guitar hero/rockband: waste of time? you decide!

every addiction should be avoided? i am not a saint, but neither is anyone else. every person on this planet is addicted to pleasure for the self, that is why we are here in the first place, to learn from these types of things. and in the future i will keep the culture issues in mind. however i did state that it was a joke not to be taken seriously in any form or fashion. and do not forget, in some alternate reality, we are all a bunch of preying mantis's who eat little children, so don't think you're better than me, i'm a unique individual like everyone else, and my wants and needs are going to be different from someone else, i am where i am because that's where i am, don't consider this an attack on your character, i appreciate the honest critisicm, it helps me evaluate what i know. even if we are arguing, i believe this benefits us a great deal because we get to communicate what we learn with each other and learn more lessons in less time, and learning is fun!

all in all, i don't even play videogames that much anymore, there's better, more constructive things to occupy my time with.
 
abstract said:
every addiction should be avoided?

well yes... eventually. And that depends on your aim in life. Even if your aim is to become more objective, and overcome the mechanical nature of your being, it is certainly not something that just happens overnight by magic. Even if, for the time being, one carries on doing the same old things, It is, however, useful to observe oneself, and see the 'justifying' inner talk that goes on when we continue with behaviours that are less than useful. In all these things, the first step to overcoming it, is simply to observe, without initially attempting to change things. In this way, we can start to see what part of our behaviour is driven by the false personality, and with continued observation (and an inner motivation to be different, to grow beyond it), it starts to feel 'different' and lose its power, perhaps. Well, that is my experience anyway.

abstract said:
i am not a saint, but neither is anyone else. every person on this planet is addicted to pleasure for the self, that is why we are here in the first place, to learn from these types of things. and in the future i will keep the culture issues in mind. however i did state that it was a joke not to be taken seriously in any form or fashion. and do not forget, in some alternate reality, we are all a bunch of preying mantis's who eat little children, so don't think you're better than me, i'm a unique individual like everyone else, and my wants and needs are going to be different from someone else, i am where i am because that's where i am, don't consider this an attack on your character, i appreciate the honest critisicm, it helps me evaluate what i know. even if we are arguing, i believe this benefits us a great deal because we get to communicate what we learn with each other and learn more lessons in less time, and learning is fun!

all in all, i don't even play videogames that much anymore, there's better, more constructive things to occupy my time with.

It sounds to me as though your self importance was punctured just a little bit by these comments on videogames. I could be wrong, of course. Again, this is very common, if not universal, and is not something that can be magically switched off, but it might be food for thought for you to do a little self-observation. We often use humor as a mask when this happens. Like many here, I was also quite heavily into videogames for a long time, and those little i's certainly didn't like it when I started to look at the situation a little more objectively - they kicked up a lot of 'justifying' fuss.
 
abstract said:
and do not forget, in some alternate reality, we are all a bunch of preying mantis's who eat little children, so don't think you're better than me, i'm a unique individual like everyone else, and my wants and needs are going to be different from someone else

As Nomad said, it comes down to your aim. What is your aim in life, what do you aim for? We have the choice of which face of God we want to manifest. We can choose to manifest the Destructive, or we can choose to manifest the Creative; of course, it doesn't happen overnight. But we can make that choice and aim for it, with efforts and discipline. We can also choose to remain in our default, STS state. Both choices are perfectly "valid". It comes down to what you want and what you choose, as an individual.
 
Hi abstract,

abstract said:
every addiction should be avoided? i am not a saint, but neither is anyone else. every person on this planet is addicted to pleasure for the self, that is why we are here in the first place, to learn from these types of things.

But isn't the point to move on? At a certain moment, one can distance oneself from the voice that justifies addictive or other negative behaviour by saying "Well, I am learning something from it." It is a very common voice! Geez, I have used that one more than once! ;)


and in the future i will keep the culture issues in mind. however i did state that it was a joke not to be taken seriously in any form or fashion. and do not forget, in some alternate reality, we are all a bunch of preying mantis's who eat little children,

Do you see that in the bolded phrase you are trying to justify yourself?

Yes, you did say it was a joke, but humour can be very revealing. It can be defensive. It can be cutting. It can be a deflection. It can be many things.


so don't think you're better than me,

Why would you think that anyone here thinks they are better than you? Might that reaction be part of how you have learned to protect yourself as you were growing up? And as such it is part of your false personality? A part that we all need to learn to identify and then overcome in order to allow our essence to shine?


i'm a unique individual like everyone else, and my wants and needs are going to be different from someone else,

Of course. But that can also become a justification to hang on to parts of ourselves that we might be better off letting go of.


i am where i am because that's where i am,

Of course. We're all where we are.


don't consider this an attack on your character,

Why would we consider anything you said so far as an attack?

Could it be that it is a basic programme in you to see others as attacking you? That you are very afraid of being attack, are even feeling a bit under attack, and so such feelings were active and present in you as you wrote this?

It is one of the most common defence mechanisms. I have it really bad myself. Hopefully you'll learn, as you participate more on the forum, that no one here is attacking -- at least not the members who have been here awhile. The moderators deal with people who come with the aim of attacking and making trouble.

You do not need to be on the defensive.


i appreciate the honest critisicm, it helps me evaluate what i know.

Yes, but it can also help us see ourselves, which is a greater gift than the simple evaluation of what we know.


even if we are arguing,

Well, you are the one who is interpreting the above as arguing. I don't see it that way, and I doubt the others do either.


i believe this benefits us a great deal because we get to communicate what we learn with each other and learn more lessons in less time, and learning is fun!

This seems to me to be deflection. That is, you move from your own feelings that are provoked by this exchange, from focusing on abstract himself, to focusing on the benefits to everyone from communicating. Certain feelings have been provoked in you by the exchange. You have become defensive and uncomfortable. Rather than looking at those feelings and where they come from, you side-step. You deflect this chance to see yourself and your programmes.

Now, this is very normal. It is our default way of responding in situations like this. Hopefully as you spend more time here and see that no one is here to attack you, you may be able to stop the deflection. That is the goal of the forum. To help us all see ourselves as others see us, as we really are, not as we think we are. We are trying, each of us, to see the defence mechanisms we have constructed, the programmes we run, these walls we hide behind to feel safe.

So welcome to the Work, abstract! :)

As you said, learning is fun!
 
...there's nothing more on this thread i got say that won't sound sarcastic, defensive, or narcassistic, ya'll hit the friggin' bullseye.
 
Hey, man, if we can see something, it is because we have been there ourselves!

And still go there on occasion! :shock:

But you won't find a safer, more supportive place to work on these issues.
 
I would like to jump in with my perspective on guitar hero/rock band. When I first saw guitar hero in the store I played it and thought it was an interesting game. I have been looking for things that can help with some brain balance issues that I have and I thought that possibly this game would be helpful in that regard. In the game you have to watch and use your left hand to hold down the fret buttons while you strum at the same time with your right hand in order to play the note. I thought that this would possibly increase my brain balance in order to use both hands at the same time. Also the game is fun and you can play music that you enjoy.

Yes I think that to practice all day and try to beat the game on expert is a waste of time but playing it every once in a while is okay. I find that it is a game that most people enjoy so it is a good way to connect with some people. My parents even enjoy rock band because of all the classic songs and we play the game together when we can. So I think it can be played to maintain strategic enclosure.

Also in rock band the drum set and microphone is included. When playing the drums in this game one can actually become good at playing the drums in real life(or so I hear). I personally have never played real drums very much but I have gotten fairly decent at the game. Also singing karaoke style can be really fun/funny when in a large group. Singing also stimulates the vagus nerve so it can be very relaxing also.

So I don't think the games are a complete waste of time if they are not taken seriously and are just used to have fun every once in a while. Not everyone wants to learn an instrument but many would like to experience what it is like to be in a rock band. And I think this is as close as one can get. FWIW.

Addendum: Also I wanted to add that this is a rare game that you have to work together in order to win and you can save others who fail. It encourages people to help each other out and it becomes like working on a team. In most other games it is always a competition and people fight over who is more dominant at the game. So I think this is an interesting aspect of these games.
 
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