My Sudden Realization

[Shivari]

I've recently discovered something about myself. I'm a sophomore in high school and I've recently started seeking knowledge more than entertainment. I'll use video games to show what I mean. I recently purchased Tales of Vesperia, because I loved Symphonia. Now unlike Symphonia, or any game I purchased before this summer, I'm going through it incredibly slow. I can no longer justify spending more than half an hour playing video games a day. I'm now a "casual" gamer by any definition. I stop myself and think "I should be doing something more productive." Last night I chose to outline a chapter in my History textbook over doing something "entertaining", and I've been doing that more and more with no real motivation besides just deciding to. I only watch TV if I feel like I'm learning something, so I only watch news channels, Discovery, or History Channel anymore. The only exceptions being Survivor, American Idol, and Battlestar Galactica. I never saw too many movies before so that hasn't changed much. But something definitely changed recently.

The appeal seems to have disappeared. I'm more interested in learning and improving myself myself than seeking entertainment from these sources that I used to love but a couple years ago. I spend most of my time that I'm online researching things by choice. I've always considered myself mature (or at least more so than other people my age) but is this me becoming "truly" mature? Am I just being more responsible? Or is this just my interests changing and finding out who I am?

So did this happen to you at some point?

 

[The_Deleted]

I'm going through a very similar experiance. I've been obsessed by Roman history for a while, ironically exacerbated by ROME TW, and have been spending less & less time thinking about gaming. I'm doing more drawing, something which I hadn't done for a long time and reading more books.

Since getting my PS3 I've played through about two or three games but GTA IV, which, like a lot of others, is why I got the PS3, I found to be very much a case of
emperors new clothes and realised it really wasn't anything special.
The last game I got was Soul Calibre IV. I've been on it maybe 5 hours in the last week...
I don't think I've grown out of gaming, but, well you cannot live on Burger King alone. I think the brain needs more stimulation and, however tactical a game is it's not the same, for me, as drawing a Predator kicking shite out of Spidey or Kratos having a crack at Hellboy.

 

[vamp rocks]

yeah.. its almost like i start to feel i am caring less about games... its just becomming monotonous and boring almost as if video gaming has left some deep void in your life that you now realise and are trying to fill... sorry.. lol went off a bit there... but is this like what you mean??

 

[Johnn Johnston]

I don't really think that it's any major change. I guess you're just becoming less fond of gaming.

I think the brain needs more stimulation and, however tactical a game is it's not the same, for me, as drawing a Predator kicking shite out of Spidey or Kratos having a crack at Hellboy.

Spiderman vs Predator? You, my good sir, have a fight.

 

[Shivari]

yeah.. its almost like i start to feel i am caring less about games... its just becomming monotonous and boring almost as if video gaming has left some deep void in your life that you now realise and are trying to fill... sorry.. lol went off a bit there... but is this like what you mean??

There's no void there, it's completely filled with learning and more productive things.

And this isn't only gaming like you guys are saying, that was just my main example, it's every entertainment source pretty much.

 

[Russian_Assassin]

I think that you're right, there are more important stuff than gaming in life!

I've had an epiphany myself this April, while I was on a school trip in Venice. I realized that I should do important stuff, like screwing around with girls, going to clubs etc and stop playing much video games, before they suck my life... Well I kept the first personal promise
But I still play a lot of games, at least I only play good ones now! Thank God for it (or was it yahtzee, I always confuse them :S *)!

*This post contains small doses of sarcasm

 

[The_Deleted]

I don't really think that it's any major change. I guess you're just becoming less fond of gaming.

I think the brain needs more stimulation and, however tactical a game is it's not the same, for me, as drawing a Predator kicking shite out of Spidey or Kratos having a crack at Hellboy.

Spiderman vs Predator? You, my good sir, have a fight.

It is a belter, if I do say so myself!

 

[Danny Ocean]

Spiderman vs Predator? You, my good sir, have a fight.

*Ding Ding Ding Ding!*

Here we have Spidey in the red corner, and Predator in the- uh....where's..oh right, goggles..*click muffled sound*..There we go. Predator in the bluuue cornerrr.
5 rounds, 5 minutes each.

*ding ding*


Anyway, on topic. I've found myself realising how much time I'm wasting playing video games, but not being bothered to do anything about it. Which is bad. I need GCSE's so that I can do the A-levels I like.

 

[ZacOfTheZombies]

I went through it too, but it ended mabye a year later.

 

[Shudmeyer]

Yeah I can relate somewhat. Recently I've all but stopped watching TV, and have been trying to read a lot more, and overall I think I'm better off because of it. I still play games whenever I can though, but they're mostly really old ones because I only have a crappy laptop with an emulator. Really it's the internet in general that I need to stop using so much

 

[Najos]

Yeah, I find I'm more addicted to the internet than games. I do play a lot of games, maybe 15 hours a week, but I spend probably 40 hours online just reading different forums, news sites, and whatever random thing they might lead me to. I still manage to read about a book a week, but they're mostly fiction novels.

 

[Echolocating]

So did this happen to you at some point?

I do very little gaming. Sometimes I almost force myself to play them for an hour every few days, just to make some progress until when I actually do feel like playing them. Games are huge time-sinks and, to be honest, they don't really teach us much about ourselves or the world around us. If you have a craving for learning and bettering yourself, that's a good habit to form.

Personally, I've been leaning towards making a game, myself. A good friend told me that you can either play games or make games, but you really can't do both. Same goes for anything else and playing games, I suppose. ;-)

 

[Shivari]

So did this happen to you at some point?

I do very little gaming. Sometimes I almost force myself to play them for an hour every few days, just to make some progress until when I actually do feel like playing them. Games are huge time-sinks and, to be honest, they don't really teach us much about ourselves or the world around us. If you have a craving for learning and bettering yourself, that's a good habit to form.

I definitely like the change, I actually feel good about what I do during the day as opposed to going to bed and thinking "Well I watched 2 hours of TV today and played 3 hours of video games." It's a total waste really.

 

[SenseOfTumour]

Yeah, I've been pleasantly surprised by how many players mail me (I'm a WOW guild leader) to say, sorry, I'm quitting, its the last year of school and I dont want distractions, so I'm leaving.

I always tell them, you're doing the right thing, and I have no doubt we'll still be here in some form, and you'll be welcome when you pass and find some free time again, if you want to return later.

At the same time, its kinda nice that they bother, or that they're a lil sorry to be leaving, I feel like it means at least I made their gaming a little more enjoyable with the guild.

We're a very casual guild tho, whenever a situation comes up, I tell em straight, 'Go, real life is more important, we can find a new healer/tank/dps'. I can't imagine sacrificing real life meets for a game, and I'm the guild leader!

 

[Veekter]

i wish i could say i cared more about learning than gaming, but i just couldn't care less about learning, maybe because everything my school tries to teach is completely useless.

 

[Shivari]

i wish i could say i cared more about learning than gaming, but i just couldn't care less about learning, maybe because everything my school tries to teach is completely useless.

I'd like to hear why you think this. While you may never need any knowledge of Napoleon in your every day life, I still think it's a good thing to have an understanding of a lot of the stuff in high school. And different subjects lead to different career possibilities. So while Geometry may be useless in your future career it may be integral to someone else's. I see it as a way to figure out the direction you're going to take really. Even if you don't like a certain subject, it still pays to do well in it to get into a good college where you can focus more on what you want to do class-wise.

 

[Xhumed]

Actually, i find my time filled up more with work and my fiancee than with entertainment. When we do sit and watch movies and snuggle etc. I feel I've earned it, through working hard. Haven't gamed in a while in fact, the last time was when I had to sit in on her all-day music rehearsals for WYD. I brought my laptop along and played DoWark Crusade skirmishes the entire time.

 

[Xhumed]

i wish i could say i cared more about learning than gaming, but i just couldn't care less about learning, maybe because everything my school tries to teach is completely useless.

School is more about learning to think, than about actual knowledge.