Should An Adult Still Read Comic Books And Play Video Games

[Liberation]

Life is too short to not do, what you want to do.

 

Being an adult just means you either have stuff to do before chilling out or just less time in general to do things you like.

[Kinsie]

DSC, you should probably try and avoid giving blowhard columnists and talking heads free rent in your head.

[indigotyrian]

3 minutes ago, Kinsie said:

DSC, you should probably try and avoid giving blowhard columnists and talking heads free rent in your head.

 

Agreed, these slippery people will just lead you down a road to nowhere. Once in a lifetime everyone gets that new feeling, crosseyed and painless, making you feel as if you must pull up the roots, but at the end of the day it's better to stay up late than burn down the house.

 

 

 

Psycho Killer.

[Merry Widow]

I may be an old fart, but I don't let anyone dictate what I play on my computer. There is nothing wrong with playing games as an adult. Sure I get looked at weird sometimes, but who cares? Not me! :)

[DSC]

Some people still seem to think my problem is with Bill. I will say it again: its not with him. Its with society itself, the average folk shown on those comment screenshots.

[Rudolph]

17 minutes ago, DSC said:

Its with society itself, the average folk shown on those comment screenshots.

Comments sections are not representative of society and hacks like Bill Maher definitely do not speak for the average folk.

 

Remember the words of the late Malcom X:

 

 

[Dark Pulse]

Read and play whatever the hell you want. I'm damn near a 40 year-old man and I still like the Pokemon games.

 

You're an adult. You don't need to justify what you like to anyone.

[Herr Dethnout]

1 hour ago, Gez said:

A grown-up should like work all the time. If you have time for a hobby, you have time for a second (or third, or fourth) job. The only acceptable grown-up hobby is, after a hard day's work, drinking yourself to a stupor to avoid thinking about how dreadful your life is.

East-Asian people be like:

[Wyrmwood]

As someone's who's nearly 50, owns over a 1000 games on Stream, 100 or so more on Switch and 4 full shelves of graphic novels I hope it OK. Or more to the point I don't care if it OK or not.

 

Personally I have never really felt an outcast for loving these things or music or movies and as adult have come across many people who share my passions both my age and younger/older.

 

When it comes to graphic novels that's just closed minded people. Doubt they ever read Alan Moore, Frank Miller, Grant Morrison, Niel Gaiman or Mark Millar. Doubt they read Saga or Locke and Key or Sandman or Preacher. They maybe read an old Stan Lee Spiderman or Beano or Archie and made their mind up about the whole media. Comics are my personal favorite story telling media despite loving movies and novels. I'll be fucked if anyone's telling me I'm too old.

 

If you ever want to chat comics fire up an everything else thread and I'll meet you there. In the meantime I strongly recommend you bang on some Rage Against the Machine and flip the judgmental people in your life the big old bird.

[DuckReconMajor]

I certainly understand the sentiment. I think we all go through times where we wonder if we're "the weird one" for liking this or that. One benefit of getting older is feeling this way less often. 

Some thoughts:

• People forget that the "childhood" interests you had were often shared by many others in your generation, who all grow up liking a lot of the same stuff. Older people don't just do certain things because they're "adult" things, but often because it's what they did when they were younger.
• A lot of these comments stem from manosphere or other reactionary spaces where an adult having a genuinely enjoyable time is seen as frivolous or shameful. But despite what these pseudo-intellectual scam artists want to tell you, a lot of even the most 'masculine' type men today have interests that 30 years ago would have gotten them labeled an unlikeable nerd and weirdo
• Along the lines of that comment in the second screenshot, a lot of "high art" is considered so simply because the ruling class at the time and in the following years just kind of arbitrarily decided so. That doesn't mean those works don't have value, but more often than not people who actually enjoy something like reading Shakespeare, not just doing it to look smart, won't have these belittling opinions of all other works 

I know you've said several times this isn't about Bill Maher, but you keep starting out these threads mentioning people whose main purpose is to make you feel like shit and how their words make you feel (which is shitty, as that was their intent all along)

[Shanoa]

1 hour ago, DSC said:

Some people still seem to think my problem is with Bill. I will say it again: its not with him. Its with society itself, the average folk shown on those comment screenshots.

Who cares about "the average folks" there's 8 godamn billions people on the planet. You'll meet tons of folks who think that way while also meeting tons of folks that share your hobby and still have a perfectly fine life. The irony is most of these folks who think adult shouldn't indulge in those hobbies probably spend most of their off-work time watching TV.

 

I used to feel like an outcast for liking video games but funny enough that was in the early 2000s, some people made fun of me at school for gaming but at one point gaming exploded in the juggernaut it now is. Nowadays it's easy to find likeminded folks who love these hobbies and i'll be damned if i'm to stop anytime soon for the sake of being "a normal adult". (lol good one)

[Thelokk]

The real question is: "why shouldn't they?"

 

Friendly reminder that there is no abstract, objective standard for a life well spent. 

[LadyMistDragon]

1 hour ago, segfault said:

 

Agreed, these slippery people will just lead you down a road to nowhere. Once in a lifetime everyone gets that new feeling, crosseyed and painless, making you feel as if you must pull up the roots, but at the end of the day it's better to stay up late than burn down the house.

 

 

 

Psycho Killer.

@Ludi

[StodgyAyatollah]

1 hour ago, DSC said:

Some people still seem to think my problem is with Bill. I will say it again: its not with him. Its with society itself, the average folk shown on those comment screenshots.

I remember telling you in one of your other threads that online forums aren't exactly a healthy way to work out these internal conflicts. Those posts are just randos expressing opinions anonymously. Taking posts on reddit seriously is just as bad as taking tweets on twitter seriously. Many of those people likely indulge in various activities that could be considered childish. Hypocrisy is a strong aspect of human nature after all. People have generationally become more complacent and inactive, mostly due to technological advancement so a lot of it is down to perception. Every generation faces these same critiques you are witnessing. When I was a kid video games were a new concept. The critique you are seeing now is nothing compared to what it was back when I was a teen. I lived through the time when every major news outlet in the US was pushing the nonsense that dungeons & dragons would lead children to become baby sacrificing devil worshipers and that video games and rock music created school shooters. 

 

At the end of the day is your meaning and purpose in life external and dictated by others or is it internal and yours to decide? Are you living life for yourself or for the crowd? You only get one life so choose wisely.

[Caffeine Freak]

3 hours ago, DSC said:

That's yet another thing... I can't stop. I just want to try my hardest not to live in a bubble or a safe space and try to listen to other opinions, no matter how much I diasgree.

 

This is a good modus operandi to have online, but I have an even better suggestion: if you do nothing else this weekend, get off the internet and go to a bar. Have a couple drinks and talk to other people. Even if you're just talking to the bartender, and even if the only conversation is over what drink you're ordering next, I promise you that conversation is going to be more fulfilling and beneficial to you than reading comments online under a video of some deliberately provocative Boomer cosmopolitan neo-liberal you'll never meet.

[Herr Dethnout]

57 minutes ago, DuckReconMajor said:

a lot of even the most 'masculine' type men today have interests that 30 years ago would have gotten them labeled an unlikeable nerd and weirdo

Nerds Before


Nerds Now

 

Spoiler

Sorry, I needed to do... :P

 

[Decay]

Usually I'd say no but if you played more games and read more comics maybe you'd stop indulging this video crap that makes you posts these kinds of topics.

[Arrowhead]

This is kind of like asking the question 'Why should adults consume art at all?'

 

There are no 'lesser' mediums in art - comic books and video games are still traditionally looked at as 'kid's stuff', sure, (mostly by out of touch older people) but playing a video game or reading a comic is fundamentally no different from staring at a nice painting, or listening to classical music, IMO. You're doing the same shit, essentially.

 

Art is subjective - beauty in the eye of the beholder, and all that jazz. Consume whatever you want to consume.

 

I know other people have said this earlier, but seriously, stop watching videos like this - they seem to really bother you. Just stay away from 'talking heads' and 'influencers'... they'll only piss you off.

 

But yeah, consume whatever you want to consume, eat whatever you want to eat, and do whatever you want to do - you don't need 'permission' from anybody to enjoy what you enjoy.

 

Please stop fretting about what other people are thinking, or what other people are thinking of you - it ain't worth it.   :)

[Doomkid]

DSC, please take this huge choir all telling you more or less the same thing to heart rather than giving a damn about Bill Maher's dumb fanbase. I can go and find a ton of people I vehemently disagree with out there on just about any topic. I can also find a ton of people I agree with strongly.. For your own sake and your own mental comfort, please stop giving it more mind than it deserves. Normally I'd just urge you to simply stop caring what others think on most topics, but if you simply cannot do that, at the very least choose to linger in comment sections of videos you agree with instead. I think, generally speaking, looking for an echo chamber is bad - but that doesn't mean you can't occasionally go and remind yourself that you aren't crazy and alone, and that there are plenty of others that agree with you on whatever topics you can think of..

 

The goal should be being comfortable in your own opinion and giving relatively few fucks, but in the meantime, it's completely normal and human to seek some level of reaffirmation.

[mrthejoshmon]

Jesus H, did someone under the age of 65 just actually listen to Bill Maher?

 

Better yet someone just reminded me of Bill Maher's existence, thought the broadcasting companies took all these kinds of folk round back and shot em when they stopped being relevant.

 

Living by someone else's rules ain't worth living by, literally live your life how you want to, "wasted time" doing what you actually want to do is not wasted time, forcing yourself into some form of bizarre abstinence to your own detriment because someone might think less of you is actually wasting time IMO.

[TheMagicMushroomMan]

DSC, remember the other day when you made a post about a 200-comment argument over a League of Legends video on Youtube? People going back and forth about whether or not the guy finished the match in 10 minutes vs 5 minutes? The people you're looking at that are commenting on these videos you're watching are no different - they're assholes arguing with other assholes on the internet. The fact that they are dumb enough to engage in such pointless conduct, knowing damn well they aren't going to change anyone's mind, is proof enough that they aren't worth listening to.

 

I will readily admit that I am a completely cynical person, but the good thing about that is that I am confident in myself. I automatically assume anyone I'm talking to is an ignorant tool until they prove otherwise. That doesn't mean I treat people like shit, because I don't. But I keep a distance from anyone who hasn't proven themselves to be worth engaging with. I'm not saying you have to convert to hardcore nihilism and hate humanity, but you could probably learn to say fuck you to shitty people, even if you're just saying it in your head. Tolerance is a good thing, but there's no reason to tolerate the intolerable - I just laugh at their ignorance and move on.

 

The people here are good people - think of something you'd actually enjoy talking about and create a thread here, that way you're engaging with decent people instead of Youtubers with a 3rd grade education who think they're political and cultural masterminds. You're a good person and people here recognize that, that's why they are genuinely trying to help you. I'm telling you from an outside perspective that everybody here is trying to offer you sound advice, they're not being reactionary smartasses. This isn't Youtube - you have dozens of decent people all giving you the same advice for a reason. When all of your friends are telling you the same thing, it's for a reason.

 

I worry about you due to your previous posts - hurting yourself over this kind of stuff would be the dumbest decision. I don't say that to make you feel bad, and I know you have to agree with me on some level. Please don't take offense, but I think you are in denial about this. You claim to have improved, but you're essentially dealing with a slightly different flavor of the same problem. You have to get some kind of help. I know it sucks when people say that, from personal experience. But if you're stuck and can't get out, asking for help is the best option available. It doesn't make you less of a man - it shows that you care about yourself and that you're brave enough to face your issues. It doesn't matter if you kill your opponent by yourself or with company, as long as you kill them that's all that matters.

[phoo]

Who cares what Bill Maher says? 

[Ostrichboy88]

The only thing you should care about is becoming the world strongest and richest billionaire 💪💪💪💲💲💲

[LadyMistDragon]

The comments sections of most videos is nothing but a hot dumpster fire anyway. I can guarantee that anything coming from the perspective of an aged boomer (like, "video games are stupid" essentially) is not worth your, nor anyone else's time that cares about comics and/or video games. While you might see an intelligent, thought-out comment every now and then, the fact remains that Bill Maher's audience for instance is going to say games are just a waste of time. I'd say literally any video that either demeans you or makes you feel small is best avoided. Even if you were less bothered by them, negative opinions wear on everyone's psyche after a while. As such, you'd honestly be better off reducing the amount of content you watch that criticizes people like you. As someone who was stupidly vulnerable to group think at one time, I can confirm that pulling away from such toxic content, either for an extended period or a permanent one will make you much happier. 

 

Just think about it, are you seriously going to spend any more time doing 'constructive things' because someone else told you to give it up? Probably not, and you'll still feel terribly in the end. Might as well do something that you actually like, within reason of course!:)

[Murdoch]

Joel's Guide to "Should You Do Thing?"

 

These are in order of importance.

 

1. Is it illegal?

2. Is it likely to cause someone physical or emotional harm?

3. Is it going to make your brain do a non-happy?

4. Is it going to make random people potentially look down on you?

 

If you answered no to questions 1 - 3, congratulations, you can do thing! If you answered yes or no to 4, who gives a fuck, it's your life and what anyone else thinks of you is completely, utterly irrelevant!

 

Yes, by all means, chose to be productive if you feel being productive makes you happy. But you still need to take a break. You need to have fun. You're a human being, not a machine. And if games and comics make you happy, then have at it. Obviously, you should not be wasting money and time on things that should be dedicated to important projects or outstanding bills. But that's where the whole self-control thing comes in.

 

Concur with @Kinsie and @Decay, and probably others whose replies I skimmed over. @DSC, stop doing this to yourself. You say you are doing better which is good, but the mere fact you posted this at all shows you are still letting bullshit artists get in your head. This way lies madness. You're possibly one article/video away from crashing back to where you were.

[Mr. Freeze]

MFW some nerd says comics are for children

[VoanHead]

I thought the point of being an adult is having freedom to do whatever the fuck you wish as long as it's not hurting yourself or others? I'm 21 and still occasionally play some games to let off some steam after classes/work. I bet these same decrepit, judgemental, and bitter mfs who give shit to the younger generations about vidya waste their entire time watching shows/movies. Nice high horse they're sitting on.

[ＤΞＬＴΛ]

14 hours ago, DSC said:

PS: Don't worry too much, I'm still mentally much more stable now, I promise I won't do anything stupid like trying to hurt myself or anything like that. 

That's really good to know @DSC, I'm really glad you're okay :)

[DSC]

Thanks again everyone... I might be making a complete fool of myself with all those threads, but I genuinely have a serious disorder myself, and has I have said it already on my previous issues thread, you people are all somebody I feel comfortable with around and that I could consider a friend, not to mention nearly all of you are older and wiser than me. Because of that, I like to rely on you all for some advice when I need it. I have also looked for help outside the internet, both from my family and serious professionals, I am trying to solve my problems and take them seriously. I know this is a forum to talk about an old, not very serious in tone video game, and as such these topics might be just too sad and depressing for the lot of you, and sometimes I worry I might just be a big annoyance. I just want to say, I really deeply appreciate all of your help, and that I'm making a serious effort to fix myself and not be as much of a nuisance in the future.

[HorseJockey]

Just read through this and wanted to reiterate what most everyone else already said, be yourself. People fear what they do not know, people who criticize comics, video games or any other art form generally speaking don't partake of it themselves. I have over 2000 comic books, and while I have been selling them off as of late, I still enjoy reading them and buy new ones if there is a new story or title that I find interesting. Comics are an easy target for people because they can pass judgment without actually engaging with the artform with lazy arguments like "It's a picture book" and the like. I would be hard pressed to find anyone who would let a child read Grant Morrison's "The Filth" or Ed Piskor's "Red Room" series, most of these people (especially those in youtube comments) live in an echo chamber where they only interact with like minded people who have no interaction with comics or video games. Their opinions are constantly validated so they believe that they are right. People only know what they know. Keep on being you, and just remember that youtube comments are a small microcosm of opinions that do not and should not represent or influence what you enjoy.