Video Games anyone?

[JW Insider]

This didn't have to be a JW Club topic, but I'm interested in whether any Witnesses here, especially those over, say 50 years old, play any video games. As an old fogie myself, I have always tried to discourage it in my children, but one of my sons although he is going to be 30, started playing video games again last year. He's an attorney, and doesn't have the time now as he travels between various court houses all day. But through most of Covid courthouse closures he worked everything from a home office on Zoom. My youngest son lives far enough away that I don't know for sure, but he apparently takes no interest in either sports or video games. My daughter doesn't really like any of them, but has trouble pulling her five year old away from the iPad on weekends. It's forbidden through the week.

My older son bought me an Oculus VR headset this year, and I haven't made much use of it. It's good for more than games, but I just haven't taken the time.

There are two games I play where I figure I don't have to feel guilty because I can easily relax with them and listen to JW videos, news, radio, etc. One is chess, and the other is a flight simulator.  I don't have a working version of MS Flight Simulator any more, of if I do, it's hasn't been tried for 15 years. But I do play the flight simulator on Google Earth. It's so much better than it used to be years ago. if you fly from JFK through most of NYC and several other urban areas, the AI has produced 3D versions of every house and even the trees all over NYC and Long Island and Jersey.

I enjoy flying over places I read about anywhere in the world. Or revisit places I've traveled to (Haiti, Turkey, Sydney) or places I lived in (CA, MO, NY). Today, I flew from NYC JFK up to Tuxedo and Warwick. I 'visited' Bethel, doing a couple of flyovers. The scenery is taken from almost exactly a year ago, so you can see the leaves start to change.

I just recorded a part of that flight, and it was a couple of gigabytes, but if I can chop a small piece of it down to under 20 MB, I might post a part of it below. In the VR headset, I give it a curved screen and a much wider 180 degree view, so that it resembles a cockpit, but the video (if I can post it) will just be a flat view from the middle of the screen.

[JW Insider]

MyVideo_1wrwc.mp4

The actual view is much smoother than the choppy capture in the video.

[Pudgy]

The AKC sent me a MasterCard with my picture on it, and I thought since my Guardian is interested in such things, I would get him the latest MS flight simulator, yoke, throttles, pedals, and Oculus Headset, etc.

I think the last VideoGame he played was “Duck Hunt” circa 1970s, (?) on a Vic 20, and that was because he liked to see my Mom laugh at him when he missed.

….. that was back when pixels were the size of legos.

 

[Srecko Sostar]

12 hours ago, JW Insider said:

One is chess, and the other is a flight simulator.

I like chess too. Many years ago, I stumbled upon some application of driving a big truck. I enjoyed practicing maneuvering skills. And some games with racing cars. But that, it seems to me, was actually all about such games. 

[JW Insider]

8 hours ago, Srecko Sostar said:

And some games with racing cars.

I remember when the kids were younger my job in IT was multimedia and this work included testing of multimedia improvements on a few new laptops every year. We were allowed to keep the excess, and I still have literally 15 old laptops that work (worked?) with Windows 3.1, Win 95, Millennium, 98, NT, plus 3 Macs. But in those days, even before the popularity of Internet downloading, you could get a $5 CD with literally 1,000 shareware/freeware games on it. My kids were always finding racing and simulation games, and you just reminded me that I enjoyed playing race car (go kart) games with them.

Even today, when breaking out the flight simulation again, I found myself flying down the Hudson River, and flying under the bridges instead of taking the easy route over them. I flew low through Central Park and so had to dodge skyscrapers at 150 MPH (240 KM/H) all the way down through Manhattan and made it under the Brooklyn Bridge again before circling the old Brooklyn Bethel stomping grounds. Google flight simulator doesn't crash you if you hit most obstacles (except hills, water, ground without landing gear) but you can still enjoy the maneuvering.  

I thought of posting one of the videos of the building maneuvers, but 9/11 is still too close in people's minds which might distract from enjoyment.

[TrueTomHarley]

 When I filled in for vacationing Davey the Kid, cleaning his speakeasy account each night, he told me that I could depend upon finding plenty of spare change on the floor. I did. It all went in the PacMan machine.

Other than that, my gaming has strictly been physical. Bi-weekly Scrabble games with my brother (who cheats). And within the last year—I mean, I haven’t adopted a new game in decades, “Splendor” has become a sensation for the family and extended family. For the longest time, I was saying that it is the perfect combination of skill and luck. But I am having to come to grips with the humbling reality that I cannot beat my daughter at it.

[Srecko Sostar]

In my childhood, my dad bought train models and then after a while we mounted it all on the board as a model with houses, a station, small cars, people and the like. It was very modest considering some of the other models that others made. But very fun and live. Live, literally. Good for finger motor skills while joining parts, clasping locomotive wagons and so on.

[ComfortMyPeople]

1 hour ago, JW Insider said:

Even today, when breaking out the flight simulation again, I found myself flying down the Hudson River, and flying under the bridges instead of taking the easy route over them. I flew low through Central Park and so had to dodge skyscrapers at 150 MPH (240 KM/H) all the way down through Manhattan and made it under the Brooklyn Bridge again before circling the old Brooklyn Bethel stomping grounds. Google flight simulator doesn't crash you if you hit most obstacles (except hills, water, ground without landing gear) but you can still enjoy the maneuvering.  

 

@JW Insider, now my suspicions have been confirmed! You are an alien!!.

It is humanly impossible to have such an ability to do so many things. I already told you once to explain to me how you made time to sleep. And now you say that you also play video games !!

I am going to investigate if it is correct to have dealings with aliens ...

[Space Merchant]

Well there is virtual reality gaming now. In this day and age, even my generation, video games aren't for younger people anymore. In my case, I do not play as much, very little, compared to my brother, who is 3 years older than me, him being 32, plays a lot of strategy.

[JW Insider]

8 hours ago, ComfortMyPeople said:

It is humanly impossible to have such an ability to do so many things. I already told you once to explain to me how you made time to sleep.

Doing a lot of things is no indication that I do them well. Nor do I do enough of the all the right things. In English there is a derogatory expression "Jack of all trades [and master of none]" from a Shakespeare line that was originally a compliment: “a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

I admit to having a sleeping problem. So I can answer at least that question you once asked about sleep and finally "put it to bed," as they say. I always have a slew of current projects on a list, and I spend about as much time making and remaking lists as actually accomplishing what's on them. I went for several years staying up until about 2 to 3 am, and then waking up as late as possible before rushing off to work. Now that I'm retired I try to get to bed earlier but if I wake up around 3, I'm anxious to start on things I wanted to read, to sketch, research, learn, etc. Last night I was asleep at midnight, but woke up at 3 and since I knew I wouldn't go back to sleep, I got up and had coffee and breakfast. My wife is always up by 5 so it's not so different than when I would have been woken up anyway. In fact, I've been up by 3:30 every day this week, and I haven't made up for it yet with any naps. My wife tells me that this is terrible for my health, and I know I should listen, but it's probably a kind of stress, or ADD, or ADHD or some other thing that ought to be diagnosed.

[ComfortMyPeople]

39 minutes ago, JW Insider said:

My wife tells me that this is terrible for my health, and I know I should listen, but it's probably a kind of stress, or ADD, or ADHD or some other thing that ought to be diagnosed.

Well, the simplest explanation, as indicated by the principle of Ockham's Razor, is that you are a lizard with human skin (as in the "V" series).

I hope your health does not suffer (too much) from lack of sleep, and so the rest of us enjoy your posts. (At least some of us)

[Srecko Sostar]

9 hours ago, JW Insider said:

“a jack of all trades is a master of none, but oftentimes better than a master of one.”

Being a top expert generally means mastering 1 or at most 2 areas of a profession. Some people have the intellectual ability, but also some talent, to master several areas. For example, one JW elder was a mechanical engineer, talented in music, he directed, I think, all the dramas for congresses in some 20 years, he was an excellent listener and speaker and interlocutor. But, unfortunately, he raised his hand against himself in 2013 and violently ended his life. Sometimes I wonder how he would have reacted, had he stayed alive until 2015, to my exit from the Organization, because we felt one nice affection for each other.

I am one of those who have a sense of various everyday practical skills, but at the same time I see the disadvantages of such an approach. But on the other hand, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find responsible and capable people who can do some work. Let’s say construction work, on repairing or renovating a house or roof. There is also the issue of money to pay for the works. Basically, being "your own master" is better than nothing.
Perhaps Video Games should be created to help players master skills such as plastering a wall, laying ceramic tiles, electrical installations and the like.