PixlBit

This is sage advice. I think one of the big problems with gaming is we always defend our hobby yet do not acknowledge how it can in fact be bad for us. It takes courage to look that truth in the eye.

Yes, I love this hobby but there is a certain point where I have to acknowledge gaming has its flaws.

These MMO's are so addictive I think because of the social component. I mean, I can play a game ten or more hours straight when I'm playing with a friend. Alone, I can't play more than a movie length, a couple hours, before I gotta get up and go outside and photograph some bugs or something.

I'm actually soloing most of the time I'm playing FFXIV. Though socialization is certainly one aspect of the addiction. There are also things like the vast amount of time you have to put in to make any progress in leveling, but at the same time a quest can be finished in a few minutes. "One more Quest! One more Quest!"

On the AllGenGamers podcast this week (my favorite podcast btw), they talked about this film Life 2.0. It's about people getting addicted to Second Life. It's kinda similar to the MMO thing. It's on Netflix streaming right now I'm told.

I checked and it is on Netflix. I do have an adversion to Second Life as the game looks so awful from everything I've seen. Regardless, the subject matter is interesting so I might check it out.

People have put a lot of work into Second Life recreating whole cities, but the lag and pop-in is apparently pretty bad.

Gaming is just like anything else.  Too much of almost anything is bad for you.  I know a few people that game a bit too much.  I don't think 6hrs a day is a lot, but if you have other things you should be taking care of, then.... yeah, it's too much.

I agree. Though I do think addiction tends to be easier to fall into with gaming. Especially with MMOs which are fine-tuned for addiction!

Yeah I spend way too many hours a day gaming... it's not good.

At least you are not in denial like I was!

It's a sign that you're getting older. Not having all the time in the world and accepting that  limits what you do in your spare time. I love gaming but it sometimes takes a backseat to film or tv or sleep.

Indeed. Through the years things l have realized I'm not the hardcore gamer I was as a teenager. Every once in a while though a game comes along and that makes me forget that.

Priorities. If people put what is important first than gaming should be a problem no matter how much time you spend doing it. The same goes with any hobby. There is people who lounge around and watch too much tv and or movies. There are people that even do the same thing with books but its not frowned about because video games is an easy target.

I do think that games, especially MMOs, tend to bring out the addictive side in people more than books and movies usually do. However, for 99% of people that never becomes a major problem. The problem is people tend to stereotype gamers as basement dwellers which again is such a small amount of actual gamers (or readers/movie fans, etc.).

The NPD reported an average of 13 hours a week of video gaming by Americans back in 2010 here: http://uk.gamespot.com//news/time-spent-gaming-on-the-rise-npd-6264092?

statisticbrain.com had a stat of 5 hours a day of TV watching for the average American here: http://www.statisticbrain.com/television-watching-statistics/ That's 35 hours a week! TV watchers got us gamers beat by a long way.

The most gaming I've done in a week was about 22 hours, most of that on the weekend.

13 hours a week sounds fair. Though that's still probably more than me for most weeks. 35 hours a week for TV though? Sounds sketchy. I always take statistics with a grain of salt as they are almost always reported as "fact" even though they rarely ever are specific about how the data was gathered and done with a very limited sample size.

I read a book on statistics recently and you have to do questionaires with small samples. The trick is picking the right group that'll tell you accurate information about the larger group. It's impossible to question everyone. Or at least, it costs too much to do.

But I agree that stats are to be taken with a grain of salt, but that 5 hrs of tv a day sounds like something people in the mainstream would do to me.

Yes, if someone tries to say gamers play games too much you could always pull out those numbers. Especially if they themeselves are using statistics to back up their argument!

Ha! Exactly. Take that you boob tubers!

Yeah, anything in is bad when you use it too much. I like gaming, but there's also other priorities in life. Then again, I might be a bit hypocrite, as I spend whole days in my computer.....

The computer is pretty problably the worst addiction of them all. I don't know how many hours get sucked away on this thing.