[gnramires]

I don't know, I can't really justify spending say 8 hours sitting -- and much less more time. We need to go for a walk, drink water, stop staring at a screen to stay reasonably healthy. Maybe there could be an hour bank or something and you can do a 8 hour stint once in a while if you really wanted. When you're young that doesn't feel so painful, but as you get older you start noticing the health implications of this kind of habit, it's very destructive. For example it can affect your spine, insulin resistance (cause pre-diabetes/diabetes), and more. At least if I were designing an MMO, my conscience would demand I think seriously about this.

But really this (although I think it can be helpful and important) does not get to the heart of the matter which is good, non-dark-pattern-filled game design. Again I don't think this is just a matter or regulation, but requires both a game dev and gamer culture that favors the healthier and more full of wonder, communication and learning (opposed to just gambling addiction) kind of games.

[theshackleford]

> I don't know, I can't really justify spending say 8 hours sitting -- and much less more time.

You mentioned "sitting," but I never brought that up. Maybe for you, gaming equals sitting. I use a sit/stand desk. Even when I didn’t, I had a job where I was on my feet 8+ hours a day and so if I wanted to spend a weekend sitting for 8 hours, again, that’s my choice and I’d certainly not have been interested in passing that decision through some government department of "appropriate sitting time."

> Maybe there could be an hour bank or something and you can do a 8 hour stint once in a while if you really wanted.

Or hear me out, maybe it should just stay the way it is: a personal decision that is nobody elses business.

> When you're young that doesn't feel so painful, but as you get older you start noticing the health implications of this kind of habit...

I’m not looking for a lecture on the dangers of sitting. Occasionally spending a day deep in a game isn’t the same as living a sedentary lifestyle for decades. It’s a false equivalency. And any attempt to hard regulate leisure time would restrict both behaviors the rare indulgence and the chronic one. Neither of which are your business or the government’s.

> Again I don't think this is just a matter of regulation, but requires both a game dev and gamer culture that favors the healthier and more full of wonder, communication and learning (opposed to just gambling addiction) kind of games.

There is no monolithic “gamer culture.” People play for different reasons, with different tastes, in different ways. The kind of games you're advocating for already exist, no one is stopping you from playing them. That’s the beauty of a free market: choice. However you are free to choose only for yourself, not for the rest of us.