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Comment by AdeptusAquinas | Hacker News Reader

My theory as to why games are so fun is that its all about having a sense of purpose.

In real life, you can find purpose in things but if you are not careful then the daily eight-hour grind of a job, followed by dinner and a few hours of social activities then sleep starts to feel like a meaningless repeating routine. You can wake up knowing everything that's going to happen in a day and just go through the motions, brain on simmer.

In contrast, you hop into a game and you have something you need to do. You know how to do it. You can do and achieve something in a reasonable amount of time, seeing progress as you go. There is never a moment (generally speaking) where you feel like you are wasting time or not achieving anything - at least in a game you are engaged in - and that is incredibly satisfying in a way that's hard or infrequently achieved in real life.

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It's true, because man does not find meaning in leisure, only in work. Ora et Labora as the monks used to say. Video games give you a false sense of progress and labor. Its why gambling are so addictive, because it is not pure recreation but it more closely resembles work, especially insofar as that you can make rent money.

So, take it one step further:

What's "not false" about our progress and labor in the middle and upper-middle class?

The bank can decide to repossess your house or car if you miss payments, medical bills can wipe out everything you have and destroy your credit, the police can decide at random to screw you and ruin all of the progress you've made. If you don't make rent, or you just get gentrified, what "progress" have you made?

There's a deeper illness here.

>"There's a deeper illness here."

I look forward to the day someone can discover it, and describe it.

Matt 6:25.

But why do that, when we can just write a really dramatic comment on HN to try and sound insightful?

Do you want to explain how there is, in fact, no fair comparison between the temporary progress in games and the often temporary progress in life? Do you want to explain how the arbitrariness of games is somehow not mirrored by the real world?

Or do you just want to sound like some snarky nit on a message board?

My comment was directed at the reply to your post. The fact that life is often transitory, arbitrary, and often downright empty is a defining theme of art & literature, and one of the most consistently studied topics throughout history, so I find nothing insightful about the comment in question. The poster makes it sound like he/she has been the first person to ever notice this.

"Or do you just want to sound like some snarky nit on a message board?" That was the idea, yes.

Ah, alright. Carry on, then.

To show support to what the parent posted, and display consensus on the subject.

But why do that, when I can just write a really snarky comment on HN to try and sound superior.

Enjoyed this comment and the one prior very much, and this note is as much to myself as you, because I know this feeling, and I don't like it.

>What's "not false" about our progress and labor in the middle and upper-middle class?

- Helping people, people we know, people we don't, for money and for free, coworkers, lovers, family. Helping them meet the ordinary demands of their lives, large and small - seeing the smile on their face when you help one of their problems go away. Buying someone a coffee, holding the door open; helping them move, with that spreadsheet. With that printer. Asking them how they're doing. (Personally I love buying people gifts, particularly of food. If enjoying a good meal isn't 'progress', I don't know what is!)

-Discovering and learning! Exploring the known and unknown world through reading, contemplation, and discovery, both on the job and otherwise. (Which is my favorite).

>The bank can decide to repossess your house...

I call this sort of thing "winning the shit lottery". There are a million ways to "win", and both nature and other people are constantly drawing from a bowl that has your name in it. But: realize that some of these negative outcomes (particularly the worst of them) are only possible because of erstwhile success. E.g. you don't get your heart broken unless you've been in love, and you don't get your house taken unless you once owned a house. Whenever you build something, you are entering another ticket in the shit lottery!

Anger at the shit lottery is very dangerous because it's easy to get wrapped up in the anger, the indignity, the feeling of helplessness, the sense of unfairness - and it's a strange feeling because it's at odds with our everyday life, which is usually pretty good because no single individual wins the shit lottery that often (at the very least because it's hard work to enter).

Okay, I was debating whether to write about this last thing, but a couple years back at a meditation retreat the overarching pointlessness of our society hit me like a ton of bricks. What is this we are doing, building things only to consume them in the fires of either vapid consumerism or these new strange, horrible, antiseptic, invisible wars? Do we work for the glory of our religion? Or our nation? Or ourselves? It struck me then that the only possible justification for any of this is if one day mankind grows enough in knowledge and power to spread life beyond earth. (And if that's just not physically possible, then we would do worse than to intentionally revert our society to Quaker-level technology and just...enjoy life.)

Helping people, exploring, fighting injustice, aspiring to discover or create new worlds. I'd say that's an enjoyable life, and real progress. Don't be distracted by the shit lottery, or other people's goals, however short-sighted. Know that you are right, and they are wrong, and maybe one day they'll get it.

HTH, angersock.

> In contrast, you hop into a game and you have something you need to do. You know how to do it. You can do and achieve something in a reasonable amount of time, seeing progress as you go. There is never a moment (generally speaking) where you feel like you are wasting time or not achieving anything - at least in a game you are engaged in - and that is incredibly satisfying in a way that's hard or infrequently achieved in real life.

I feel this way doing simple physical labor. If it paid even nearly as well, I'd probably be happier doing landscaping or wall framing or something like that than programming.

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