First I want to start with a couple of quotes I saw some users posting on the Steam forums:
User 1: The real problem that parts of society have with video games is that they feel entitled to your "lost productivity". All else is pretext.
User 2: Yep, you either work yourself in a dead end job, or somehow you're an inferior human being. Never got the logic, why is suffering normal?
User 1: Crab bucket effect. If one crab tries to escape the bucket, the others keep it in. If everyone is doing it, it must be right thing. Even if it's stupid.
I thought those were very interesting. This also goes along with the concept of "contributing to society". Even if a given job isnt REALLY accomplishing anything. As someone who doesnt work, I've frequently been told "YOU NEED TO GET A JOB! CONTRIBUTE TO SOCIETY!!! BLERGITY HERRRRGH!!!"
But here's the thing with that: I know, for a fact, that even taking a job such as a Walmart greeter would satisfy them. Know what a Walmart greeter does? Stand near the front door and repeat the words "Hello, welcome to Walmart" like a scarecrow with a broken record player shoved up it's butt. That's seriously it. They dont DO anything else, unless it's someone that is also tasked with security (rare).
That's an utterly useless job. I mean, useful... sort of... for the person that has the job in that they get money. But "contributing to society?" Absurd. Hell, alot of customers find it outright annoying. And frankly, I think it's quite demeaning to those that have to perform said job.
But "society" doesnt care. Because it was never about that. It was about following the herd mentality. Do what the hivemind commands. Do what everyone else does.
But also, they see gaming as a useless hobby. I often, at this point, explain the benefits that I myself have gotten from all my years of gaming. 1: I am *fast*. Very... very fast. I can mentally process things at a seriously abnormal speed. 2: Reflexes are equally fast. 3: Very coordinated. 4. Really good at logic and problem solving.
And that 4th one is particularly interesting: One problem with gaming as a whole, which hilariously is caused by industry leaders themselves (the blazing dolts) is that alot of non-gamers think that all games are OMG GUNZ GUNZ GUNZ GOTTA SHOOT ALL TEH DUDEZ because that's what advertisements show them. That it's all brainless violence. Mindless stupidity.
Here's something interesting though, just to illustrate a point:
This is Hyperrogue. Rather than me explain it and make it even more confusing than it already is, this is taken from it's site:
The twist is the unique, unusual geometry of the world: it is one of just few games which takes place on the hyperbolic plane. Witness a grid composed of hexagons and heptagons, straight lines which seem to be parallel, but then they diverge and never cross, triangles whose angles add up to less than 180 degrees, how extremely unlikely is it to reach the same place twice, and how the world seems to be rotated when you do return. All this matters for the gameplay. The game is inspired by the roguelike genre (although in a very minimalist way), works of M. C. Escher, and by puzzle games such as Deadly Rooms of Death.
With more space than anything Euclidean. The game dynamically generates new parts of the world as you move. No previous understanding of hyperbolic geometry is required -- actually, playing HyperRogue is probably the best way to learn about this, much better and deeper than any mathematical formulas. It is virtually impossible to get back to a place where you have been before, unless you go back exactly the same way. Show your true mastery of hyperbolic navigation by finding the Orb of Yendor, Holy Grail, rescuing the Prince(ss)!
HyperRogue has started as a small, weird technical experiment, but it turned out that hyperbolic geometry combined with basic roguelike rules makes for exceptionally great gameplay, even if you do not care about geometry! Further work improved the gameplay, but also turned HyperRogue into probably the most fully featured engine for truly non-Euclidean geometry in existence. Even if you do not care about roguelikes, roguelites and block puzzles, you can play the tutorial as an explorable explanation about hyperbolic geometry, use HyperRogue for research in applied hyperbolic geometry, or use the texture mode and vector graphics editor to create mathematical art. The possibilities are endless!
This is a game that uses a sort of geometry that cant *really* be shown on a monitor (or on anything). What is seen there is a simplified representation of it. This sort of geometry cant actually exist in our world, and frankly, our brains arent meant to process this stuff. Even despite that this is a game, on a 2D screen, there are players that genuinely cant play this. I dont mean it's too hard for them. I mean they get motion sickness simply from watching the player roam around the world, as everything twists and warps in ways that go against all logic that they're used to. And that's just basic movement and scrolling! It gets even more complicated as each of the game's 70-ish lands offer entirely unique gameplay mechanics that utilize that geometry to it's fullest, each producing a unique and constantly changing puzzle as the game escalates in difficulty the more you do in each land. And sometimes the content from these places combine and interact with each other, making things even crazier. There is some deeply bizarre stuff here. I would have a very, very hard time explaining it.
It is also one of my favorite games of all time. I have, I believe, about 300 hours in it. And yes, I'm really good at it.
That's just the gameplay though! What it mentions about learning and experimenting with geometry? Holy heck is there ALOT of that. You can do so, so much with it, and you can get it to do some freaking crazy things. Users who understand this stuff far better than I do have come up with some amazing things. It gets players genuinely INTERESTED in learning about freaking geometry. Non-Euclidean geometry, no less.
Is that the most complicated game out there? Ye gods, no. If you want another good example of "WTF am I even looking at", look up Dwarf Fortress. Good luck understanding what you're seeing there. That one might genuinely be THE most complicated game (and yes, I like that one too). Games like these, they really force the player to THINK and LEARN in order to get anywhere. Skills can be improved simply by playing them. And there are other games that go for other things. Some games for instance are more about calming the player, reducing anxiety, and just being a pleasant experience to unwind with. Some others (many VR things) could even have genuine therapeutic uses.
But according to the media, creative, interesting games like this dont exist! And that's one of the big problems that gaming as a whole faces. Alot of people never get even the slightest hint of the incredible possibilities that gaming as a whole can offer.
So, there, that's my thoughts on all this.
For anyone that's really into gaming: The next time someone tries to shame you for playing games... just ignore them. Because all they're doing is showing A: how little they know, and B: how embedded in the Hivemind they are.
There is so, so much more to it than what the general public thinks.
There, I'm done, you can all go back to your homes now, nothing more to see here.
Didn't they use games like that to train military or something? IDK somebody told me that once 
