Seems like a topic I have seen a few places today, like over at MMO Melting Pot, is about people playing WoW and feeling as if they are being unproductive. They seem to be missing a point about gaming however that actually goes to show that in a way gaming, in this case playing WoW, is productive.
While I am willing to accept that too much of anything is a bad thing and there is a line, and that line is different for every person, gaming is not as bad a thing as people try to make it out to be.
Everyone needs to have something to stimulate the mind. The mind is like any muscle, it needs to be used or it will deteriorate. That alone makes playing WoW a productive thing in and of itself. It keeps the mind active and in many cases way more active then other common hobbies people choose to pass the time.
If someone watches three hours of prime time television a night, which actually is the number the average person watches, it is considered normal. Even if they watch 5 hours a day when you include some talk shows, or news shows or any other sort of entertainment it is considered fine.
I don't know about you as I can only speak for myself but I find playing a game that requires interaction a lot more mentally stimulating than watching TV.
Many studies have found that people that have hobbies in which they are actively using their mind have better mental health further into life. So exercising your mind playing WoW would indeed be a productive thing. Just like doing some exercise is good for your physical health and eating right is good for your medical health having an active hobby to stimulate your mind is good for your mental health.
Everyone wastes time during the day and most do not consider what they do unproductive. Watching TV, reading a book, going to the bar, going to the gym, fixing up old cars, posting auctions on ebay, etc, these are all things people might do on a daily basis. They are all things people do to relax, to unwind, to have some "my" time with.
How is it that you doing what you want to do with your "my" time is unproductive yet someone else doing what they want with their "my" time is productive?
As long as your hobby (WoW) does not interfere with your normal day to day life and responsibilities you are not being unproductive, you are just stimulating your mental health.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Not sure if you are familiar with the Nun study or not, http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/nunstudy/ but blogging and WoW can potentially help your brain way into the future. WoW engages you... if you read and write about it, even more so.
ReplyDeleteI think WoW is a very productive activity both from a social and entertainment perspective. I find raiding and PvP very stimulating and at times infuriating, lol
If someone feels like they are wasting their time, it probably has nothing to do with WoW but with how they view the world. They are probably projecting something they lack in their life.
But, you said it at the very begining of the post, excess on any activity can lead to bad stuff.. wow is no worse than anything else.
I also find very interesting that now contact sports are being looked at under a microscope because of the repeated blows to the head causing concussions that lead to some serious things down the road... who would have thought, the kids that play video games and not football for example, might live a better life down the road. I have a post brewing for my regular blog about this topic but I am trying to learn more about it before posting.
I think some people are suspicious of video games the way anything new seems scary, and if it is not something they do themselves it is seen as a waste, and they then say to game players " Oh, your hobby is a wast of time, stop interacting with that glowing rectangle and watch this one like all of us do, so you will be normal like us" perhaps it is some sort of insecurity.
ReplyDeleteAs someone with a brain injury that affected both my memory retention and ability to write/ type(I could speak fine after)I found games like WoW to have improved my ability to learn and retain stuff a great deal, and also making blog posts, made a big difference to better express myself in written word in a way I had pretty much given up on.( as in a blog post that would take me tree hours to write when I started now takes only one.)
So I agree games are not at all a waste of time.
As my gaming life has extended for over 50 years, starting with teaching myself how to play chess at 6 years old and going on through Avalon Hill board game and Strat-o-matic baseball season after season, through Sports Illustrated Football in a like manner, and a 15 year long Dungeons and Dragons Campaign, before starting to play a wide variety of computer games and ending up in WoW for the last seven years; I can verify from personal experience that gaming is and has been always within the definition of "odd behavior" to anyone not a gamer themselves. People who game understand the mental agility that the hobby brings; folks who don't, just simply don't get it. What I am glad of is how much gaming, regardless of the format, has become more widely accepted as a hobby pursued by literally millions of people. But I am not the least surprised that many still don't get it, and sad to say, likely never will.
ReplyDeleteAnon, Grumpy's GL