Video games used to take up some amount of energy and have some addicting potential, but they would only get so involved.
Modern gaming, however has become a nearly limitless intellectual blackhole to waste the mental energies of the most mentally gifted. Just looking at all the options for hardware alone is staggering.
Here is a video discussing just one feature of modern graphics cards. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQotCxIA7Yk Just one of many and it already feels like a college course to understand this stuff properly.
Some games, like Smash Brothers Melee, have such a depth of lore and game mechanics that it feels like you need a PhD to become good at the game. There are people nerding out on custom built controllers and analysis of game mechanics as if they were building the Space Shuttle. All for something that isn't going to pay them almost anything and has little benefit to society.
I wonder how many of these people end up getting their lives together only to major in theoretical physics, another waste of time and resources. At least they will be getting paid, but society will reap almost 0 rewards from their activities.
Endless stat crunching RPG games where you have to follow a meta to maximize your characters.
They are the most pointless
There were some decent educational games in the 80’s and 90’s. Math Blaster was fun and educational. Even games like Tetris, and other puzzle games helped hand-eye coordination and problem solving.
The way the Japanese played Older games was with no save-states/passwords over and over and over to beat it. So it widened attention-span, increased pattern recognition, and taught perseverance, dedication, etc.
This all changed when testing Super Mario Bros. 2 (aka lost levels) on American audiences. The kids said it was too hard, and they didn’t want to put in the work to get better. So nintendo took an already existing Japanese game called Doki Doki Panic and just stuck in mario character sprites. In Japan, they released it as “American Mario” or something like that.
That being said, I fucking love that game.
I will disagree with no value to society. The way things are going, more computer skills will be needed. Personally I have no desire to sit in front of a computer screen all day, but there's a value to doing that job. I do believe most video games are designed to waste people's time and energy. The same could be said with sports and theatre. It's a long standing position for government to waste people's time. Many years ago I read "History of the Habsburg Jews" (link for reference). https://iupress.org/9780253206497/a-history-of-habsburg-jews-16701918/
I believe it's on page 52 or 53 that references how sports and theatre were used to waste people's time. Most things are the way they have been for many generations. It's good to identify the current processes employed and try to avoid the traps.
I think that software that enables users to DEVELOP their own games would be a better addiction for game nerds.
That way you could utilize creativity, create your own games that aren't woke, perhaps team up on projects.
So if someone could promote some affordable gameplay development software tools then it could be turned into a more positive hobby.
Right now, seems video game development is too monopolized and centralized. Decentralize it. Just like anyone with a home computer and audio interferace can now have their own home audio recording studio for just a thousand dollars, seems that people should be able to turn their workstations into video game development system.
sounds like model trains from the time before computers
or wargaming on a tabletop
or a myriad of other pre-internet hobbies
What benefit has society reaped from your hobbies?
The benefit of living a healthy productive life and not spending thousands of hours in fantasy land/metaverse. Men who are addicted to fantasies and waste too much time in recreational activities cannot be trusted to follow their duties in society. They are weak and everyone suffers, including themselves.
And you spent all those thousands of hours where instead? At the pub? Watching tv? Building models? Staying late to increase your boss’ annual bonus? Reading books? Running for local office? Fighting for your race?
I've wasted time too but generally I spend it much more productively, yes. I played games too and still get the urge and download some old game but if it starts sucking me in for more than a few hours I just uninstall it. It's not just games but TV, social media, pron or anything designed to waste your time, pacify you and make you apathetic to real life. It's not worth it.
That's not the question. My hobbies don't take up massive amounts of my brain power, nor should they. That's a level of dedication reserved for work or a higher calling (i.e something productive).