What I Learned Playing Video Games 30 Hours A Week

A couple weeks ago, I embarked on an experiment. After hearing from several people around me that I needed to take more time to relax, I decided to purchase a gaming computer and start gaming again.

And since I work for myself, there was no one to stop me. For two weeks, I played video games 30 hours a week. It was more of a job than my actual job. And after writing frequently about how bad video games can be for you, this was a big change. Here’s what I learned.

The Bad

The more you sit, the more lethargic you feel

When we’re kids, we think that the key to feeling energized is to rest. After all, kids frequently get overtired running around and need a bit of a nap.

For adults, though, it’s different. We often spend too much time sitting — at our jobs, at the bar with our friends, in the car while running errands — and the end result is that our muscles turn to flab.

The less you work, the less you want to work

When I started playing video games, I could easily write for three hours and read for three hours each day. After sixty hours of video games, though, reading and writing is hard. Writing for even one hour tires out my little typing hands, and reading a book for half an hour feels like an exertion. I also feel less interested in whatever it is I am reading, after spending all that time getting high-fidelity stimulation piped directly into my brain.

My brain became addicted to stimulation again

I’d been making some progress with my meditation practice. Fewer thoughts floated through my mind during meditation, and those that did were easier to bat away.

Gaming interfered with this progress. After gaming for six hours in a row, sitting to meditate wasn’t just difficult, it was mind-bending. Even the act of sitting on the cushion made my body feel distorted and weird. My mind was a cacophony of sensation.

And as for other stimulation: my little brain wants to binge-watch televsion and Youtube videos all the time. This is a major departure from the reading and writing I usually spend my time doing.

The Good

It reminds you you aren’t that important

Busy people often feel like they can’t take even a few hours off. Before my video game binge, I was one of those people. But I took sixty hours off, and guess what? Nothing happened. I sent out two newsletters that only had one or two articles for the week, and that was it. The fact that nothing happened was a great reminder to me that the world can get along just fine without me.

This is true no matter who you are. Even the President isn’t that important — if the president dies, the vice president steps up to take his place. The pope can be replaced by one of his archbishops. No matter how important you are, you are not so important that the world literally can’t function without you.

It helps your mind reset

When you spend all your time trying to solve the problems of your life, your life can begin to seem overwhelming. It can feel like no matter which way you look, there’s a problem that needs solved.

After sixty hours of gaming, though, my problems didn’t seem that overwhelming. In fact, they didn’t seem like a big deal at all. They just felt like another mission in Far Cry. That level of detachment made it a lot easier for me to tackle them in a healthy manner.

This isn’t trivial. If we spend all our time with our nose to the grindstone, it’s easy for us to feel stressed and overwhelmed. Playing video games enables us to get some distance from our lives, distance that gives us perspective. It becomes easier to manage our emotions, and in turn, easier to solve our problems.

After this video game binge, I did not continue to play video games at such an extreme rate. I quickly went back to only playing for one or two hours a week. But on par, I’m glad I took this break. It showed me how important time off can be.

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