Are People Supportive of Your Gaming Hobby/Addiction?

[McNeil]

Speaking when I was a child, I'm not sure if I consider myself addicted to gaming but my parents were never really bothered by it. Sometimes my brother or dad complained that I occupied the computer for to long, back then it was unusual to have more then 1 computer in the house (though my dad uses a Mac these days). This was back when I played WC3 for a long time before WoW even came out, but when WoW came out I often got myself to raid to late into the night which did upset my parents. It wasn't easy to just leave my raid as I was often the main tank, and there was always a huge shortage of other tanks.

Nowadays pretty much everyone I know plays a reasonable amount of games, I play a lot less then I used to and I have yet to hear anyone call me out on my hobby. Most of my relatives play simply mobile games like Candy Crush and some word puzzles, though I rather stick with PC games.

[Tech614]

Infact it's not different at all. Having high time consuming and "by myself" hobbies does not match with a family life, in the long term.

If you don't have any "by myself" hobbies I feel bad for you. Family is great. Wife is great. Need space and time to myself, everyone does. It's not mentally healthy to always be smothered by other people.

Do I spend more time gaming solo then with son/wife? Of course not. Do I want time to myself to game and partake in other hobbies? Absolutely. It's usually after both are in bed anyways.

[Jtbrig7390]

Infact it's not different at all. Having high time consuming and "by myself" hobbies does not match with a family life, in the long term.

Ya it does or your family life will suffer. Both people need some "Me" time and if you don't get it then it will cause problems with your relationship.

Your life can't revolve around your family 24/7 and a good spouse will know this.

Ontopic: No one has ever cared and my wife doesn't care and sometimes even joins me in playing games.

[crakerjack]

As long as I'm not overweight and ruining myself physically, no one I know will criticize me. Now if I was morbidly obese and was physically unhealthy, yea I'd want people to call me on my shit and get me to change things. Other than that, I've told people it's a hobby and it's what I enjoy. I don't go around criticizing people for shopping constantly or doing whatever they perceive to be a typical hobby. I probably play 6-8 hours of games a day.

[chiddie]

If you don't have any "by myself" hobbies I feel bad for you. Family is great. Wife is great. Need space and time to myself, everyone does. It's not mentally healthy to always be smothered by other people.

Do I spend more time gaming solo then with son/wife? Of course not. Do I want time to myself to game and partake in other hobbies? Absolutely. It's usually after both are in bed anyways.

When you have more or less 2 hours after dinner before going to bed (I wake up at 6.30 in the morning and I arrive home at 7.30 in the evening, sometimes even 9, i simply cannot physically play from midnight to 2-3 AM, my body and mind would die after a week.

Of course if you can play after your family went bed it’s a different story, but not everyone can do that. And when you cannot do that, your time for your “solo” hobbies is not that much.

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Ya it does or your family life will suffer. Both people need some "Me" time and if you don't get it then it will cause problems with your relationship.

Your life can't revolve around your family 24/7 and a good spouse will know this.

Ontopic: No one has ever cared and my wife doesn't care and sometimes even joins me in playing games.

No, it doesn’t. A “normal” wife/husband won’t allow you to do your business excluding her/him almost EVERY single evening. This would be no family.

She will simply tell you to go back being... single.

I’m not implying you can’t have your hobbies (you MUST have some, whatever they are), but you can’t go too mad with them, if you have a family.

[Tech614]

No, it doesn’t. A “normal” wife/husband won’t allow you to do your business excluding her/him almost EVERY single evening. This would be no family.

Not sure what this strawman is.

I guess if you devote 13+ hours of your day to work and transportation things are different but let's not act like that is normal. Especially in the western world.

[MatadorMedia]

When I lived with my Dad, he'd be like "Are you getting on that computer again?" and I'd be like "Dad, you literally have had the television on for 12 hours straight today." And he'd kind of hush up after that and grumble. At least video games stimulate your mind with problem solving and hand-eye skills, unlike watching tv mindlessly.

[chiddie]

Not sure what this strawman is.

I guess if you devote 13+ hours of your day to work and transportation things are different but let's not act like that is normal. Especially in the western world.

It's not that i "devote", i'm not that lucky to work at 10 minutes from home (here in Italy almost everyone is like me, there's no work and people have to travel a lot to reach their offices).

Of course if i could wake up at 8 AM (without having to care about sons to take at school) and arrive back home at 5 PM fresh like a rose, i would probably have no issues at all in nerding 3 hours per evening, but, hey, that's not the case.

If you have only 2-3 hours a day to share with your family, your family won't simply allow you to close into a room with an headset for 3/4 of that time every single day. I would be really surprised if this type of family would exist.

[Blackspiral]

Support no. But seeing as I pay my parents Internet and power bill, they don't nag me about it all at least.

[Zephyr Storm]

My wife plays games as well, so she doesn’t really have an issue with me playing them either. We actually play a lot of games together (have two Xboxes). The next game on our list that we are excited to play together is State of Decay 2 when it comes out. Our main game for years was Destiny until Bungie fucked that up with the dumpster fire that is Destiny 2. We are also looking forward to Anthem in the future (hopefully EA doesn’t fuck that one up).

[Deleted]

This is true. When you are watching tv you do not need to think. Playing games is impossible without thinking. The best hobby is one that brings money. Unfortunately, only a small percentage of players earn in the gaming industry. People whose all the time drink, watching tv or waste time in another way are just silly talking that playing games are stupid because they do not understand that playing on still higher and higher level needs a lot of thinking.

[Jtbrig7390]

No, it doesn’t. A “normal” wife/husband won’t allow you to do your business excluding her/him almost EVERY single evening. This would be no family.

She will simply tell you to go back being... single.

I’m not implying you can’t have your hobbies (you MUST have some, whatever they are), but you can’t go too mad with them, if you have a family.

Then she wasn't the right person for you and that isn't a normal relationship. No true couple wants to spend every waking moment with there spouse, Each person needs there own space/me time.

If you have only 2-3 hours a day to share with your family, your family won't simply allow you to close into a room with an headset for 3/4 of that time every single day.

Everyday no maybe not, Every other day or a couple days a week yes. Even more it to where you take 1 hour a day to yourself to unwind.

If you are busting your ass to the point you only have 2-3 hours a day to do anything then maybe you need to figure out why. Those issues are likely deeper then you think.

[Faroth]

With the news that Ninja makes $500,000/month streaming, my mother agreed with my assessment that I video game wrong.

[Noah37]

I'd say some of both. My mom in particular has always been a little more critical of how much gaming my friends and I can do. Sure, at times when we were super into WoW we'd literally play all Friday night all through Saturday and most of Sunday. My fiance is fine with it, as long as I also make time to do things with here, and with getting a Switch we've been able to play some games together.

My biggest issue with criticizing gaming is, a lot of the parents and older generations that talk about how younger people play too many games, are sitting on their couches all day long watching TV.

[chiddie]

Then she wasn't the right person for you and that isn't a normal relationship. No true couple wants to spend every waking moment with there spouse, Each person needs there own space/me time.



Everyday no maybe not, Every other day or a couple days a week yes. Even more it to where you take 1 hour a day to yourself to unwind.

If you are busting your ass to the point you only have 2-3 hours a day to do anything then maybe you need to figure out why. Those issues are likely deeper then you think.

Maybe "different places, different people", but, at least in here, good luck in finding a partner that will gladly let you spend most of your free time by yourself.

Of course this comes from my perspective of having really FEW free time, i work distant from home. It's not my choice, there's no work for me in my town. There's not that much to figure out, honestly.

[Doctor Amadeus]

No, because I pay my own bills own my own home, obey the law and pay taxes. Leave me alone

[Deleted]

My parents and friends don't care about my gaming, they know that it doesn't really affect my decisions, and I live on my own. Funnily enough, most hook up girls don't mind my playing but they are mostly shocked by my 2 monitors. That's literally the only thing related to gaming and attitudes.

[Gsara]

Unless you're a little kid or something, what does it matter what anyone thinks about your gaming?