I doubt few would argue that gaming is a passive activity. What they seem to argue is that any gaming experience specifically designed for entertainment is ultimately worthless.
There’s games all around us if you look. I like to play the “I broke my kernel and my entire system is fucked and now I gotta repair it” game or the “write a driver for some obscure hardware” game or even “demonstrate a vulnerability exploit on a live system” game, all which lead to greater value creation and self fulfillment superior to defeating some imaginary creature.
> all which lead to greater value creation and self fulfillment superior to defeating some imaginary creature
That is 100% subjective.
For instance, I can easily argue that breaking kernels and writing drivers for obscure hardware does not add any real value for society as a whole.
However, playing and socializing with people does create value for society, specially in this day and age where people is evermore alone, if only in reduction of antidepressants ;)
Anyway, parent said obscure hardware, so hardly useful for most people. And it sounded more like a personal activity, it is not clear he/she did publishing or upstreaming or blogging about it.
By the way: actual drivers for complex hardware are nowadays mostly written or maintained by companies.
>the "demonstrate a vulnerability exploit on a live system" game creates greater value than a video game
Right, but there are instances where you can train for that live demonstration, like CTFs in self-contained environments like virtual machines.
Seems pretty similar in scope to a video game to me. I think you're more accurately complaining about games that provide little value beyond the skinner box. What about stuff like Shenzhen I/O, Factorio, etc? You could even make strong case for RTS games teaching transferable skills.
They train different skills; for example, I wasn't a very well coordinated kid, and I attribute my driving skills to years of FPS gaming, which trained me to operate controls while paying full attention to my environment. Writing drivers doesn't help with that.
There’s games all around us if you look. I like to play the “I broke my kernel and my entire system is fucked and now I gotta repair it” game or the “write a driver for some obscure hardware” game or even “demonstrate a vulnerability exploit on a live system” game, all which lead to greater value creation and self fulfillment superior to defeating some imaginary creature.