Hours Played doesn't=Addiction! Thoughts on Gaming and Stuff

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Winnow
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Hours Played doesn't=Addiction! Thoughts on Gaming and Stuff

Post by Winnow »

As I was loading up War Thunder yesterday, I noticed that I had already logged over 250 hours of game time. That's a lot for any game but it made me think back to a few things. Before War Thunder, I was playing World of Warplanes which I'm guestimating I have around 350-400 hours played.

A couple things regarding this... I have probably paid about $1 an hour in premium and XP conversion while playing War Thunder. Its partially because I'm impatient, partially to support the game, and partially to own premium airplanes. I'd guess that I've paid around $250-300 for World of Warplanes for the exact same reasons as in War Thunder. These are "free to play" games and I'd be doing just that if I was still in high school, living with my parents, and would still have just as much fun while taking longer to acquire new planes and modifications.

War Thunder: 250 hours
World of Warplanes: 350 hours

....Everquest: 9,864 hours

During a 4 year stretch, I spent 411 DAYS (9,864 hours or more than 1/4 of a 4 year stretch of my life) in Evercrack. And no, I never used my characters in the Bazaar overnight. That's active hours played.

Nothing has come remotely close to Everquest in hours played. I did spend about 4 years playing Aion but nowhere near the hours.

What's considered these days for a lot of hours played in a AAA game? 50 hours? Most games are 15-30 hours and cost $60.00. Even spending $250 on War Thunder, it's still a "value" compared to almost all games (save legendary EQ) EQ = $15X48 months = $720 +game/expansions, we'll call it $1,000 for 9,864 hours of (mostly) fun. That's about 10 cents an hour.

I can't imagine how things would have been in Jr High and High School if all of these excellent "free to play" games were available, and even things like the freebie games in PN+ and Xbox Live for $30-$50 a year. It would have taken some serious discipline to not play them too long each day.

I've harped on this before, but as a kid, I had a C-64. I hacked games, I phreaked, and spent a lot of my time screwing around on my C-64 but there's a major difference. It took effort and was challenging. Even early on, while having copy parties and setting up BBS's, we'd write programs in BASIC. We challenged each other to see who could write the best D&D Character creation program for example, learning new coding skills along the way. Even then, it was nowhere near dominating my time. I played three sports, girlfriends, rock concerts, and typical high school crap (well typical in the states, not so typical when I went to Switzerland)

So now, as I get older, I dream of vegging out in Virtual Reality. In the very near future, when resolution and other minor things are perfected, VR is going to be a place you might not mind staying forever if you could. Seriously, when photo realism is obtained, VR (which is already amazing) will be awesome.(amazing < awesome) Don't get me wrong. I love my RL partner and there's nothing wrong with the "real world" but VR will be hard to stay out of, whether you spend your time there alone or even with your partner. It doesn't matter how great your house is, or where you live, there's only so much you can see, even if you travel a lot. It may take 10-20 years (I'm hoping 10 because I'm not a spring chicken) but VR will explode in scope the same way the internet did from a couple slow loading web pages to what we have now, and from barely powerful enough PCs to push 16 bit graphics to what we have now. I hate to say it because in a few years I'll be there myself, but VR is going to be a "godsend" for seniors. All of the sudden, who the fuck cares if you're stuck in an old folks home in a crappy room? Slap on your VR kit and you'll be anywhere you want, doing anything you want, and running around in a picture perfect 3D model of a man or woman in their 20s with full sensory overload including haptic feedback. Even if you're best buds with that 90 year old chick across the hall, you'll rather meet her while you're both in 20 year old avatars and in any environment you want to be in. And, if you're so lucky as to still be sexually active at that age, I think you'd both prefer slapping on the VR goggles even while fucking IRL....because...why not? VR > Paper bag. In Second Life, the point has been made extremely clear that someone in a wheelchair really doesn't want to be rolling around one in virtual reality as well. Fat people don't pick fat avatars. In the end...who cares what you "look" like IRL. Humans are "human" because of our minds.

I discussed in the food forum that the all-in-one soylent may not replace all of my meals, but maybe 2 out of three or 2/3 of my nutrition. It may be in the future that VR is 2/3 of our lives with Real life being 1/3. And as for that term "real life". I don't think it will be so cut and dry between VR and RL in the future. Remember when "they" said internet "friends" are not real friends? Now a significant percent of marriages and couples originated from online relationships. While you will be able to waste tons of time in VR, I think more thought needs to be put into how awesome learning environments will be. Professors will take you on virtual walks through ancient Rome, conduct virtual dissections, create fields of plants and animals in botany and biology classes, and, of course, take you on a tour of the solar system with the massive scale of space intact and you'll walk through the Amazon minus the bug bites and being mauled by a man eating critters.

When it comes to VR, think about the big picture. Think of Internet circa 1991 and internet circa 2014 and then cut that time in half so maybe around 2025, if this forum still exists, I'll refresh this topic.
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Keverian FireCry
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Re: Hours Played doesn't=Addiction! Thoughts on Gaming and S

Post by Keverian FireCry »

You are absolutely an addict and use digital media to escape from whatever fears you have about other people and the world in general. You're missing out on a lot. If you spent even .5% of the time you do on gaming working on internal issues you'd probably be a lot happier and be able to enjoy virtual worlds in moderation while also engaging and finding joy from the real world.

In short: get the fuck off your computer.
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Winnow
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Re: Hours Played doesn't=Addiction! Thoughts on Gaming and S

Post by Winnow »

Keverian FireCry wrote:You are absolutely an addict and use digital media to escape from whatever fears you have about other people and the world in general. You're missing out on a lot. If you spent even .5% of the time you do on gaming working on internal issues you'd probably be a lot happier and be able to enjoy virtual worlds in moderation while also engaging and finding joy from the real world.

In short: get the fuck off your computer.
Preferring VR over RL doesn't mean you're unhappy and also doesn't mean you have a lack of social skills. Having traveled extensively, I don't have to guess as to what the "real world" is like. I've seen more of it than 95% of the population ever will.(total guess but it's probably even a higher percentage) That's partially because I was fortunate to travel so much in my younger years and partially because most people don't travel that much.

There is no right or wrong balance between RL and VR. I'm sure you've seen many recent science articles speculating that our "real world" is a simulation itself. Who's to say that spending time in the "real world" isn't the wasted time and that humans would be more efficient spending most of their time in Virtual Reality as machines take over more and more, replacing our physical labor requirements. Anyone jumping to conclusions over RL vs VR is merely creating another unfounded prejudice.

Now, you can argue certain uses of VR as a waste of time, the same as you can argue many RL things are a waste of time. Do I really learn that much more by traveling to Africa to observe lions in their natural habitat than entering a VR experience of the same thing? Consider Cost/Time vs benefit. Time spent planning the trip, equipping for the trip, financing the trip, time spent traveling, risk management of the trip, vs VR experience of the same thing which might be free or magnitudes cheaper that you can experience in a few hours. On top of that, for one trip to Africa which might take weeks, you will have many many more VR experience in the same amount of time.

If you haven't already thought of it, you can do both. Much of that travel time could be spent in VR so it's not wasted. For example, a RL experience of traveling on a train...how much is enough? If the train ride is 12 hours. Is 2 hours enough RL to get what you need out of a RL train experience and then spend the other 10 hours in VR where you maybe experience five more things for 2 hours each, including next to impossible experiences like deep sea exploration and virtually visiting mankind's first habitat on Mars.

There is no set balance between Real Life and Virtual Reality. As I mentioned in my post above, humans have a VERY short "prime" lifespan between adolescence and growing old. I find it perfectly acceptable that a real life couple would prefer each other in VR a certain amount of time than IRL as they get older, being able to explore so many things while maintaining their youthful bodies in VR.

VR has a ways to go before it's at a point where it comes close to matching reality. By long way I mean 5-10 years. Enjoy your best years, maybe between 15-40 and use them to spend the most time traveling and experiencing the "real world". Even then, you need to find your own purpose to your existence. You still have a finite time to live in the "real world" with no known/confirmed existence after that. Basic instincts prompt most to breed. Relationships, emotions, etc are all a simulation with no other certain purpose than survival of species. I think we can all agree that humans, along with the millions of other species on Earth are designed to preserve their species. Other than that, life's purpose is whatever you make it. What you "think" your purpose in life is means very little to someone else. While I don't know if humans have an ultimate purpose, I do think our ultimate form will be no physical body at all so this talk of Virtual Reality being not as good as "real life" will seem as silly as all of the other fucked up things humans have believed in the past that seem crazy now. We started out as a single cell organism and we've gotten this far. Pending extinction, we won't be anything like we are now down the "road".
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Re: Hours Played doesn't=Addiction! Thoughts on Gaming and S

Post by Leonaerd »

That's partially because I was fortunate to travel so much in my younger years
You're not young anymore, and the world has changed. You should get off the computer and find how you've changed as well.
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