I like video games, but most of the games I'm into are FOSS or retro. Here lately however, I haven't found myself playing video games hardly at all. With modern games I could ramble all day about pseudostandards, bugs and microtransactions just to name a few things, but I'm sure you've already heard plenty boomers yell at that cloud as well as the ones who don't play video games at all. However, I'm saying I hardly even play games in general anymore, including ones I use to go out of my way to play just a few years ago. I wondered why that is.
I believe the reason for this is because ever since I made my vidlii account and website, I've been trying to go for a "create more, consume less" mentality. Even if what I make isn't the best, I enjoy making things. Video making is an old passion of mine I'm glad I decided to revisit. It's quite fun to me and brings me a sense of joy and even accomplishment I don't often feel in other passions. Meanwhile with video games, many of the games I have installed right now I hardly ever play unless a friend asks me too. I've noticed some people in homebrew are kind of like this too where they're more into the setup process of the game system rather than the games on the system. Kinda funny how that works right? Makes you wonder what is the point of the setup if you're not even going to play the games. I think it just has to do with the learning experience. Sure it may not seem like much of a 'learning experience' in the beginning if you're just one of those people who follows instructions, plays monkey see monkey doo and presto muh vidya gayme system set up now!1 For some however, this process has encouraged further experimentation. You may wish to know how the homebrew process works under the hood after all.
As far as the video games part goes, for me there is no learning experience benefit because I just install the game and then it just sits there until I randomly feel like I want to play it some day or someone asks me to play said game. Maybe compiling a game here and there is considered a learning experience, but I don't tend to find that experience memorable but rather frustrating depending on the game and what dependencies or compatability layers are required (*cough* *cough* Novetus *cough* *cough*). Making videos on the other hand is just fun to me. It certainly helps that Kdenlive doesnt suck ass anymore like it did years ago. In all my years of using Linux I at least wanted a video editor relatively on par with the likes of Sony Vegas Pro 13, and it seems Kdenlive is finally crossing the finish line in a game of catch up. It's not quite there yet because there still isnt full GPU acceleration support, but it is more than good enough for my use case and has been a nice tool along the way. I also use Lazpaint for making images and Audacity (compiled without telemetry mind you) for more fine tuned audio editing Kdenlive can't do.
Anyways, you may find it hard to believe but I really do like video games, I just don't enjoy them the way I used to. Thing about it is this puts me in a position of quality over quantity, because now whenever I do play video games it feels kind of special again. After all, I'm not one of those people who think you have to quit video games forever or that there has to be hard cut off point. You're in control of when and how you play video games and how frequently. I mean that both in the sense that you can game as much as you want, but also in the sense that I believe you have the self control not to play them too much. Just have fun! :)