No one spent all day, or stayed up into the wee hours of the night, playing board games. You get tired of them after a while, and you put them away. People didn't propose a "Professional Monopoly league" where people spend 12+ hours a day playing Monopoly to become absolute masters of the game and then competing professionally. People would have laughed at you.

But today, you DO have professional video gaming. People play the games 16 hours a day like Olympic athletes to become masters, and then compete professionally. So playing THESE kind of games like an 80-hour-a-week full time job is a thing!

Video games aren't any different than other games.  Technology just upped the ante and created an environment where $ could be made, the games involved more social/team work, and thus, games are played all day long.


Back in the day, there were professional poker players who played (professionally) all hours of the day.  You also had chess clubs, and professional chess players who played 12+ hours of the day (i.e. Bobby Fisher).

The main difference is that technology has allowed more of a social aspect and the internet has expanded the pool/variety of games which can be played.  And betting has increased the $ available to be made.

OP here, yesterday I played for 3 hours, today 5.5 hours, first time in over year. Honestly I was bored playing, as if I was playing the game for the sake of playing the game. The annoying thing about many modern video games is that you can't just play for 1 hour and get much done in the game. But thinking about my experience in the last 2 days I was definitely not enjoying myself playing, maybe minecraft would be have more enjoyable but I felt like gaming was just a chore.

I will say, I didn't have work on those days and I did do all my prayers + religious readings and attended mass so despite spending a decent chunk of time on a video games I still did the important stuff. Now I am starting to wonder if novels/movies/tv shows are also a waste of time? Perhaps they are more enjoyable due to the story content and they take less time than video games but I am not sure how I will spend my 'free time' as I don't enjoy most things.

2 Vanity of vanities, said Ecclesiastes vanity of vanities, and all is vanity.
3- What hath a man more of all his labour, that he taketh under the sun  [Ecclesiastes 1:2-3]

I used to read a lot of manga in the past but dropped them after becoming religious. I supposed 'picture novels' are just an easy consumption, and many have sci-fi/fantasy/pagan elements. And most movies and tv shows are Jєωιѕн crap so they certainly don't interest me anymore. I used to enjoy a good fictional story but i'm not sure if I can 'get into it' anymore.

Speaking to my confessor he recommended that I limit myself to 1 hour a day with the max being 2 hours. However I don't think I will be able to do this, so I am just going to quit games altogether.

I gave up video games in my late 20s because even those games became boring for me and because I got married and it seemed silly to me to continue to do that as a married man. I was a lukewarm N.O. catholic at the time, if I could even call myself that.

Video games trap you in a constant search for the latest and greatest game where you pushing the boundary a bit more each time. So I got rid of my gaming console and if I ever played a video game was by going to an arcade place and the distance to it and the cost of the tokens to play the games were enough to deter me from spending too much time or doing it very often. Additionally, going to the arcade place reinforced that uncomfortable feeling of "being too old" to do something because at the arcades you would be alongside little kids and due to uncomfortable feeling, it becomes a necessity to leave those games behind.

Imagine yourself playing cops and robbers or tag with kids who are not your kids; and if you think about it, that is what you are doing online with the multi-player games, most of the other players are just kids. While on your gaming console in the comfort of your own home, you do not get that perspective (of seeing yourself still playing with other children).  Eventually, I completely lost interest in video games and found healthy hobbies that took the place of video games.

Going to sleep I had strong resolutions, now upon awakening I am heavily tempted to limit my self to 1-2 hours a day... I can see why my confessor said that even if I delete everything that 'people always find a way to get it back'. I am heavily conflicted, perhaps if I was married I wouldn't have this issue but I am no where ready for that. I don't agree, this is apple vs oranges here. Many modern games have a high skill ceiling and you would be surprised perhaps even shocked how many adults play video games, the age group would perhaps depend on the game. Arcades and games like tag with other people's children are a different thing altogether, however I will still play similar things with my nieces and nephews...