Then I asked myself… what am I passing time for? I’m afraid of more life… that was unacceptable. I launched into a phase of “more life”, less escape by music, tv, video games and other pasttimes. I still exercised QUITE a bit though… with exercise comes a certain peace of mind for me – like meditation in a way.

Go and experience life Noah – anything you can get that keeps you out of trouble and keeps you free to do as you wish for a while. There’s a lot to experience. I’ve done a LOT – and yet, there is so much I haven’t done yet… you could do more than me if you tried…

Maybe I’m wrong in the context of Duke Nukem, yeah. Action games can go away as far as I’m concerned. I don’t play them very often, and even less often for just action. They probably have their defenders. I’m not one of them. I don’t want them banned, mind. May we all be saved from well-meaning governments! Just that they’re not much value.

In the context of other game types though there’s a lot of value. Simcity and other simulations of its type encourages people to think about issues of construction, building, economics, cooperation. Roleplaying or adventure games generally encourage empathy and consideration of long-term consequences. (The law of unintended consequences is practically a cliche within those genres.) Science fiction games – even action oriented ones – feed technologist impulses and even more reliably turn the mind toward the future. It’s not just “basic human needs” that are addressed by games. (What are those “basic human needs”?)

Let me make a few suggestions in particular.
Planescape: Torment is a very philosophical and social RPG. Very few combat encounters are ‘required’ (possibly none?), the endings are very thoughtful, and the conversations along the way mean that the game is frankly more valuable to the mind than your average book.
The Deus Ex series are action RPGs set in a near and believable future; they have a conspiratorial tone and manage to be both active and thoughtful. One of the hallmarks of the series is presenting choices to the player, that they should consider between ambiguous alternatives which is better.
Katamari Damacy is pure entertainment – and I hold it up as an example to show that pure entertainment has value. It’s made my life more cheerful to have played it, and I say this with months having passed since I last picked it up. Human happiness has value, especially in lasting form, and people do sometimes derive happiness from games.

Most games don’t hit very high standards. Most games are inferior to most books! (Even bad books are better at presenting information and story.) There are some games that have tremendous value though. Games like the three above, I would actually recommend playing.

If only it were possible to figure out which games are worthy before playing them! The hobby holds a sad similarity to gambling, since most games are dreck. Fortunately, even inferior games can present situations which can’t happen in life. To that extent at least they aid me in my writing. I consider my games to be a useful adjunct to my efforts at writing.