"You Will Not Wish You Had Spent More Time Gaming"

[The Gnome King]

So Massively recently tossed up an article with the tagline of "You Will Not Wish You Spent More Time Gaming" where the author proceeds to explain to his readership that we're finite creatures and much in the same way nobody ever says "I wish I had spent more time working" on their deathbed, nobody will ever say "I wish I had spent more time gaming" with their dying breath, either.

Ignoring the somewhat morbid contemplation of death, I found the article and the comments to be amusing. (You can imagine some of the comments, I'm sure.)

Link to the article in question:

http://massively.joystiq.com/2013/07/09/the-soapbox-you-will-not-wish-you-had-spent-more-time-gaming/

So, I ask you all. Is gaming somehow inferior to, say, grilling on the porch with friends? Or any other hobby, like camping or hiking or cooking or wine tasting or... I don't know, any other dozen of entertainments we amuse ourselves with? Do our memories earned gaming mean less than memories earned in any other pursuit?

I had a multifaceted feeling about the article.

 

[HoFT013]

So, I ask you all. Is gaming somehow inferior to, say, grilling on the porch with friends? Or any other hobby, like camping or hiking or cooking or wine tasting or... I don't know, any other dozen of entertainments we amuse ourselves with? Do our memories earned gaming mean less than memories earned in any other pursuit?

Are you being serious?

No one, and I mean no one will ever be in their deathbed and say, "oh, how I wish I had Platinum'd New Vegas. Or no-scoped that fag in Blops." They will wish they had more time grilling on the porch with their friends and family, yes.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Lamenting not having spent enough time playing videogames is a little frivolous if you ask me. Would I like to do so? Well yeah, because that would mean I would have no other regrets.
For example.

"Why did I never tell X what I truly felt?"
"Why didn't I call my mom and dad more often?"
"Why didn't I ask that one girl out?"
"Why did I never patch things up with my brother?"
"Why didn't I have any kids?"
"Why didn't I marry?"
"Why did I quit that one job? Why didn't I take that one offer?"
"Why did I waste my time on such and such?"
"Why didn't I take that one trip?"
...
"Why wasn't I a better person?"

 

[The Gnome King]

Are you being serious?

No one, and I mean no one will ever be in their deathbed and say, "oh, how I wish I had Platinum'd New Vegas. Or no-scoped that fag in Blops." They will wish they had more time grilling on the porch with their friends and family, yes.

You obviously haven't read the comments section from that article yet, because there are some people claiming just that.

As for the supreme enjoyment of "grilling with friends and family" - why don't we spend all of our time doing that, then? Why play games at all? Why not just spend our finite time jamming in as much social interaction and mountain-climbing in as we can before we die?

What about playing games with friends and family. Is that better than grilling with them?

What about just sitting on the porch, not grilling?

 

[Nihilm]

Hmm, I can easily see someone who spent years in a game likw WoW or LoL say something like: "I wish I had beaten that boss atleast once" or "Man, I wish, I could have reached diamond"

I can even see someone saying "I wish I could play that one game again, it really meant a lot to me"

I just don't think they would be high on most peoples' priority list especially if you only have a few seconds before you die, but for example if you knew ahead of time that you were going to die in a month and couldn't leave the hospital, I am sure some of these lines would be said.

 

[Jandau]

On my deathbed I'll be trying my hardest not to die, and games can go fuck themselves, just as "grilling on the porch" can. Seriously...

Also, let's neglect the fact that the reason "grilling on the porch with friends and family"-type moments are so special is because they don't happen all the time. If I spent more time doing it, it wouldn't feel so special and memorable to me...

 

[OpticalJunction]

Spending time with people > Spending time with gadgets.

 

[Zhukov]

It's no secret that gamers, especially the kind of gamers who read online gaming articles, include a sizeable number of sad and lonely escapists who use games and similar media as a way to kill time while avoiding the awkwardness of the real world.

Thing is, I think those people know full well that they are wasting their time on this earth with virtual experiences while other folks are out enjoying The Real Thing. They won't admit it, obviously. I mean, really, who would? So when things like this come along and rub it in then some folks are going to get angry and defensive. It's only natural.

Personally, I have only the vaguest idea what my deathbed regrets will be, but I agree that "not enough gaming" will not be among them.

 

[Soopy]

I get sick of video games after a couple hours a week, as it is. I think I get enough.

 

[Longstreet]

Amazing how some people think they know what other people like / would like to do.

If you want to spend more time gaming, go ahead.
If you want to have a bbq party, go ahead.

If you do something you enjoy doing you will always wish you had more time to do it.

 

[AngelOfBlueRoses]

I definitely won't. I can't think of any time I've spent grilling or camping, or anything like that with family and friends, that I actually enjoyed.

You know what I will remember? The countless laughs I've had while gaming online with the friends who -do- matter most to me. Most people get a tattoo of some family in some shape or form. I got a tattoo of my damn WoW guild because those people meant the world to me and they saved me in one of the worst times in my life. My family didn't do shit for that. My family couldn't stop fighting.

Gaming, and anime, brought me my fiance (who I've dated for over five years now). Gaming taught me a lot about myself, helped me grow as a person. Gaming saved my life and brought me more friends than camping and grilling and shit like that ever did, and the friends I did get in real life? Guess what we did? We gamed all night together.

I'll raise my kids to be gamers and we'll do -that- as a family instead of camping. And grilling. And whatever.

On my deathbed, I -will- wish that I had been able to spend more time gaming.

 

[Sexual Harassment Panda]

Spending time with people > Spending time with gadgets.

I agree.

Often it's pretty hard to get activities with people to happen, people are busy and over-commited and blah blah blah.

Gaming is the back-up activity that you turn to when you can't make the other stuff happen, it's not what you prioritize.

 

[TheCommanders]

Wow. I get pretty tired of people thinking that what they enjoy most is the definitive measure of human enjoyment. Assuming for the moment that you only get one life (I'm an atheist so I believe that anyway, but religious folks might have to use their imaginations), my only advise would be enjoy yourself while you can. As everyone has different tastes, that will mean different things for different people. Some people are very social, and as such enjoy most the time they spend with friends and family. What bugs me is they assume that everyone is exactly like them, and anyone who acts otherwise just doesn't know it. I'm extremely anti-social. I tried the other thing: parties, sports, barbecues, and I was pretty unhappy. I enjoy solitary activities (games being among those activities, but are not the only thing). There is nothing wrong with that. But people continuously try to convince me that they know what I really like better than I do, and that any feelings I have otherwise are delusions. That strikes me as arrogant, and it gets old really fast.

What's really ironic about the author's argument is it's hypocritical. It speaks about regrets you'll have as being more significant than the fun you had. But by his own admission life is finite, so what I would propose is - if you aren't all mopey and masochistic - you could just keep enjoying yourself until you die, rather than wallow in pointless philosophy which, as the author points out, will mean exactly nothing once you die. Stupid argument. Stupid article.

 

[Comocat]

I think the point is trying to live life without regrets. It's easy, especially in MMOs, to spend several hours per day doing something pretty stupid, such as grinding rep for the ninja pandas in WoW. If you are having fun doing that, awesome, but if you are grinding ninja panda rep and hating yourself every minute you'll hate yourself even more when you realize you wasted the prime of your life.

 

[Glongpre]

What is the difference between a LAN party and a BBQ with friends?
Gaming doesn't have to be a solitary thing.

However, I agree I would not say that because it is rather insignificant compared to "I wish I had a child" or something. It is the same reason people won't say "I wish I read more books", it is not important.

 

[SirPlindington]

I agree that no one is going to say that, but not because gaming isn't worthwhile. It's just not the most important thing in the world. No one's going to say, "Damn, I wish I'd spent more time visiting art museums" or "Gosh darn it all, why didn't I do more Macramé," either. It's fun and it's important, but not important enough to spend your last few moments musing over it.

 

[crazyarms33]

Hmmmmm...when I am dying would I rather find comfort in that I was a good person who made an impact on those I cared about and accomplished a lot of my goals or be mad that I didn't max out my character in some game or get the super rare item? Hmmmmm...yeah. Gonna go with the first one. No hesitation or regrets about it. Video games are a fun hobby but life is more than what your hobbies are, at least to me.

 

[Lilani]

I think if the question is "Will you regret not having spent more time gaming if it were holding you back from getting good grades or doing what you want?" then I'd say yes. That is something to regret.

But if the question is "Will you regret not having spent more time gaming in the place of another leisurely hobby?" then I think the answer is more likely no. If there's no productivity lost, then I don't see why gaming can't be just as fulfilling. Not everybody is an extrovert who wants to spend their free time around other people, and on that same note gaming isn't necessarily an unsocial activity. If you frequent a certain server or community in an online game, or have a group of friends in an MMO the way you interact with them is very similar to how you'd socialize with people offline.

 

[Dracain]

I honestly think that if I where to think that, it would be in the same way I might regret not reading more books. I wont wish I played more of a specific game, but I might wish I experienced more of this particular art form. Games are art, and they are my preferred way to entertain myself as well, so ya, I might think "I wish I could have experienced more of that" but at the same time, when people wish they had read more books, and opened their minds more, they oftentimes also wish they had been with their family more, they aren't exclusive. I will not regret my time spent gaming, just as I will not regret my time spent reading. I was enjoying my life, and that is important. This is doubly so for when I am gaming with friends and family, which is just about my favorite thing to do in the world.

 

[ninjaRiv]

I'm most likely to say things like "I wish I had more sex" or "I wish I'd participated in first contact with alien life" or some such stuff. But I'm also likely to think there are a lot of games I didn't get the chance to play. Hopefully in 80 years there'll be some sort of machine where my brain would be kept alive, hooked up to a console so I can play...