It's okay to play Marvel Snap. I know on the surface your mind will be like, well, of course it is. I can do whatever I want. I'm a free person. But I want to challenge the deep down part of you. Is there some part of you that feels like it's not okay to play Marvel Snap, or to play video games generally? That feels like games are just a waste of time, that you're being selfish playing video games?
There's a part of me that has felt exactly that. I've quit gaming several times since I've become a dad. I quit in 2016, in 2019, and multiple times in 2022 and 2023, because I kept feeling like playing games is a waste of time. Playing games is just something selfish that I did when I was single and lonely and desperate. And I'm grateful my kids and their interest in gaming reawakened me to the fact that it's okay to play games.
Why having fun is proof you're wealthy in time
Having fun is a sign of health and vitality and abundance. Taking time to do something just because it's fun, that is proof that you're wealthy in time. And many grown ups are not time wealthy. Many grown ups are time poor, where all of your time is spoken for. You never have time to do the things you really want to do, and all you do is work and do chores. And even when you do engage in things that are supposed to be for fun, you're engaging in them from more of an addiction, and you're feeling bad underneath it.
So I invite you to look at it: when you're playing Marvel Snap, do you feel good about it? And is there some part of you that you can address and speak to and say, look, it's okay to play Marvel Snap, and to have fun playing this game, and to take time to just enjoy it?
Fun versus addiction is about how you feel
The difference between playing a game because it's really fun versus it being kind of addictive is how you feel about it. If you feel like, hey, it's okay to play Marvel Snap, I love playing, it's fun — if that's how you really feel, then there often won't be an addictive quality about it. You'll be able to play a reasonable amount, and you'll enjoy when you do play.
Now, if you're playing the game and you're getting frustrated about it, and then you play too much of it and you feel guilty about it, as of course I've done before, then what's going on there is there's some addictive quality about it. On one level, you feel like, yeah, of course I play Marvel Snap. This is right. This is fun. I deserve this. But on another level, you feel like this is wrong and I shouldn't do it.
So if you feel like it's wrong and you shouldn't do it, you'll often swing back and forth. One side says I'm going to do this all the time. I'm going to constantly play Marvel Snap. I'm going to buy all the stuff off the store. I'm going to grind until I get infinity. And then you'll kind of get disgusted with yourself and stop playing and be like, what was I doing? I shouldn't have done this. It's a waste of time. If you don't feel deep down like you deserve to play, or that you have time to play, or if you feel bad about it deep down, that's generally how it will come about. I've wrestled with this same tension before, including whether competitive games like Marvel Snap are zero-sum self-sabotage or fun character-building.
Why streaming Marvel Snap stopped being fun
So if you are playing Marvel Snap, I encourage you to really lean in and have fun playing it. For me, playing it just for myself is fun, because I can enjoy losing and I can really just play as much as I want to. But I found that if I'm trying to stream Marvel Snap, like play it on Twitch, then it's not fun anymore. It starts to feel more addictive, where I feel like I have to justify that I'm playing it because I'm a creator and I'm on Twitch. Me playing Marvel Snap on Twitch was happening because deep down I didn't feel like it was okay to just play it. But if it's because of my business and I'm a content creator, then it's okay if I play it, right? And from that point of view, I often would play addictively, where I would just play constantly.
One day I played hours and hours of Marvel Snap at once, to the point where I felt bad about how much I played, and then I quit. In fact, I've already posted, I think, two videos saying I quit playing Marvel Snap. And that's an indication that deep down, I didn't feel like it was okay to play Marvel Snap. Yes, on the surface I said, oh yeah, it's cool to play Marvel Snap, of course, I'm a grown up, I deserve to play it. But deep down, deep down, I felt like I was doing something wrong. And that's why I kept announcing I'd quit. If you've ever done the same, you might recognize yourself in the day I spent $2,000 on Marvel Snap, quit in 2024, and finally played again.
Why playing Marvel Snap is a great use of my time now
So I'm grateful that today, I play Marvel Snap and I have fun with it. I don't play it on stream anymore. I record some of my gameplay and use it as background for videos. And I love that when I'm making these Marvel Snap videos, they're getting out to so many of you and sharing these ideas with you. These ideas are valuable, and I'm able to help you with some of the same things I've struggled with myself. That leaves me feeling really grateful that playing Marvel Snap is a great use of my time, where I'm not only having fun playing the game, but the game is a medium for me to relate to you and connect with you, because I'm a full-time YouTuber.
I have other channels, like Jerry Banfield Thoughts, where I'm already just doing videos like this one, but without the game. But these videos, because I have the gameplay in them, they get a lot more impressions on YouTube, because they're more relatable. You might not realize we have any common interest if I'm not playing Marvel Snap, but when I play Marvel Snap, you're like, oh, I play that too. That same connection is what I keep going inside the Jerry Banfield Family, where we talk through this stuff together.
So Marvel Snap is a great way to have fun. And I love trying to figure out the decks, then playing the deck and learning the game. Now, I'm sure I'll move on to another game at some point, as I've moved on from all the other games until I ran into Marvel Snap — and honestly, starting a brand new game is the hardest thing in gaming for me. But for now, this is the most fun game I can think to play. I enjoy the characters. I enjoy the cards. I enjoy the community of those of you who watch the videos. And I finally am leaning into the idea that it's okay for me to play this.
It's okay to spend money on a game you love
Not only is it okay for me to play this, it's okay for me to spend some money playing this game. I just went into the store today and cleaned out all the bundles. I bought the $100 bundle with the 6,000 gold and the two spotlight keys. I bought the two smaller bundles with the 3,000 coins. I've got most of the cards already, and this will speed things up and gave me some more of the cards I didn't have. But I've got the money. I'm glad I'm wealthy. I've got the money to spend. I enjoy the game, and me dumping $1,000 into it supports a bunch of people who are playing for free. You could even think of it as a little bit charitable. I know you could argue that's a little delusional, but you could think of it as a little charitable.
The Zola play that made me laugh out loud
And as evidence that I'm truly having fun playing the game: I'm not being so serious about my rank and how much I win. In one game, I dropped Zola over there just because it'd be funny. Nobody was watching, I'm not playing on stream — I was just thinking it'd be hilarious. I dropped this guy over there with Venom, and I took a 50/50 chance on whether I'd copy Venom or whether I'd copy a squirrel. Now that's fun. I'm having fun playing the game this way. Like, let's gamble. And it copied the squirrel. Like, oh, oh. And it was funny to me.
I'm playing the game just to have fun. I'm screwing around, and I'm like, just drop this guy over there and copy the squirrel. I'm having a great time. Now, I know I could have played Killmonger and I could have played to try and make a smarter play, so to speak. But I'm having fun, and that's what really matters. The opponent retreated, even though it looked to me like they were going to win. I don't know why they retreated, but I was laughing so hard after playing this game. I'm like, what just happened? What happened was, I had fun. And I had fun because I felt like it was okay to play. You can watch how this plays out across more of these games in my Games playlist.
Having fun lets you set boundaries
I'm not addicted to this. I'm just enjoying my time. And what's nice about having fun is that you can set boundaries. Okay, I had enough fun playing this — I'm going to go do something else with my time now. That's the whole point. When you genuinely feel like it's okay to play, you can lean in, enjoy it fully, and then walk away when you're done. If you want to keep going on this with me, I share a lot more of it openly inside the Jerry Banfield Family.