aCosmicWave
Did you mean Time Commando by any chance? That was one of my favorites back in the day. Controls probably wouldn’t hold up these days but the time traveling aspect was super fun!
On the last day of my college internship a senior VP at my little company invited me into his office presumably to get to know me prior to extending a full-time offer. To break the ice he asked me what my favorite Star Wars movie was. I smiled and replied that I could never get through any of them.
As I was uttering these words I began to notice the giant Star Wars poster directly behind the gentleman. It then dawned on me that his office was chalk full of Star Wars memorabilia.
The man did not ask me any further questions. He shook my hand, thanked me for my great work, and I never stepped foot into those offices ever again.
When I was a PC gamer, I would think of PC games. Now that I have a PS5 I think of PlayStation.
All of life involves doing things to pass the time. What makes video games (and all hobbies) different is that you do it voluntarily because you enjoy it.
I too have a job that I like very much (love is a strong word for a place of employment because if I didn’t have bills I wouldn’t be working let’s be real). I also have a home that I am happy in, a loving partner and a young son.
I achieved most of these things thanks to video games. They got me interested in computers which led to a lucrative career in technology. They helped me unwind after countless long days of work which kept me from losing my mind. They led to life long friendships due to the shared common interest. I was able to pick up my wife thanks to what I learned from Leisure Suit Larry, etc.
I guess what I’m saying is a healthy relationship with any hobby can be good, or bad when taken to an extreme.
Why can’t I tell anyone? Would they kill me if I did?
Some good old fashioned hard sci-fi usually does the trick for me. Especially when there’s a healthy dose of optimism involved (which is a bit rare these days). Project Hail Mary was perfect in that regard.
I do slide back from time to time to be perfectly honest! What really helps me though is muscle memory. For example, the Books app on my iPhone sits where my (third party) Reddit app used to be. That way when I reach for my phone during those short moments of downtime throughout the day I’m more likely to read something a little more meaningful.
For video games specifically I try to consume less meta content such as gameplay videos and reviews. I fell into this trap where I would spend so much time researching a new game and watching other people play it that by the time I got my hands on it a lot of the novelty wore off and I had little interest left.
I think the world has been trending toward short-form content for a very long time now.
We’ve gone from reading books, to skimming articles, to skimming article comments. We’ve gone from TV, to YouTube videos, to TikTok style shorts. We’ve gone from playing video games to watching other people play them in the background.
I noticed that I personally feel happiest when I invest my attention into longer form content. So I have been trying my best to cut out the digital sugar.
- I read books.
- I set a side large chunks of time to immerse myself into video games.
- I subscribe to RSS feeds and read the full articles minus the comments.
I found that these changes have greatly improved my feelings of wellbeing. I’m sure that my SSRI had nothing to do with it.
I googled it and the last game released on the Xbox 360 was Just Dance 2019. Not as long ago as I would have thought!