Some practical skills I learned through video games: I learned how to read and navigate using maps through RPGs. I learned history through Assassin's Creed series. I learned multi-tasking through Dandori. As a non-native English speaker, I learned grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciations through video games (I remember reciting some of Sora's dialogues with my friends).
Animal Crossing helped me stay connected with my family and friends during the lockdown as well. Final Fantasy introduced me to the wonders of fantasy world building and to the beautiful music.
To say that video games are soul-sucking and meaningless is understatement.
It’s completely baffling how people can even say such things. Clearly video games have provided value and meaning to so many people (as your examples perfectly illustrate). If someone doesn’t like games, that’s fine… but that doesn’t mean others are wrong to like them!
I don't see how something like Call of Duty is different than massive numbers of hobbies. Is it more valid to get good at archery than a competitive video game.
A lot of this is snobbery. Reading the classics is seen as classy, playing Skyrim is low-class.
Oh, it's absolutely snobbery. To be fair, there are qualitative differences between hobbies, between media, and even between different titles within a medium. But at the end of the day, it's mostly a matter of taste. Different strokes for different folks. And it doesn't make sense to begrudge others over something as subjective as taste.
"I do agree that games have the potential to basically hold players back in life, by substituting actual achievement and exploration with convincing but ultimately inferior simulacra of such, thus discouraging actually going out to accomplish tangible goals and new experiences. And I agree that a lot of players do fall into that trap."
I think the issue is that, in my experience, high volume video game users have a much higher occurrence of this problem. The act of staring at a screen for hours leads to a very different mental state then when I see people obsessed with playing the clarinet or ping pong or cooking a certain food.
Others might disagree, but the impact of engaging in an imaginary world through a screen is similar to scrolling on a phone or watching netflix for hours... a disengagement and distraction from the world that does not lend itself to real world contentment.
I think there's a conversation to be had about the qualitative differences between more "physical" activities compared to ones mediated by a screen. But if we're to do so, we should at least be consistent—and nobody begrudges movies, for instance, for the escapism they provide. Nor do people distinguish between mindlessly scrolling through TikTok, and playing Breath of the Wild. And I know from experience that their effects on the mind are worlds apart.
Any medium or activity can be detrimental or lend itself to excess. Maybe video games lend themselves to it more than others—I think that's fair, and highly plausible. But the flip side of that is, there's more potential upside as well. But this is seldom acknowledged.
It'd be nice to acknowledge the full picture—positive and negative—when talking about these things. Hopefully conversations like these can be a good starting point.
I agree with this post: video games are as meaningful as any other art form. But at this point, I just don't see the point in responding to detractors. It's a behemoth of an industry, cool indie games come out every year, loads of people play video games. I just don't think we have to care about people who claim they aren't meaningful any more.
Without a doubt, video games are meaningful via the massive impact they have on our culture. The question for me is what are the costs and benefits of that impact?
You may be right. I certainly hope so! But I suppose I just can't help myself. It'd be nice to move on from all the moral panics we've been stuck on since the 90s, and start having more honest conversations about the pros and cons of our hobby.
As someone who consumes video games in a critical way (not being critical, but considering what the game does, what it's trying to say, etc., etc.) I can't agree more. I think it does come down to perspective and having a healthy media diet.
Animal Crossing is such a good touch point for this. People literally created moments to share with their firends when they couldn't be physically present with one another. Why trash on that?
Animal Crossing was such a lifeline during the pandemic. It really is crazy how one could see how much it helped so many people, and STILL fall back on the same tired tropes to denigrate the medium.
Adding to the list of benefits of games: In my Substack, I write about how I use Dirt, the rally racing video game, for self improvement, learning about how my mind and my emotions work, and practicing a kind of meditation.
Not a game-head meself but the missus is, so I guess that makes me a Gamer Ally. I can vouch for how much her daily post-work couple of hours playing Zelda or Mario de-stresses her. And her reactions are way better than mine, always have been!
Pretty watertight and coherent argument you make there, and politer than I would have managed if somebody had a go at comics!
I'd say comics are, at least, definitely gamer-adjacent! We're all denizens of the nerd-o-sphere. Appreciate your kind words and allyship—gotta stick together, right?
IMHO, few activities more intensely engage the imagination than one where every move depends on the consequences of a contemplated action. The faster the actions required, the more fluid the imagination must be.
"It all reeks of elitist gatekeeping." Indeed. It's also very typical. Throughout history technological advances are met with horror, disdain, and dire warnings. The Victorians wrote about how kaleidoscopes - today's old-fashioned, offline, wholly acceptable toy - were causing kids to run into walls and were going to damage eyesight. Fiction reading was believed to be super harmful, especially for women. Newspapers were going to kill civilized conversation around the breakfast table. Radio was going to produce a society that couldn't tell the difference between reality and fiction. In the 80s (my teen years), TV was going to rot our brains.
There's also a larger-picture belief that too much fun is bad, unless it's fun that's Currently Socially Acceptable (sports, binging Netflix, reading [but only certain kinds of books, certainly not graphic novels or comics], outdoor hobbies, etc.). Additionally, much of the entertainment that is accessible to us plebes, much of the art and culture we create, is 'less than.' Take music as an example. There is a very sharp divide between the classical music world and, well, everyone else - despite the skill and talent of self-taught musicians in every community all over the world.
My ND teen has gathered a group of people online that are now creating improv in real time based on an existing story framework. They set weekly schedules and events, and she is part of the leadership and manages the character and story archives. Recently, they decided to do reporting and create a newsletter, and she's part of that as well. This is all done on VR and Discord. These are full-on real life skills. These friends (that would be judged 'not real' because they are online) got her through the hardest year of her life in 2024.
There's so much that flows down from this fear-mongering, especially for parents.
Brilliantly put, Kim. I couldn't have put it better myself. You also really hit the nail on the head about society stigmatizing fun, which I think runs parallel to the moral panics that accompany new technology—I think they're both downstream from the Puritanism that sowed the seeds of our culture. The Protestant work ethic has been taken to such an extreme degree that play and fun are always suspect.
In these days, not because fun and play are "sinful," but rather because they don't create "value" (you can see strains of this in Jack's piece as well, especially the bit about nothing being created by playing games—the implication being that gaming is therefore a worthless activity). These are the same people who push to install keyloggers and cursor trackers in remote employees' laptops, dock warehouse workers' pay for taking bathroom breaks, and are positively salivating to completely replace human labor with AI.
But we all know the saying about all work and no play.
By the way, that's absolutely wonderful to read about your daughter! I'm truly happy for both of you. It's always so nice to hear of how gaming helps folks, especially in such huge and tangible ways. Advocating for gaming feels like an uphill battle at times, but hearing stories like yours reminds me why it's important, and why it's worth it. Thank you for sharing, and for your allyship!
Eh, they actually do some pretty good reporting. Sure, their biases often get the better of them, but that's the case with every media outlet. There's also a certain smug self-righteousness to their tone which rubs me the wrong way. But as long as you approach their content critically, they do publish some valuable insights, and they're overall more balanced than many other right-leaning outlets. It's also good to consume news from across the political spectrum, more generally.
That said, "misinformed anti-gaming ragebait" was not on my bingo card for them, lmao
Some practical skills I learned through video games: I learned how to read and navigate using maps through RPGs. I learned history through Assassin's Creed series. I learned multi-tasking through Dandori. As a non-native English speaker, I learned grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciations through video games (I remember reciting some of Sora's dialogues with my friends).
Animal Crossing helped me stay connected with my family and friends during the lockdown as well. Final Fantasy introduced me to the wonders of fantasy world building and to the beautiful music.
To say that video games are soul-sucking and meaningless is understatement.
It’s completely baffling how people can even say such things. Clearly video games have provided value and meaning to so many people (as your examples perfectly illustrate). If someone doesn’t like games, that’s fine… but that doesn’t mean others are wrong to like them!
I don't see how something like Call of Duty is different than massive numbers of hobbies. Is it more valid to get good at archery than a competitive video game.
A lot of this is snobbery. Reading the classics is seen as classy, playing Skyrim is low-class.
Oh, it's absolutely snobbery. To be fair, there are qualitative differences between hobbies, between media, and even between different titles within a medium. But at the end of the day, it's mostly a matter of taste. Different strokes for different folks. And it doesn't make sense to begrudge others over something as subjective as taste.
"I do agree that games have the potential to basically hold players back in life, by substituting actual achievement and exploration with convincing but ultimately inferior simulacra of such, thus discouraging actually going out to accomplish tangible goals and new experiences. And I agree that a lot of players do fall into that trap."
I think the issue is that, in my experience, high volume video game users have a much higher occurrence of this problem. The act of staring at a screen for hours leads to a very different mental state then when I see people obsessed with playing the clarinet or ping pong or cooking a certain food.
Others might disagree, but the impact of engaging in an imaginary world through a screen is similar to scrolling on a phone or watching netflix for hours... a disengagement and distraction from the world that does not lend itself to real world contentment.
I think there's a conversation to be had about the qualitative differences between more "physical" activities compared to ones mediated by a screen. But if we're to do so, we should at least be consistent—and nobody begrudges movies, for instance, for the escapism they provide. Nor do people distinguish between mindlessly scrolling through TikTok, and playing Breath of the Wild. And I know from experience that their effects on the mind are worlds apart.
Any medium or activity can be detrimental or lend itself to excess. Maybe video games lend themselves to it more than others—I think that's fair, and highly plausible. But the flip side of that is, there's more potential upside as well. But this is seldom acknowledged.
It'd be nice to acknowledge the full picture—positive and negative—when talking about these things. Hopefully conversations like these can be a good starting point.
I agree with this post: video games are as meaningful as any other art form. But at this point, I just don't see the point in responding to detractors. It's a behemoth of an industry, cool indie games come out every year, loads of people play video games. I just don't think we have to care about people who claim they aren't meaningful any more.
Without a doubt, video games are meaningful via the massive impact they have on our culture. The question for me is what are the costs and benefits of that impact?
You may be right. I certainly hope so! But I suppose I just can't help myself. It'd be nice to move on from all the moral panics we've been stuck on since the 90s, and start having more honest conversations about the pros and cons of our hobby.
I still play Minecraft when I need to retreat, get some solitude, and think. It’s wonderful. I’m grateful for it.
It does have a certain Zen-like quality to it!
Totally! It’s where I get some necessary solitude
The best Star Wars thing in 2019 was a video game about learning from failure and trusting people, don't see either of those as "soul sucking"
Was that Jedi: Fallen Order? I actually never played it, may have to add it to the backlog!
Yep! It is a banger of a game and so is its sequel
love this.
As someone who consumes video games in a critical way (not being critical, but considering what the game does, what it's trying to say, etc., etc.) I can't agree more. I think it does come down to perspective and having a healthy media diet.
Animal Crossing is such a good touch point for this. People literally created moments to share with their firends when they couldn't be physically present with one another. Why trash on that?
Animal Crossing was such a lifeline during the pandemic. It really is crazy how one could see how much it helped so many people, and STILL fall back on the same tired tropes to denigrate the medium.
Adding to the list of benefits of games: In my Substack, I write about how I use Dirt, the rally racing video game, for self improvement, learning about how my mind and my emotions work, and practicing a kind of meditation.
That is so cool! Thanks for sharing
Not a game-head meself but the missus is, so I guess that makes me a Gamer Ally. I can vouch for how much her daily post-work couple of hours playing Zelda or Mario de-stresses her. And her reactions are way better than mine, always have been!
Pretty watertight and coherent argument you make there, and politer than I would have managed if somebody had a go at comics!
I'd say comics are, at least, definitely gamer-adjacent! We're all denizens of the nerd-o-sphere. Appreciate your kind words and allyship—gotta stick together, right?
Speaking of elitist gatekeeping I think you meant “evince” rather than “belie” since “belie” means the opposite of what you seem to be using if for
Heh... you're absolutely right, thank you for pointing that out! Fixed it now, just gonna keep it even simpler and use "reveal" instead.
IMHO, few activities more intensely engage the imagination than one where every move depends on the consequences of a contemplated action. The faster the actions required, the more fluid the imagination must be.
Excellent point! Studies have also shown that the physical and mental dexterity it takes to play games well transfers to other domains, like surgery
"It all reeks of elitist gatekeeping." Indeed. It's also very typical. Throughout history technological advances are met with horror, disdain, and dire warnings. The Victorians wrote about how kaleidoscopes - today's old-fashioned, offline, wholly acceptable toy - were causing kids to run into walls and were going to damage eyesight. Fiction reading was believed to be super harmful, especially for women. Newspapers were going to kill civilized conversation around the breakfast table. Radio was going to produce a society that couldn't tell the difference between reality and fiction. In the 80s (my teen years), TV was going to rot our brains.
There's also a larger-picture belief that too much fun is bad, unless it's fun that's Currently Socially Acceptable (sports, binging Netflix, reading [but only certain kinds of books, certainly not graphic novels or comics], outdoor hobbies, etc.). Additionally, much of the entertainment that is accessible to us plebes, much of the art and culture we create, is 'less than.' Take music as an example. There is a very sharp divide between the classical music world and, well, everyone else - despite the skill and talent of self-taught musicians in every community all over the world.
My ND teen has gathered a group of people online that are now creating improv in real time based on an existing story framework. They set weekly schedules and events, and she is part of the leadership and manages the character and story archives. Recently, they decided to do reporting and create a newsletter, and she's part of that as well. This is all done on VR and Discord. These are full-on real life skills. These friends (that would be judged 'not real' because they are online) got her through the hardest year of her life in 2024.
There's so much that flows down from this fear-mongering, especially for parents.
Brilliantly put, Kim. I couldn't have put it better myself. You also really hit the nail on the head about society stigmatizing fun, which I think runs parallel to the moral panics that accompany new technology—I think they're both downstream from the Puritanism that sowed the seeds of our culture. The Protestant work ethic has been taken to such an extreme degree that play and fun are always suspect.
In these days, not because fun and play are "sinful," but rather because they don't create "value" (you can see strains of this in Jack's piece as well, especially the bit about nothing being created by playing games—the implication being that gaming is therefore a worthless activity). These are the same people who push to install keyloggers and cursor trackers in remote employees' laptops, dock warehouse workers' pay for taking bathroom breaks, and are positively salivating to completely replace human labor with AI.
But we all know the saying about all work and no play.
By the way, that's absolutely wonderful to read about your daughter! I'm truly happy for both of you. It's always so nice to hear of how gaming helps folks, especially in such huge and tangible ways. Advocating for gaming feels like an uphill battle at times, but hearing stories like yours reminds me why it's important, and why it's worth it. Thank you for sharing, and for your allyship!
I always thought it was a matter of time before schlock like this started cropping up on The Free Press tbh. Glad I never bothered with it.
Eh, they actually do some pretty good reporting. Sure, their biases often get the better of them, but that's the case with every media outlet. There's also a certain smug self-righteousness to their tone which rubs me the wrong way. But as long as you approach their content critically, they do publish some valuable insights, and they're overall more balanced than many other right-leaning outlets. It's also good to consume news from across the political spectrum, more generally.
That said, "misinformed anti-gaming ragebait" was not on my bingo card for them, lmao