Gaming - a positive or negative impact on your life?

[DeathAdder]

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

Of course it's easy to say it's negative for other reasons, like being a waste of time, or costing money, but most hobbies are just as much a waste of time. You can't be productive every hour of the day. I don't see why reading a book or watching a film is so much more acceptable than playing games.

Seems like collecting is the most likely road to negative then. noobish, why would you say doing a degree in Japanese ruined your life?

[noobish hat]

Cos it took up a LOT of time and money, and served no purpose at all.

[kryss]

Stressed gamers should do what Colin does and just play awesome, adrenaline rush arcade games. Short, fun but replay value.

I have to admit, this is very much why I play BF3 so much. I can play for anything between 10 minutes to 4 hours at a time and it's as rewarding I let it be. Ok, frustrating at times but there are matches where I prod some serious buttock. Nano Assault Neo is one of the biggest reasons I like the WiiU as I can play for a short time.

Do I lack the attention span due to games? No, my attention span was borne of feeling like I have no time, so I want to rush through things. It's a problem that means I rarely enjoy games as much as I should.

[nonny]

Overwhelmingly positive for me.

Aside from a few overdoses in my early twenties gaming has been a constant addiction I can control and one that has become a manageable hobby in later life (I'm now 38). I think to those who think its negative for them they should work out why and change their habits.

For me its been a case of understanding when I am gaming too much at a detriment to other social/family/life matters. As such for me I took up running and cycling as a separate opposing hobby to locking myself indoors. This has been even more important since moving to Australia with better all year weather.

I've also gotten married and found a balance of gaming time opposed to spending time with my wife. There are two nights a week where I'm actually rostered in to use the projector setup in the lounge and she's either upstairs watching TV or out playing netball. It's at these times I play online with four of my best mates and these days when they've got kids and live some distance away its become one social constant where were able to all chat together and have a regular catch up.

Chicks phone for hours, I play Xbox LIVE and chat in a party...

The strange thing for me is in the past 10 years I haven't reduced my gaming hours that much. I've just managed it better and fit it around the more important things. Do that and it'll never be negative as you can have it all. Just treat things with the correct priority and learn that you don't need to spend that much in gaming either. I've monitored my spend (and I note the other thread on here about that very subject) and begun only buying a new game when I complete one and have 5-6 in rotation... Must-buys aside.

[Sketcz]

I will fully admit that games have had a negative impact on my life. Instead of venting all of my passion and disdain for humanity into investigative articles on video game history, I'd probably have focused on studying science and ended up working for the government, developing some kind of biological super weapon and then going rogue with it. With an IQ of over 150, I was top of all my classes.

I could have been a classical super villain if it weren't for video games.

[Sketcz]

Cos it took up a LOT of time and money, and served no purpose at all.

Why don't you move to Japan and work on localisation/development? I've seen plenty of people do it. That Cuthbert guy, James Mielke, John Ricciardi, plus others.

[nakamura]

I have to admit, this is very much why I play BF3 so much. I can play for anything between 10 minutes to 4 hours at a time and it's as rewarding I let it be. Ok, frustrating at times but there are matches where I prod some serious buttock. Nano Assault Neo is one of the biggest reasons I like the WiiU as I can play for a short time.

Do I lack the attention span due to games? No, my attention span was borne of feeling like I have no time, so I want to rush through things. It's a problem that means I rarely enjoy games as much as I should.

Well with all the studying, work, forum browsing, cat playing, animewatching and whatever else. No wonder you feel you have no time!

[parkinho]

A definite positive for me, I have made some lifelong friends through videogames and a whole load of brilliant memories. The key for me is to not force yourself to play games - I have gone months at a time without even looking at a game when other activities have been more demanding of my spare time. But I knew that I would always come back when the time was right.

Also, ensuring that you do continue to pursue other activities outside of gaming to be a well rounded individual. Excessive amounts of time on any hobby can have a negative impact, not just videogames. For me it was football, spending money and time that I didn't have to religiously follow the mighty Burnley FC across the country, or skipping lectures at Uni to take part in 5-a-side tournaments. Nowadays I have a much better approach, only playing football on Sunday and watching the Clarets when time is available.

[Adrock]

Gaming, for me, has been extremely positive even though it ate through my entire teens it kept me out of immeasurable trouble. I was a very naughty kid at school for various reasons and it gave me a means of relaxing and escaping from that ****.

It meant I didn't do as well as I could in exams all the way through my education including university but at least I got there in the end. I'm working in something entirely different and have never used my degree but again its made me the person I am.

I'm unable to imagine, going on in my life, not playing games.

[teddymeow]

Stressed gamers should do what Colin does and just play awesome, adrenaline rush arcade games. Short, fun but replay value.

I do think I should try this.

With the exception of Uncharted and Dead Space I have found a lot of the single player, story based games to be over long and full of passing this gen.

[nakamura]

I find that single player games this gen are less interactive. The new Devil May Cry seems to address this. No stupid autoj umping or QTE's it seems.

[danstan21]

Difficult one for me as well.

Positive: Gaming is often very, very fun. The sheer number of different experiences you can have is amazing. A deep engrossing, 80-hour RPG can be incredibly rewarding and engrossing, but similarly half an hour playing fast-paced action titles can be just the stress reliever you need. I have some great memories of some great games, and not just on my own - I can particualrly recall hours spent playing pass-the-bomb style Wario Ware on the Gamecube with anywhere ranging from 2 to 8 friends.

Negative: Collecting is the least satisfying hobby ever. Having spent the last year and a half collecting Gamecube titles, many of which I never even intend to play (see backlog thread) I can see what a huge money sink it has been and how little satisfaction you actually get. Usually a new title will go straight on the shelf and all that will ever be seen of it is its spine; maybe if it's a title I'll actually enjoy I'll give it a whirl 6 months down the line. Thankfully I've managed to prune it down to just a remaining 10 games I want to get before I can consider my personal collection complete, but on top of that is things like buying replacement cases for games which came with cracks in their cases, buying entire replacement copies of games because the cover art is slightly torn or has a sticker on it, and attempting to track down instruction manuals for games when they were missing. (As you can imagine, I've grown to detest GAME for their old policy of writing numbers on the disc and manual and placing stickers on the spine of the cover art of many titles.)

After I'm done with the GC collection, I'm not going to collect for any console again; I'll make sure I only buy titles I actually want to play, and I'll only buy them if there's nothing else I'm playing at the moment. Unfortunately I don't think I'll ever be able to go back to, for instance, just buying GBA cartridges of games, as it's been heavily ingrained on me that I need boxes and manuals in reasonable condition as well. I suppose at least I was never plagued by the "mint" bug.

EDIT: As a side note, I don't think gaming has ever significantly got in the way of my personal life. I've often thought it would affect exam results and things but so far it doesn't seem to have done. It's never got in the way of relationships either, but given that I turn 18 in Feb I guess you could say that's not too surprising. Sometimes I wonder, as Kit said, whether gaming has made me less focused or more introverted, but then again I wonder whether I'd just spend more time watching films or anime instead.

[nakamura]

I collect to play. I have a lot of games but collecting for full sets is madness.

[danstan21]

Yeah, I can't imagine ever collecting a full set of anything. My GC collection stands at around 80 titles at the moment (including imports) and that's already been a financial ****storm. It's lucky I don't have many responsibilities in the way of money at the moment.

[buster_broon]

suppose i could say good and bad

good being ive enjoyed the games i've owned and met people i wouldnt have met otherwise

negative being i wouldnt like to think what ive spent exactly but i dont smoke and generally dont drink that often either so its my only vice

being devils advocate i could also say it could have been the downfall of my marriage because i pretty much spent more time with specific games than anything else, if i play a game and it grabs me (GTA: SA, FF7, DR, C&C) then i pretty much focus on that

always been banned by my ex wife and my current partner of playing MMORPG games especially warcraft just incase i get sucked in