What would you do without video games?

[personap3p]

This is part of a larger musing on our need for entertainment, but for now I'll just focus on this question: If video games suddenly vanished from existence and the means to make them could not be recovered, (and yes, I realize this essentially takes computers out of the loop, too) what would you do for entertainment in life?

Think about animals. They seem to get along fine without all this stuff we sometimes claim is essential to living and/or being happy.

 

[Zhukov]

Well, before I got into video games I read a lot of books and did a bit of drawing. So I'd probably just go back to that.

Maybe if things got really dire I would be forced to give that whole "socialising" thing a try.

 

[Arakasi]

I'm telling you, I'd get a shitload more important things done.
I know this because I currently banned myself from video games out of a need to study.

 

[Cowabungaa]

Do a metric fuckton of reading. Also watch a lot more TV shows (online) and movies. I might work on my fledgling drawing still as well, and pick up an instrument to boot. And pick up tennis again.

 

[Blunderboy]

Have slightly more time to dedicate to the hundreds of other things that I do that aren't gaming.

 

[Lucyfer86]

Well i'd watch TV, maybe find cure for cancer...

 

[yuval152]

Learn to like people.

 

[Joccaren]

I would make P&P games for myself to play. Honestly, my life is incredibly boring, and will be until I either turn 18 or stop going to a private school, which is set to happen at 18. Then, I'll have some interesting things to do: Go to parties as my parents can't well tell me not to, take myself out to places like the thousand stairs or the Grampians, take a gap year. All sorts of things that I can't do now either due to financial problems or overly protective parents.
There is no way in hell though that I will give up gaming then. The friends I've made in games are far too important for that, but that isn't exactly the topic of this thread. So, P&P games, 'cause I have nothing better to do atm.

 

[Dethenger]

Without video games, things would be essentially the same. I haven't actually played a game in a while. I guess I might be tempted to read more.

 

[SoranMBane]

I guess I'd just read books. Not quite as engaging of a narrative form as games, but better than movies. I'd also have to resort to my secondary desire to be a career writer rather than a game designer.

Also, our "need for entertainment," as you put it, is part of a larger issue with our need for some affirmation of our values. Unlike animals, we humans can think abstractly, and we need works of art (like video games) to help us concretize our abstract values. Also, anyone well-read enough to know where I got all that from has my respect, even if you personally hate the source.

 

[Brinnmilo]

Well I'd read more, watch anime (a lot), exercise and sleep more. All round I'd probably be a better person, mentally and physically.... well that's a depressing thought. Excuse me while I go sink some more of my life into Minecraft.

 

[DanielBrown]

Probably watch much more TV and pratice my instruments more often.
Playing games is pretty much what I do the entire day... every day. >.<

 

[Jakub324]

I'd work on my book more often, read more, and take my dog on longer walks.

 

[Trololo Punk]

Read a lot more, watch more tv/movies and such most likely.

 

[Odbarc]

This happened to me a couple of times before. I lost the internet.
I did a lot of push-ups to pass the time and socialize to waste time.

 

[Ambassador Kosh]

I'd probably write my thoughts down and publish them as a philisophical study on how I believe the world could be better run. I'd also get around to writting some sort of book.

 

[EmzOLV]

I'd probably get a lot more stuff done. Like actual stuff. I probably would socialise more (but then, I socialise with friends anyway when I play games - they'll come over here, or I will chat to them online - that's still socialising in my mind. I've met nearly all but 2 of them in real life anyway).

I probably would do more exercise as a whole - perhaps I should just buy a treadmill and put it in front of the tv!

 

[Heartcafe]

OH NUZ. NOT THE COMPUTAH.
DUEZ THIS MEAN I HVE TO GO OUTZIDE
D:<
(sarcasm included)
(OT: finish my history homework and do more art. :3)

 

[Gorilla Gunk]

I probably would have finished all those scripts I've been working on the past few years.

Seriously, as much as I love video-games, I sometimes which they'd never been invented.