yeah, no kidding. A game that doesn't try to do that is basically a bad game.

So yeah then you have to choose what you value and what you want to focus on. Personally I value video games in my life, I don't consider them not "real things" or "real games" just because they are virtual games. If you do any deep dive thinking you'll realize that the boundary between what is virtual and real is pretty relative and imaginary (if you go deep enough you will realize that a big part of what you call "you" and "reality" is a complex mental projection, a sophisticated and controlled hallucination so to say, not so different from what video games are actually). My enjoyment and engagement about games sure as hell feel real to me. So who cares.

Then I have balance and also value having my life in order so I don't only play games in my life.
 
You act like our goal are high level stuff that will achieve anything. I mean, I could spend all my timing gaming learning a instrument. Do will I change the world playing a instrument? No. Do I want to become the best instrument player in the world? Neither. It's just for my accomplishment, my ego if you will. Not that different from videogames.
 
winjer said:
I don't think you understand the difference in level of control that social media has over the masses, when compared to everything else.
Just look at the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Then realize that was just the tip of the iceberg.
Click to expand...
Do you think the owners of video game companies that party on yachts, have globe trotting vacations, and have billionaire businesses are spending their free time playing video games?

There's a maxim in relation to drug dealing: don't consume your own supply.

Social media architects reportedly ban their children from consuming social media because they are aware of the destructive effects.

Do you think most video game execs actually play video games or are they just selling a product to get more nerds high on digital entertainment?

How is it any different than social media?
 
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You have balls posting this on a gaming forum that's full of people who are addicted to video games. It's not only games, entertainment in general pacifies men and general population. There are way better things we could be doing with our time, but technological dependency has made people almost being unable to function without it.

For me spending way too much time on my phone is a bigger problem, because gaming is something I learned to control over the years. I think having taken a break from gaming for a few years in the past also helped this. These days I will restrict my time when it comes to gaming (1-1.5 hours a day max, 2 if I have lot of free time) as I don't wanna fall back into addiction again, but having phone at the palm of my hand is a far bigger problem.
 
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That's a pretty fucking stupid opinion. Why are you here then? You trying to lecture people or some shit?

Do you think the same about movies? Music? Other forms of entertainment?
I bet you think you're pretty fucking smart by making sweeping generalizations about "video games".
 
It is just the times where we all feel like there is just a totally overwhelming amount of information and entertainment out there. What survives and becomes popular are only the most aggressively psychologically manipulative information systems. But if you get into the world of "getting things done" it really isn't so much different. Unless you work at home by yourself doing something like carpentry with no internet you will find there information systems that are also very psychologically manipulative in a somewhat sinister way that make you feel bad and addicted to reward cycles.
 
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Zathalus said:
How can mirrors be real if our eyes aren't real?

You have a point that video games can be very addicting and will adversely impact some people, especially gacha, but you swerve into crazy territory with your claims that the "elites" are using it to control the masses.
Click to expand...

Only sounds "Crazy" because not enough people talk about it.
 
Himuro said:
Do you think the owners of video game companies that party on yachts, have globe trotting vacations, and have billionaire businesses are spending their free time playing video games?

There's a maxim in relation to drug dealing: don't consume your own supply.

Social media architects reportedly ban their children from consuming social media because they are aware of the destructive effects.

Do you think most video game execs actually play video games or are they just selling a product to get more nerds high on digital entertainment?

How is it any different than social media?
Click to expand...

You really need help. Professional help.
 
Edder1 said:
You have balls posting this on a gaming forum that's full of people who are addicted to video games. It's not only games, entertainment in general pacifies men and general population. There are way better things we could be doing with our time, but technological dependency has made people almost being unable to function without it.

For me spending way too much time on my phone is a bigger problem, because gaming is something I learned to control over the years. I think having taken a break from gaming for a few years in the past also helped this. These days I will restrict my time when it comes to gaming (1-1.5 hours a day max, 2 if I have lot of free time) as I don't wanna fall back into addiction again, but having phone at the palm of my hand is a far bigger problem.
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I think they're trying to pacify us because of the following reasons:

1. cost of living.
2. healthcare costs
3. average person no longer has access to buying a home
4. stagnant wages

It's essentially capitalism.

So they wrap up different products for entertainment, either video games or social media (you), or porn, whatever.

If not for video games, porn, and social media I truly think they'd fear for a revolution. They don't want the United Healthcare CEO assassination to be widespread.

As for gamers, yeah. Gamers are willing to defend paying 80-90 dollars for fucking Mario Kart. They're a gaggle of addicts. Truth hurts, though.

Bread and circuses, friend. Bread and circuses.

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E Edder1

I deleted all social media apps off my phone months ago and use my phone maybe an hour a day. I've gone pre-social media era and just use messaging apps like texting or the occasional whatsapp.
 
There was a period where my enjoyment of gaming waned significantly due to an intense focus on trophy hunting. This pursuit of in-game achievements led me to abandon numerous titles prematurely and may have exacerbated my obsessive-compulsive tendencies, even extending beyond gaming into my daily life. Recognizing this unhealthy pattern, I addressed it, and my relationship with gaming has since been revitalized. In the past three years, I've completed 279 games, ranging from smaller indie titles to lengthy RPGs.
 
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