Misc Why do you play video games?

[HideoKojima]

I am curious why do gbatempers play video games?

 

[Veho]

Is "hobby" no longer enough of an answer, everything has to be picked apart and assigned some doom and gloom undertone?

 

[Cyan]

why do you read books?
Why do you watch TV?
why do people tell stories and why others are listening?

That's the same for me, at least the games with stories.

It can also be logical games, challenging games, competition with others (like when you do sports IRL), etc.
there are a lot of reason behind each game genre I guess.

Maybe the satisfaction to manage to do something too. complete a game, resolve a puzzle, etc.
But for me, enjoying a new story comes first. Immersing in it too (or else, watching a movie or reading a book would be enough). Being the actor and taking decisions.

Edit:
Ah, right, I forgot about the form of Art itself.
Video game is 10th art !
I'm enjoying the art style, be it visual or musical, or the artistic creativity both visual and narrative.

 

[Lostbhoy]

To complete them!

I honestly don't know how to answer! I've played games since the early 80s so i guess nostalgia? Defo with retro titles and such but I'm not sure aboit mental health.... Some games can make me be a straight up Hulk and wreck my living room!!

Thank god for punch bags!!

 

[SG854]

Who told you that I play video games?

 

[Cyan]

this,

Some games can make me be a straight up Hulk and wreck my living room!!

With your avatar

 

[hippy dave]

Relaxation, entertainment, challenge, sometimes I'll play an actiony game to try and wake myself up

 

[HideoKojima]

Who told you that I play video games?

Why on gbatemp tho?

 

[CoolMe]

Like some have already said, it's the same way why movies/TV Shows/books/manga/comics etc exist, video games is an art form too, that can contain a great story/characters/theme/
message etc. Just like those do, and why would i exclude it when it not only succeeds at that but has some exclusive elements to it, like the interactive element that doesn't exist in any other medium, you CAN be the hero of the story, the character that lives inside the world you're trying to experience, making choices, shaping the story around you, enjoying the scenery etc. And most of all i play video games because it's fun and i enjoy it!
Video games now have evolved so much for the last 3 decades to get where it is now, in fact more than any art form, and it's no longer like it was in the arcade days where the objective is reaching/beating the highest score etc. And i wouldn't even start with those Laymen folks that think that video games are a "waste of time"..
I hope that answers your question.

 

[AncientBoi]

I enjoy the game(s). As a way out of this crazy world.

Let alone, being able to take my aggressions out on certain persons in my life that I abhor. Legally.

Plus I'm bored as an elderly man who lost his BF to... Doctors never told me what he died of, really.

 

[sarkwalvein]

I don't think I play to distract myself from life, at least not often.
I also don't think I play games to maintain mental health... actually probably it moves me in the opposite direction, when I play sometimes I get too focused and forget about e.g. taking out the trash for weeks. (doesn't happen often either)

Also I don't think I am addicted at all... I usually rarely play to be honest, I don't have the time and usually I don't have the drive to do it nowadays; but now and then I get really interested in one given game (and usually it is not a new game or anything, but one of the several games I bought in the last years and kept collecting dust until just that day) and then I get absorbed into it for weeks. In this way it feels similar to a book for me.

I really don't play online games, so it is not "staying on touch" with friends in that regards. I admit two or three decades ago "staying in touch" may have been part of it, but from the point of view of sharing thoughts about the stuff we were playing.

The most likely reason is that it is just a hobby... but there's also nostalgia in it, and by the day the nostalgia side of it grows larger and eats more and more into the hobby side. But even today it is more like it's just a hobby.

PS:

I also don't think I play games to maintain mental health... actually probably it moves me in the opposite direction, when I play sometimes I get too focused and forget about e.g. taking out the trash for weeks. (doesn't happen often either)

I think perhaps the meaning of "opposite direction of maintaining mental health" is not clear from the example of not taking out the trash for weeks... I guess something like "become slightly socially dysfunctional" would be a better explanation of what I mean, "not taking the trash for weeks" is a good example for me, but you could probably also say "not going out of home for days" (the home office era also helps to this) or really experiencing a downgrade in verbal communication capabilities... this is actually embarrassing but I may sound like a caveman trying to speak for the first hour of human interaction after a very focused gaming day.... anyway, that's what I meant by "opposite direction".

 

[Alexander1970]

Nostalgia and I like good Video Games.
Unfortunately today,you can not really looking forward to a really good made Video Game....

 

[sarkwalvein]

Nostalgia and I like good Video Games.
Unfortunately today,you can not really looking forward to a really good made Video Game....

You know back in the day, when games were made by small teams without the magnitude of money involved in game making today and without shareholders making the calls on "game direction decisions", it felt like the people that were involved in making games actually had the freedom to take decisions regarding what went into the game. Those games had a soul in a way, and all that went into a game was in there because the vision of the people creating the game dictated so, not because it was the last trend on profitmaking technobabble and buzzwords that made the shareholders happy (well, not happy about the game itself, shareholders couldn't care less about it).

I guess this small-team mentality with control over what goes into a game (and with the game being their oeuvre) can perhaps still be seen in some indie game teams? perhaps in the smallest ones?

 

[Alexander1970]

How right you are.......*sigh*

I guess this small-team mentality with control over what goes into a game (and with the game being their oeuvre) can perhaps still be seen in some indie game teams? perhaps in the smallest ones?

Very,very small and very,very rarely....unfortunately....

 

[Deleted member 397813]

after a long day at school i just want to sit down and play on a pandacommunity hightower server

 

[DudderButter]

Why isn't there an "All of the Above" option?

 

[hippy dave]

You know back in the day, when games were made by small teams without the magnitude of money involved in game making today and without shareholders making the calls on "game direction decisions", it felt like the people that were involved in making games actually had the freedom to take decisions regarding what went into the game. Those games had a soul in a way, and all that went into a game was in there because the vision of the people creating the game dictated so, not because it was the last trend on profitmaking technobabble and buzzwords that made the shareholders happy (well, not happy about the game itself, shareholders couldn't care less about it).

I guess this small-team mentality with control over what goes into a game (and with the game being their oeuvre) can perhaps still be seen in some indie game teams? perhaps in the smallest ones?

How right you are.......*sigh*


Very,very small and very,very rarely....unfortunately....

There are countless indie games that are made by one or two people, let alone small teams... and some of them are even good!

 

[SG854]

Why on gbatemp tho?

Why do people watch sports?

 

[HideoKojima]

You know back in the day, when games were made by small teams without the magnitude of money involved in game making today and without shareholders making the calls on "game direction decisions", it felt like the people that were involved in making games actually had the freedom to take decisions regarding what went into the game. Those games had a soul in a way, and all that went into a game was in there because the vision of the people creating the game dictated so, not because it was the last trend on profitmaking technobabble and buzzwords that made the shareholders happy (well, not happy about the game itself, shareholders couldn't care less about it).

I guess this small-team mentality with control over what goes into a game (and with the game being their oeuvre) can perhaps still be seen in some indie game teams? perhaps in the smallest ones?

Gold

 

[Lv44ES_Burner]

Because for the past couple of years I've been visited by misfortune after misfortune, and struggling to keep my mental health care afloat while dealing with the fallout of several things:

1) Watching my father pass away from congestive heart failure, after knowing him as an abusive alcoholic for so long in my life, only for him to take me in when I was on the verge of homelessness in October of 2020 and had no one else in the family to turn to and seeing how remorseful he was about his mistreatment of myself and the family as he lay dying
2) Losing everything that belonged to me in the house I inherited from him as a result of having to pay for his funeral proceedings when the United States Armed Forces would not pay for his proceedings, on the technicality that while he was a veteran, that the USAF will not pay for a veteran's funeral expenses if they request to be cremated instead of buried
3) Struggling with job after job as a result to try and recover from this and becoming homeless for six of the months of 2021 thanks to my mother's shenanigans failing to help me deal with the consequences of my efforts
4) Having to make my way back home to the southern US states by the skin of my teeth and the charity of strangers willing to pay a leg up for a bus ticket back
5) Now dealing with rebuilding my life after points 1-4 and butting heads with an irascible and irresponsible roommate in a similar situation and being on the verge of losing my current job because of his refusal to take responsibility for himself as the only available driver in a household of four people (including myself) with only one other driver who works during the daytime

I need an outlet to vent my frustrations and find the necessary catharsis for my mental health care and stability and the vidya is the most convenient thing I have.