I'm Really Bummed Out. Because Life.

[Omnimorph]

Holy cr*p.

 

Well that's my thought of the day.

 

LOL.  It's true though, innit?  I mean, games, by design, miniaturize, abstract and compress life, in a way that enables us to be successful and happy on a small scale.  The parts of the brain a videogame tickles are the same as what would be tickled if we were successful at something in real life. 

 

They are experience machines, happiness machines.  And that's why we are addicted to them.

 

Of course they're not just for people who are failures irl, lots of people who are successful in lfe play videogames too - because who doesn't want even more pleasure?  But for those of us who are (to put it exaggeratedly and bluntly) failures irl, they're a great boon that enables us to attain pleasure and happiness that's been elusive in our real lives. 

 

But the downside is that we may be tempted to just stay plugged in, thus lessening our chances of sucess and happiness in real life even more.

[Gremlin]

I've had it sort of similar for the past few months. Missed out on a ton of awesome wraiths because of school and my terrible laptop and it's crashing after 0.5-2 missions. I still try to trudge on through, but it's caused me a lot more stress than pleasure as of late. 

[Nira]

LOL.  It's true though, innit?  I mean, games, by design, miniaturize, abstract and compress life, in a way that enables us to be successful and happy on a small scale.  The parts of the brain a videogame tickles are the same as what would be tickled if we were successful at something in real life. 

 

They are experience machines, happiness machines.  And that's why we are addicted to them.

 

Of course they're not just for people who are failures irl, lots of people who are successful in lfe play videogames too - because who doesn't want even more pleasure?  But for those of us who are (to put it exaggeratedly and bluntly) failures irl, they're a great boon that enables us to attain pleasure and happiness that's been elusive in our real lives. 

 

But the downside is that we may be tempted to just stay plugged in, thus lessening our chances of sucess and happiness in real life even more.

 

Absolutely. I take it as no coincidence that my gaming habits have increased since a number of real life events turned out less than favourably. It was the experience machine analogy that really hit me, or rather the powerful accuracy of it.

Edited October 20, 2014 by Dualice

[zangdrax]

Just like Tenno philosophy, you must find balance. Gaming should be just one facet of your life that shouldn't dominate another and when it does, is when life can get stressful and "out-of-whack". Be thankful that we live in a time where persistent online gaming exists for us to plug-in and escape for a little bit, and be content with the time we do get to spent in it. Meanwhile, work on finding that balance and joy; it will be worth it. :) 

 

Hopefully, your RL issues, commitments, etc. will get better and we'll see you all online. 

[Omnimorph]

Just like Tenno philosophy, you must find balance. Gaming should be just one facet of your life that shouldn't dominate another and when it does, is when life can get stressful and "out-of-whack". Be thankful that we live in a time where persistent online gaming exists for us to plug-in and escape for a little bit, and be content with the time we do get to spent in it. Meanwhile, work on finding that balance and joy; it will be worth it. :) 

 

Hopefully, your RL issues, commitments, etc. will get better and we'll see you all online. 

 

Yup, balance is the thing in life.  Except every now and then a little bit of excess is good too - to balance it :)