Are video games STS?

[YinYang]

For me, the distraction is also a biggie, if you consider this:

During the first, shall we say, perhaps 150 to 200 of your years as you measure time, a mind/body/spirit complex is going through the process of a spiritual childhood. The mind and the body are not enough in a disciplined configuration to lend clarity to the spiritual influxes. Thus, the remaining time span is given to optimize the understandings which result from experience itself.

Questioner: Then at present it would seem that our current life span is much too short for those who are new to third-density lessons. Is this correct?

Ra: I am Ra. This is correct. Those entities which have, in some way, learned/taught themselves the appropriate distortions for rapid growth can now work within the confines of the shorter life span. However, the greater preponderance of your entities find themselves in what may be considered a perpetual childhood.

I also loved playing Oblivion and Skyrim, but I was quite aware of the addictive nature of it, in addition to the effect it had on my mind. It's so addictive to me that I would cancel a get together with friends! It would even surface in my dreams at night. I never played again after that, my feeling has mostly been that its a thief of very precious time, and a distraction (aside from all the other things mentioned in this thread). I also found it had a very suggestive / mind control quality to it. Your own advancement becomes so important, but the longer you play, the more evil you have to become to advance (necromancy, black magic and what not), aside from the copious amounts of killing stronger and stronger opponents, not to mention the fear component, which is ever present.

I am one of those "all in" type people, never moderation, so I have turned my back on computer games many moons ago, although I value having had the experience, for the self knowledge aspect of it, but you've seen one, you've seen 'em all, and I feel that competition is prototypical of the left hand path, and we are dancing thoughts in a ballroom with no material. Thoughts are things.

How we spend our days is how we spend our lives - Annie Dillard

Our society has devised every possible distraction to keep people from being with themselves, in silence. Even Facebook I give more or less a miss nowadays, after realising I sometimes feel so bleh after scrolling through my timeline. Aside from the fact that it has become Babybook, they even did mood manipulation experiments. It's just a handy tool when your phone gets stolen, to retrieve all those numbers! And I have my groups I belong to on "see first", so I never scroll far down.