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Comment by ajmurmann | Hacker News Reader

That is a shocking statement. You are there to hear the tree falling in the forest. Are you saying that your reason of playing video games is to get acknowledgement from others?

I find this shocking because it's incredibly in line with discussions and articles that claim that a large portion of younger men had been deprived by society from getting a sense of belonging and accomplishment and is now using video games as a bandaid for that.

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This is a unfortunate statement, as there are many reasons to game. I'm guessing you havent really spent much time gaming. For me, the most important part of gaming for me is sharing time with my far-flung-friends. We're not watching a tree fall, we're building a campfire together. Sharing GTA5's space with 7 friends is much better than a group video call with the same crowd, for example. Acknowledgment from others doesn't even rank on the list of reasons why I game.

You've merely reinforced his point.

Unfortunately I've spent a lot of time gaming. Not much online with friends though. At least not in recent years.

You make a very valid point that sounds entirely different than OP's "tree falling in the forest" argument.

Yeah I think I was more getting at the 5 axis of game design, there’s people who’d like to : Explore, Socialize. Challenge based game / rankings , Strategy / logic, Forget other one

I’d say my tree falling in forest remark goes along two axis of social + challenge against other human brain . Almost same dopamine hit of telling a joke and getting reaction from crowd, feels fun to tell jokes similar to goofing off in multiplayer games etc

My only point was that there are many different motivations to game and ways to derive value from a gaming experience, my bad if I come off as holier than thou.

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