I used to be a pack-a-day smoker and I couldn't go very long without a cigarette. Whenever I had a spare moment, I would light up and if I didn't, the craving would soon be gnawing at me and sometimes, I would even wake up in the middle of the night and head outside for one. I hated the idea of being a smoker. Unfortunately, I liked smoking.
What I noticed though was that I could go long periods of time without a cigarette or evening thinking of having one, as long as I was doing one thing - gaming. At least for me, the reward center was more addicted to sitting in front of the screen, than smoking - *one of the most addictive habits there is.
I suspect that in many ways, gaming isn't much healthier, though you might not have to worry cancer quite as much. However, I do think that the impacts it might have on our lives could be more profound, especially if the addiction to gaming replaces the will to pick up other skills that are important to us, as well as replaces activities that increase our wellbeing. I know lots of happy gamers - I don't know many who are truly happy that game a lot.
I have an ongoing discussion with a friend of mine about the effects of gaming and he seems to think that I am all negative on it, which I am not. However, I err on the side of caution in this regard, as it is one of those insidious pastimes that can increasingly eat up our time, offering diminishing returns. I am doubly cautious with gaming for children, as the long-term effects on them as individuals and society in general is still to be seen, but again, I expect a lot of negative consequences on their lives.
Games are obviously gamified, but just like social media, the level of gamification has increased rapidly and has become far more professional, as behavioral psychologists are employed to assist in creating attention grab and stickiness in ways that weren't there before. The entire design of games these days are centered around increasing time spent playing, but they do not of course care that all games, media and other experiences are doing the same, meaning that the amount of attention being drawn by entertainment with little real return is growing, while the things that are known to improve our experience, like social activity and skilled work are decreasing.
My friend and I were speaking of this yesterday and he was wondering how and why he has changed, going from being able to play for long periods of time when younger, to a couple hours being enough. While increased responsibility might account for some of this (such as being a parent), I don't think it is the major reason.
What I think is that as we age, our hierarchy of what we find rewarding changes, meaning that in order to get the dopamine hit for pleasure, we find different ways to find the same kinds of feelings, get the same kind of return.
I asked a question about his feelings of reward in regards to for example, pulling off some difficult move (he places some racing games) on the track and how long the feeling last. As he is also into crypto, I then asked, what about if you buy a token and then it goes up 20%? Which feeling lasts longer and which is more memorable - lastly, which does he prefer feeling?
I think the last one is important, because it is true that while we age we generally gain some responsibilities, but it is also true that the reward they bring us is generally greater and has more impact on our lives, as well as the feeling can be tied to us more personally. Not only this, there is also a greater sense of loss associated with not getting that reward, with some disappointments sticking with us for life. For example, I am glad I was there for my daughter's first steps, but it pains me that due to Covid restrictions, even after a year, I still haven't been able to watch her in her dance class. Missing these things carry a loss.
Life is a game.
I was saying to my friend how all things are gamified in some way, if we are going to get down to the nuts and bolts of it and trading is one of the "purest" forms of the game, preying on our attention by demanding skin in the game to even get started. Skin in the game is what makes those first baby steps so important - skin in the game is what makes us spend so much of our time around our investments of various kinds too.
Even in respect to when I was gaming at my peak, I spend more time on crypto related stuff in a week and, it consumes far more of my attention and thought, because unlike a game, I tend to think about it, even when I am not on it. Turn the game off and my attention is free to do other things - crypto is 24/7 - literally.
But, it is a different kind of addiction because the stakes are far higher and the wins and losses have a more direct impact on our daily experience. Most games and the way we play them, don't have that much potential to improve our lives, yet can have a high chance of degrading our lives if we spend too much time doing it. Investing however still has the potential to be negative if we let it consume us, but the upside potential for improvement is always present and very likely. Yes, there is still the potential for loss, but that is why spending time understanding and dealing with risk is also dictated.
Dopamine activates us and we want the hit, no matter how it comes. However, what we do to get it has a massive influence on our outcomes in life. As we age, we are still addicted to the desire for dopamine, but perhaps as we mature, we find different ways to get the high. Gaming is a very easy way to get that feedback, but might not be enough to sustain us as adults, unless there is additional rewards brought into the mix.
Just have a look at Hive and Splinterlands as an example. Kids might be happy scoring points and climbing leaderboards, Splinterlands players need more - they need monetary value on top and they can get it. They will forego "game quality" (blockchain games face challenges in various ways) for the more life affecting rewards. Same on Hive, where on other platforms people are happy getting hearts and thumbs, on Hive they can forego some polish, but get a far more rewarding experience.
What is interesting to note here is, I mention the "quality" of the games or platforms, but for most people, the quality of experience playing these games and being on Hive is higher than elsewhere, precisely because of the gamification mechanisms through tokenization in play. The community acts differently, people interact differently, players take things more seriously and near everyone has the sense that what they are doing each day, has the chance to improve their lives.
Most gamers don't play a game to improve their wellbeing, they play it to pass the time. Working toward a better life provides purpose and the sense that one is on a path with purpose, brings a steady stream of dopamine to the table. Everything we do is for the rewards - that is why we have reward systems built into our human code.
We can play a game to improve our lives, or play a game to avoid life. The game I play is working toward a better world.
At least that is what the addict tells me.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
Building on a chain, with tokenisation, is the revolutionary stuff.
Making it look pretty is almost an afterthought. They're working on it.
:)
For sure.
I am not picking on SL in particular with this - the many limitations BC has in this area hampers design and still because of the many benefits, the games are sticky. As soon as the crowds really catch on, the limitations get addressed from many teams and from many angles, closing the gap to the non-BC fast.
You like attacking everything I do don't you XD
you also know I'm not serious right :D
The addict will always excuse and justify chasing the high right ;D
I discovered Age of Empires as a kid and if my dad hadn't limited me to 2 hours a day I never would have left the house.
Funny enough, as an adult I was never that interested in gaming… until I discovered blockchain games that pay you to play. I'm hooked :)
Age of Mythology was crack in my early 20's. Rightly so. Incredible game.
I never got to that one… Age of Empires I and II, then I was off to college and forgot about computer games for several years!
It's so good. Like, just great.
Well I just had to come back here to do some investigating, because why the hell would someone vote $0.44 on my very much ho-hum and made-in-passing comment, and then I saw @frogcake's vote on your comment, and I'm like what in hell is going on here…
Are you from Adelaide? My all-time favorite humor writer hails from there - David Thorne.
Also what is up with @the-canary?
So many questions and curiosities, just from one $0.44 comment upvote 🤔
Yes, Adelaide. The home of Hive in Australia :)
I'm not familiar with David Thorne, but if he's from Adelaide he sounds handsome and brilliant.
Not much up-take on the-canary but that's okay. Gotta try these things.
Well if I ever make it to Australia before I die, I'm def gonna hit Adelaide.
Handsome and brilliant humor writer: 27bslash6
Ah yes. I do know him. He's fantastic, haven't read his stuff in a while. I remember the snowboard giveaway ad. Gold.
I enjoyed gaming as a kid, but didn't have a PC myself - by the time I did, I didn't have any parent supervision, so had to navigate that world alone. Splinterlands is the first BC game I have ever played - and that only started a couple months ago :D I limit myself to make sure it doesn't get out of hand!
I also started with SL, got in super early and then ended up selling off about 75% of my collection to fund my dCity empire :)
Then of course after I sold SL mooned. Dammit.
Yeah, it is a familiar story and one day might be like the 10,000 BTC pizza :)
The best time to sell is when it moons after you have already sold.
LOL. Yeah, that's about right ain't it! Hope that pizza tasted amazing.
I was also a smoker of 1½ packs a day (aprox) till I discovered vaping more than 10 years ago. Then I changed the cigarettes by "vapos" (e-cigarettes) so my nicotine supply is now cleaner than before. I'm really glad and my health has significantly noted it. I'm still a nicotine addict although the amount I need is far less than used to be.
I'm also a dopamine addict and it comes from different sources, gaming is one of them but in a low level profile, nothing to see with those past times when I could perfectly spend 4 hours playing. I barely play nowadays but I do when I have enough time (normally at the end of the day) and urge (rarely). I do play LoL.
Nowadays I'm most rewarded with different things, my music studies provide me a great deal on this.
We as humans are grown in rewards system and that's the interesting point I see here in your writing. From the very begining we are taught on that. When we are only babies we get our reward thanks to our mouth mainly and more senses are joining to the party as we get older. That means and agrees with you that we're feeling rewarded differently througout time.
Our society has also evolved exploiting this fact to build gamification systems everywhere: commerce, e-commerce, salaries, taxes, rates of interest, fame, religions, politics, studying qualifications and so forth...
We cannot scape from this even if we where ascetics spending years on a cave.
The cool thing here where we are, the Hive ecosystem, is that while we are being rewarded by our content creation, curation, trading activities, playing games, etc... we contribute on rewarding others, all happening in a big loop that is the energy that moves us hopefully to a new state of things or what I love to think: "a new world" in which we all help each other grow economically and spiritually.
Free dopamine for all! :P
Could it be without music? Nooo XD
Do you think long-term, vaping is any better?
I think this is a decent way to spend free time - perhaps I should learn the piano - I have one in the house - but can't play!
even those in the cave build rewards for themselves - If I can only stay silent for another year...
Hive is serious business, and a lot of fun!
As much good as anything else, at least won't life kill you finally?
More than 10 years of vaping saved me from a serious health issue It would have developed for sure.
Yeah. that is the way of life. I just don't know what they put into vape, nor what effects it has passively either. I have only tried once several years ago - not my thing. But, I very rarely think about smoking these days - a couple times a year, if that.
I know what comes with my e-liquids that I cook myself. I worked on a international well known vaping company so I have some knoledge on this.
The formula comes with: vegetable glycerin and proñylene glycol (40/60), nutritional flavours (Swagger and Butter Scotch) and nicotine (6%) No more no less.
I can assure that those fears that big tabacco lobbies spread out thanks to government speakers are not founded on nothing solid since there has not passed enough time to reveal consistent results from studies.
What we really know is that smoking hurts seriously our health and it's not needed too much time for this to happen. We also know that the poluted environments in which we live are hurting us too.
Nowadays I work in a company that sells chemicals for crops and I spend a lot of time surrounded by them as well as in the fields treated with them.
Do we really know what we eat? No. That should worry us more than nothing else in my humble opinion.
Lol the thumbs and claps can wait... They won't pay bills in the future
It is interesting how many act as if they actually hold value.
I know that this post was about negative effects of gaming but...
I still remember that time I lost a battle against you a few days(?) ago. It seems that gaming improves memory😜Edit: good thing that I don't smoke. And almost never drink...that leaves money for sweets.😜
And I remember winning! ;D
Like minds. I have a mouth full of sweet teeth.
In the last few years , Earn with Gaming mechanism Grew immensely .I remember when i was school boy ,played many Games like Mario, super contract, candy crush, snake table, luddo or racing game but that time was not for earning but entertaining.Now the scenario of gaming changed where we want to play and earn together.
I most of my free time spend playing #splinterland as its so quick and entertaining.
I think this is where the future of gaming and many other things are - Hive is ahead of the curve.
I smoke whenever I want and I don't whenever I don't want. I hadn't smoked for almos one and a half years after the outbreak.
I used to play game long periods of time until my 20s. I still want to play, and I play FIFA and PES series at my friend. Hovewer, I don't like to.hear others saying you are not at play age. As for cryptogames, there is no limit at which age or time to play, to me. As you said, they have monetary value.
Only 2% of the population can do this supposedly.
I suspect that crypto games have a pretty high age average- especially at the top of the most valued.
I think playing is good for people, it's time that eats away, but you're happy and that's always good and I think it doesn't affect the body that much. It's just that everything mustn't descend into chaos 😅. But smoking is bad for the body, I think that a lot of people who get older don't look so young anymore because of it and they're not so healthy and that's really sad.