I've given my opinion on this in the chat and also in this thread a bit on this but since the discussion was opened I might as well contribute.

I do think video games are loser-activity, yes. But yeah, if some ordinary guy plays a few hours of SC2 a week it doesn't automatically make him a loser. That's not usually what happens though - and most people don't understand the difference between playing 4 hours of SC2 a week and shoutcasting SC2 as a hobby. Most people play 10+ hours a week and usually more when the game first is released.

I used to play 4-5 hours of video games a day (on average). I was a complete loser - quitting video games cold turkey vastly improved my life. It forced me to actually do things productive in my free time. I think nearly everyone's lives would be bettered be quitting video games entirely. Exceptions would be someone like goofyballer whose profession involves the video game industry. I just see video games as a complete waste of time - I'd rather do basically anything else. I also rarely watch television (the only shows I watch not counting sporting events are 2 HBO shows that I use HBO GO to watch late at night) for similar reasons.

I've stated I might be biased on this issue because me quitting entirely has improved my life, but I've seen the same transformation in friends so I'm pretty convinced of my viewpoint.

Yeah, I also feel the same way about TV. I currently follow one show (Fringe!), but it only has one season to go and I'll probably be more or less done with TV after that.

Although I do watch several movies a week so maybe I'm just a hypocrite. I think there's a difference though.

I don't necessarily like that I get a pass for this. If I worked any other software job I'd still be playing the same amount of video games.

I dont see the big issue with watching TV as long as its not all day everyday. I mean about 75% of my TV watching is Sports related with the rest being food network/travel/history and a tiny bit of MTV mixed in.

I think the whole "I dont watch TV" line is becoming trendy again.

The crazy thing is that people talk about watching TV as if TV is all equal. I think a person is missing out on a lot of positive effects if they rigidly refuse to ever watch TV.

the point I meant to make was you should give up a bunch of things to focus on one thing and then devote your time to that. Usually if it's important it will take up a lot of your time, energy, and focus and it's infinitely better to be #1 at something then #34 in a bunch of things.

you can obviously still play basketball or play video games if you want to be the best in your community at one thing. the worst part of this forum is that people are so obtuse

what the hell are you talking about

on the larger point video games are obviously fine on their own, there is just a strong correlation between the type of person who plays them a ton and the type of person is is not well adjusted to society. many people can make it work though. cam newton plays madden for hours

HGTV is the ****, dont care what you guys say

Jetto?

Having TV on is fine. Actually watching TV in the sense that you are doing nothing else and giving 100% attention to the TV is pretty bad.

I think this becomes less true with every generation of game. When I played video games this was true because being decent at a video game was something that even a casual player could do. With modern games that no longer seems to be true -- for most games you either need to devote a lot of time or there is no point in playing.

Most video games are very easy and designed to be that way. It's only when you play multiplayer that you need to put in a ton of time to get good.

I do tend to agree that if you're going to do something you may as well do it well, which is why I mostly avoid video games (I think I've bought five PC games in the past ten years). The sad counterpoint to that is that when I do buy one I spend much too much time playing it for a month or two.

Is this loser activity? Maybe. Do I enjoy it? Yes. So I can live with it. The aim of life isn't to avoid loser activity, it's to enjoy yourself. It's just that the two are generally negatively correlated.

Going to the gym or even for a walk outside is better and also unwinds you better.

+1

There is a big difference between watching some sports or a documentary or even casually catching whatever and "OMG I G2G Friends is on!"

lol at "better". using what criteria? how can you tell someone what they enjoy and would relax them more?

Most of the time someone needs to unwind (given this 2p2 population) it's going to be from staring at a computer screen for too long, how is staring at another screen for more time going to help unwind?

Further, what I suggested is objectively healthier and improves you so it's a better use of time.

did someone use cam newton as an example.

This could be used on alcohol as well. If your friends are all alcoholics and quitting cold turkey improves your life than it wasnt a healthy thing in the first place and not the video games were the problem, but the amount consumed (I guess you admitted this anyways).

The complete opposite is the case for most of my close friends. We used to be playing a ****load of counter strike and warcraft 3 / DotA, but we went out every weekend, we didnt really sacrifice much of our lives, we just played when we had nothing else to do (besides homework ldo).

Those black and white statements are almost never correct.

I think both online poker and video games are loser activites.. Do I regret the amount of time I have spent playing online poker- absoultely. I definitely enjoying spending time with friends socialising, playing sports, drinking a lot more then online poker. Whilst some jobs are worse then online poker, many more are extremely beneficial in terms of socialising, networking and prsenting opportunties.

Aren't we talking post college? My group of guy friends in college certainly spent a couple hours a day sitting in the living room smoking weed, listening to music and playing video games. There is so much free time in college that it's not hard to play 10-15 hours a week of video games and still have a very healthy social life, whereas that is much more difficult post college. In the 2.5 years since college I have purchased exactly one video game (Skyrim) and I got bored of it relatively quick (think I played 25ish hours). From my experiences this is the norm for guys in college and then post college.

Totally agree with the black and white statements though, there are obviously exceptions to everything. I'm sure there's some 10/10 male model out there who plays 30 hours of Starcraft a week and slays pussy like it's water but that's not really what we're talking about.

i don't think there is any doubt that time spent playing video games correlates with how big of a loser you are. occasionally there are exceptions, like i know a couple attractive women who play video games, but i find that very strange, and certainly the exception to the rule. the typical gamer is an out of shape slightly autistic male who struggles to make connections with women. if you think about it, it's pretty clear why that's the case -- in both directions.

if you're awesome, playing 3 or 4 hours of video games a week won't change that. but if you suck, quitting video games can make you suck a lot less. imagine spending that time making social connections, making money, exercising, whatever.
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i met a girl at a bar and i need a polite way to tell her i'm not interested. she was super eager to come to my place but i have decided i just don't want to. i've been putting her off for about a week, now she's texted me again and i haven't replied. it's already been one day. what can i say to let her down easy?

This is a bad comparison because whether or not playing online poker is a loser activity depends on how much money you make while you are at it. If you are making 6 figures playing online poker then pretty much any attainable job will be worse.

The more you approach being at the top for online poker, the further away you move from being a loser, with video games it's the opposite.

Do you really mean to imply that attractive girls cant be losers by definition, or am I misreading something?

Well if loser = social outcast then you would be hardpressed to find a loser hottie.

mittens spends a solid amount of his free time playing CoD or at least he used to.

Just tell her you're too busy playing X videogame, diablo 3 is probably the best choice right now.