10 Habits That Are Secretly Ruining Games For You

Summary

Mark Maxwell delves into the sneaky habits that can diminish your enjoyment of gaming, encouraging gamers to self-reflect and identify these habits in their own lives. He discusses ten common pitfalls ranging from juggling multiple games, not appreciating game beauty, to overindulging in competitive play. By understanding these habits and being mindful of them, gamers can enhance their gaming experience, finding more satisfaction and joy in their pastime. This video serves as both a personal reflection and a helpful guide for those looking to revive their passion for gaming.

Highlights

• Realizing that mindless gaming can lead to bad habits. Identifying these habits is the first step to change. 🎯
• The tendency to juggle multiple games can make you feel disjointed and unsatisfied. Play with intention! 📚
• Acknowledging that not every game needs to be finished if the joy is missing. Take control of your gaming journey! 🎮
• Emphasizing the beauty of games can enhance the experience – take some time to admire the art and sound. 🎨
• Mark discusses the importance of regulating gaming sessions to avoid dopamine addiction. Balance is key! ⚖️

Key Takeaways

• Gaming should be fun, not frustrating! Identify habits that might be ruining your enjoyment. 🎮
• We often juggle too many games, which leads to feeling unfulfilled. Focus on one (or a few) at a time! 🎲
• Don't feel pressured to complete every game. Sometimes it's okay to walk away! 🚶
• It's important to experiment with new play styles to keep the game exciting. Try wielding different weapons or characters! 🗡️
• Balance your gaming with other life activities to maintain a healthy dopamine level. ⚖️

Overview

Video games can be a realm of escape and joy, but as Mark Maxwell points out, certain habits can dampen this enjoyment. In his insightful video, Mark encourages self-reflection and awareness about how we interact with games. By pointing out ten common habits that may secretly ruin your gaming experience, he gives viewers a road map to not only identify these habits but also take actionable steps to overcome them.

One significant point Mark makes is the downside of juggling too many games at once. With so many video games available, it’s easy to flit between titles without fully committing to any. This behavior, he notes, diminishes the sense of satisfaction we receive from fully immersing ourselves in a single game world. By narrowing focus and appreciating the artistic beauty within games, players can elevate their experience.

Mark also stresses the importance of balancing life with gaming. He delves into the neuroscience of dopamine, explaining how overindulgence in gaming can lead to a decreased dopamine response over time. To maintain a healthy balance and the joy that comes with gaming, Mark suggests setting personal rules around when and how long to play, ensuring gaming remains a rewarding, not consuming, part of life.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction: Bad Habits in Gaming The chapter "Introduction: Bad Habits in Gaming" discusses how bad habits can form in unexpected areas of our lives, including video gaming. The author reflects on their personal experiences, viewing video games historically as a form of escapism, but realizing that this mindset might not be the best approach to truly enjoy gaming.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Formation of Bad Habits The chapter titled 'Formation of Bad Habits' discusses how mindless engagement with video games can lead to the development of bad habits. The narrator shares personal experiences of struggling with such habits over the years. These habits often go unnoticed and can gradually diminish the enjoyment derived from gaming. The chapter aims to help the audience recognize their own tendencies and habits in gaming.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Understanding the Habit Loop The chapter titled 'Understanding the Habit Loop' begins by highlighting the importance of recognizing the existence of a bad habit as the first step to overcoming it. It further explores the origin of bad habits, explaining that they form because our brains prioritize immediate rewards over long-term benefits, which are less tangible and harder to quantify. This tendency towards short-term gratification makes it tempting to repeat behaviors that provide immediate pleasure or relief from discomfort.
• 02:00 - 04:00: Habit 1: Juggling Too Many Games In this chapter, the focus is on how people often juggle too many tasks or commitments, akin to a gamer juggling multiple games. The author references James Clear's concept from 'Atomic Habits' known as the Cue-Craving-Response-Reward Loop. This is explained using a gaming analogy: when a player is save scumming (saving a game repeatedly to avoid loss), the cue is encountering a challenging or unpredictable situation, the craving is the need for safety and control, and the response is taking action to ensure that safety by constantly saving the game. The idea is to draw parallels between gaming behaviors and real-life habits.
• 04:00 - 06:00: Habit 2: Not Knowing When to Stop Playing The chapter titled 'Habit 2: Not Knowing When to Stop Playing' explores the concept of 'save scumming' in gaming. It describes the process of frequently saving progress in a game to avoid permanent consequences, allowing players to reload saves for desired outcomes. While this habit provides immediate relief, it can diminish the excitement and tension of the gaming experience over time. The chapter suggests a balance is needed to maintain the enjoyment and challenge of games.
• 06:00 - 08:00: Habit 3: Expecting to Win Immediately Chapter 3, titled 'Expecting to Win Immediately,' discusses the challenge the author faces in managing multiple video games simultaneously. The author believes we are in a golden age of gaming, with thousands of amazing games available due to the internet. However, this abundance poses a problem for maintaining commitment to a single game. The author implies that they, and likely many others, struggle with this issue.
• 08:00 - 10:00: Habit 4: Not Experimenting with Play Styles The chapter emphasizes the importance of committing to a single game or a few games rather than juggling between multiple ones. The author shares their personal experience, discussing how accumulating more gaming consoles and subscription services have made it increasingly difficult to focus. They refer to their first video, where they expressed the belief that true satisfaction from games comes from commitment, unless there's a significant reason not to. Rotating between multiple games without fully dedicating oneself can lead to dissatisfaction.
• 10:00 - 12:00: Habit 5: Ignoring Beauty in Games Chapter 5, 'Ignoring Beauty in Games,' explores the challenges and emotional impact of engaging with multiple video games simultaneously. It examines how juggling various games can lead to feelings of unfulfillment and decision fatigue, ultimately making it difficult for players to fully immerse themselves in any one game. The chapter suggests that by categorizing games into specific contexts or moods, players might mitigate these negative effects. For example, maintaining separate games for multiplayer, travel, and primary single-player experiences could offer a more structured and satisfying gaming routine.
• 12:00 - 14:00: Habit 6: Overindulging in Competition The chapter "Habit 6: Overindulging in Competition" discusses the challenges of maintaining discipline while juggling multiple long and demanding RPGs. It highlights the difficulty, yet suggests that attempting this discipline can lead to satisfying conclusions. Furthermore, the chapter touches on the issue of overcommitment and knowing when to step back from a game, contrasting it with the positive aspects of commitment discussed in a previous chapter.
• 14:00 - 16:00: Habit 7: Following Discourse Too Closely In this chapter, the author discusses the potential negative impact of over-investing time in certain activities, using gaming as an example. They recount their personal experience with the game 'Tales of Arise', where, despite initially enjoying the game, the combat became repetitive and less enjoyable after 40-60 hours of gameplay. The chapter highlights the importance of recognizing when an activity, such as gaming, becomes detrimental rather than beneficial.
• 16:00 - 18:00: Habit 8: Relying on Internet for Help The chapter "Habit 8: Relying on Internet for Help" discusses the idea of using the internet, specifically platforms like YouTube, as a resource for concluding experiences that may feel like a chore or are of less interest. The narrative comes from a personal gaming story where the player realized that instead of persisting through an unenjoyable game just to see the ending, they could have resorted to online videos of the game's cut-scenes, saving time and effort. The chapter underlines the perspective that not every activity, such as a video game, needs to be completed if it stops being enjoyable, and the decision to stop is personal.
• 18:00 - 20:00: Habit 9: Only Playing New Games The chapter discusses the importance of knowing when to move on from a game, emphasizing that the time already spent playing is a sunk cost and should not influence the decision to stop or continue. Additionally, it touches on the common expectation of wanting to win on the first attempt despite challenging elements in games, such as difficult bosses, tactical battles, or puzzles.
• 20:00 - 23:00: Habit 10: Binging Without Balance The chapter 'Habit 10: Binging Without Balance' explores the pitfalls of gaming, particularly how players may become frustrated early in a game despite it being the easiest part. The author reflects on the tendency to feel irrationally frustrated after encountering the first significant challenge or 'skill check,' even while understanding that games are designed to become progressively harder. This habit highlights the struggle many gamers face in maintaining excitement and engagement without succumbing to frustration in the face of increasing difficulty, emphasizing the importance of finding a healthy balance in gaming approaches.
• 23:00 - 25:00: Conclusion and Viewer Engagement The chapter discusses the experience of facing difficulties and challenges, particularly in the context of gaming. It highlights how the initial difficulty spike can be jarring, leading to self-doubt. However, the key takeaway is the importance of not letting frustration from setbacks linger, as many games are designed around the concept of learning from defeat. Embracing challenges and using them as opportunities to develop mastery is encouraged, as overcoming difficulties is a rewarding process.

10 Habits That Are Secretly Ruining Games For You Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 if there's one thing I'm certain of it's that we all have some bad habits in our lives I know I do but bad habits aren't just limited to the areas we typically think of like Diet Fitness and relationships they can also develop in unexpected places for most of my life I thought of video games as an escape an activity I could engage in mindlessly as a way to detach from the rest of the world but as I've come to realize that is far from the ideal way to enjoy games
• 00:30 - 01:00 just like with anything else in life Mindless Behavior toward video games risks the formation of bad habits and in this video I want to shine light on 10 of those habits that I've personally struggled with over the last couple decades often these habits can go completely unnoticed slowly sapping the fun from an activity we used to find enjoyment in it's my hope that this video can help you identify some of your own Tendencies when it comes to gaming
• 01:00 - 01:30 because the first step to kicking a bad habit is figuring out that it exists at all before we jump into the list I do want to quickly talk about where bad habits come from the simplest explanation is that they form because our brains prioritize immediate rewards over long-term benefits which are often less tangible and therefore difficult to quantify this short-term bias makes it really tempting for us to repeat behaviors that feel good or avoid pain
• 01:30 - 02:00 in the moment even if they're not constructive for us in the long run in atomic habits James Clear defines this as the Q craving response reward Loop to put it in gamer terms imagine this Loop for Save scumming The Cue for that behavior would be approaching any potential conflict decision or risky situation the craving is the desire for safety and control within that situation the response to that craving would be
• 02:00 - 02:30 deciding to open up the menu and quick save and finally the reward is the immediate relief you feel from knowing that your actions now have no permanent consequences if you need to you can simply reload that save and try again for your desired outcome although save scumming rewards you with relief in the moment over the long term you may miss out on a lot of the tension that makes games exciting to play all right now that we have a little background on how these habits form let's look at the ones
• 02:30 - 03:00 that have given me the most trouble so far in my gaming career number one juggling too many games at once I'm a firm believer that we're living in a golden age of video games right now there are literally thousands of amazing titles accessible in an instant thanks to the magic of the internet which is great but it's also fued if you find it difficult to stay committed to a single game at a time you are not alone my friend I've struggled
• 03:00 - 03:30 with this on and off for a long time and it's only become more difficult as I've accumulated more consoles and enrolled in more subscription Services I talked about this in my very first video on the channel but I believe that our best chance to find satisfaction in games is to commit to them unless they give us a legitimate reason not to whenever I've tried to rotate between three or four or five different games without fully committing myself to any of them it's
• 03:30 - 04:00 left me feeling unfulfilled not only does it require a lot of energy to decide which of those I'm going to play on any given night but it also makes it tough to get in the groove with any of them if limiting yourself to a single game at a time is a terrifying thought for you at least consider compartmentalizing your play into explicit settings or moods for instance it's much easier to sustain one multiplayer game one travel game and one primary single player game at a time
• 04:00 - 04:30 compared to three 70 plus hour RPGs that you're trying to play all at once I won't lie to you and say it's easy to maintain this kind of discipline but if you try it for yourself I think you'll come to the same conclusion that I have number two not knowing when to put a game down in the last habit we talked about commitment being a key ingredient to finding satisfaction in games this is the other side to that coin commitment
• 04:30 - 05:00 can go too far to the point where you fail to realize that spending more time with a game is actually causing more harm than good I fell victim to this when I was playing through Tales of aise a few years ago I thought this was a good game overall but like many jrpgs the combat was starting to get pretty repetitive as I neared our 40 50 60 that was just too much Tales of a rise for me but after putting that much time in I
• 05:00 - 05:30 did want to see how the story played out in the end so I put my head down and drudged through the last 20 hours looking back on that experience I should have stopped playing as soon as the game started to consistently feel like a chore I could have easily watched the last few cutcenes on YouTube and I would have saved myself almost two weeks of mostly disinterested gaming not every game deserves to be finished and that assessment has to come from you personally you are the only one who can
• 05:30 - 06:00 decide when it's time to move on so keep an open mind and remember that your time spent with the game already is 100% a sunk cost so you should never consider that time in your decision about whether to keep playing number three expecting to win everything on the first try in any game with challenging bosses tactical battles or head scratching puzzles there's often a Temptation for us to set expectations for our future
• 06:00 - 06:30 performance within the very first couple hours of the experience the problem with that is most games have a difficulty curve that continues to slope up over time in other words the beginning of the game is usually the easiest part despite knowing this I can't count the number of times I've gotten irrationally frustrated after the first so-called skill check in a game and I know I'm not the only one when you start a game effortlessly defeating every enemy or clearing stages with perfect execution
• 06:30 - 07:00 that first difficulty spike is like a shock to the system in the moment it can feel a little crappy to realize that you are not in fact infallible but the mistake I've often made is letting the frustration of that defeat linger this is especially problematic because the entire premise of many Fantastic games is learning through defeat instead you should welcome the opportunity to develop Mastery over a challenging situation because overcoming something
• 07:00 - 07:30 that first seemed impossible is one of the greatest payoffs in gaming number four not experimenting with different play Styles we all have our comfort zones when it comes to games these are the character classes weapon choices and strategies that come most naturally to us maybe you tend to gravitate toward big swords over bows and knives or you like to over prepare for situations rather than and rushing in and seeing
• 07:30 - 08:00 what happens let's do this lero dragons oh my God he just ran in personally I'm a sucker for a good spell Magic based characters often have strong AOE potential and I can usually cast spells while keeping some space between me and my enemies I've played Mages in a lot of different fantasy RPGs but if I'm being objective it's not always the most enjoyable experience in my Elden ring
• 08:00 - 08:30 playthrough I started with a strict intelligence build even by level 40 or 50 I was still just running around popping off Glenstone shards at anything that moved it was around that point I finally admitted to myself that I'd probably have more fun if I just tried a different build this could be a daunting proposition depending on how attached you are to your play style and I do have to subtract a few points from Elden ring for making it not that accessible to play players but after tossing away the
• 08:30 - 09:00 comfort of a familiar play style I have not once regretted my decision to try something new it is without a doubt the easiest way to Breathe new life into a game I do want to shout out Capcom in this segment because in my experience they do a great job encouraging players to try different tactics in their games Dragon's Dogma 2 has a really fluid vocation system and the Monster Hunter series is constantly tempting you to learn a new weapon and then in inevitably spend 20 more hours
• 09:00 - 09:30 optimizing a build for it number five not appreciating the beauty in games video games are the most dynamic form of media they're interactive yeah but they're also rich with artistic Beauty and this medium gives players a unique way to engage with those elements if you let the credits roll in a big AAA game it's not uncommon to see hundreds or even thousands of names who contributed to that final product with many of them
• 09:30 - 10:00 responsible for parts of the game that go unrecognized and uncelebrated a mistake I've made too many times in the past is focusing on just gameplay I get so caught up in the mechanics trying to win and have fun that I completely blind myself to all the other amazing elements of the package I've been playing through kitsugi path of the Goddess recently and let me tell you this is a game that makes it hard for you to ignore its beauty there are so many aesthetic
• 10:00 - 10:30 flourishes that don't really serve any purpose other than to just exist and be nice to look at walking around the camps changing your equipment viewing the different models of enemies or Japanese desserts it all makes for a wonderful context within which the mechanical elements of the game can operate but not every game is so upfront with its presentation so the next time you load into your favorite game take a few minutes to just look at stuff appreciate
• 10:30 - 11:00 the art Direction the design listen to the sounds and immerse yourself in the music I guarantee it will elevate your enjoyment number six overindulging in competition with my dominant play personality being a competitor I have at many points in my life felt the intoxicating draw of competitive multiplayer games there is no feeling quite like outmatching another Real Player when your reflexes are dialed in and
• 11:00 - 11:30 nothing can get in your way it's hard to imagine any other gaming experience topping that but as anyone who's played these kinds of games knows you are signing up for a roller coaster every time you log in with those high so come the lows even if you're performing at the peak of your skill level these games will eventually pit you against opponents who are even better and if you get a few of those matches in a row it is a recipe for a spaz
• 11:30 - 12:00 out in an era when most kids these days have grown up on FPS games the standard multiplayer experience is already at the sweatfest level at my age I've had to accept that I simply cannot keep up anymore I can handle a little bit here and there but if I overextend myself I always end up regretting it number seven following the discourse too closely many of you are likely looped into the
• 12:00 - 12:30 general video game discourse whenever new games come out or big update ships or there's some juicy industry news the community always has something to say about it usually the big content creators will put out videos with their own reactions or reviews and often those opinions end up becoming the de facto point of view on a game this can definitely be a positive thing if they're calling out legitimate problems or singing the praise for a lesser known title that's actually worth checking out
• 12:30 - 13:00 but if you're always looking to the discourse to make your decisions for you there's a good chance you'll miss out on some things you may have otherwise enjoyed as a longtime fan of the Battlefield games I remember vividly when BF 2042 launched a few years ago to almost Universal mockery the game was factually busted on release with some of the jankiest graphical bugs we had seen since cyberpunk if I'd taken those initial Impressions from the community
• 13:00 - 13:30 and solidified my opinion on the game I never would have tried it but to dice's credit they did turn the game around by the time it came to EA play and I could download it via Game Pass ultimate the game was legitimately fun was it my ideal Battlefield game hell no but I was having a great time playing the franchise again and that's because I didn't let the discourse permanently taint my opinion of BF 2042
• 13:30 - 14:00 number eight relying too much on the internet for help growing up there wasn't much better than a trip to GameStop even if I didn't walk away with a new game I still enjoyed browsing the shelves and checking out all the various gaming accessories in peripherals one of the more interesting items you'd find were the so-called strategy guides for recently released games if you're not familiar or you're too young to know what I'm talking about these were essentially printed wikis they were
• 14:00 - 14:30 bound like a thick magazine and usually featured full color pages about everything you might need to know in a game conceptually these guides had utility especially for younger players I remember reading through the one for Animal Crossing on GameCube and discovering that you could plant a money bag in those shiny holes and it would sprout a money tree there was no way my 8-year-old brain would have figured that out and yet I I got to wonder what if I
• 14:30 - 15:00 did wouldn't it have felt so much better to find that on my own today with intricate fan wikis YouTube and Reddit the answer to any question about a game is at our fingertips you get stumped on a shrine in Zelda within seconds you can find the step-by-step solution I do believe that just like with strategy guides having this information be accessible to players is a good thing but what's not good is developing an unhealthy Reliance on it if you're
• 15:00 - 15:30 immediately reaching for your phone at any point you feel lost in a game you're completely closing yourself off to the potential for that rewarding sensation of solving the problem on your own without any friction the highs of gaming become disappointingly muted big shout out to my friend Richie for helping me realize this one I used to look stuff up a lot more often before he showed me his ways and I am very thankful for that number nine only
• 15:30 - 16:00 playing new and popular games the excitement of downloading a newly released game especially one that's been hyped up by a bunch of marketers and content creators is always thrilling getting to experience something at the same time as thousands of other players around the world can really make you feel connected to the community but it's also a slippery slope novelty is alluring but often fleeting if it's the sole attribute you're
• 16:00 - 16:30 seeking you may be setting yourself up for a detrimental cycle of churning and burning through every notable release not only will this be taxing on your wallet it'll deprive you of finding any real satisfaction in your games as your mind will quickly Wander from focusing on whatever you are playing to whatever is next around the corner if this is something you struggle with I would definitely recommend having a browse through the r/p patient gamer subreddit
• 16:30 - 17:00 there are tons of great conversations there about old games where players are finally getting around to Modern Classics like dark souls or Bioshock thanks to that Community I recently got hooked on this game called mobile golf for the Game Boy Color which was a sequel to Mario Golf that never got a western release it's just a fantastic streamlined 2D golf game and it came out 23 years ago old does not mean bad
• 17:00 - 17:30 number 10 binging video games without adequate balance in your life this one is where we get a little serious if you're watching this video there's a good chance you spend a lot of your free time playing games just as I do what's critical to acknowledge about video games is that they are a highly streamlined precisely tuned tool for delivering dopamine this of course is one of the primary feel-good
• 17:30 - 18:00 neurotransmitters in our brain dopamine drives pleasure motivation and reward but it also plays entral role in addiction and compulsive behaviors as Dr analy explains in her book dopamine Nation our brain seeks to maintain a sort of equilibrium when it comes to dopamine if we continuously expose ourselves to potent dopamine producing activities like gaming the brain will actually respond by decreasing dopamine
• 18:00 - 18:30 activity which can lead to feelings of withdrawal or emptiness often followed by cravings and increased pleasure seeking behavior and over the long term chronic consumption of video games will build up a tolerance in your brain that means you'll need more games or more stimulating games to feel that same pleasure response that you crave to break this cycle some form of abstinence or regulation is needed you've probably
• 18:30 - 19:00 heard of dopamine fasting which is essentially taking an extended break from high pleasure activities but you could also try various forms of self-binding as lmy calls them which are basically rules you set for your own consumption behavior for example during the week I don't let myself play games unless I finished all my important tasks for the day which usually includes making dinner exercising working on my next video and other admin stuff this
• 19:00 - 19:30 self-binding strategy helps me maintain a strong level of motivation throughout the day because I use gaming as my reward for accomplishing tasks and that balance ensures that the dopamine Spike from gaming continues to feel good for those of you who are really struggling with this I would strongly recommend checking out dopamine nation which I've linked down in the video description there's a ton more great insight from Dr lmy that I just can't fit into this
• 19:30 - 20:00 video and there we have it 10 bad gaming habits as I mentioned at the top these are all things I've struggled with in the past or continue to struggle with today so just remember if any of these 10 felt especially targeted toward you you are most certainly not alone I do sincerely hope that I was able to bring awareness to some of these habits that can easily fly under the radar at the end of the day I want everyone to be
• 20:00 - 20:30 able to get the most enjoyment out of gaming so let me know in the comments what gaming habits do you struggle with do you have any strategies or suggestions that might be able to help out other players based on what I couldn't cram into this video I'm pretty sure there will be a part two at some point so I'll definitely keep an eye in the comments for your thoughts as always thank you so much for watching and if you learned something or you enjoyed the video don't forget to leave a like on the way out see you guys in the next one