Gaming - a positive or negative impact on your life?

[yesteryeargames]

Positive for the friends i have made , and i feel i have learnt some things from games.

I passed my driving test first time and i think games had a big part in that.
I lost 5 stone from playing wii fit, thats a big positive.


The negatives are collecting crap games for the sake of it, and backlog of games always makes me sad yet i find it too hard to resist a new release.

[speedlolita]

I've just spent an hour making my new alt character.. :<

[Escape-To-88]

I'm partially burnt out on a lot of gaming right now, i buy retro games that I don't play, buy current-day games that I don't complete properly (NSMB U most recently), download games that I play once then delete, and I almostget more enjoyment of 'hunting down' games to buy than playing them. However, there's still some threads of genuine enjoyment somewhere in there.

Sounds familiar.

Oh aren't we a happy bunch on here Surprised to see so many negatives here. Not that I necessarily differ, but seems a tad odd on a videogames forum, no?

[kryss]

Do i need ****ter to read them?

https://www.twitter.com/BDQuotes

You can read them without having an account.

[sj33]

Probably negative, just because they were pretty much the only reason I did my degree in Japanese, which basically ruined my life.

Exactly the kind of thing I want to read after just graduating with a degree in Japanese! I do know where you're coming from though - I'm now basically pigeonholed into a small handful of jobs, and I can't say I fancy living in Japan for more than a couple of years. Saying that though, most of my friends with 'proper' degrees are doing worse than me at the moment.

As for the gaming, I find with me it's just a case of being sensible. I don't think hobbies necessarily have to be intrinsically rewarding. It's easy to compare gaming to reading books or learning an instrument and noting that gaming gives very little back, but there's nothing wrong with doing something purely because you enjoy it.

But I do find myself limiting my gaming time, playing on an evening after a hard days work, and that has come to effect the type of games I play - increasingly more light-hearted, less time-consuming titles.

[DANGEROUS-3]

To answer the thread question I guess both-

-Positive because I enjoy playing and collecting videogames, and negative because it stops me from doing other stuff. I think the negative aspect is quite limited though, because I try to keep my gaming to an evening when I'd only be watching some crap on the TV instead. I did get sucked into Skyrim though and played it for about 5 hours a day for roughly 6 months. Gonna try not to do that type of thing again. But then even that is an experince you gotta have as a gamer- a game that completely sucks you in for 6 months.

I prefer pick up and play titles right now, stuff I can play for an hour or two and come back to later.
They're more condusive to not eating my days up.

Looking fwd to Aliens nxt month.

[fuse]

There's some positives and some negatives in my life I could probably track through and hold gaming responsible for, but in short, gaming is a huge part of my life and I'm very happy with my life. On that note...

(anyone after J GC/Wii games should probably give me a shout)

SUP!

[Paddy]

Massively positive for me.

This forum has been my favourite in the last few years but some great people on others too. So many cool memories tagged to gaming too. Spent an 8 hour session playing Resident Evil and suitable passed out via a massive head rush. That was funny. The launch of Final Fantasy VII was epic. The release of the PS1 was monumental. Winning Eleven 5 was stunning.
Many a night spent playing WE and drinking a **** load, so much fun.

Also gaming has helped me through some tougher times and has often felt like a companion.

I know this forum doesn't allow users to promote entries but I'll unofficially promote this one as it resonated with me loads. So so true.

The sessions, releases and drinking whilst playing 4-on-4 link up on HALO 1 in the same house, one team upstairs, the other downstairs, are definitely all positives of gaming for me.

[nakamura]

12-16 player Halo at Striders house was absolutely awesome. Loads of wires, controllers, crisps and shouting all day.

[fuse]

A little off-topic, but one of my earliest NTSC-UK memories was Pij giving me to a meet at Boog's place in Middlesborough, think it was the weekend of Halo 2's release? I cannot remember any names from folk who were there (plus I was probably super quiet myself), just playing lots of 3S with Singho

[chojin]

Gaming - a positive or negative impact on your life?

Negative for me is emptying of my wallet for retro titles I owned as a kid first time round, but I don't regret selling them as I'd have missed out on the progression of games as time passed.

Positive is my sons genuine love of games, he found his own way to gaming it must be in his genes, he absolutely loves the retro too but I hold my hands up the arrival on games for my collection has always grabbed his attention

[buster_broon]

A little off-topic, but one of my earliest NTSC-UK memories was Pij giving me to a meet at Boog's place in Middlesborough, think it was the weekend of Halo 2's release? I cannot remember any names from folk who were there (plus I was probably super quiet myself), just playing lots of 3S with Singho

Same with me at a Seany meet where i met you, Charles, Kieron and one other

night ended up being a blur and spooning with you lol

[acidbearboy]

I'm curious as to why there are so many negative responses in this thread. Surely if gaming had such a negative impact on your life, and you recognise that, then you wouldn't be posting on a niche videogame forum about it.

Try removing the negative aspects of videogames from your history and tell me what could have been...

[nakamura]

I would say the most of the negatives in here happened due to the nature/issue of that person rather than the hobby itself.

[originalbadboy]

I'm a gamer .. Always have been and always will be (hopefully) .. yeah sure there are negatives to any hobby that you spend a lot of time doing, as it takes time away from other aspects of life.

In the end though I don't regret in any way being a gamer, my life might have turned out differently (possibly for the better , possibly not) .. I know that I have several good friends who I wouldn't have if it wasn't for games, so in the end for better or worse I do not regret it for a second.

It does get more difficult to justify spending hours playing games the older you get though ....