Life Before Lift: Gaymer edition

Nostalgia and guilt thread:

>Remember when you were younger and played video games all the time and got 1000 hours of that one special game on steam, remember how proud you felt so you added more to it? Remember all those awesome trick-shots, kill-streaks, high-scores, awesome moments, etc?

^Now think of how disgusted you are in yourself for using up 41 whole days(do the math(1000/24)) of your life staring at a screen developing sedentary related issues such as weight gain, Low test, lack of social skills, gyno, depression, perverse/deranged thought patterns, zero physical fitness, brain fog, etc^

>Remember that first time hearing the word Porn? thinking "what's that?", doing a google search and destroying your life, numbing your senses and comprehension for the next 5-10 years because society told you it was healthy and normal.

I fucking hate myself for having wasted all of my childhood a worthless nobody that destroyed his development and made himself into a loser. Only in the past year with Nofap, Nutrition, Knowledge and Fitness do I feel like a worthwhile human again but can never truly forgive myself for being so degenerate.

Porn and Videogames are escapes from discipline, we no longer have to seek entertainment or pleasure, it's at our fingertips, there's no "seek" anymore with rewards it's just "do".

If you still play videogames or watch porn just fucking quit already, it's a decision I promise you won't regret.

Shut up loser. Ain’t nothing wrong with playing an hour of Madden after my all day shift at work.

The reality is that when you're playing videogames, you're getting little hits of dopamine each time you receive a reward. Humans have made evolution our bitch, and we've basically tricked our hardcoded reward system into giving us good feels whenever we want it to.

At a glance this seems like a bad thing, but I bet your ass that when you're playing videogames you're experiencing feelings of competence, autonomy and relatedness - all constructs of a flashy thing called 'self determination theory' (SDT). Fulfilling the psychological needs of SDT is heavily interlinked with wellbeing. Even when you're wasting time, you're being efficient.

I can for the most part guarantee that most people's survival isn't being directly threatened by playing videogames. The people who are chosing to play videogames are just embracing hedonistic principles. There's many a philosopher that would happily argue that maximizing happiness is the true meaning of life.

If playing games makes you happy, just keep doing it.

Video games made me more disciplined honestly, I was a faggot who used to quit whenever a challenge I couldn't easily beat faced me. Then I bought Street Fighter 4 years ago and all of that changed because I felt motivated to overcome obstacles and train to become better at something. That directly translated over to fitness.

Just like everything video games are fine in moderation, you don't want to spend 12 hours a day straight lifting weights just like you don't want to spend 12 hours a day playing games

fuck you, playing WoW is one of my best memories, i still listen to the TBC soundtrack to help study

>Remember that first time hearing the word Porn? thinking "what's that?", doing a google search

Shit how fucking young are you? AOL wasn't even around when I saw my first playboy.

College

>those 4am vidya skype sessions with friends
>all that laughter and fun
>start exercising
>slowly playing less
>end up studying more
>working more
>socialising more
>do better in life

Lifting sorted out my life but i still think back on those days where i would wake at 3pm after playing vidya with friends all night. The fun i had those nights ill never forget. When im out with friends until 3am and i wake up at 6am because my body is now the fucking terminator who has no concept of sleep only lift/run/work/cycle/clean/swim i cant help but miss the 10hrs of sleep id get after doing fuck all the entire night except stare at a screen.

Lifting sorted out my life in almost every way but i dont think its bad to look back on the fun i had.

So you're telling me playing video games and watching porn releases dopamine in my brain? Which makes me feel happy? And I shouldn't be doing it? Why? In the end, whatever you pursue in life, it's that shot of pleasure hormone you are after. Why take the long say around?

Really makes you think huh

Dopamine makes you feel everything is going good and makes you instantly seek more of it, leading to distractions and lethargy.

Hey I just bought Black Flag on sale.
It seems okay.

You seem pretty obsessed with this subject OP, I think you'd do well to seek some more balanced thought patterns.

I'm not it just came to me cause Today I relapsed on Nofap and saw some videogame shit for a few minutes on youtube and felt worthless

Don't worry after you get a little older you'll learn that you can do things in moderation without getting completely obsessed with something.

I still play strategy games from time to time because they're stimulating, but otherwise have completely dropped vidya and started working out/going outside, etc. I can't even think of a game I've truly enjoyed since BF3 and having that be the pinnacle of my gaming "career" made me question whether I had ever even been interested in it in the first place.

Video games were the shit when i was a kid, it's like i was really in that world. They got boring by my late teens, once your imagination slips games just become another shitty habit. If they felt the same as they did when i was a kid I'd still be playing them and having the best time ever

Sad how we can’t lose ourselves in those worlds as much anymore

same but with dark souls, i grew into craving challenges

There isnt anything wrong with that, but a lot of people who play games do it for hours on end, especially the Veeky Forums dwelling types

>tfw you spend literally 14k hours in CS

fucking kill me

this

last time I enjoyed something was when fucking Oblivion came out

>Videogames are escapes from discipline

Depends on when they're played and what kind of game. A brainless skinnerbox mmo is not the same as a good puzzle game

novidya: 146
noporn: 3

I would watch anime and play vidya all day
I would browse /v/ and stuff
I would sit on my couch all day and be so lazy that I would only eat when I was starving
Now I can't even play video games anymore. It hurts because I want to but everytime I start one up I think of how much is NOT being done and I quit
I miss being able to just play my Xbox one man

>I think of how much is NOT being done

Of all the hobbies I could have picked I chose the most fucking useless one. Wouldnt have stung half as bad if vidya conferred even a small skill applicable in the outside world. Over a decade of that shit and I can do what? Flick my wrist with some accuracy? Fiddle with elaborate button sequences on a controller?

I know
I read now but ever day I look over and see that black box or see the classic fallouts on my pc and I get the nostalgia feeling only to just end up disappointed

So playing vidya makes you feel worthless but shitposting on Veeky Forums doesn't?

Yeah because at least on Veeky Forums I can give people advice on lifting
You think in Rainbow 6 I can give life advice without being called a weirdo

tfw haven't gamed since March

Don't even feel like gaming anymore desu

You think people on either platform care what you think?

Maybe

brb booting up Black Flag

videogames are no different to any other hobby so long as you're not playing MMO, mindless multiplayer or skinner box garbage
sit yourself down with a few hours of indie trash like shovel knight and tell me that's a waste of time, it's fucking fun, engaging and a legitimate challenge
porn is a waste though, agreed

>tfw I could have spent 20,000 hours on learning an instrument or studying rather than playing videogames

I guess I'll drown out my regret by playing more videogames

>tfw Dentist

Thank you based vidya

Trying to forget about all the years Ive wasted and am powerless to change. Focus on the present. But regret keeps bubbling up. Get a bit green with envy seeing accomplished, efficient, hyper motivated guys younger than I. Know they're petty, ugly feels but they won't stop buzzing around in my head.

This is fucking stupid.
You know what else releases dopamine?
Working out.
How is vidya any worse than normies that spend the entire day on netflix?

You didn't waste thousands of hours on vidya because they are evil. You wasted it because you were a piece of shit that had no discipline. If you still can't play vidya or watch porn without relapsing into wasting your life, you haven't changed at all.

I'm 20 and I've been looking at porn on the web since I was 7 years old. I started masturbation really early at around age 3 because touching my peepee made it feel good.

Don't be such a hedonist. The greatest pleasures in life require acceptance of responsibility and a lot of effort. Not that a couple hours of Vidya here and there is a bad thing.

I don't regret those games, because during the time; they were the best.
>pic related
what I played a ton of.

I'm actually pretty okay with having played video games in the past. Mostly good games like Civ III, Alpha Centauri, Dwarf Fortress, Creatures 3. Made me obsessed with computers, now I'm getting a master's degree in CS/AI at Stanford and looking at a six-figure starting salary and a chance to build humanity's successors. I'm happy I'm not like my high school classmates who spent their time on muh socializing and muh sports.

Really wish I never started watching porn or anime though. Also I need to stop browsing this fucking meme website.