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Or you know, the programmer ends up working for a large corporation and makes $100,000 a year being a code monkey and the gamer wins millions after he switches to playing professional poker.

There are no "correct choices" in life.

> To me this seems to lead to a complete exhaustion of the player, instead of giving a challange combined with relaxation and distraction.

Isn't the point of all exercise to get tired? To bring your body and mind near the edge to push the edge little bit?

> It seems that someone who spends the same time honing a real skill (e.g. programming) would come out way ahead!

Do you know any place where you could program competitively in short amounts of time (hour or even less)?

If all you have in mind is personal development, than that might be true but most gamers just want to have fun playing. If it has any positive side-effects thats a nice bonus, so atleast you dont waste away all your time just for fun.

Just for personal developments sake, your right, gaming is probably not the perfect activity, but its also not the worst.

In the study the casual game alternative (Sims) didn't provide the same effects. I play team games often because it as easily accessible way for me to have fun competing, just like any other sport in fact. It's a flow experience and has the nice side benefit of completely putting my mind off of other things. I can't get these things from other fun but casual games, that provide very few benefits (not even taking into account the possible boost in cognitive fitness).

I think playing starcraft as part of an active, diverse mental life enriches is particularly complimentary as it a sport-like game that is challenging in many aspects (you need to multitask, think strategically, react quickly and control with great dexterity) and team games also open the social aspects. If it is not done in moderation then yes, you have to wonder if your best mental efforts during the day would better be directed at something more productive. Not for the sake of productivity, or for some moral reasons. Only because it might start to hurt financially/socially/healthwise etc. In the end, there are no skills particularly relevant in the grand scheme of things, we live, we have experiences, we die, universe goes on.

As kayoone already said, people usually play games for fun. Knowing or realizing games have some benefit is a bonus. As the effort/exaustion part, people actually like that. In fact, the tiredness is mainly something people tolerate as a "cost" for all the "fun".

When I play sports with friends I'm not doing it to be fit, I'm doing it for the social intercation, the friendly competition. I'll be tired and with some bruises, and will struggle to get off bed the next morning, but I feel it was worth it.

Another example, video game related. I like Dark Souls. But I kind of suck at it. During a more frustrating sessions, after some groans and curses my girlfriend naively asked me: "If the game makes you so angry and frustrated, why do you keep playing it? Why don't you play another game?". It made me think. I guess I like being challenged. And the harder and the more times I fall, the better is the feeling when I finally win. The more I shout and swear at the game, the bigger is the smile after beating a challenge (or the sigh of relief).

> It made me think. I guess I like being challenged.

I think this is a somewhat overlooked aspect of gaming and its relation to one's personality in general. I've found, especially as I've aged, that I much prefer competitive, difficult games. Especially with starcraft, the combination of the skill and focus required seems to relax me in a way - even when it frustrates me, I'm still completely drawn away from every other thing I was focused on / worried about previously. I've now found that if a game isn't genuinely challenging, for the most part I don't enjoy it (and to the point, play very few games at all anymore).

Conversely, I have a friend that only enjoys casual games - I think he'd happily complete every game available on God mode, if it were an option.

Excellent post. I was about to mention the same things but you beat me to it.

However I think it's worth mentioning that games such as Starcraft offer the unique opportunity to taste glory (at least in Korea) at no personal risk. In the same way that Rome's gladiators had their whole lives defined and determined by the games, perhaps Starcraft players live and breathe the game and consider it their ultimate purpose? With such a mindset, analyzing costs and missed opportunities becomes irrelevant: you don't need to learn skills because you are already doing what you love.

as a hardcore gamer myself I have to disagree with you. I must play competitive style games like 6 hours a day for more than 10 years now, even though it's a "waste" I'm pretty sure that gaming helped me, and friends, for a long-term: We analyze stuff really quick and have a fast logical response also. In my case (I belive I'm the most hardcore of them all, playing stuff since I was 6), I'm the fastest learner of them all and I link it directly to my gaming life. I know that it may sound I'm just justfying my addiction but I really like to learn new stuff and it helps a lot. I quit gaming earlier to read some book (currently reading thinking fast and slow) and in the early morning I keep reading interesting sites like HN articles :)