Gaming as a life-long hobby - Thoughts from the 25+ crowd

[Majors]

My wife last night said that she wanted me to pick out a cool pixel art character and let her know what the pixels colors are and how many, and she is going to crochet the squares and make a blanket.

+1

The best I could muster from my lady, was have her knit a yellow and blue scarf in the Capcom colors. But then she told me ppl will think I'm a UCLA fan...yes, she is way more into sports than I. It's funny because when she talks about her beloved Oregon Ducks, she bores ME(as I bore her with my video game talk)! Our friends are happy to talk sports though with her when we go out, so I guess it works out.

Hazerd -> We met while working at a bookstore, she is a librarian.

[Menegrothx]

Im not old enough to give an answer to this thread, but I just got to say that shouldnt it be really obivous why there has been a shift in the acceptance of gaming to every one in here? The people who grew up listening to rock music still listen to it today. Their parents dont listen to rock, but they never "grew out" of rock music. Many of the best/most commercially succesful rock bands that are around today started in the 60s/70s/80s. Its not young people who are keeping those bands alive (in commercial terms). Its the same people who listened to them back when they were young. The same is happening to people who grew up with video games as kids.

Obivously gaming has a bigger "adult appeal" today because the technology allows it. In the early days, it was quite hard to create a game that touched more adult/intellectual subjects. There have been games like that since the 1980s on computers, but computer gaming has always been something that is very inaccessible for the casual crowd. Back in Atari, NES and SNES times, most games that you saw on the mainstream media were platformers and other simple and kid friendly games, so it is easy to understand why people associated gaming as a "kids thing", and why games like Mortal Kombat caused so much controversy.

I think the original PlayStation with its more adult orientated game library started the "image shift" and got a lot of casuals and young adults into gaming. But its the Playstation 2 that sealed the deal as it was a cheap DVD player, so even people who didnt care about gaming bought it. As a consequence of this, some of them purchased games like GTA Vice City and Silent Hill 2 just because they could play them on their designated DVD player. I mentioned those two titles as both of them dealt with more adult themes and problems not found in more "conventional" video games. The way in which psychological and mental problems, human sexuality etc are manifested in different kinds of symbolism in Silent Hill games borders on art. GTA Games criticized American society as a whole in a very hilarious way with out being particularly biased towards any particular political alignment, just like TV shows like Duckman (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duckman), The Simpsons and South Park. Games like that made many people realize that there's more to video games than kiddy games and mindless violence.
Of course there have been more "deep", adult orientated and "intellectual" games on computers before from Maniac Mansion to Deus Ex, they just rarely reached mainstream audiences. User friendlyness of game consoles combined with the fact that you could/can play DVDs and now blurays on a PS2/PS3 with out buying an expensive player is a fact that should not be overlooked.

[dsheinem]

I just linked this thread in another I started, which is different but related to this discussion: The Sorry Lives and Confusing Times of Today's Young Men

[Itchyant]

I'm 36, and have been gaming since I was around 8. I have always had a console or a handheld , even during 2 years backpacking in europe. With two kids, a demanding job, study and the gym, my gaming time can be pretty resticted. The x360 may not get switched on for a week or two at times, but I do still love the occassional two or three hour session. I honestly think I always will.

It all just needs to be in balance. As much as I would love to play skyrim, I just don't have the time to dedicate to it. Most of my gaming has now turned to arcade style games, such as fighters and shmups. I finally finished bioshock (the first one!) last week, its taken me around 18 months of on/off play.

Priorities need to be set, and for me family is first. But I'll always have a game or two handy for when I have time to myself.

[greg]

Cool topic. I've never ventured into the "Games As Culture" forum on here before.

I am 36, been married for 11 years, and have a 4 year old daughter. I married a Japanese girl who doesn't care for video games at all. Her mom has more of an interest in video games, and her grandmother plays Tetris on one of those cheap "30+ games included, but Tetris is the only one worth playing" LCD keychain thingy. Her sister has a passing interest in retro games, and for a while wanted to buy a Famicom to play Super Mario Bros. I don't know if she ever got one, though. Anyhow, my wife just does not care for video games.

She does like it when I make beadsprites with Perler Beads(here's a gallery of the beadsprites I've made), so she does like the cute artwork involved with retro games. A couple of nights ago, I made four Ms. Pac Man cup coasters (cherry, strawberry, apple, and tangerine), and she thought those were real cool. I just cannot get her to play games, though. I really don't get my wife's aversion to video games. She swore she would play games with me if I were to buy her a Spongebob PS2 controller. I told her that it was crappy quality, but she wanted it badly. So I bought it for her. I got her to play Pac Man, and after two tries, she calls it quits, saying that it's too hard. Yeah, that's great. Just give up on something because it's difficult. Yet she was in the tennis club in junior high. Why didn't she give up on that? My wife doesn't like video games and gets upset if I play them "too much." However, she usually softens up when I play Japanese games and tell her that I am using them to study Japanese. Then they aren't so bad.

i dont understand how you people (as gamers, well some of you) can get with a girl and end up getting married and having her not be interested in games at all? like how did you find a connection?

Although my wife does not like gaming, we have various other interests in common. For one, being Japanese, she has no aversion to watching anime. I've found that being married draws us to each other's interests more, usually. When we first got married, she was really into slasher films and I'd always avoided them. It got to the point where I could watch horror films with her. I also grew to like teddy bears because of her. I also have an interest somewhat in feltworking and other crafts because of her. Likewise, I got her to build a couple of plastic models together with me, and she keeps nagging me to build a Knight Rider KITT car for her.

To answer the original question posed, I never feel guilty about being a video game player. At various jobs I have worked at, I tend to avoid the subject. Not due to scrutiny, but because everyone equates gaming these days with Halo or boring stuff like World of Snorecraft. My sister tells me that her WoW character is a fisherman who catches fish and cooks them for other people. How stupid is that? It's like paying money each year to play a stupid online game where I am a virtual massage therapist who occasionally goes on dungeon raids or something. Re-frickin'-tarded.

My level of gaming has declined though. It used to be that I played video games, in my opinion, too much. About six years ago, I developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, so I cooled off on game a bit. IMHO, the onset of CTS was unrelated to video games or "repetitive movements"--I believe CTS is more of a symptom of an imbalance of blood chemistry than anything physical. I now no longer suffer from this painful condition, so PM me if you're interested in knowing more about this. Anyhow, I continued to play video games, but for a while leading up to the onset of CTS, I was wanting to explore other facets of life. My wife was working nights as a waitress, so I'd park my ass in front of the TV and play games all night. While that was fun, I regretted not reading more, etc. Now, I believe I have a more balanced life as a result.

Earlier this year, I moved back to Japan to return to teaching English. I work with elementary and junior high school kids, so it's best to not refrain from mentioning my hobbies, since so many of these kids have similar interests. It's good to not be "too grown up" with this job, because putting myself on the kids' level helps to bridge the gap between them and myself as a teacher. I wear a Pac Man apron during lunchtime. Only a few of the kids will even know who Pac Man is, but even those who don't will agree that the characters are cute. So in a way, it's like I am evangelizing for retro gaming, ree hee hee.

[Key-Glyph]

Sweet sprites, dude! Etna looks excellent -- as do they all -- and I'm amused by the PPG.

I really don't get my wife's aversion to video games.

It's possible that she's just not interested in the medium. My husband loves watching movies and going to theaters, but it takes a lot of convincing to get me to do either of these things. If I don't love a movie, I resent it for wasting the time I could've put toward other stuff. My husband, on the other hand, can still find things to enjoy about the overall cinematic experience even if a film itself is sub-par, thus considering his time well-spent. We're just different that way.

About six years ago, I developed Carpal Tunnel Syndrome, so I cooled off on game a bit. ...I now no longer suffer from this painful condition...

Glad you've recovered! In light of your experience you might also be interested in this old thread: http://www.racketboy.com/forum/viewtopi ... 44&t=33114

[disorderlyvision]

I just turned 31 last month. It has been interesting reading through this thread because, prior to, I had never given It any thought. I don't really care what other people think about me playing video games. Everyone "wastes" time doing something (watching tv, movies, sewing, sports, reading, whatever) You have to occupy your time somehow. Life would get pretty boring if you stared at the walls and twiddled you thumbs all day.

Not only do I game, I have various other interests. I have followed MMA since the early days of the UFC. I am into hardcore/death metal/... and mellow instrumental music . I've been to over 100 concerts and have a few hundred buttons/pins, some limited edition numbered records. At one point (before I got divorced, moved to AZ, and then moved back to MO) I had a personal library of books, over 1000. I was an avid member of the Bookmooch trading community and have mailed books all over the world. I have read a shit ton of books. My youngest daughter's middle name is Lenore (The Raven, E.A. Poe). I like to camp, and own a pop-up camper. I like to shoot firearms and reload my own ammo. And I have still had time to live life, travel, love, party, and have some wonderful, and not so wonderful life experiences and lots and lots of shenanigans and hijinks

That is all stuff I do on my own time (maybe why I have never considered an outside perspective on gaming). Even with gaming, It has pretty much always been a 1P hobby for me. My dad would play Mario with me sometimes as a kid, and I would occasionally play at a friends house (but usually we ran off and explored the woods, or played backyard football, or rode bikes etc). To this day, I still prefer gaming by myself. I have never even tried an MMO and I probably never will. I play games with my two daughters and every once in a while at a friends.

In 20 years I will still play games, I will still listen to 'oldies' hardcore/ deathmetal.... and mellow instrumental music (Go Listen to Explosions in the Sky's song First Breath After Coma, ASAP!!) I will still follow MMA, I will still read, I will still camp, I will still shoot guns, I will still party... and who knows I may even have a few other hobbies by then.

I think in order to have anything as a life long hobby requires some moderation and some time management. If you spend all of your time doing one thing you will burn out eventually. For me personally, it is pretty easy to manage my time and fit in all of my different hobbies. For one, I haven't had cable, digital cable, satellite etc for over ten years now. It is amazing how much time gets freed up with out that distraction. If it wasn't for gaming consoles I probably wouldn't even own a television at all. Also, I like to have a lot of 'alone' time (though it's not really alone time when you have kids) I will hang out with friends/family once or twice a week, the other days are mine Plus I am working second shift, so I usually have at least a couple hours of peace and quiet before I decide to go to bed. Though I have today off so I pulled an all nighter, which probably means this is an incoherent wall of text.

In the end, it is your life. You only get to do it once, so live it however you see fit and don't worry about what other people think.

tl;dr I'm older, don't care what people think, yes I will play games for life, blah blah multiple hobbies, yadda yadda moderation and time mangement, it's your life live it. /post

[Menegrothx]

boring stuff like World of Snorecraft. My sister tells me that her WoW character is a fisherman who catches fish and cooks them for other people. How stupid is that? It's like paying money each year to play a stupid online game where I am a virtual massage therapist who occasionally goes on dungeon raids or something. Re-frickin'-tarded.

This is the most asinine statement I've ever read on this forum. It's a MMORPG FFS, not a a linear mindless FPS. Of course you can do menial things like fishing, that doesn't mean it's the point of the game or that it would be particularly helpful. Try high end PvE or arena at eSports level and see if WoW is still a boring game. Too bad you need a high level of group coordination and communication between 25 to 40 people, A LOT of effort and hard work (10+ hours a day, 7 days a week for years) and a very high knowledge of game mechanics, not to mention skills, for those, so I guess it's just easier to play the game for 5 minutes, quit and start bashing it just like your wife did with Pacman.


I dont see how any (real) gamer could consider something like this to be "boring".

[greg]

This is the most asinine statement I've ever read on this forum.

Well, thanks. My main problem with WoW is the same as with Evercrack and the rest of those games. Quite often you lose friends and family to it. A good friend of mine eventually gave up on a friend of his. "Hey Tim, do you want to catch a movie Saturday night?" "No sorry, I promised to meet this one guy so that I could sell him my Level 10 demon sword" or something like that. This wasn't an isolated incident. As for my sister, I'd call her and she wouldn't even bother picking up the phone because she was catching virtual fish or going on some dungeon raid. If someone were to call me, I'd push the pause button on the game or movie and at least tell them that I'd call them back.

Yes, I'm aware WoW can get rather intense. The problem with coordinating 25 people to do something awesome requires too many people to cross the line between living a life with balanced relationships and playing a computer game way too much. As for me, I play video games because I am antisocial. Playing a MMORPG requires communication with others, and I'd rather not do that. My idea of playing a multiplayer game is playing some Bomberman with friends sitting next to me on the couch. Not drooling in front of a computer screen for hours.

If people can play WoW responsibly and not to the exclusion of normal relationships, that's fine. The fact that too many people cannot do this is why I have a beef with the game.

Anyhow, the reason I brought that up was just to say that since I am a retro gamer, mentioning to others that I am a gamer is often pointless, since what I like is often different from what others' ideas of games are.

[mjmjr25]

Menogrothx - please do not turn this thread into a typical I like X you like B, yr an idiot.

If you've read the first 6 pages, then it's obvious it is beyond that sort of rhetoric.

It's fine to disagree - but do not delve into bs disagreement posts. Sometimes we simply agree to disagree and don't need to create needless arguing and drama.

@Greg, great post and thanks for sharing your story.