Wait just a second.. We were wrong! Gaming is bad for kids! (Well in my experience)

oppp7

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RetiarySword said:
I'm at university now
Exactly. Don't sell yourself short because you didn't accomplish everything that you could have. Try to appreciate yourself for what you've done. Yes, you could have done more, but that doesn't mean what you did do was meaningless.

For several years now I've let myself fall apart in the social and atheletic aspects, but as long as I kept up my grades I didn't really care. Just by going to a university I've proven that I'm not worthless. Anything else would be extra. I've recently found myself in your place, to tell you the truth, with the feeling that all the time I spent video gaming put me behind everyone else in most things. But as long as I've had fun, who cares?

As for quitting gaming, I understand. I haven't really ever had a huge problem with quitting things, but I know that it can be difficult for most people. If cold turkey is what it takes for you then fine, go with it.
 

Limzz

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RetiarySword said:
Yep, I think the doom sayers might of been right. Before you jump in hear me out;
I've been playing games for more than a decade now, I would say around 14 years. I've defeated the robots, shot countless holes into hordes of aliens, found the master sword and saved the brainless princess, so I've been around you might say.
I'm now giving up gaming (Well for the most part) as its become too much of a distraction from studies and a dusty social life. I've sold my xbox, selling my gaming rig for a simple laptop (which can play steam games. I'm not crazy) and trading in all of my games.

Part of the reason for this is I want to become successful, well financed, and all those things which build up power and I see gaming blockading that dream.
This train of thought led me to the question; 'What could've I achieved if I didn't get that SNES?'. I started gaming when I was seven, big thing back then as I was captivated by the stories, entertained by the halarious phrases and quirky characters. But what if I done the normal kid thing, went outside, played the sports, learned the guitar.. Where could I be now.

This is mostly down to jealousy. I'm at university now, so I've met many talented people, violin players, guitar players, piano, saxophone, etc. The sportsmen with their great level of physical fitness, the schollars with vast amounts of knowlege. What can I pass on to other people, apart from 'Watch out for the snakes on level 6!'?

I don't know, but I look back and think if I stuck with the guitar lesson, played football, continued karate lessons, I could've been well.. more.

What do you think? I don't think I'm going to let my future kids touch games. Well not until they're at least in their early teens, or have a sport or hobby to draw them away from the digital wasteland. I definitely think that seven is too young. Maybe my parents or even I should of paid attention to that +13 sticker on the box?
I don't know, just something I wanted to throw out there.

'In short for the people with the "If it's more than 6 lines, I'm going to skim it" attitude (I've been there too) here the question:
What do you think you could've accomplished if you let the princess rot in that cell?

EDIT: I do have social skills, and gaming didn't hamper my social time.
Warning: Many of you will want to flame be for being a pompous dick which is understandable, but I'm just trying to make a point and defend the gaming we love. Cheers. What do I think? It sounds like you're just an underachiever. I play more than my share of games, but that hasn't hindered my other exploits at all. I play the saxophone, guitar, bass and drums, play hockey and rugby, am in excellent physical condition, have a 3.8 in university and scored 800s on my SAT's. That's a little sampler covering each of your 3 categories of "talent" so hopefully you'll let your kids play games, just in moderation, yes?
 

TiefBlau

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Gaming has done a lot of things to me. It's gotten me friends, lost me friends, gave me new experiences to which I could never have known, distracted me from hours upon hours of work, led me to new, fun communities (*cough*), and just provided me many, many hours of unforgettable fun. But I've never, ever blamed gaming for anything in my life that went wrong. This has never been a problem with gaming any more than it has been for movies or television. This is a problem with my own self-discipline, and those with weak will would simply find something else with which they will distract themselves. They would surf the net, watch TV, or just count the tiles on the ceiling. That's how procrastination works.
 

Locko96

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I'm thirteen. I'm going to be a freshman in an international school in China. I'm in a play as of now. I play baseball, JV Basketball, JV Volleyball and am in a Jazz Band. I also play Baritone and bass guitar (haha...bass.). I also finished the year with a 95%. I also probably played 4+ of video games for the past couple of days. I'm not trying to brag (although it may come off as that), but I'm trying to prove that i can do both.
 

ICortezI

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Jul 25, 2010
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I have to disagree rather strongly with what you've said. I've been gaming since I was five, and it's never affected my life in a bad way because I didn't let it. I'm currently sixteen, I have a 91 average in school, a job mowing lawns, and I am one of, if not the biggest video game players at my school. For me it's always come down to time management, I work hard at school so that I don't have to work often as home, which gives me more time for recreation. My job doesn't take me long so I end up with a lot of free time to relax and enjoy myself.

I guess what I'm getting at is that I don't understand how you can't find the time to fit in video games with the rest of your life. If you wanted to take up lessons of some sort, say guitar lessons, and they took one hour a day, and you threw that in with six to eight hours of school work, and say... nine hours of sleep, you come out with six or so hours of recreation time, that's plenty of time to play games, go out, spend time with friends and family, whatever you want to do, and of course this isn't even including weekends and holidays.

Of course, I don't know your daily routine, so maybe you don't have as much free time as I think, but even if you just played one hour a day, and maybe three hours on weekends, you would still be playing eleven hours a week. That seems like a fine amount to me.
 

Drexlor

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Feb 23, 2010
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I don't feel that my gaming has hindered me all that much. If anything it helps me as it keeps me sane.
 

Calum_M

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I could write a very long post in reply to this, but I'm going to sum it up very quickly. I spend hundreds of hours gaming every month. I also just got my Electric Guitar Grade 8 certificate.
 

Lem0nade Inlay

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I hear what you're saying, and I've thought about it too. But to be honest, you probably might've continued having guitar lessons. But it still would've been a hobby, it would most likely never amount to anything or get you anywhere. It's just as useless as playing video games.
 
Aug 25, 2009
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Well since I can play half a dozen instruments (including guitar to post grade-eight standard), I've written and completed several novels, short stories, poems, songs etc, I play regular gigs and open mic nights, I can draw, I act a little, and I've been gaming since age 7, I think this one is just your experience.

Some people can add gaming to their hobbies and it won't take over, other people can't, that's how the ball rolls.
 

Racecarlock

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Jul 10, 2010
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Replace every mention of gaming in this post with marijuana, replace "Watch out for the snakes on level 6!" with "Dude, those flowers were sparkling", and replace "had let that princess rot in a cell" with "hadn't smoked that last joint", and this would be an anti drug post. You don't have to quit gaming cold turkey, just get a nice watch or something and check the time every once in a while whilst playing a game. Games aren't the problem here, will power is. What I really mean is, don't blame the xbox because you can't play like jimi hendrix or another famous guitarist, blame yourself.
 

Jim Grim

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RetiarySword said:
I don't know, but I look back and think if I stuck with the guitar lesson, played football, continued karate lessons, I could've been well.. more.
I'm not entirely sure why gaming should stop you from doing any of these things. As far as I can tell it's just a way to spend free time, in much the same way you might read a book or go to the cinema.
 

migo

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Jun 27, 2010
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Interesting point, and I agree with you overall. If that's how you're solving it and it works then good for you. I can easily just drop gaming for months without a concern as long as I have something else to do, and only started doing it more lately thanks to being too injured to do my activity of choice.
 

Whitethunder

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Jul 9, 2010
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Although I'm a gamer I must say that was a great post! It's nice to see someone being totally honest with themselves and asking the uncomfortable questions.

When I was a kid we were pretty darn poor in my family and so I didn't get to play all the cool games unless I went to a friends house. This made me want to play games even more, so when I became an adult I really became a gamer. But overall I'm glad I didn't sink my entire life into video games.

Then along came WoW. The World of Warcraft....WTF?!? If the government wants to control the people then they should sink their hands into that game lol. I wasted so much time playing that game...and the thing about it that sucks is the fact that you have to continue to play to stay on top. Me being so competetive got pulled in and it took me forever to climb out of the abyss.

Playing games isnt' bad for you...but letting your kids or allowing yourself to sit there for hours at a time everyday is. Games should just be a casual thing that doesn't get in the way of everything else.

OP, your parents should have cared a little more and not allowed you to spend all you time playing video games. I am a father myself and my kids and I love playing games together, but I will not let my kid sit in his room all day slaying dragons or vaporizing aliens. If he tries that then I will make him go outside and play with his friends. He is very well rounded, and part of that I can attribute to video games. So, like anything else too much of a good thing is bad for you.

As far as you opening your eyes and wanting to make change....that's awesome man and good luck to you. You are still so young...it's in no way too late. Make a bucket list and start checking things off as you live.
 

Scizophrenic Llama

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I'd say gaming is bad for kids when you allow them to do nothing but play them.

My kids will play video games, that is a given, but I won't allow them to play them nonstop to the point where they have a lack of social life and several other hobbies to occupy themselves with.

Games definitely aren't to blame for issues that most people pin on them. Games don't suck self-control out of a person and saying that kids don't quite have a handle on that is a rather bogus excuse as parents should be there to recognize it for the children, even if the kids dislike it.

However, all the more power to you OP. I don't think I have the willpower to completely do away with games. I have gone without playing for extended period of time, but not completely. I would agree that life is more productive when you aren't playing games as there is simply more time to do other things and it is understandable to stop playing for that reason.

Looking back I wish I had sunk more time into the various musical instruments that I am rather par on playing and how much better I'd be if I didn't play video games. Never too late to start splitting more time towards those.
 

Liberaliter

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Well I've learnt instruments and played games at the same time, I guess I'm quite knowledgeable to boot. All in all, it's your own fault you're a failure.
 

Signa

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The way I see it is you always have to live in the "now." I feel like playing games now, and not learning the guitar, so if I look back in 50 years feeling like I should have learned the guitar with this time now, I really shouldn't blame myself. I don't feel like learning the guitar now, I don't want to learn the guitar now. If I forced myself to do things on the principle that I probably will regret spending this time now doing the things I wanted to do now, I would have a very shallow life trying to live to my future expectations and not what I need now to enjoy myself.

The same principle can be applied to any regret honestly. I've felt regret when losing a loved pet; that I should have spent more time with it now that it's gone. I can't spend every waking moment with my pets because they will eventually be gone, so that regret is pointless. I guess it's easy to look at the negatives in hindsight and want to turn them to positives, but without full future-vision, these feelings won't ever lead to anything good. If you like gaming, then don't just throw it all away because you feel it's in the way of your future. Figure out first if living live without gaming is going to be more fulfilling than fitting into society's definition of success.
 

llubtoille

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Apr 12, 2010
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I can see the OP PoV,
I know peeps who were very active academically & sporting, then became so into computers / gaming they lost all interest in school/sports.

from a personal PoV however,
I know I wouldn't have done anything worthwhile with my spare time
prior to gaming I was reading comics, buying trading cards & watching TV,
now I spent a good 12hrs a day in front of the computer instead (tho half of that's at work)
not really a massive difference tbh.