General

'While a joke, this photo made me think and question games -- are they truly detrimental to your life? Instead of investing hours into a virtual reality, someone could work at a sport, study to get into a better college, play more music, etc.

In other words, do you think games are a waste of time? While utilitarian, does a game ultimately divert time that would be better spent to other activities? '

Different people have different reasons for living and different reasons to do what they do. In the end it's about happiness, will this bring happiness to your life? Because virtual reality to me doesn't mean much. People are like OMG Y DO PEEPLE PAY IRL MONEY FOR MESOS ITS NOT REEL. Define real. If real is what we feel or touch, it's just electric signals going to our brain. It's all a matter of experience. And if experiencing a game in the way you choose grants you higher happiness then yes, your investment is well worth it. Hell, traveling the world to see things is also just an experience. Sure, I feel having a variety of experience and the pursuit of knowledge is important, BUT that's MY life.

You played sports, probably get injured. You have good and bad. Same with all the other things in life. Just make sure you know what you do is making you happy and not severely impacting your future happiness.

Life is all about balance, dieting, excercise, academic activities, socializing, etc.

But to me gaming really is a social thing to me, it has been all my life, from going to a friends house to fight each other in digimon rumble arena to playing LoL casually with friends now. If gaming didn't exist I don't know where I'd be in life right now, definitely not here posting about a view that I disagree with. Even if you do manage to stop playing videogames unless you actually use that time for studying or whatever else you want it'll be pointless. It's not like when you turn 18 you suddenly change everything in your life, the same applies just because you stop it, force yourself out of it doesn't mean that you'll change. If anything since you forced yourself out of it you'll crave it more and it'll end up more detrimental than anything.

Hell, none of this even matters. It is your life who cares what other people think about it, as long as you're not harming anyone else do whatever the hell you want.

I play video games a LOT, but I also have a social life and other hobbies that take up a considerable amount of my time as well; Music and art.

I think issue is about time management. A person needs to find allocate sufficient time to studying, homework, school, work, family, relationships, exercise, stress relieving, etc. in order to productive. Games are just a form of entertainment, a hobby, that a person should do after completing all their other more important responsibilities. It becomes detrimental when a person spends more time on games while neglecting their responsibilities and obligations which can result in inferior quality work or hurt other aspects of their lives.

Games are a means of entertainment... a passtime... a hobby.

So long as they don't get in the way of your priorities, you can enjoy games and a healthy life as well.

Depends if your getting nothing out of playing the game or if your playing games by making money off of it such as MLG or youtube videos of your games.
It's obvious which one is bad.

[quote=AmyrIin]Personally, for the last couple of years, I've been trying to stop gaming altogether because I'm trying to straighten myself now in preparation for college. I always felt regret after I played a game for 2+ hours, because I looked back and thought to myself, "you could've accomplished alot in those few hours."
[/quote]
you really dont need to completely stop playing games, you just have to have some self control. Unless your taking 4+ classes, an athlete in school, and working part/full time, your going to have some downtime. You may not think so but you are. Watching television is pretty much the same thing as playing games, you get nothing out of it and killing time. I'm in college and play games but i make sure I keep up with my schoolwork before i spend hours on games. It's all about self control, knowing your priorities, and managing your time well.

Its fairly obvious the answer to this question. Don't play a lot and don't get obsessed. Yes it can be fun but it shouldn't take up so much of your time. More than an hour or 2 a day is way to much for me. That doesn't mean every day either. I will now play CoD a couple times a week maybe or not at all.

Gaming is a past time for most people, yeah sometimes things can get out of hand and addiction can settle in but some become professional gamers as well. As for myself I game when I can, it doesnt have to interfere with life that much since work and school takes a lot of my time, but some days I just want to lock myself in my room and play for hours a new game I bought. Gaming will always be a part of my life and I cant change that, heck I live for the stories that each game tells, no matter how many hours I need to play it or play it again after I finished it again for nostalgia purposes.

I know that gaming has wasted a LOT of time in my life but I don't really regret it. It's something that has been there to keep me occupied because come on, be realistic...you can't just decide to get up, go outside or go to hang out with people whenever you choose, while you CAN play games whenever you want. It's always there for me when I'm feeling down or bored and I love escaping into the virtual world, look at games like Zelda and Final Fantasy, I do not regret a SINGLE SECOND of those games despite the large amount of hours I spent playing them. It's just the extent that you play the games, if you play so much that you choose to put aside your studies and social life purposely then it becomes a problem, I simply balance everything out.

You can choose to put all your focus into studying over gaming or a 'social life' but you'd just end up getting REALLY bored and sad, definitely better for your future but you have to enjoy life, not dread it.

Well, gaming has become a professional job for some, you see those people in the eSports industry earning more than 100k per year (after dividing between their teams and tax).

And I guess playing games helps with reflexes if anything else. But I can where your argument is coming from. For most of us, games are just a way to unwind and relax, nothing else...so in that sense, you could say that games are pretty pointless.

EDIT: Oh and if you were planning on a career in Economics, Art, Literature, Programming, Marketing or just being a video game reviewer, then games can mean something to you.