Video Games as An Escape Pt. 2

This is in continuation from my previous post on the same topic.

I have certainly used video games as an escape, and sometimes it is the perfect release; a brief separation from "real life." Sometimes, it's too much of an escape. I tend to get sucked into games significantly and lose time and productivity to the "separate world" in which I'm playing. I've trained myself to identify what kinds of games I ought to avoid in order not to get addicted and lose productivity, but it still happens from time to time.

One reason escaping to video games can be so addicting and dangerous is that video games give a sense of accomplishment, some would call it a false sense of accomplishment, but I think there is something to be said about the realness of such achievements. Such achievments can be fantastic, but the danger lies in getting sucked in. When you've become hopped up on building a castle in Minecraft or completing missions in Fallout, it can be a disappointment not to see those accomplishments reflected in your real life. It can give a sense of emptiness to "real life" because you've put so much time and effort toward this other world but you don't live in this other world, so it can be a shock psychologically to emerge from the game and find that nothing has changed.

In measured quantities, however, video games can provide an escape without becoming life-sucking-worlds of false achievement.