Video Games vs. Martial Arts

[Appledog]

What if you had to give up video games?

I like to play video games, even at my age. I consider myself a gamer. I am gamer generation. AM2 and AM4 have more than one song on my playlist. But I spend too much time playing games, way too much, and while it was fine before a demarcation line has arisen.

So, what is it that we get from video games?

1. A sense of accomplishment and personal development -- leveling up, building your character.
2. Learning new things -- exploring the world, learning about the game, best ways to do things, etc.
3. Social interaction -- talking to people online, hearing people, kidding around, doing activities together, being serious together
4. A place in society -- kind of like a combination of all of the above, it's a group, it's a society.

I found it trivial to walk away from video games when I realized that martial arts was all of the above and more.

1. I got a sense of accomplishment when I developed my own skill in martial arts. It took a long time but I am now definitely miles ahead of a beginner, at least in certain areas. For example now when I apply a technique I do not need to finish the technique to get a result. Now that I have seen and experienced that yes, I am in fact getting this from martial arts, why do I need to get it from video games too? I can let it go.

2. Learning new things. Well there's always something new to learn! Here at the ripe old age of almost fifty I just learned lien bu quan and gong li quan for the first time in my life. I don't like these forms very much but it's nice to learn new things. And forget "new" new, there's always delving deeper into what I already know, which is also equally if not more fulfilling. So if I am having so much fun learning new things -- and teaching is also a joy -- then why do I need video games to occupy more time in my life than martial arts? Well, I found out I didn't.

3. Social interaction. Wow -- we have so much fun in the mornings going out and talking while we practice. Joking around together, being serious together, "These guys, I'll remember them my whole life".. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2HOhvFSlVs). If I, we, get so much fun and reward and make so many friends and accquaintances ("use wushu for making friends") then why do I need to get on discord and talk to people who are, to sum it all up, not worth talking to? That social interaction is not really social interaction so martial arts has this covered too.

4. As a group or society, martial arts seems to be better. The people are better and the relationships are better. By better I mean it's easier to be who you are (to know your role). To fit in and improve within that structure. For people who are looking for a group, martial arts is way better than something like video games, or whatever the kids are into these days. (Werewolves and pokemons. I don't mean toy pokemons. Don't look it up, you'll thank me.) Plus martial arts has the best movies and dare I say it, video games. It's great conversation material.

The relationships I developed in martial arts stayed with me for as long as I can remember but in video games things are too transient. I think it is high time I take that few hours each day and spend it together with my family. Doing kung fu

Join me this year! in 2023, the year of the Rabbit, to make a "super bunny leap" into the future!

New Years Resolution: Practice kungfu for 1 hour of video game time (the first hour you would have played). Then you can play if you really want to.

[origami_itto]

You know i have to agree. Whenever I've gotten hard-core into gaming it's been as a retreat from my real life. Martial/cultivation arts on the other hand help me get into and live my life.

I just wish more people understood and you could engage them, or that the ones that do understand weren't so cagey and combative.... Insecure maybe?

It's a sign of a developed mind to be able to consider an idea without accepting is as your truth.

To weigh it and give it free play...

[everything]

You should try team sports while you’re young enough.

Even more dimensions. Perhaps less individual cultivation (although it depends).

[KongFuGongFu]

Agreed... I was practically raised on video games as a sort of retreat from real life. Video games gave me a sense of accomplishment and social group (although I wasn't super well-connected or sociable) as well as a kind of control I wasn't getting in real life.

It also helped me develop some pretty terrible body habits Sitting crossed legged, hunched over in front of a TV screen 10 hours a day can't be good for anyone.

But while video games do provide a kind of refuge I think physical sports, or martial arts, can be healthier in different ways, not just physical. Sports are just games and all, but video games are some kind of crazy psychological engineering. People get lost in fantasy worlds. I think MGS2 touched on it pretty well... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKl6WjfDqYA . In Martial Art we have our own problems with fantasy worlds. Nobody is totally out of the woods in regards to delusions or character imbalances in any social sphere and we all know about the problems in the world of Neigong "grandmasters" etc. However, good character seems to be somewhere in the consciousness of martial arts teachers. It's hard to avoid. In video games they have rules against abusive conduct but it's not hard to get around it, and people love doing it...

One reason we find some kind of solace in these groups is because we feel more confident within them. But confidence is not always based on solid grounds. I've seen the most "healthy" confidence in BJJ schools, probably because everything's pretty "real" and down to earth. Conversely in some of the TMA schools I've seen, confidence seems to come more from asserting power over other people and getting fancy uniforms, inflicting pain on others etc. In video games it can come from developing a very specific and potentially limited skillset and position on a leaderboard which might exist for only several years. Then what?

One thing about martial arts practice is that it opens you up to do work in general. It's physical labor. Movement is part of life. But if you're a hardcore gamer like Cartman in South Park you might be asking your mom to bring the bathroom to you. Not to generalize though. I have some gamer friends who are quite physically active and self-motivated. But their motive for gaming isn't necessarily the same as a gaming recluse's.