As I approach my forties, I would think that I'd stop. While it isn't as prevalent in my list of priorities anymore (job, kids, self-improvement, house, pets, etc to take care of) I still find myself going back to classics every now and then. And my kiddos are all about videogames so I always have an opportunity to play with them.
Realistically, I may one day be too old to play when my eyesight fades and my joints get painful. Yesterday was the first time I experienced pain from damp weather. My check engine light is on, but my heart still beats for the games.
Hard to tell...as long as i have fun with the game i play i think i can carry on also i have other games to play such as Spyro and mario because i have almost the same love as CNK. @Dynajay is correct i will got Stopped by the age at some point.
Or if i got bored of these games.
Spoiler Alert: Hard No.
[QUOTE=HankSchrader] @1 that may be true, but video games are the only things that distract me from my extreme depression [/QUOTE]
You might be joking, but I am going to say this here for all the other depressed people to read (because this is a serious issue that most of us have experienced).
Depression is not some magical virus that you catch out of thin-air for no reason. Depression is a symptom of your shitty mental health. The solution when you have depression is not to take pills, to distract yourself with video games, or to smoke weed. The solution to depression is to recognize what bad habits you're doing and to stop them, while also doing good habits.
Are you smoking weed? Stop it. Are you spending 16 hours a day on video games? Stop playing them. Are you watching porn? Stop browsing PornHub.
Are you going to the gym? No? Start pumping iron. Are you eating shit food? Start eating clean. Do you lack friends? Start developing social skills.
I have never in my life met a depressed person that only did good habits and not the bad ones.
Stop running away from your problems because nobody is going to save you besides yourself.
Depression sucks, and it gets hard to just get out of bed in the morning, but if I could do it then so can you, and I believe in all of you.
@1 just because something works for you doesn't mean it applies to everyone lmfao
also "Do you lack friends? Start developing social skills." has a shitty grindset energy, which again, doesn't work for everyone
if you think I haven't tried any of your therapist-grade advice, you're wrong
edit: your bio "Video games are evil, go to the gym, start a business." screams "I'm an epic sigma male" 😂
@1 I'm sorry but I actually laughed at "Do you lack friends? Start developing social skills" because you see there's this thing called [social] ✨anxiety✨ and you can't just magically start being social because you're brain is being illogical most of the time and worrying about everything. It's like that with most of the things you've listed. It might've worked for you, but it's not gonna work for most people. So, with all due respect, your advice of just stop watching porn or playing video games or smoking and eat good food and developing social skills is shit advice. My advice is start with small, healthy habits, and gradually evolve that into stopping whatever unhealthy habit you're doing. For example, instead of smoking weed or whatever every four hours, you smoke on one interval, and then you drink water or something on the next interval. I'm saying this because just deciding to stop isn't enough, because your brain depends on that bad habit for it to be okay. If you try to replace it with a healthy habit instead, then you'll make some progress.
@CyanWes having friends and family who can support you is one of the best ways to combat depression.
Social anxiety can be debilitating, but it isn't an excuse to not have any friends, and if you choose to never interact with people you'll never become more comfortable in social situations. And you can always improve your social skills even if you aren't good at talking to people at first.
@Merl_ You have a point, but some people don't have that support. If you have few friends, you'll probably turn to those small amount of friends or your family members. If your family doesn't do anything about your problems, or you don't have the courage to tell them about it, you'll have almost no support in your family, and you'll probably just get comments like "get over it" from them. If you turn to your friends, they might not get it, but if they do, and you dump your problems onto them, you'll feel like your bothering them by throwing your problems onto them, and you'll probably stop talking about it. It's really, really, difficult sometimes to get the appropriate help without feeling like you're some sort of burden to people or without people understanding what you feel. Because of this, some people will crawl into a shell and hide. It's why such a large amount of people are depressed, because they can't find the appropriate help.
Wow I just realized I wrote an entire paragraph rant woops
[QUOTE=CyanWes] @1 I'm sorry but I actually laughed at "Do you lack friends? Start developing social skills" because you see there's this thing called [social] ✨anxiety✨ and you can't just magically start being social because you're brain is being illogical most of the time and worrying about everything. [/QUOTE] I know, and social anxiety is a very real thing. I myself struggled with HARDCORE social anxiety for YEARS, but again, it's something you can fix!
I started by just holding more eye contact when speaking to my friends, then I started saying “hello” to people when I entered school. I started forcing myself to share my thoughts when the people at my table were having conversations.
The point is, I had the humility to realize that I had a flaw (my social anxiety) and instead of crying about it I tried to take baby steps to improving it.
And you know what? I am still not perfect! When I'm at the grocery store and can't find something I still triple check the entire store before asking an employee because some of that social anxiety comes back and makes me not want to talk, but when I catch myself doing this I will force myself to go and speak to them to develop better social skills.
You can do the same, I believe everyone here can do the same. You just need to be willing to put in the effort, play the long game, and most importantly, you need to believe in yourself.
Also yeah, if you have bad social skills “just improve them bro”. I know it sounds unhelpful… but its the truth. You are not going to magically wake up one day and be better socially. You need to force yourself to be around people, you need to keep failing over and over and over again in social situations and slowly leveling-up your social skills until you start gaining more acquaintances, friends, and even people you would call a brother/sister.
[QUOTE=HankSchrader] edit: your bio "Video games are evil, go to the gym, start a business." screams "I'm an epic sigma male" 😂 [/QUOTE] To be fair, it isn't the best way to present myself, but it's mostly a meme. I say “mostly” because going to the gym is objectively a good thing to do (or at the very least, getting physical exercise), but yeah it's just a bit of a meme.
[quote]edit: your bio "Video games are evil, go to the gym, start a business." screams "I'm an epic sigma male" [/quote] This is obviously because mango man is an epic sigma male.
As someone who has been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder I would like to say that what mango is saying is true. It's hard but you have to try and step out of your comfort zone sometimes or you're never going to get better at talking to people. Small steps are important. You can do it
I always say these same things and everyone always wants to push back and call me „out of touch“ or „dangerous“ or other nonsense, but I want to reiterate that my goal when I say these things is to hopefully empower you all to fix the problems in your life.
Are you depressed? You can fix it! Are you socially anxious? You can fix it! Are you fat? You can fix it!
If you have a problem in your life, don't ever listen to the people that say that you can't improve or that you can't fix your life. You can fix your life and you can improve your mental health. It'll be hard but it is possible.
Don't try to fix your symptoms, fix the causes. Don't spend your whole day playing video games because it distracts from your depression, go out there and face the world head on and beat your depression! You can be that same warrior you are in a video game in real life, and don't let anyone tell you otherwise.
Now that is the correct way to phrase it.
Video games that affect your mental health.
Yes.
A few years ago, video games stopped providing me any sense of joy. I was tired of micro transactions and half-assed, triple-a titles. Pokémon Sword and Shield taught me that the games from my childhood were long gone. I wasn’t interested in new releases; gaming conventions were as valuable to me as TV static to a broadcast network. I sold my gaming PC, Switch, and the multitude of other consoles I owned. I shifted my life around: enrolled in college, met some people, improved my mental health.
Now, I play games in a speedrun context, and I stick to games that remind me of a time when gaming was enjoyable: old MC maps, retro diner-dash likes, emulated games, old web games with their new mobile ports. I design games too, challenging board and card games with horror themes—games I want to play. I watch gaming content within these same veins(though, I am quickly growing tired of YouTube and Twitch). Another life change will pause my gaming, and I may not pick up the hobby again.
TLDR; Yeah, I can see myself quitting gaming. Retro games are old and I’m not a kid anymore. The hobby isn’t my main hobby, and I have no desire to buy any consoles. As life picks up, gaming pauses for insanely long periods of time, so I wouldn’t be surprised if I stopped completely.
I am only 17 and video games in general have already become pretty boring for me, I don't spend nearly as much time playing them because now I'd much rather do something productive like a sport or just hanging out with my friends. However I don't think I will fully quit video games, at least not until I make a family for myself, but I will be playing more and more rarely as time passes.