This is Your Brain on Games

https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6869710/

The link above is to a study on neuroscience and taxi drivers; several similar studies have been conducted in recent years. The goal was to establish a pattern of increased use, or brain mass, in areas related to navigation. Some of these studies compared GPS users with those who relied on memory-based navigation.

The studies suggest a correlation between individuals who avoided using GPS and London drivers who had to navigate complex road patterns, who also had more tissue mass in spatial areas of their brains.

It makes sense that if you use that part of your brain more, with increased activity, it will become "trained" to perform complex tasks. The old bodybuilding adage applies: "The more you use it, the stronger it gets."

The other adage also applies: "You snooze, you lose."

This explains my childhood and our history of enjoying role-playing games, which were often written for college students, as well as our improved academic performance. We played the challenging games when we were growing up:

• Car Wars
• Space Opera
• Aftermath!
• AD&D
• GURPS
• Rolemaster
• Star Fleet Battles
• Squad Leader

We had a few other games for which we used the settings (Gangbusters, Star Frontiers, and a few others), but we always converted these to the more complex sets of rules because we enjoyed those games more than the simpler ones.

Some of these games required designing vehicles on spreadsheets, before we ever had spreadsheet software or computers, and we did them all by hand. Other games had vector math (Space Opera, Traveller) that you needed to work through for space combat.

Some games had flowcharts of turn actions and rule resolution (Aftermath), which required following complex paths of logic and if-then statements through the procedures until they became second nature.

Simulation-level wargames such as Squad Leader and Star Fleet Battles have similar deep rule structures, with rules filling up three-ring binders with page after page of how everything works, almost like learning a computer programming language just to be able to work through a turn of play. Our Car Wars battles lasted a week, and we would spend hours on the maps and tables keeping the simulation running. Turn by turn.

We didn't have a computer to simulate this, so we performed the calculations by hand.

We did massive Aftermath combats between people on foot, with over 100 participants, all by hand, turn by turn, in a gigantic deathmatch game.

AD&D was written in college-level language, and for us to learn the game, we had to break out the dictionary. Some games required you to dive into history (Gangbusters, Squad Leader), so our interest in history and the world was significantly higher than that of other kids.

GURPS required us to balance point-buy characters, and the rules depth expanded as profoundly as you could imagine. GURPS can approach Squad Leader in depth of play and complexity if you use many optional rules, or it can be a rules-light game if you want to play it that way.

We did not have computers.

We only had calculators, pencils, paper, rulers, and lots of gum erasers.

Today's Games

They don't excite me. They feel like they are written for children. They don't activate the parts of my brain that I used as a child. They feel mentally unfulfilled. They are too heavily based around the false idol of "social media identity," and they equate story depth with a fan-fiction level of storytelling.

None of them requires advanced math or reading levels.

When I play them, I have fun, but I feel that parts of my brain I enjoy using slowly wither away. None of these games excites me. None of them challenge me. None of them touch the parts of my brain that I enjoy using. There is nothing to them.

Figuring out an action economy and optimizing turn actions is the best part of 5E. That is the only challenge in the game. The rest of the game is a blur of storytelling mush and self-identity drivel. None of it challenges me. Most of it bores me.

After reading those studies, I now understand why.

I don't want simplified, dumbed-down, easy games. In a sense, it feels like they are rotting your brain. They are certainly not using the parts of my brain that excited me as I was growing up, and this is why today, when I play them, I can't understand why "everyone else loves them, but not me."

Shadowdark is compelling due to its tight simulation and ticking clock. The story is one of survival, requiring teamwork and efficient play, where you must optimize your actions and communication as a team at the table. The game creates a "game outside the game" that few even understand by just reading the rulebook.

If you never played Shadowdark with a group, you will never understand it.

The rules of Shadowdark? They are kept simple and do not challenge me. The "live play" social construct and contract of Shadowdark, all based on a countdown timer? That is highly exciting and mentally stimulating to me. One serves the other.

Go play Shadowdark at a con, if you are lucky enough to grab a seat at a game. There is a reason this game is hyper popular, and it is more than just the rules.

Narrative and Identity do not Replace Comprehension

D&D 5E, Pathfinder, Starfinder, and a bunch of these other newer games do not even touch the parts of my brain that give me those higher orders of mental stimulation. For others, they are fine, since they never had to develop that higher level of thinking required for advanced math, comprehension, history, and science. The only parts of their brains that are highly developed are those related to social constructs and relationships, which is why all these games have a strong sense of "character and identity" and very little else.

If all you grew up with was "who I am seen as on social media," you don't need many critical thinking skills to survive. You will never need math, history, or science. You live in the vapid and very transient now, with nothing existing before or after the moment. Your life is like that of a TV screen, existing only in the current frame, with nothing remembered before or mattering after.

But, do you need to slog through games with heavy math and reading levels to "just have fun?" No, you don't. But I enjoy them because those parts of my brain are wired that way. I am playing GURPS and ordering a new Star Fleet Battles set. Here is the question for you, though:

If you never pushed yourself that hard, how do you even know if you would enjoy them?

You will never know unless you try.

Also, the discomfort you feel when trying to learn them is actually a dislike, or are you now using a part of your brain that you aren't accustomed to? This may be similar to the soreness that follows a workout. Keep at it, and you may discover that you enjoy that level of analytical and critical thinking.