gaming - passion or addiction?

[pkm]

I love gaming. I been gaming ever since I was a kid and I don't see myself stopping any time soon. But my family looks at it like it's an addiction and you are grown up why you still playing blah blah. They don't realise what gaming is now days and how people feel about it. Yes, I have tried explaining this to them but my folks are the type that don't believe in what they don't know.

So what do you guys think? What do you gamers see yourself as? Does your family and friends understand this?

[Digglett]

It's bordering addiction for me, I guess, and if I said I haven't ever been addicted to gaming, I'd be flat out lying. However, I think a lot of the reason I game so much is that I have nothing better to do with my time as of right now.

My parents are cool with it, sometimes they take jabs at me for it, but as they put it, they are happy it's gaming, and not drugs or alcohol, neither which I do.

[Chingylol]

Been playing games pretty much nonstop from age 9 to my early thirties. It's an addiction, I've come to face. There were times I didn't play much/at all for one year stretches, but when I wasn't playing I was doing bad stuff..

[jemd13]

I think it can become an addiction...I mean, if you´re lowering your grades,doing bad at work, not spending time with your friends and family because of gaming, then yes, it probably is an addiction (and probably a passion too)... I mean, i love gaming, be it MMOs or other console/pc games as well as LoL, but right now my priorities are my studies, so I dont play as much as I´d like to.

Just gotta get your priorities straight and all. If your family has a problem with it, you might wanna check if you´re doing it right. If all you do is play games, then of course your family has the right to get mad, they just want the best for you probably. But if you do play a lot, but you still get your stuff done (be it studies, work, whatever) and spend time with your friends and family, I dont see any problem.

[Powerogue]

Both. Addiction is really the territory where you put off more important aspects of your life for it. By making the claim that you're addicted, what do you think they want you to be doing instead?

My family are fine with me being addicted, mainly because I could be out doing so much worse.

[melodramocracy]

Hard to say. I've been gaming for probably 30 years. There are games that I've played at a frequency that an outsider would view it as addiction, but that's a very rare occurrence.

What happens most often is that I'll start a game, and simply lose interest in it along the way.. or start playing a game, get annoyed by some aspect of it, and never pick it up again (games have a very small window of opportunity to engross me as a player, and you'd probably be amazed at some of the top shelf titles that I've played for less than 5 minutes. ). Because of this, the number of games I've actually finished is quite low. And when I'm not playing an MMO (ie, right now), my time per month spent playing games is also quite low.... the fact that I don't play more than 1 game at a time helps keep that number low as well.

So I probably wouldn't even call it a passion. It's long term, I don't know what I'd call it, really.

[Hanto]

When it comes to WoW I let myself get stupidly distracted by doing absolutely nothing in game (jumping around waiting for something to "magically happen" instead of doing homework). I think I feel some sort of awkward obligation to make sure my $15/mo is being used; though in retrospect my $1200 worth of classes are just a bit higher on the financial scale.

When I took a break from WoW and played GW2, my proficiency in doing homework was astonishing. Assignments completed a week ahead of time for all classes so I could spend the rest of the week doing what I wanted. Now it's just like "Hmmm... this WS Word homework is annoying. Better go check rare spawns instead."

I think I'm addicted to letting myself get distracted by games (WoW in particular) rather than being addicted to them. Family shows no interest and my friends are cool with it because most of them game with me.

[Snuffleupagus]

It's a pretty fine line between addiction and passion. As long as it's not interfering with the things that matter (school, family, etc) then it's merely passion.

[forwards1ca]

well, the difference lies in the definition of what a passion is versus an addiction. They aren't necessarily the same thing. It's pretty clear that youre addicted to wow because you let it affect your priorities in life i.e. not doing homework when you should. you aren't having this problem with other games, so WoW is a problem for you, but Blizzard has made the game to be as addicting as possible, so its no surprise. I have the same problem myself.

Edit: Apparently I was confusing the OPs info with a response from someone else. My addiction answer was to the guy who has homework problems when playing WoW, but doesn't with GW2.

[Jakexe]

Been gaming since I was was 1 when I got NES for my b'day. It's my major passion/hobby tied with motorcycles. At times my friends and family could call me addicted as I've let school work and some responsibilities suffer to game, granted mostly when I was younger, but as someone who has also dealt with drug and alcohol addiction my gaming pales in comparison when it comes to negatives on my life. In reality I'd say gaming is a positive influence.

[StayTuned]

It was a passion when I was a kid. As I got older, I became less interested in games. Today, I only play some casual GW2 or LoL when I have absolutely nothing else to do.

I will never go back to WoW or any other hardcore game. It's a thing of the past and I completely outgrew it.

For example, during the last 7 days I played two matches of LoL, that's it.

[jahasafrat]

For me, it's neither a passion nor an addiction. Video games are nice entertainment and all, but I have a lot of shit to do. I don't have time to be passionate about pixels.

[Heathy]

there is very little else that gives the amount of entertainment you get from gaming, i've gamed for so many years now though i'm starting to burn out quickly in games, i usually end up asking myself 'what is the point' and then i watch stuff instead.

[-Zait-]

I'm going to preface this with, you can't be addicted to video games. You can be obsessed, but you can't be addicted. Addiction would require physical withdrawal symptoms at the very least. And no, dreaming and non stop thinking about playing games while not playing them doesn't count.

OT: Yeah I mean whatever you're passionate about man. People have turned video games into their jobs. Video games are music, story telling, art, etc all wrapped up into one thing, it's fantastic when it's done right. I just played Journey for the millionth time in my fancy white robe, I'd go as far to say that games that are perfect in whatever genre they're in, are works of art.

[forwards1ca]

You can't be addicted to video games. You can be obsessed, but you can't be addicted. Addiction would require physical withdrawal symptoms at the very least. And no, dreaming and non stop thinking about playing games while not playing them doesn't count.

OT: Yeah I mean whatever you're passionate about man. People have turned video games into their jobs. Video games are music, story telling, art, etc all wrapped up into one thing, it's fantastic when it's done right. I just played Journey for the millionth time in my fancy white robe, I'd go as far to say that games that are perfect in whatever genre they're in, are works of art.

You're wrong. Addiction does NOT require physical withdrawal symptoms. Go look up the definition of addiction before makign a statement like that.

[-Zait-]

You're wrong. Addiction does NOT require physical withdrawal symptoms. Go look up the definition of addiction before makign a statement like that.

Notice the "at the very least" at the end of me saying "require physical withdrawal symptoms." Go read the actual text before making a statement like that.

[forwards1ca]

Notice the "at the very least" at the end of me saying "require physical withdrawal symptoms." Go read the actual text before making a statement like that.

The "at the very least" implies that physical withdrawal symptoms are the minimum requirement for addiction, which is just plain wrong. I did in fact read your statement, and it is wrong. I suggest you go look up addiction in the DSM-V before you start to spout statements like that.

[Nicola]

Just a passion. I don't really have anything to do with my life, I just game to spend the time.
I'm the kind of guy that loves challenges, but is born with pretty much everything available. I just love it when I get into a game where I can't just faceroll everything and have to do my best. I love doing arena, knowing I can't just walk over the other team like it's nothing, or playing path of exile and knowing a single mistake will kill me.
I can easily spend my time doing other stuff, I just get bored really quickly, and aside from that, it's not like I have to care about anything at all in real life.

[-Zait-]

The "at the very least" implies that physical withdrawal symptoms are the minimum requirement for addiction, which is just plain wrong. I did in fact read your statement, and it is wrong. I suggest you go look up addiction in the DSM-V before you start to spout statements like that.

I hate to be the guy that links dictionary definitions to prove a point. But I'm going to link a dictionary definition to prove a point.

Addiction: compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addiction

Look up actual definitions before you go volcano erupting statements like that.

[Xs]

I've never really seen it as an addiction, unless I'm addicted to having fun in an easy and always accessible way with friends I can talk to across the country/globe, in which case, I need to get to rehab before I OD

I hate to be the guy that links dictionary definitions to prove a point. But I'm going to link a dictionary definition to prove a point.

Addiction: compulsive need for and use of a habit-forming substance (as heroin, nicotine, or alcohol) characterized by tolerance and by well-defined physiological symptoms upon withdrawal; broadly : persistent compulsive use of a substance known by the user to be harmful

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/addiction

Look up actual definitions before you go volcano erupting statements like that.

This is also why I don't see it as an addiction, but y'know, since the media wants to call it that I guess we might as well play their game and pretend it could be