“At its best, entertainment is going to be a subjective thing that can’t win for everyone, while at worst, a particular game just becomes a random symbol for petty tribal behavior.” – John Carmack

Video games are typically something that myself, and other manosphere writers, mock and dislike. Going through my older posts I found plenty of moments where I knocked gaming. The general stance has been, from what I can tell, one where video games, like television or My Little Pony, is detrimental to overall masculinity.

While I agree that consumer activities are generally bad, I think that there’s a fine line between being a passive consumer and being a participant. The world is a pretty ambiguous place and few things are as binary as they seem. Here are a few examples to help illustrate my point:

Reading

As much as I love reading, I believe that there is a diminishing point of return. If you spent 40 hours a week reading about business or lifting without ever doing either, then you’re wasting your time. I have a major beef with a lot of nerds and intellects because they can never put there concepts into practice. Sitting around and reading books without actually implementing anything is the middle class yuppie equivalent to eating Doritos and playing Halo all day.

Politics

Like reading, this is essentially something that’s okay in small doses but becomes wasteful after a while. I know plenty of reasonable and intelligent people who have an unhealthy obsession with politics. Normal grown men who practically suffer brain aneurysms every time there’s a new bill or law put into effect. I’ve even been to perfectly sane social functions that disintegrated into fighting once politics got brought up.

Going out

I’m a firm believer in the fact that going out can be a huge waste of time and money. Hitting up bars and clubs in search of girls is a lot like playing poker. Even if you have a lot of skill, you’re still at the house’s mercy. I spent the last two months inside because it was well below zero and Iowa had snow storms almost every week. Call me beta and buy me a purse, but I had no interest in getting hypothermia to attend a sausagefest. Going out every weekend, even when there’s a good chance that you’ll just be wasting money, is unproductive and an easy way to get burnt out. During the month of March I went out almost every night of the week. I could have skipped three of those nights and the only thing it would have affected was my bank account.

While don’t think that playing video games should be the only thing that you do, I don’t see the harm in moderate indulgence. Additionally I’m making a game , not just playing one, so there is a difference right there alone. Assuming you aren’t overindulging, I don’t see a major problem with having a hobby like playing games.

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