Gaming as a hobby

[Pulse]

Home theater is actually pretty involved as a hobby -- if you're really into it, it's similar to designing and building gaming PCs. Same kind of modular upgrading, slotting in new components periodically. And there's a lot more tweaking if you do it right, you have to know how to use an SPL meter to get everything dialed in, and if you have the money, there's things like room treatments and bias lighting to deal with as well. If all you have is a home theater in a box and you have no idea how to set it up properly, sure, that's not really a hobby. But then you're probably not really into home theater if that's what you have, either. You're just someone who bought some equipment they don't know how to use.

Well, there's a difference between an on ongoing process of working on, and optimising your home theater system and just watching movies on one (even if it is all set up properly).

Like I said in my first post, you can have hobbies within gaming/movies etc. But I wouldn't call popping in a game and playing it "a hobby". Even if you spend 5 hours a day doing it.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

Home theater is actually pretty involved as a hobby -- if you're really into it, it's similar to designing and building gaming PCs. Same kind of modular upgrading, slotting in new components periodically. And there's a lot more tweaking if you do it right, you have to know how to use an SPL meter to get everything dialed in, and if you have the money, there's things like room treatments and bias lighting to deal with as well. If all you have is a home theater in a box and you have no idea how to set it up properly, sure, that's not really a hobby. But then you're probably not really into home theater if that's what you have, either. You're just someone who bought some equipment they don't know how to use.

Well, there's a difference between an on ongoing process of working on, and optimising your home theater system and just watching movies on one (even if it is all set up properly).

Like I said in my first post, you can have hobbies within gaming/movies etc. But I wouldn't call popping in a game and playing it "a hobby". Even if you spend 5 hours a day doing it.

That's what I'm saying, though: that's pretty much what home theater is. If you're obscenely wealthy then sure, you can hire someone to make something incredible and then just leave it. Alternatively, if you don't really care about it, you can go down to Walmart, buy an HTiB, and then not even bother to set it up right. In neither case is the theater itself really a hobby, although I'd argue watching the movies could be. There's a difference between just casually watching movies, and being a full blown movie buff, the kind of person who reads IMDB for fun. In between the two extremes, though, the vast majority of people with home theaters do what I described, periodically upgrading and tweaking their equipment. If you think about it, a home theater is a really complex system with a lot of variables, the kind which make gaming PCs look like lego sets by comparison.

 

[The Wykydtron]

Well my Mum keeps telling me to "find a hobby" then says something about Chess Club or some other crap. Chess? Really? I dunno if that is funny or tragic.

I mean how is playing several games a day not a hobby?

hob·by 1 (hb)
n. pl. hob·bies
An activity or interest pursued outside one's regular occupation and engaged in primarily for pleasure.

Yeah sounds about right. Good job Oxford.

 

[mfeff]

It depends on how one approaches "gaming" as the hobby that it is. I simply say, I enjoy "gaming" as a hobby. I do not, ever, refer to myself as a gamer, on ANY level.

The issue of it's "status", which sounds like an ontological status, is genuinely suspect. Consuming games, sitting around playing them all the time, and yet, knowing little to nothing about them begs the question as to "what" the hobby aspect may actually be.

I tend to say, that such a person's "hobby" is that of "being" entertained. They are a consumer, not necessarily a hobbyist. Not necessarily a game hobbyist. The key here is one of making a call as to what "hobby grade" actually is. How much "detail" knowledge about some aspect of the hobby signifies more than passing consumerist knowledge.

This visual example should clarify:

Toy Purchased at a Big Box retailer... NOT hobby grade.

Hobby Grade Arial Photography Platform.

Closing let's talk about some american football. Watching football is not a "hobby", rooting for a particular team is better defined as being a "fan". Playing football at an amateur level is a hobby, coaching the young children in the neighborhood could be a hobby.

Learning about a subject and that learning enhancing ones personal (subjective) experience is the beginnings of a hobby. Typically a "hobbyist", after a few years, having accomplished a good bit within the hobby, will have strong peer recognition and "be" referenced by other people in the hobby as "being" somewhat of a sage on the subject.

 

[Fappy]

I think that anything that you engage yourself in during your free-time and put a lot of time/effort into could be considered a hobby. If you're a movie buff and research, watch and discuss movies I'd consider that a hobby. If you spend a lot of time on internet forums debating topics about video games and play them a whole lot, I'd consider that a hobby as well. All a hobby really requires is a passion for something.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I think that anything that you engage yourself in during your free-time and put a lot of time/effort into could be considered a hobby. If you're a movie buff and research, watch and discuss movies I'd consider that a hobby. If you spend a lot of time on internet forums debating topics about video games and play them a whole lot, I'd consider that a hobby as well. All a hobby really requires is a passion for something.

Fappy, you just put into words what I've been trying but failing to explain.

 

[Fappy]

I think that anything that you engage yourself in during your free-time and put a lot of time/effort into could be considered a hobby. If you're a movie buff and research, watch and discuss movies I'd consider that a hobby. If you spend a lot of time on internet forums debating topics about video games and play them a whole lot, I'd consider that a hobby as well. All a hobby really requires is a passion for something.

Fappy, you just put into words what I've been trying but failing to explain.

Hehe, well if you look a few posts above mine the Oxford dictionary says basically the same thing in far fewer words XD

 

[Alexander Kirby]

Well I've always seen hobbies as something creative that you do, rather than just being a consumer of something someone else has made. Eating food isn't a hobby but cooking is, I wouldn't count reading books or watching films as hobbies but if you wrote a few books in your spare time or made a video with your friends then I would count it as a hobby. I've never seen simply consuming entertainment to be a hobby. If you make mods or perhaps even write reviews and make walkthroughs, then it could be a hobby.

 

[Epic Fail 1977]

I don't think gaming is really a hobby. Modding is a hobby.
Reading isn't a hobby. Writing is a hobby (unless you're good enough to get paid regularly for it).
Listening to music isn't a hobby. Playing an instrument is.
And so on.

 

[Raikas]

I see what you're saying. Home theater specifically is definitely a thing unto itself, though. You might build one during renovations, but mostly it's a subset of hi-fi/audiophilia, with a focus on movies and multichannel audio, rather than stereo audio and music. There's almost as many major home theater forums out there as there are major gaming forums, if you can believe it.

Yeah, I don't doubt it - but I still think that's a subset rather that a separate activity, but then every group does that kind of thing, so maybe I'm just too picky.

I see that in toy customization forums too - the action figure people insist that their toys aren't dolls, the balljointed doll people insist their toys are better than fashion dolls, and so on. And they all have specific forums, but that doesn't change the fact that they're really all subsets of the same activity.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

I see what you're saying. Home theater specifically is definitely a thing unto itself, though. You might build one during renovations, but mostly it's a subset of hi-fi/audiophilia, with a focus on movies and multichannel audio, rather than stereo audio and music. There's almost as many major home theater forums out there as there are major gaming forums, if you can believe it.

Yeah, I don't doubt it - but I still think that's a subset rather that a separate activity, but then every group does that kind of thing, so maybe I'm just too picky.

I see that in toy customization forums too - the action figure people insist that their toys aren't dolls, the balljointed doll people insist their toys are better than fashion dolls, and so on. And they all have specific forums, but that doesn't change the fact that they're really all subsets of the same activity.

This comic might be illuminating

 

[Raikas]

This comic might be illuminating

Heh, too true, too true!

I've never seen simply consuming entertainment to be a hobby.

I totally agree with this, although in the context of the original post I think it's more a question about gaming being equivalent to reading/tv-watching/etc. and I think that particular stance is harder to disagree with.

 

[Da Orky Man]

I consider gaming to be in the same boat as TV, films, books and such. Not really hobbies, more of entertainment. A hobby would usually have to involve something creative. Reading isn't a hobby, but writing is.

 

[DoPo]

A hobby would usually have to involve something creative. Reading isn't a hobby, but writing is.

I wander how many times should dictionaries be quoted before people stop giving opinions as definitions.

hob·by
1 [hob-ee] Show IPA
noun, plural hob·bies.
1.
an activity or interest pursued for pleasure or relaxation and not as a main occupation: Her hobbies include stamp-collecting and woodcarving.

hobby
noun (plural hobbies)

1. an activity done regularly in one?s leisure time for pleasure: her hobbies are reading and gardening

(it even lists reading as a hobby)

hobby
noun
plural hobbies
Definition of HOBBY
: a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation

A hobby doesn't have to be creative. Heck, nothing actually suggests it, outside from some hobbies including creation of stuff. If you willingly and purposefully do something in your spare time in order to not feel bored, that's pretty much what a hobby is.

 

[King Aragorn]

Well, in the end, words all interpretation. I guess the definition of such things could change from one to another.

 

[Raikas]

If you willingly and purposefully do something in your spare time in order to not feel bored, that's pretty much what a hobby is.

Yeah, I don't think people are actually debating the meaning of the word, it's more about the context of what causes people to roll their eyes in social situations - someone whose hobbies are all the passive consumption of entertainment are not perceived the same way as people whose hobbies are more active and/or creative.

When a person who spends a lot of time watching TV doesn't list "watching TV" as a hobby, it's generally out of fear of being seen as lazy, not because they don't know the dictionary definition of the word hobby.

 

[DoPo]

If you willingly and purposefully do something in your spare time in order to not feel bored, that's pretty much what a hobby is.

Yeah, I don't think people are actually debating the meaning of the word, it's more about the context of what causes people to roll their eyes in social situations - someone whose hobbies are all the passive consumption of entertainment are not perceived the same way as people whose hobbies are more active and/or creative.

I find that hard to believe, as the quote I had in that post literally said word for word "reading isn't a hobby but writing is". And it opens up with exactly the definition of what an opinion is, before it gets to that conclusion.

 

[Raikas]

I find that hard to believe, as the quote I had in that post literally said word for word "reading isn't a hobby but writing is". And it opens up with exactly the definition of what an opinion is, before it gets to that conclusion.

Well yeah, but in a discussion about social norms when I see people talking about how they define things it looks more like a discussion of the context-dependency of the words than a discussion of absolutes. *shrug*

 

[Guffe]

As most people have pointed out here almost anything can be a hobby.
I mean some think of cooking, fishing and hiking as a hobby while others see Football and tennis as their hobbies. Some people call collect stuff or creating minature planes a hobby while some also think of reading or watching movies as a hobby. So for me if all this can be called hobbies then so does gaming. It's something I enjoy doing, simple as that.

 

[FoolKiller]

People seem to view it [video gaming] as more of time killer if anything.

Here is my way of viewing things:
hobby - something you do in your spare time because you want to do it, and don't need to do it to survive
Examples
playing video games
raising children
sports

time waster/time killer - something you do to pass the time when you can't do a hobby.
Example
playing Angry Birds only on the subway ride to/from work

The main distinction is whether or not you would do something else given the opportunity.

As a bonus here is my definition of hardcore gamer:

hardcore gamer a person whose primary hobby is playing video games