Arbitrary games/activities. Mind Thread.

While I was hanging with family and talking about social life, they kept nagging on about how I should do more activities, clubs, and such despite repeatedly showing no interest in the clubs even if they vaguely or directly match my interests. We talk about stuff like going bowling and such and I eventually asked a question to see if I can get an idea why they keep nagging me on this. "Is the activity of bowling arbitrary and just a front for socializing?" They responded with the insightful answer of "kinda, yah" which matches up with what I usually understand about bowling, but also showed how we see activities and how we have different meanings from them.

Anyway, the thread is about how much the games and activities we participate in really matter. 

Bowling

I'm gonna assume we all know this, bowling is a fun ball game. This game for the most part is pretty much arbitrary. There are a couple variations in various social settings, but they all generally meet the same goal of bring people together for fun and food with the only things that really matter is the game being fair and if the game is working. Most people I know in the real world aren't gonna point out much else that isn't playing the game or the usual social yapping. 

Despite that, bowling can be looked at closer to find a whole world of engineering and mechanical depth that effects how the game is player for all kinds of bowlers. For example, the lane is typically greased in favor of the player. To keep it short, giving the ball a good enough spin can guarantee perfect games. However in professional higher level bowling, the grease takes various different forms and patterns that are built to challenge the players. They change the game to further challenge players to bowl differently as well as more precisely to get good scores each frame. 

But of course most people don't bowl for actual challenge and yet the game has been built to make players of any skill have as much fun as possible. If I were to go back to watching those bowling videos I was recalling from memory, I could go down a whole game design and engineering rabbit-hole that very few casual bowlers could ever appreciate. It's a shame that all the technology and effort to make of the best recreational games ever is not getting the recognition it deserves because the game is fundamentally taken for granted by the players. There is also the shame that is string pins, but that's a whole different story that I haven't fully read into that has a matter greater than the strings itself.

Going back to how my family answered my question, it almost seemed like they never really cared about the activity or gave it any acknowledgement to the experiences they had that gives the game value. One of my parents that I was talking to used participate in a bowling league and yet they were the one to give it the same respect I give to the bean bag throwing game Corn Hole. It felt like they were betraying the very sport I thought they appreciated. Now I doubt that's the case and I know they were really good at bowling so I might be overthinking this a little bit. However, I still wish they could take back what they said about bowling so I can be assured that the game actually mattered for them. 

Hobby Gaming Today

I forgor. I'll leave this here for now. I can always add on if I ever remember again.