Why I Don't Play Video Games.

An Up and Down Flappy Bird Journey.

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Note: If you enjoy video games, I am not judging you, do what makes you happy! I probably cannot appreciate the relationship you have with the games, or maybe the social connections you’ve built up around them. This is just my experience.

I have I think a pretty typical relationship with video games, but I do feel like looking out at the world people are increasingly in one of two camps: Either you don’t game very much, or you’re pretty hardcore (more than a few hours a week). I want to explain why I’m in the former camp.

I bring this up because I have a blog to write (obviously), but also because about a month after getting it, I’ve returned the Switch 2 I bought (a guy who doesn’t game bought a new console!?). Perhaps as a new parent I shouldn’t have expected much time to game, but I played Mario Kart World twice (it was ok, but I feel like a bit too hard for me to pick up compared to older versions) and didn’t even use the device when I had a few decent opportunities. I hope less than one hour playing a brand new game over the course of a month qualifies as not playing, I think it ought to! I hope I can explain why, and my broader relationship with gaming in this post.

I come at games from a weird angle. If I’m honest with you from the top that for me in 2025 they feel like a waste of time, and kind of have since I graduated high school, but again this is me I’m talking about. Something that is worth considering is that a lot of people love video games in the same way I might love music or some of my favorite shows. I can appreciate that because when playing say … Uncharted 2 on the Playstation 3, or Breath of the Wild, or Super Smash Bros Brawl (admittedly years ago), I had the same emotional response that I do with a good show or movie or music — “wow, this is beautiful, makes me feel good, maybe lets me connect with friends, and I’m loving experiencing this!”.

So then, why is it that I can get into music, and shows, and films, but not into games? It’s not really for lack of trying! I had an Xbox a few years ago (Halo Infinite was fun, for about 2 months?), and I still have a PS5 (which has been used more for watching 4K Blu-Ray than for gaming).

For one, I feel like games have become a bigger and bigger commitment. More and more games are online multiplayer-focused (which often comes along with terrible, toxic microtransactions) and personally I find that makes them hard to get into. Halo Infinite was fun because after a month (playing several hours a week) I was pretty good, but playing a game just to have a 10:1 KD ratio is not my idea of fun. There are still story-based gems, but many of them are pretty grand (which can make them a time sink), and it seems like the truly great ones only come around every five years or so.

I’m watching “The Last of Us” with my partner and some friends, and while it’s a good time bonding and enjoying some HBO, I do have to say that the recent film and television adaptations of games all fall pretty flat for me. Modern games have a depth that is different from, but similar to a book, and I find trying to transpose that to a series or even worse a film inevitably leads to disappointment.

The Time Sinks

Now, there are a few games I’ve sunk more than an hour into in the past decade. Back when I was in university I did obviously play some Cities Skylines, and in the last few years (at the recommendation of “Phil”) I’ve played a bunch of Factorio (in limited bursts). Both of these games give you the novel feeling of all powerful control over some form of construction and optimization, and they are a lot of fun, especially played with others, but I can’t help but feel that after say a 5-hour Factorio session I’m left feeling like I’m doing work. Now to be clear, that is fun work, the kind of work that is like writing a blog post about video games, or going out filming for a YouTube video — but, it’s a laborious thing, and when there are other laborious things that you could do that 1) could be making you money, and 2) could be expanding human creativity or knowledge, it sort of feels like I should be doing those things instead. I’m never going to invent a new way of playing Factorio, and the main benefit in that (that I can see) is the clout of being a smart cookie, but if I make a new blog post that changes how people look at public transit or their lives, that could have an impact on a lot more than myself.

Then there are the sort of small indie games like Balatro, or Untitled Goose Game, or what not that you might play on your phone, or yes on a Switch. These games are very popular, and the Goose game in particular seems so charming. The issue I have is that when I’m sort of picking up a game console or staring at a game on my phone for like 10-15 minutes, I really feel like there are other things I ought to be doing: Replying to some emails, reading, or chatting with friends.

In some ways I feel like there is a lot more competition for 15 minutes of my time while I’m on the bus, or after I’ve had a meal, than when I sit down before bed for an hour or 45 minutes.

I guess then I should wrap back around to why I’m not playing Tears of the Kingdom before bed. I think the thing with gaming is it really encourages extended play sessions. It’s harder to enjoy a game like TOTK for 40 minutes than an episode of TV (which has a conclusion, even if a cliffhanger) or a few YouTube videos.

When I Was Young…

Part of why I think I feel this way is the way I grew up with video games. I got my first console (a Gameboy Advance SP) later than probably 50% of kids I grew up around, and my first home console (a Playstation 2) later than probably 60-70%. I then proceeded to kind of catch up and play a lot, especially when I had a Playstation 3. While time playing the Gameboy was limited to plane journeys and road trips, and the PS2 was maybe an hour at a time, I was older with the PS3 and my parents would let me spend a whole afternoon playing Ratchet and Clank, MAG, or Resistance 2, and then later various Call of Duty games. My dad was always pretty adamant that video games “rot your brain”, and would only ever play Guitar Hero (admittedly one of my favorite games ever) with me. But, speaking honestly, I did sort of come around to his general sense that games were a waste of time. I sunk hundreds upon hundreds of hours into various games in middle school (I was already cutting back quite a bit by high school), and while I look back fondly on some of the games I played, I have about as much memory of hundreds of those hours combined as one concert. At some point, a lot of games just feel like other games and I reflected on spending a lot of time on all these games and not having much to show for it, besides maybe being pretty good at those specific games (several of which you’ve probably never even heard of!). I guess the novelty sort of wore off, and while there is always some novelty, I just got to a point where I started feeling like there was probably something more important for me to do (go study Calculus so UofT doesn’t take away your offer!).

I realize I referenced Flappy Bird in the subtitle and didn’t explain. I am a human and found the whole Flappy Bird moment in history amusing as many of my fellow humans did, but I also faux-proposed to my now-spouse in a movie theatre with a lifesaver gummy (basically a ring right?) like 8 years ago when she told me she could get an obscene score in the game, which I didn’t believe, and then she did.

Now, it’s been probably 10-15 years since I started getting that nagging sense anytime I sat down to play a game that I might want to consider doing something that I judged as productive, and I think to some extent I’ve come around. Leisure is important and from a value standpoint nothing beats video games. A single game can easily provide hundreds of hours of entertainment, far more than I think you can reasonably get out of a movie, or most books. Increasingly, as I have grown to respect the need to not just work but also unwind, I’ve thought more and more about playing games — it’s part of why I bought the Switch — but still I find it hard. I think the issue is that if I want to fully relax and not really engage my mental faculties, then laying around watching videos is the way to go; meanwhile if I am going to use my brain, then I feel like I ought to read, or do language learning, or browse Google Maps (yes, that is my idea of fun!)

And then there is just the issue of time. Especially as a new parent, I probably get about 2 hours a day of uninterrupted leisure time (and it’s usually quite broken up). With all the things I want to do — reading, exercising, getting out of the house — I just have essentially no time left over, and when I do I’d rather fill it up with more of those things than gaming.

I guess then to summarize, I don’t not play games because I have no appreciation for games as art, or even just as a fun experience comparable to a show, or watching a movie. I don’t play them because a bit of me feels like they are a waste of precious moments on this planet, but also because I really don’t have that much time, the options are many, and I just don’t feel that compelled by the games I see out there to either make more time, or displace something else!