Anonymous wrote:I read on here and Reddit all the time about people, mostly men, who spend hours upon hours playing video games like they are 12 year olds. How is this attractive? How do people find time to do this? Especially those who are parents. I sincerely don’t understand. Do your kids just watch you play video games? Do you play with them?

We're not doing it for you.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to understand it? I don’t play video games but I spend an inordinate amount of time on fairly pointless activities (knitting my own socks, reading murder mysteries, writing fanfic, solitaire, sudoku, etc) and I don’t see that video games are any worse. No worse than any other hobby, as long as it’s not taken to the point of obsession. Which applies to all hobbies, be it CrossFit or gardening or video games.

Do you know many gamers? It's always an obsession.

No it isn't. Most people who know me have no idea that I play video games, both alone sometimes and with my husband. I'm in my 50s, and have been playing them off and on for most of my teen/adult life. There have been years when I had no time, and years when I did it more as a stress relief. I've never been obsessed with it, talked about it, or done it to the exclusion of anything else.

Anonymous wrote:Who has the TIME to do this? Our off time is household chores, taking the cars for oil changes, mowing the lawn.

We do. Just how often do you get the oil changed in your car? We have a lawn service. Housekeeper. Not many household chores. Kids are in college. Plenty of time to game together, take the dog for walks, play golf.

They have time because they have no other hobbies. Yes, their kids see them playing video games. It's escapism or some form of addiction.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to understand it? I don’t play video games but I spend an inordinate amount of time on fairly pointless activities (knitting my own socks, reading murder mysteries, writing fanfic, solitaire, sudoku, etc) and I don’t see that video games are any worse. No worse than any other hobby, as long as it’s not taken to the point of obsession. Which applies to all hobbies, be it CrossFit or gardening or video games.

Do you know many gamers? It's always an obsession.

Yes, the vast majority of my friends play video games. It doesn’t impact their ability to function or have conversations about other things any more than any other hobby they have. Some of them also watch competitive video games which seems to me even more boring than watching mainstream professional sports but they’re no more annoying about it than my friends who watch football or basketball. In fact, I think the only person I know who has a hobby so all-consuming he can’t seem to talk about anything else is a hiker.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dunno, OP. I would never date, let alone marry or have children, a man addicted to video games. I agree it’s not attractive to me. Some people like it though or at least don’t mind it, and that’s great for them. Every pot has a lid or whatever, right?

Show me a quality woman with a BF who plays video games and I'll show you someone I can steal away from that guy very easily.

Legend in your own mind lol. If she cheats then you are with a cheater and if you are the AP then you are also a scum bag. Go ahead and judge.

I can deal with that and live with myself just fine. I know these gamers. It's as bad as crack to many of them. They ignore their family and go without sleep and their social circle are the other gamers on the screen. It can get to a point where they have nothing to talk about with people outside of that world, but can drone on with other gamers about what level they have achieved in the game.

Fantasizing about getting people's girlfriends is so much more mature and alluring.

Don't miss my point. Anyone can get her. She is a gamer widow. Her husband would rather stay up half the night playing video games than come to bed with her. Then he's exhausted from lack of sleep.

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to understand it? I don’t play video games but I spend an inordinate amount of time on fairly pointless activities (knitting my own socks, reading murder mysteries, writing fanfic, solitaire, sudoku, etc) and I don’t see that video games are any worse. No worse than any other hobby, as long as it’s not taken to the point of obsession. Which applies to all hobbies, be it CrossFit or gardening or video games.

Do you know many gamers? It's always an obsession.

Anonymous wrote:Why do you have to understand it? I don’t play video games but I spend an inordinate amount of time on fairly pointless activities (knitting my own socks, reading murder mysteries, writing fanfic, solitaire, sudoku, etc) and I don’t see that video games are any worse. No worse than any other hobby, as long as it’s not taken to the point of obsession. Which applies to all hobbies, be it CrossFit or gardening or video games.

I don't have a beef with video games, but it's a bit...disengenuous?...to compare gaming and physical activity. They are not the same.

Anonymous wrote:My husband plays video games - maybe a couple of hours a night some days. He doesn’t watch any tv and in the evenings he may play video games for a couple of hours and then read his book for an hour or two. It’s how he enjoys spending his downtime and it doesn’t bother me at all.

Your husband has A LOT of downtime. Do you have kids? I say this as someone who works full-time and plays a time-consuming sport, so I'm not a mommy martyr or anything (I love my kids but also value my personal time), but 5 hours a night of downtime?!

DCUM, the home of people who are baffled by other peoples' hobbies.

Anonymous wrote:Who has the TIME to do this? Our off time is household chores, taking the cars for oil changes, mowing the lawn.

You live in the DC area, how do you not have people for life’s trivialities?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who has the TIME to do this? Our off time is household chores, taking the cars for oil changes, mowing the lawn.

Somehow in the six months between oil changes I find time for a little Fallout, the same way I find time to read, hike, and play board games.

It’s like asking how you manage to find time to eat dinner each day, what with the *constant* oil changes and lawn-mowing

Anonymous wrote:Who has the TIME to do this? Our off time is household chores, taking the cars for oil changes, mowing the lawn.

Somehow in the six months between oil changes I find time for a little Fallout, the same way I find time to read, hike, and play board games.

Who has the TIME to do this? Our off time is household chores, taking the cars for oil changes, mowing the lawn.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I dunno, OP. I would never date, let alone marry or have children, a man addicted to video games. I agree it’s not attractive to me. Some people like it though or at least don’t mind it, and that’s great for them. Every pot has a lid or whatever, right?

Show me a quality woman with a BF who plays video games and I'll show you someone I can steal away from that guy very easily.

Legend in your own mind lol. If she cheats then you are with a cheater and if you are the AP then you are also a scum bag. Go ahead and judge.

I can deal with that and live with myself just fine. I know these gamers. It's as bad as crack to many of them. They ignore their family and go without sleep and their social circle are the other gamers on the screen. It can get to a point where they have nothing to talk about with people outside of that world, but can drone on with other gamers about what level they have achieved in the game.

Fantasizing about getting people's girlfriends is so much more mature and alluring.