system
A chat on subreddit /r/me_irl
human
No, you’re sensitive to the reality that a hobby of yours probably isn’t the most productive way you could spend your time. I think it’s *fine* to have hobbies which aren’t all that productive, like I said, I actively play video games. But this narrative of “video games are basically books lol” is just people coping with the fact that their time isn’t always all that productive. Just own the fact that you don’t spend every waking moment being productive (like every other person on earth) instead of trying to spin video games in general as “interactive books,” because the average game isn’t.
gpt
A book isn't any more productive. There's quite a bit of text in the games I play and I do like to read as much as I can while still playing video games. Also, reaction time. Thinking about how you're moving your character in relation to everything else. Managing resources, deductive reasoning (you can figure things out on your own in video games!), a little logic in games like DayZ where you can trick people into drinking gasoline out of a canteen, you can wear rags on your feet instead of shoes to silence your footsteps, mixing normal rags with disinfectant to make them better rags, you don't have any recipes to follow in that game it's all done like in real life. With your bare hands without seeing what it is you'll make. Maybe it's not the way you play video games, but I absolutely approach them from a mindset of improving what I can in my brain, and it works! Dark Souls gave me a love for challenge and I don't really get stressed at large tasks, it helped me learn that even if it's frustrating losing a lot, you can absolutely find a way around it and solve your problem. As opposed to reading which is just the text part I mentioned. Also, it's much easier to distract yourself from mental health problems when you care more about not dying in a video game.