From an evolutionary standpoint, why do we love to play videogames?

[_Minsk]

What is the benefit? I loved to play MMOs and all sort of other game generes, but why?

 

[kiuya]

Dopamine.

 

[motel rooms]

I don't love them. They've always bored me.

 

[Snake of Eden]

I dont think it has anything to do with evolution tbh becauase video games werent a thing back then. But playfulness has always been away for us to discover the world around us and connect through dopamine hits

 

[Smart No More]

It's a semi passive way to experience something that would require much more effort IRL. There is also no actual IRL consequences to your actions and therefore it's a kind of practice hunting session which would certainly provide potential evolutionary benefit. That said, I don't think gaming is necessarily enjoyable because its of evolutionary benefit. The reason many people enjoy it is because of the dopamine rush of a win and the anticipatory feeling of excitement. It does vary from person to person though. I personally enjoyed the free roaming, exploratory aspect of gaming but also enjoyed the indulgence of getting lost in the complexity of games like mgs. Successfully navigating a complex scenario provides a kind of self fulfilment and is beneficial to confidence building. All aspects of social and survival aspects of life in general. Its a multifaceted experience with multifaceted benefits. Some superficial and some very real.


My favourite game ever is Shadow of the Colossus. It's such a shame that gaming, in its gained popularity, has lost its edge and become wuite mainstream in content. Develpers don't really get to make those niche unique IP's so much these days. Not in anything much more than an indy type capacity. On it's surface gaming is a bit diluted and grey in order to appeal to the masses and provide as much return on investment as possible. It's a real shame. There are still some gems around though. The whole fortnite business model is a bit of a blight on gaming unfortunately.

 

[Life sucks]

Video games and fiction gives us opportunities to experience magical things we can't experience in the shitty real life. Video games aren't a result of evolution, it's the culmination of technology, art, science, skill, logic, emotions and many other things. Video games is like a glitch to escape the atrocious and oppressive life and that's one of the many reasons why it's loved. It's still depends on the brain chemicals but that's how everything else is. I wish I could play more games and even speed-run some and learn how to speed-run life and escape life. Thank you video games for being one of the interesting and lovely things that made me escape the shitty life and the atrocious planet.

 

[motel rooms]

Successfully navigating a complex scenario provides a kind of self fulfilment and is beneficial to confidence building. All aspects of social and survival aspects of life in general. Its a multifaceted experience with multifaceted benefits.

Is that why so many gamers on here are so confident, smooth in social situations & great at survival in the real world?

 

[Zzzzz]

Beautiful Distraction from an unpleasant reality. Same for TV shows ,Movies, and Books. Evolution is quite dirty. It is not above using fantasy to distract the animal from it's rather unenviable plight.

 

[Snake of Eden]

Video games and fiction gives us opportunities to experience magical things we can't experience in the shitty real life. Video games aren't a result of evolution, it's the culmination of technology, art, science, skill, logic, emotions and many other things. Video games is like a glitch to escape the atrocious and oppressive life and that's one of the many reasons why it's loved. It's still depends on the brain chemicals but that's how everything else is. I wish I could play more games and even speed-run some and learn how to speed-run life and escape life. Thank you video games for being one of the interesting and lovely things that made me escape the shitty life and the atrocious planet.

Thats so true. I lived good portion of my life through escaping with videogames. I have problem with my imagination due to some aspect of autism so playing video games with excellent stories and world allowed me a distraction from mundane and boring reality. Maybe it is not a good thing. I dont know but I know a fantasy world is where I want to live in after I die

 

[Snake of Eden]

It has been so long since a game got me immersed in its world and characters until two games were released recent years by great polish developer. The Observer and The Medium. They both are very elegant. If you cant play them watch a playthrough you will enjoy it I am sure

 

[Smart No More]

Is that why so many gamers on here are so confident, smooth in social situations & great at survival in the real world?

Whilst it can be beneficial it also provides the opportunity to over isolate oneself and live in a bit of a bubble. I didn't claim it was a fix all panacea. Just a beneficia tool. It may be that a certain healthy overview and/or self awareness is needed in order to balance things and make best use of the tools it provides. Maybe it's not useful to everyone and suits people of a certain predisposition. Kind of like a chainsaw. One man chops wood and builds a home, the other loses control and accidentally chops a limb off and bleeds to death lol.

My personal experience is really all I'm basing my opinion on really so maybe I'm an exception to a rule. I don't know. There's certainly a lot of awkward gamers out there. They're certainly not normies though. Thinking about it there are people of all kinds in gaming these days so maybe it doesn't go either way.

 

[WrongPlaceWrongTime]

I may have read somewhere that primates tend to prefer to do things that are entertaining. Presumably, doing mindless repetitive shit as a drone is not one of them, that's why we use video games to escape that shitty reality.

 

[motel rooms]

it also provides the opportunity to over isolate oneself and live in a bit of a bubble.

Understatement of the century... I think that gaming fried many an SS member's brain & made them socially inept.

 

[SoVeryDone]

I love this topic. I believe hand/eye coordination along with social interaction for online games is a reason ppl enjoy.

 

[TotallyIsolated]

Dopamine.

^ This

Video games feel good because they short-circuit the part of your brain responsible for focus and attention that helps us complete complex tasks. Its a quick, safe, and easy way to experience flow.

Certain types of games, particularly mobile games, are optimised to make that feedback loop as short as possible to deliberately make them addictive.

 

[Smart No More]

I may have read somewhere that primates tend to prefer to do things that are entertaining. Presumably, doing mindless repetitive shit as a drone is not one of them, that's why we use video games to escape that shitty reality.

It's a shame that many games have become a bit repetitive and a series of over simplified quicktime events. I am quite salty over the muddying dilution that's occurred as a result of its mainstream success. Its that pop music effect where business and appealing to the lowest common denominator ends up superceding creativity and originality.

 

[Snake of Eden]

I do sincerely believe that the real world is a shitty video game. What other explanation to having your inside nose hair grow so long that you have to trim them other than shitty character design

 

[Snake of Eden]

It's a shame that many games have become a bit repetitive and a series of over simplified quicktime events. I am quite salty over the muddying dilution that's occurred of its mainstream success. Its that pop music effect where business and and appealing to the lowest common denominator ends up superceding creativity and originality.

I agree with you . I was going to say the same thing. The curse of going so mainstream as opposed to the past has done more harm than good to video games as opposed to the 90s-early 2000s. I seen few good games come from none AAA developers recently and it was a breath of fresh air bringing back my optimism about the state of the game industry.

 

[Smart No More]

I agree with you . I was going to say the same thing. The curse of going so mainstream as opposed to the past has done more harm than good to video games as opposed to the 90s-early 2000s. I seen few good games come from none AAA developers recently and it was a breath of fresh air bringing back my optimism about the state of the game industry.

Yeah, it's nice to see the indy scene being appreciated a bit again but their budgets don't allow them full scope in realising their visions. Hopefully the door is opening to them in order to allow for future gems to be made. I remember some really strange creations back in my earlier days. It was a labour of love to create a game back then and even though there were critically and financially successful games it wasn't the main goal of many developers. If happy to look into the past there's quite a library of great games to chose from for people that are just being introduced to it. Obviously it means having to get some older consoles or emulators if they're not available on newer consoles or whatever. There's an excellent emulator called bigbox which can be bought on ebay, preinstalled on a large hard drive and preloaded with a massive back catalogue of games and consoles. You just plug and play on a pc or laptop. I bought one a couple of years ago and revisited some fond memories from my childhood as well as giving some classics a go from a new perspective having either overlooked or missed them the first time around. It goes all the way back from the start of gaming, including arcade games and goes upto more recent consoles like the xbox, wii, gamecube and playstations. It includes hand helds too. I'm so gutted that my cognitive symptoms make gaming so much less doable or enjoyable now but it's great that people can play some of the classics they may never have had chance to play or even be exposed/introduced to. Can't recommend that emulator enough. It's excellent.

 

[lostautist]

When it comes to larger titles, like AAAs, gameplay is adjusted to suit psychology, risk / reward, addictive behavior, learning, etc... google "Flow theory" or video game psychology and there are a few studies out there that go over what some games do to keep people playing.

x

 

[Snake of Eden]

When it comes to larger titles, like AAAs, gameplay is adjusted to suit psychology, risk / reward, addictive behavior, learning, etc... google "Flow theory" or video game psychology and there are a few studies out there that go over what some games do to keep people playing.

x

Money ruins everything it touches when it becomes the be all end all

 

[lostautist]

Money ruins everything it touches when it becomes the be all end all

Many good games incorporate features like this just because they're good games. Also when a company is spending 10s or 100s of millions on a franchise research like this is worth their investment because greed.

 

[Mr2005]

Overcoming challenges that pose no risk to us.

 

[demuic]

Understatement of the century... I think that gaming fried many an SS member's brain & made them socially inept.

Correlation vs. Causation. If someone didn't choose the world of video games to retreat into then it would've been something else. Being socially inept wasn't invented in the 21st century.

 

[Snake of Eden]

Correlation vs. Causation. If someone didn't choose the world of video games to retreat into then it would've been something else. Being socially inept wasn't invented in the 21st century.

I was going to say. Social withdrawal has many causes other than videogames autism is one example. I tried so hard to make it in the social world. No matter how much i try to put myself out there I am always met with rejection and being seen as a weirdo. Not that I am blaming society for my inability to blend in but at 36 I decided enough is enough and I decided to resign myself to world of seclusion and solitude. Being a video games hermit is sometimes is only option to experience the world without risking emotional hurt

 

[Snake of Eden]

I do sincerely believe that the real world is a shitty video game. What other explanation to having your inside nose hair grow so long that you have to trim them other than shitty character design

You dont believe me?

Scientists Say the Universe Itself May Be "Pixelated"
https://futurism.com/universe-pixelated

 

[Insomniac]

Good question.

I personally believe that we don't love video game by default, but we have found in it a way to meet our needs without affecting our environment. Video game and virtual realities are really good for the environment because people are able to meet some of their psychological needs in a safe environment, safe for us and for nature (by not using ressources from the real world to meet our more abstract needs).

I'm not a video game person but I respect gamers because they're just having fun without hurting anyone. Idk why people keep saying that gaming is bad, I don't think it is bad. Not everything has to be conventionally productive to be healthy. Also it's not actually unproductive since people are making money for playing it (twitch streamers or youtube gamers for example).

now there are those who abuse it but that's just addiction. Still, it's one of the healthiest addiction one can have since it's virtually harmless.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

I don't think evolution really factors in, for me it's all about escapism because even worlds that are falling apart or with 16-bit graphics can still feel way more appealing to live in than this one.

Video games are also the source of the only music I find appealing as well. Part of that is to further enhance the escapism.

 

[Smart No More]

I don't think evolution really factors in, for me it's all about escapism because even worlds that are falling apart or with 16-bit graphics can still feel way more appealing to live in than this one.

Video games are also the source of the only music I find appealing as well. Part of that is to further enhance the escapism.

I returned to Castlevania about a year and a half ago. I'd forgotten just how good the music is in some of those games. It bought to light judt how lazy and unimaginative a lot of modern music is. Those early games had so much effort put into them. You can tell there was a real enjoyment and labour of love for the devs.

 

[Dr Iron Arc]

I returned to Castlevania about a year and a half ago. I'd forgotten just how good the music is in some of those games. It bought to light judt how lazy and unimaginative a lot of modern music is. Those early games had so much effort put into them. You can tell there was a real enjoyment and labour of love for the devs.

All my Castlevania knowledge comes from Smash Bros and the Netflix show but I've always wanted to get into it. The music is very lovely I particularly like Richter's theme.