<story><title>The science of addiction: Do you always like the things you want?</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-55221825</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bigfudge</author><text>Surely the point is that this developmental ability to persist is wasted on FPS? You could have learnt a musical instrument or developed some other accomplishment that lasts a lifetime. I.e. the real problem is the opportunity cost</text></item><item><author>BitwiseFool</author><text>I wonder if my desire to grind and or min&amp;#x2F;max in video games during my teenage years was a proxy for honing skills. Perhaps it&amp;#x27;s a developmental stage where you actually enjoy the repetition because you&amp;#x27;re supposed to be developing a skills and trade-craft. But now that I&amp;#x27;m older I have little to no interest in such pursuits.</text></item><item><author>earthscienceman</author><text>I love this comment and I think it touches on something that is really controversial and difficult to discuss on internet forums.&lt;p&gt;It has become clear to me that for young men of my generation that this type of video-gaming is very much the equivalent of &amp;#x27;doomscrolling&amp;#x27; as mentioned in other comments, and is generally pretty harmful. I have so many friends that have improved their lives by following the much-mocked advise &amp;#x27;turn off the game and do something else&amp;#x27;. Are games the culture-killing brain-rotting rotten life harbinger that our parents made them out to be? Of course not. Are they the epitome of entertainment and growth that places like reddit make them out to be? No, not really.&lt;p&gt;Like always. The truth is in the nuance.</text></item><item><author>jo032</author><text>Of the thousands of hours I spent playing single player videogames in my youth, a surprisingly small amount was spent having fun or doing anything interesting or challenging. It was mostly just tedious grinding on my overpowered Pokemon (and other rpg equivalents) against helpless enemies so that I could be even more overpowered against them.&lt;p&gt;I luckily grew out of it, but being absorbed by the pursuit of easy, digital approximations of real accomplishments, to the point where it impedes more difficult pursuits of the real thing in the real world, is a serious issue for many millennial men I know.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>curryst</author><text>&amp;gt; You could have learnt a musical instrument or developed some other accomplishment that lasts a lifetime.&lt;p&gt;These &amp;quot;classical&amp;quot; hobbies are vastly over-valued in my opinion.  I spent almost a decade learning to play violin, and while the appreciation for music has been valuable, the actual skill of being able to play the violin has been largely useless.  I also quit when I was no longer forced to play for school, and probably can&amp;#x27;t even read the sheet music anymore.  It&amp;#x27;s by no means a life long skill like riding a bike.&lt;p&gt;Phrased another way, I don&amp;#x27;t see much that validates being able to play a musical instrument as more valuable than being good at a particular genre of video games.  Music has existed for far longer, so it has a certain level of prestige as a long-standing part of our culture.  Music can be shared with others, although Twitch seems to imply there are a substantial number of people interested in watching other people play video games.&lt;p&gt;There are various studies about the tangential benefits of music, there are likewise for video games.  I don&amp;#x27;t know that one comes out clearly ahead.&lt;p&gt;Video games are more likely to give you real world skills.  As more and more of the world moves online, skills that you pick up trying to get games to work or trying to make them run faster can be valuable.  Online etiquette is another thing you tend to learn (hopefully, instead of just being toxic).&lt;p&gt;Learning an instrument is also not without pain.  When I played, probably 75% of the time I was playing I wasn&amp;#x27;t actually doing anything enjoyable, I was working on committing a piece to memory, or practicing a piece, or doing exercises to work on my finger strength or flexibility.  I don&amp;#x27;t feel like learning an instrument is less &amp;quot;grindy&amp;quot;.</text></comment>
<story><title>The science of addiction: Do you always like the things you want?</title><url>https://www.bbc.com/news/stories-55221825</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bigfudge</author><text>Surely the point is that this developmental ability to persist is wasted on FPS? You could have learnt a musical instrument or developed some other accomplishment that lasts a lifetime. I.e. the real problem is the opportunity cost</text></item><item><author>BitwiseFool</author><text>I wonder if my desire to grind and or min&amp;#x2F;max in video games during my teenage years was a proxy for honing skills. Perhaps it&amp;#x27;s a developmental stage where you actually enjoy the repetition because you&amp;#x27;re supposed to be developing a skills and trade-craft. But now that I&amp;#x27;m older I have little to no interest in such pursuits.</text></item><item><author>earthscienceman</author><text>I love this comment and I think it touches on something that is really controversial and difficult to discuss on internet forums.&lt;p&gt;It has become clear to me that for young men of my generation that this type of video-gaming is very much the equivalent of &amp;#x27;doomscrolling&amp;#x27; as mentioned in other comments, and is generally pretty harmful. I have so many friends that have improved their lives by following the much-mocked advise &amp;#x27;turn off the game and do something else&amp;#x27;. Are games the culture-killing brain-rotting rotten life harbinger that our parents made them out to be? Of course not. Are they the epitome of entertainment and growth that places like reddit make them out to be? No, not really.&lt;p&gt;Like always. The truth is in the nuance.</text></item><item><author>jo032</author><text>Of the thousands of hours I spent playing single player videogames in my youth, a surprisingly small amount was spent having fun or doing anything interesting or challenging. It was mostly just tedious grinding on my overpowered Pokemon (and other rpg equivalents) against helpless enemies so that I could be even more overpowered against them.&lt;p&gt;I luckily grew out of it, but being absorbed by the pursuit of easy, digital approximations of real accomplishments, to the point where it impedes more difficult pursuits of the real thing in the real world, is a serious issue for many millennial men I know.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>dfxm12</author><text>&lt;i&gt;Surely the point is that this developmental ability to persist is wasted on FPS?&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Who is to say? FPS games can teach you about your physical ability, practice and teamwork as much as playing football or playing in a band. The physical skills are different, sure, but the planning, teamwork and execution are all very similar (and similar to developing an app with a team). Any of these things could also, well, &lt;i&gt;not&lt;/i&gt; teach you much of anything. But is that a function of the &lt;i&gt;game&lt;/i&gt; or the &lt;i&gt;player&lt;/i&gt;?&lt;p&gt;The article suggests maybe it&amp;#x27;s a function of &lt;i&gt;genuinely liking what you&amp;#x27;re doing&lt;/i&gt; vs simply &lt;i&gt;wanting&lt;/i&gt; to do it (maybe because of an addiction).&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;I.e. the real problem is the opportunity cost&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;The problem with viewing through the lens of the opportunity cost is that it requires some hindsight to be completely evaluated. I played competitive football for 8 years. I wanted to, but I never went pro. You can work hard, put in the effort and still have nothing good to show for it. Today, I feel like I could have better spent that time, because it ate up &lt;i&gt;a lot&lt;/i&gt; of it.</text></comment>