>>725106667 (OP)
similar to a mana bar in world of warcraft that only refills after you eat and sleep, you have a limited amount of active cognition available per day
raising a family, although it does not take up all of your time, does take up a significant portion of your mental energy
remember how you would feel after an intense study session, or difficult exam when you were a student
although these tasks didn't take up your entire day, they did make you feel fatigued, and mentally drained afterwards
to then go and play a competitive video game, or engage in a debate, while in this fatigued state, would result in worse performance due to your mental fatigue, caused by depleted energetic resources within the brain
many forms of video games require a level of mental focus, cognitive effort, that gamer dads are not willing to sacrifice
either they don't want to spend their mental focus before they commit themselves to their fatherly responsibilities, or they don't have any focus available after a full day of fulfilling parental requirements
it's not that the tasks are extremely difficult either, it's just that the prospect of your family getting hurt inspires so much motivation within you to devote as much effort as possible that you end up draining your energy
it's easy to describe but difficult to understand until you experience a similar situation
your brain has a limited amount of energy that it can expend during a waking cycle
the responsibilities of fatherhood drains their brains of this energy, resulting in them treating video games as a low effort casual hobby, not an intense pastime worthy of intense focus
i hope this clears things up