While I am in my thirties that doesn't make me old enough to have missed video games. I think you would have to be 40+ to be in that boat. The problem with your depiction of video games is that doesn't reflect how most people engage in them. I have nothing against video games as a social activity and when I get settled actually plan to have some as one of multiple options for stuff to do when you are hosting people. That is very very different than what I'm talking about which is guys who play video games in the 10 to 60+ hours a week either alone or with a bunch of other failures at life. Having a bunch of guys over to play a few hours of video games while drinking and socializing before hitting the bars or playing some video games against another couple after a dinner party is not the same as getting home from work and playing 4-5 hours of WoW every night.

So we're in agreement selling drugs is the best option for OP?

4-5 hours of WoW everynight after work isn't really representative of the game playing population. The majority of gamers are casual gamers such as myself who put in 5-6 hours a week - I believe that is the statistic I read earlier in the year.

Of course, videogaming taken to an unhealthy extreme in volme and social isolation isn't good, but you can't take that as an argument against videogaming in general. A lot of activities can be taken to unhealthy extremes.

On a separate issue, personally I find being socially surrounded by people 24/7 draining and I require some 'me-time' on my own in isolation. And I don't want to pursue this leisure time doing work activity which leaves solo activities such as reading, browsing the web, playing videogames etc.

That hasn't been my experience. I know people like that exist since I know people who own gaming systems yet have normal healthy lives but most of my exposure is though girls who break up with guys who do nothing but play games. The last person I knew who identified themselves as someone who played video games was in his late 30s and his only physical possessions was a computer, video game system, and big screen TV. He got laid off and got $35k as severance so proceeded to spend the next year doing nothing but playing video games.

Even in university -- and now I'm dating myself -- but a MUD called 3K was the popular game. Your character aged in real time and most of the players were over a year old with some two and three years old -- at 10 hours a week it would take over 16 years for you to have a character a year old yet at the time the internet as a technology available at home was only 4-6 years old. That means a good percentage of the people on 3K were spending 30-40% of their waking time playing 3K. I don't think that has changed that much as I use to have to walk past a internet cafe that is popular with gamers most nights and it was the same people there every Friday and Saturday night mostly playing WoW and CounterStrike. The cafe offers a flat fee from 10pm to 10am and every station is occupied every weekend

Because there's no way possible to play while not at the computer.

The last thing gamers want is you defending them as you are the personification of exactly what I'm describing as the typical gamer.

Henry, while there are indeed people who waste their lives day after day playing video/computer games for 30-40% (actually much more, imo) of their waking time, that does not mean that all people who casually play video games are the same, or that they are playing games for the same reason. What you are saying is basically the equivalent of arguing that everyone who drinks is a huge alcoholic.

Kind of weird considering I haven't played video games since high school. But you know it is possible to have computers do tasks for you while you are not at the keyboard. Even play a game for you if it's repetitive enough, like most MUDs are.

It really isn't the same and I'm pretty hard on people who claim to have addictions as well. My point is that I have often gotten into discussions with people about dating, social life, or financial resources and they bitch and moan about the lack of success at usually all of them and later you discover that they have a 100 hours of Starcraft logged and are caught up pretty much every TV show. Also lets be honest the complexity of current video games are not designed for casual players. Someone playing 5-6 hours a week of video games can't really get good at most of them yet most people I meet who claim to play games display a level of skill that is not compatible with the casual play that people are claiming is the average.

It's hard to argue since you are always out and being social I guess you have talked to a large enough diverse random sample to make sweeping generalizations like that.

Just ignore the fact that the Wii which is a console designed for casual gamers and full of games targeting them was the most successful [in terms of sales] of the next generation consoles. Or the fact that the sales of cell phone games have skyrocketed since the iphone came around, almost all of which are considered casual games. If you do that then I guess I could see your argument about people not designing games for casual gamers being true.

Already tried that.

I smoke too much of my own supply.

You cant sell drugs you do, trust me.

10 crack commandments ftw

76% of gamers spend 5 hours or less per week gaming according to a study conducted by ELSPA.

http://www.ripten.com/2010/06/29/stu...a-week-brycew/

Did you read the comments? The people who consider themselves gamers are actually upset that casual gamers are considered gamers.

How you define gamer will get you whatever result you are looking for. A quick search found two other studies with averages of 11 and 13 hours per week. The NDP study seems to be the most cited and it has the average at 13 hours with 4% of gamers playing 48.5 hours per week. I would be interested in knowing what the average is once you remove females from the calculations but I can't find the NDP data broken down. I did find a study that looked at 219 collage aged males and while they reported an average of 9.73 hours 10% of them reported 35 hours / week.

Basically what it comes down to is if you are just saying I'm too broad in using gamer then fine. I assume that most people realize I was talking about the people in the 10+ hours a week and really even more the 15+ hours / week.

This is the part that I'm really not quite sure about. You categorize playing WoW as simply an escape from reality as though it's some coping mechanism rather than something that can be a personal preference. What I was talking about earlier in the thread was that a virtual reality can in many ways for some people be more fun than actual reality and it doesn't have to mean someones actual reality sucks. I've been on both sides of the spectrum. I used to be heavy into video games when I was younger and then wanted to actually do things that were more productive to improve my quality of life financially, socially, and health wise. Having succeeded at doing that and having lived a very fun lifestyle of traveling around with friends, partying, socializing a lot, etc, I'm still not really convinced that the additional work/effort is that much more worth it than simply playing video games.

Video games are extremely entertaining for some people and I'm very convinced that most of your average males who go out every weekend getting hammered at bars/clubs would probably have even more fun sitting at home playing something like WoW or whatever video game of their choice, yet they don't do it simply because they've been conditioned to think just getting drunk every weekend is cooler.

So I guess what I'm saying is that what you describe as escapism, with a negative connotation, is in a lot of ways probably preferable for many people than forms of entertainment you speak of that cost more money. And for the people that just don't have what it takes to excel at improving their life it certainly can be one of the most entertaining options at their disposal. For someone that's 40 years old, married with kids, and deep in his career, playing WoW is probably far more entertaining than what he can possibly do in his real life since his options are constrained due to responsibilities. At work he might just be Bob who works in the IT department, but at home he's some level 60 warrior whose revered in his world and rides around on "epic horses" with "epic weapons" and slays dragons in dangerous dungeons or whatever other "nerdy" ****. Pretty sure if I were 40 years old in that situation I'd rather be playing WoW than going out with lame co-workers sipping bud light. Probably why I'm not getting married though.

Also, even though it's obviously an exception to the rule, playing video games like starcraft has proven to be an amazing training ground for online poker. So a lot of young 'nerds' in this demographic have been able to become millionaires from their excessive video game playing when transitioning to poker and it has provided them a great lifestyle. Go figure.

this is definitely true. i used to play a ****load of SC and can 20-30 table easily because of it.

I don't think it's so much to do with those type of games being good training, more that the type of person that plays those games at that level is going to be more predisposed to grinding at extreme levels.

figure out how to leverage the labor of those in the similar lot in life as yourself?

Very true.

Saying being good at starcraft was training grounds for being good at online poker is a croc of crap. This is coming from someone that wasted a few thousand hours playing starcraft in his teen years.

People that are good at Starcraft will have the innate capabilities to grind the **** out of online poker. Doesn't mean Starcraft gave them any help.

Games are a waste of time. Period. Nothing productive comes out of it.

Socializing with people is 1000x more productive than games.

Basically it just builds up your hand-eye-mouse coordination because it's such a face paced game where you have to click tons of buttons really fast, makes it easier to multitable imo.

Obviously a waste of time though, other than that.

What other reason would someone choose to spend large amounts of time in a reality that is not real?

I would disagree but that is really not relevant to my point. If someone wants to play a lot of video games that is his choice but then they have to expect the consequences of their choice. If someone wants to a professional athlete they don't get to eat McDs every meal and then still expect to make it. Likewise if someone wants to play video games because they prefer that then it is their choice but they lose the right to bitch about how they are no longer competitive in our society which places no value on that activity and actually looks negatively at it.

That isn't the way it has to be and that people generally believe this is why so many people are unhappy. As life progresses and you have more and more demands it does become harder but there that is no reason to capitulate and just give up on life. Your position is that video games make it so that someone who gave up on life still has something and my position is that we don't want to do that but rather encourage people to not give up on life.

Having kids and a wife sounds like a real bummer. You sacrifice your own happiness to provide for them.

Probably a lot more fun to get pets, and be a bachelor.

Kids are bad. Pets are just like lite versions of kids. Wives are fine as long as you pick the right one.