Why I Don't Actually Like Video Games

I said I'd do this some day. Now seems good.

Video games, on the face of it, are a ridiculous hobby; especially the sort of video games I play, which is to say largely the single player ones. There is nothing of value they provide that can't be provided better elsewhere. About the best I can say of them is: They're no more wasteful than television, and less wasteful than, say, brain-frying chemicals.

As an example, just read my reviews of Persona 4 and Prince of Persia, and then ask yourself this: When I say Prince of Persia is "not deep," what do I mean? Not deep compared to Persona 4? What is the value of depth in this context?

Certainly Persona 4 has more challenging gameplay and a more engaging story, but by what standards? Persona 4's story is very good by the standards of video game stories, but that still means it's very bad compared to, for example, 90% of the books I'd see if I walked into any given library and looked around. Even if one accepts the premise that exposure to quality storytelling is somehow life-enriching (I do, but am not sure why), few to no video games have provided a quality of storytelling that couldn't be easily exceeded by a trip to a local library, where access to the stories in question is free. As for the more challenging gameplay, as long as I'm questioning the values of things, what's the value of that? I can barely think of any; I may be engrossed in complex turn-based strategic battles between benevolent and malevolent elements of humanity's id, but while it may hold my attention, it's not life-enriching.

I play video games because I need something to fill my time and distract myself from the fact that for any moment of time I'm engaging with most of my hobbies, I'm not accomplishing anything of value, either internally or externally. The finite hours of my life tick by as I perfect the motions behind Ryu's fireball, so I can defeat M. Bison to unlock Sakura, so I can defeat M. Bison with her to unlock Dan, and once I've unlocked Dan, I'm not left with anything except a jerk with pink gi and a ponytail who doesn't even exist.

People who play multiplayer games are different; they, at least, are using games as a medium for socialization, which arguably is valuable if "value" is to be a useful concept.

Now, I personally am a bit of an outlier—for me, playing and writing about video games is life-enriching in that it nets me riches in the form of paychecks. So it all worked out peachy for me. Still, I can recognize that much of the challenge -> reward cycle video games use to keep our attention is manipulative bullshit.

I am not a big fan of the whole Puritan "First toil, then the grave" school of how one should live one's life, but the more I try to meaningfully analyze games, the more I come back to most games just not having much meaning, when you get right down to it. Exceptions spring to mind (Ico, Rez), games that show me new storytelling techniques—techniques that could not be accomplished in non-interactive media—and expand the range of imaginative tools with which I can envision the world around me. Arguably these games give the rest of the game industry meaning, in the sense that it provides an environment where they can be made. But individual games? Time sinks. I would be better off organizing my receipts or, yes, reading a book.

That's why I don't actually like video games, for some value of "don't actually like video games."

(Most of my posts are intellectually deconstructive these days. I figure if I keep doing it, I'll eventually find something to reconstruct.)