Gaming The System: Gamer Guilt Part 1 – Show Notes
🎮 Welcome back to Gaming The System! This week, Jem, Alex, and Matt dive into gamer guilt—that nagging feeling about how much time we spend gaming, what we play, and whether we’re making the “right” choices with our hobby.
This episode focuses on time, priorities, and responsibility—how we fit gaming into our lives, the social pressures that make us feel guilty, and how different perspectives shape our experiences.
What’s in this episode?
- ⏳ How much time do we actually spend gaming? The team compares their own gaming hours to UK averages and reflects on how those numbers shift with age, responsibilities, and life changes.
🕰️ Matt: "Whenever I look at the amount of hours I've put into something, I think, ‘Oh, I'm so glad I've been able to pour so much time into this thing.’"
- ⚖️ The “right” way to spend free time? Why is gaming often seen as less valid than other hobbies, like sports or reading? How does guilt creep in when we could be doing something “more productive”?
🤯 Alex: "My feelings of guilt really [are] based around the feeling that I'm not doing enough. Whatever enough means."
- 🤯 Social pressures & self-worth – From societal expectations to deeply ingrained personal guilt, the discussion takes a fascinating turn into the emotional labor women face, productivity culture, and even the pressure to have children.
💭 Jem: "Lying on your couch and just thinking is not something that is at all encouraged these days...we're always encouraged to strive for the next thing and be making ourselves better, doing more things."
- 🎭 Personal experiences with guilt – Matt shares insights into how he’s built a gaming/life balance through structured routines, Alex discusses gaming as a solitary vs. social experience, and Jem reflects on juggling gaming with parenthood.
🏗️ Matt: "If you can shrink the list of needs down to as small as you can and then turn to look at what do I want to do...
👀 Up next in Part 2 – We tackle spending guilt, game preferences, and the completionist trap. Plus, is screen time guilt real? And why do some hobbies feel more "productive" than gaming? Don’t miss it!
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Thanks for listening, and remember – there’s always another game to play that isn’t full of nonsense. 🎮✨
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