Nowdays wherever you look you will run into games: PC games, mobile games, console games. Many of us have grown up playing games, I am no exception either. I enjoyed playing with Mario and Mega Man and even with Lara Croft. Let’s not forget Final Fantasy and my other favorite JRPGs either. It is fun playing games but at what cost do we play?
The sweet feeling of satisfaction
When it comes to games the question arises: why do we play games? What do games give us that makes them so appealing to us? Do we use it to relax, to connect with other people or for some other reasons?
Games can give us the feeling of satisfaction. When you finish a quest for example, how good that feels right? Finally that rare item dropped that you were farming all day, now you can make that armor set you wanted so badly. How about the cooking skills of your character, or do you prefer to improve her swordsmanship? Maybe you are more like an explorer and love to find treasures, rare items or to build something magnificent. When you reach a level, create or finish something, that can feel very good. You know this feeling I am talking about, right? :)
If you take a look at the recent game trends you will notice that most mobile games build on this satisfaction feeling. Developers have incorporated points, badges and achievements into their system. Wherever you go, you can collect something, improve something be that an ingame feature (collect all monsters data, master the fishing skill) or a system feature like for example collecting badges and cards in Steam.
We naturally seek satisfaction and games give us almost instant and easy to get satisfaction. This is why they are so dangerous! They hook you into playing them easily, because it feels so much more rewarding playing games then facing the reality of our own life.
Satisfaction that games give us are temporary and shallow. It feels good at first but if you take a closer look, that is just an ingame success. As soon as you get back to reality everything you have abandoned will return. The problems in your family, your relationship troubles, the unfinished tasks, or the nagging feeling of you not knowing what you want to do with your life.
Games are a big trap and a real problem in this age we live in
The biggest problem is that most of us might not even see what games do to us.
- Games take away your time and your life.
- Games keep you away from seeing clearly.
- Games ease and maybe even hide the pain you feel in your real life.
These are some of the problems. Games make you feel good momentarily. They give you satisfaction. Have you noticed how many games appeared recently that are full with quests and achievments? Do this and then you will get more (fake) time or money in game, you will even get a badge! How cool is that!
But in reality they don’t give you more time, instead they take it away from you.
You will not get real money and nor will your financial problems be solved.
You see, games are good in hiding your problems. While playing you don’t need to face all those situations you are in. The problems however will not go away. A month pass and you still don’t earn enough money. Half a year passes and you are still depressed, you still don’t have honest and reliable friends who like you for who you really are. A year passes and you realise you are still there where you were a year ago. Five years ago. Ten years ago.
This hurts, right? This is the truth that gets hidden by daily gaming. Nothing will change to the better in your life, instead the problems will get bigger and invite other problems into your life.
Your intimate relationship will stay bad, you might still be working for nothing, you might still be asking what you would like to do with your life.
Playing games makes you run away from the problems because it is painful facing the reality of your life.
You must face reality! Nothing will change otherwise.
What are the problems in your life? What do you want in your life? Face these questions!
It is okay if you can’t solve a problem right away. This is not about solving those problems. This is all about being aware of your own life. Everything starts with being aware.
As soon as you know the problems and you spend time on revealing their true nature (the core of the problem), you might feel relieved. Most of the time when you feel anxious or want to hide from life the solution is not running away from it or forcing yourself to solve it right away. Instead, the solution is to find the core of the problem, and to be aware of it.
Any other activities keeping you away from your life?
Games are not the only activities that help you hide your problems. Once you stop playing games you might end up finding similar activities that will keep you from being aware of your own life.
You might end up watching TV series, animes, YouTube videos, Facebook posts or something else. They might trick you saying “you need to relax”. In reality you don’t need to relax but the opposite. You need to do more but in the real world!
What to do more of you might ask? Do work more on balancing your life!
Work more on building better relationships, work more on to be way more healthy, work more on yourself to be even more aware of not only your life but of the world surrounding you as well!
Should you drop playing computer games and watching TV completely?
I will not tell you what to do about this. I am sure you yourself know what is best for you. Just keep in mind to be in balance in your life whatever you do. If you don’t see something, it doesn’t mean it is not there.
I would also add that there are some movies and some games that might worth spending time on, giving your attention to. These games and movies are those ones that give you real value, that improve a skill of yours, that teach you something about life, that makes you develop yourself further as a good person. Learning is important but remember the balance. Not just learn but use what you have learned as well!
Face your reality and work on being in balance!