In addition, I’ve always thought that video games work the way we were told the world worked. (At least, the way we were told it worked in the 90s in America.) Work hard to get some resources so that you can use those resources to build more stuff to get more resources, etc.
Kids today can work as hard as they want, only to still have no chance of paying for college and still have no chance of buying a house. Video games at least provide that “strategy -> effort -> reward -> next level” cycle that our brains find very rewarding, which, for far too many people, does not exist in real life.
That’s probably what makes modern games so disappointing, too. Games were one area that actually was a meritocracy… until pay-to-win messed that up.
One of my big eye opener was 20 years ago. I worked at a university and was talking to a student about high school type part time jobs like fast food and he was like those are impossible to get and im like whaaa. I proceeded to tell him that when I was in high school. If you went to a fast food place, asked for an application, and filled it out. Whelp you were pretty much guaranteed to have it accepted. Im like that is why beavis and butthead work at one. If you show up on time and not in an inpaired state then you would get a raise and they would continue to give you small ones that would add up over time (nickle here and there) and a bump if you took a shift supervisoror something. After talking with him I realized that when I go to those places they have mostly adults working them now. I only ever see teenagers working at local mom and pop places mostly now. The thought of actually having to compete for the crappiest of jobs makes me realize how bad it is now.
This article brings up a great point.
In addition, I’ve always thought that video games work the way we were told the world worked. (At least, the way we were told it worked in the 90s in America.) Work hard to get some resources so that you can use those resources to build more stuff to get more resources, etc.
Kids today can work as hard as they want, only to still have no chance of paying for college and still have no chance of buying a house. Video games at least provide that “strategy -> effort -> reward -> next level” cycle that our brains find very rewarding, which, for far too many people, does not exist in real life.
That’s probably what makes modern games so disappointing, too. Games were one area that actually was a meritocracy… until pay-to-win messed that up.
One of my big eye opener was 20 years ago. I worked at a university and was talking to a student about high school type part time jobs like fast food and he was like those are impossible to get and im like whaaa. I proceeded to tell him that when I was in high school. If you went to a fast food place, asked for an application, and filled it out. Whelp you were pretty much guaranteed to have it accepted. Im like that is why beavis and butthead work at one. If you show up on time and not in an inpaired state then you would get a raise and they would continue to give you small ones that would add up over time (nickle here and there) and a bump if you took a shift supervisoror something. After talking with him I realized that when I go to those places they have mostly adults working them now. I only ever see teenagers working at local mom and pop places mostly now. The thought of actually having to compete for the crappiest of jobs makes me realize how bad it is now.
My 12yo cousin knows what an idle game is but never heard of RPG. I’ve got some edumocating to do.
My 6 year old nephew loves minecraft like crazy. He doesn’t know Minecraft is a video game.