Feel free to watch HealthyGamerGG’s video through here.
ArkhamAtelier commented:
I might be the weird one, but I hope at least someone who reads this benefits from it. I’ve been a gamer for over 35 years and I never had any “addiction” but rather quite the opposite, games have actually made me more productive. As a child, my brother and I always wanted a videogame console but our parents said no and I remember being absolutely in heaven when my bro and I were playing games like Ninja Turtles or Paperboy at friends’ houses in the early 90’s. At 7 years old I broke down, angry and jealous and asked my 9 year old brother “Why is life so unfair and we are the only ones who don’t own a game console?” and I’ll never forget what my brother told me “That’s even better! The fact we could enjoy life without needing one means life is unfair– to them!” That immediately changed my life perspective and I saw gaming as a luxury rather than a need. I mean, my 7 year old self still wanted to play Super Mario of course, but I learned that I should be grateful if I wanted to play it, not entitled, let alone neglect what I’m supposed to do in life to play videogames.
Years later my brother unfortunately became paralyzed due a degenerative nervous system disease and he couldn’t join me when I got my first game console (a bootleg NES) as by then he has lost control over his motor funtions. As other 12 year old kids were playing their cutting edge Playstations and Dreamcasts, I was beyond grateful to own a NES despite being ridiculed by kids at school because of how old the console is. I didn’t cared as it was a dream come true for me. Over the years I’ve caught up with each console generations and in my late 30’s I still game regularly.
I have a stressful job and when friends ask me how do I managed to stay so calm, I told them I play videogames on my portable consoles and they look at me like I’m a insane. I have a Steam Deck, PS Vita and Gameboy Color that I carry in my backpack every day and would play quick bursts of any of them after a stressful event at work, when I’m at the gym or just when I’m idle outside while others doom scroll on their phones. Games like Metal Gear Solid 2, Batman Arkham, Final Fantasy, Nier etc have fueled not just my creativity, but the general direction I wanna go in life and has taught me good values. I became an artist as a result of my love for games and I work out daily, achieve the best I could with what I have and I am known to be highly disciplined. I attribute these traits mostly due to the stupid games I play, since for me I look at them as a source of inspiration rather than a means to escape. If I’m too lazy to go to the gym for example, I tell myself to complete a set then I get to play Alien Isolation between sets.
My brother sadly passed away in 2001 before I could get a PS2 and have been a lonely gamer since, but thanks to his advice, not a second in my life do I allow gaming to “ruin” my life, but I rather I make it a tool to enhance my focus, determination and achieve what I want in life. Yes, people do look at me weird when I whip out a Steam Deck in public, and yes some concerned friends have expressed “Will you ever quit these silly things” and I always say, “If these silly things motivate me to work harder, go to they gym, and generally be more productive, then I’ll never stop playing.”
My reply:
Your brother (may he RIP) nailed it. It’s so admirable how it feels like gaming not only helps you become more productive, but it’s also like a way of honoring your brother’s memory.
I’ve never done any kind of drugs in my life, so gaming has always been a way for me to instinctively learn self-control, persistence and perseverance. While most gamers I know would smash the controller after they lost twice in a row, I would keep trying until I finish the mission/game no matter how long it took, and I’m both grateful and lucky that I apply the same mindset to what I do for a living, i.e., solving all kinds of IT problems to the point where even when I’m told to let it go, I take that as a sign that the solution is always right around the corner.
Back in junior high, while some classmates were worrying about their grades and whether they should cheat or not, I was effortlessly top of my class, and whenever there was an exam, playing a game (be it a PES match in the highest difficulty or any other game that I enjoy) beforehand was my way of preparing for said exam. My parents weren’t strict (or rich since we could barely afford a NES clone in the late 90s; does anyone remember Super Megason?) because they could tell that gaming wasn’t affecting my cognitive abilities in any negative way (my dad and I used to play a lot of survival horror PSX games like Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, Alone in the Dark…)
I’ll never forget the day that I stayed up until 7AM to finish Prince of Persia: Warrior Within (the Dahaka ending) on our then-Pentium 4 with integrated graphics, then only slept for 30 minutes, and then went to school at 7:30AM and took multiple exams in one day like they were nothing. I’ve always had this idea in my head that If I can understand a subject in class, I don’t need to study it at home at all, so studying at home literally felt like the epitome of diminishing returns. Like you, I never saw gaming as a burden or an addiction or a problem of any kind, and I can go on without playing games for months if I felt like it. Sure, maybe as a kid, it might have been some form of escapism, but now? I just enjoy the hell out of everything I do, be it gaming or jogging or taking long walks or fixing an IT problem or listening to a podcast…
Generally speaking though, I had a very balanced childhood, meaning that I did play video games, did pretty well in school, and played outside with my homeboys, be it marbles or flipping a coin over Pokemon or soccer or Digimon cards, hide-and-seek, tag, etc. I think it’s because of my awesome childhood that I feel like FOMO is such a foreign concept to me like, why would I be angry or jealous if I can’t afford to travel the world or own the latest and greatest tech? Why would I spend a second hating on anybody? I enjoy life (the ultimate video game) too much to care about any kind of negative crap, seriously.
And you’re right. Why ever quit something that has a positive effect on your life? That’s just dumb. Sometimes people give the most incompatible and irrelevant advice; they just can’t help themselves, can they?