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How important is gaming to you?

For me, it's part of my life and has been part of it since i went to an arcade and played Double Dragon, the rest is history...

It's an escape, it's fresh, it's exiting... and most of all super fun !
 
As a kid it was my main hobby - which I regret. It dropped off during teenage years except for a few staples from previous generationss. Then it picked up again during college because of LAN over the network and that there were warez everywhere so I tried out a lot of different types of games. Nowadays it's mostly just something to do while I listen to podcasts, but I find the industry fascinating (not exactly in a good way, it's like growing pains) so I keep up to date on news.
 
I can honestly say that I've been asked 1,000,000 times why I play games. And I normally just shrug and say "It's a hobby". But that's a lie.

Because when I'm in game I'm at home. From the flames of Catacylsm to the icy mountains of Tamriel. Anywhere I venture is the place I love and know. My entire life people preached that I could be anything that I wanted to be. But when I told them that I wanted to be the Captain of a ship... A SPACE ship... THE space ship that saves humanity...

That I wanted to be Commander Shepherd...They told me I need to get a grip on reality. And to them a grip on reality means the American dream. Working 9-5 crammed up in a tiny cubicle, having 2.5 kids, a two-storey suburban house and a white picket fence. I'd divorce once and I'd have debt into my early 30s because I took some bullshit university degree that's supposed to help me in the end. This isn't reality - this is just a dull outlook on it.

Now I understand it's human nature to attain greatness, but I can do that as Commander Shepherd. I don't need a degree. And if I want to go on an adventure I don't ever have to leave the comfort of my own home. Yet people spend an entire salary to travel and I can't help but laugh. I've single-handedly stopped a reign of ancient Wyverns from destroying a nation - but before I could do that I had to learn their language, become a master in swordsmanship, smithing, archery, defense, magic, speech, hunting and thieving. Not to mention I had to take down an entire fleet of assassins along with a brigade of smugglers before I could even start my lessons in Dragonspeak. I've always enjoyed an adventure but I hated pawning my limbs to afford an 18 hour car ride.

And aside from being told I can enjoy a white picket fence at the end of my career all my years as a student was a balance between fractal formulas and believing I'd never be able to love. Which is literal insanity. I've saved Princess Peach. I wanted to be 'the guy' and I became 'the guy'. I saved Bandage Girl and I've been Link for generations just to save Princess Zelda.

But yet I'm the 'eternal virgin'. I'm the guy who's 'never going love'. And sometimes this shit doesn't make sense to me. Why people assume that I need to be out doing something and away from home to have fun when I have my own reality grasped between my hands. I have my own world at my fingertips.

If I screw something up I can rewind time. I can't do that in real life but when I'm in game I'm free to do what I please when I please. I'm free to enjoy things the way I want to.
I can build my own kindom and lead my people to freedom because I'm the mind behind the game. I'm the one who enjoys these games.

I am a gamer and I always will be.
 
You could say gaming defines a lot of who I am.

I've been a huge gaming fan ever since I was 3 years old, starting out on an Atari 2600. I'm almost 31 years old now and gaming is still my primary interest and hobby. I wear gaming t-shirts, I collect games, consoles and gaming memorabilia. My home is decorated in gaming shit. I'm as hardcore as they come.

However, most people who do not get to know me on a personal level would never really know I'm a gamer unless they catch me on the street wearing a Zelda t-shirt. I'm a very polite, social guy who loves to be out with friends and family. I have a wife and a 4 month old son. I'm also a massive movie buff with a rather extensive knowledge of film history. I do not take on the standard stereotypical gamer persona of being overweight, depressed, antisocial or anything of that nature. I have a nice career in the IT field and things are good.

However, if you walk into my house, you will discover rather quickly that I am a gamer. My son's room is even Nintendo themed. The whole sad part of this story is that I really do not have any gamer friends. Most of my friends are not into gaming at all, or are at a very casual level. So I normally miss out on multiplayer gaming with buddies because they do not exist anymore and haven't since highschool. That is why I come here so often to discuss my hobby because I really have no one else to talk about this stuff with.
 
As a kid it was fun, then in HS and college I barely did it, then in my late 20s and now early 30s, I game more than ever before.
 
It is a hobby. It is my first preference in how I spend leisure time, but I don't sacrifice a healthy amount of sleep for it like I would in college. Wouldn't call out of work for a new release either. When the weather is nice, I do other things. When it is oppressively hot during summer weeknights, I play a lot and appreciate it almost as much as air conditioning.
 
It is my preferred hobby. I think about it throughout the day.

My hobbies, however, are low on my list of priorities.
 
Important enough for me to frequent a dedicated gaming forum, apparently. I have always loved gaming, though, and don't see myself getting tired of it. Just a way for me to relax.
 
Since I use video games as a means to relax and escape reality after a long day at work I'd consider them to be fairly important to me, at least on a mental health level.
 
One of my favorite hobbies. Been gaming since I was three and consider it a part of myself. I won't stop gaming I hope but like someone else already said sometimes I game a lot and sometimes I don't play much.
 
One of my biggest hobbies. Sometimes I'm a little concerned that I let it define me too much, but gaming is still a part of who I am.
 
It has varied throughout my life from being my favourite hobby to not caring much at all. In the last few months it's actually become much more important, as it's been a way to reconnect with friends that I don't get to spend a lot of time with. Every Tuesday night has become Destiny night with a couple of my RL friends. We run the Weekly Heroic and Nightfall strikes and we chat. It's like a weekly bowling night, but virtual. And with guns.
 
Let's put it this way.

After family, health and having a job that gives me enough money to provide a good lifstyle for me and the people I care about, my free time and entertainment is one of the things I care about the most. And gaming is my main hobby, something I feel passionate about and one of my favorite things to do with my free time.

Also, with everyone growing up, getting jobs, families, moving away to other cities and even other countries. Gaming has become a great way to keep in touch with friends and family.
2 of the friends I used to hang out with almost every weekend now live far away (one on the other side of the country, another one on the other side of the world) and gaming has provided us a way to keep interacting in a way that, to us , feels more meaningful than just an e-mail or a phone call
 
Gaming is a big part of who I am, and has been since my early childhood. It is definitely my number one interest, besides my family and friends. I still play very regularly even with a full time job and starting a family. I'm fortunate enough to have a fiancé that is also a big gamer though, which certainly helps.
 
Pretty important. I'm pretty Introverted so gaming is my go to thing when I need to recharge my energy after a long day of dealing with people.
 
I think gaming is as important to me as it ever was, just in a different way now. When I was younger I just loved to play games and that was it. I find that now I'm just fascinated with the industry, and I'll spend more time following gaming blogs and forums like neogaf more than I do actually playing games. Priorities just change when you get older I guess.
 
I was losing my interest until I found GAF. GAF gave me a reason to believe.

I used to be on Gamefaqs(mainly lurk) but something about how the site was being ran really didn't sit well with me, so I moved out of forums. It wavered between highs and lows because of how warm and cold gaming was receptive among my HS friends and my college friends.

My friends would play tons of sports games and I would too, but I grew up on JRPGs and Platformers. Those weren't as cool as the latest 2K, so I slowly lost interest through college and did other things.

Then I was turned on to the Best Friends, started enjoying their videos, and when they name dropped GAF, I typed it in and was hooked.

I'm thankful for this place, because as pathetic as it sounds, I love the loud, brusque, passionate community here.

It's not quite like any other forum and for all it's craziness I'm thankful for it.
 
Many of my best memories are of playing games.

I still remember the day my Dad got me my PS1 and Crash Bandicoot. Toys R Us, had to go home and get more money.

I was freaking 5, I'm now nearly 24. How do I remember that so vividly.
 
I don't think bar-hopping or karaoke counts as a hobby so it would be my second favorite hobby behind soccer. I've been doing both for around 25 years. I can't imagine not ever doing them. Gaming is a lot more accessible to me than soccer since I can just turn a console on versus driving around parks looking for teenager or adult pick-up games (I hate playing with kids). Sadly, there's more baseball fields *barf* than soccer fields here.
 
I think I'm now a casual gamer. The first week of DB: Xenoverse release I had clocked in 12 hours and thought that was alot, but then other people on my friends list had over 100 hours in the same timeframe.

It's the same for GTA V. It just released this week and I have 5 hours of gameplay and people on my friends list have 50+ hours.
 
As someone who works in game development and still manages to spend many hours each week playing games, it feels weird to say that it's not that important. There are so many things I would like to do both professionally and in my free time that if video games where to disappear would have no problem doing something else. I would probably say that the way gaming is most important to me is to see how it develops as an art-form and what it could be used for outside of being fun. Which ironically is probably the way I interact the least with games currently.
 
Playing games itself is just another thing that I do. I love it obviously but it's the same as watching a TV show or a movie. It allows me to spend time on Gaf so that's a plus.

But the desire to make video-games is one of the reasons I'm studying Computer Science and one of my main goals is to make video-games as a living so in that regard is pretty damn important.
 
Massively important.

I am 37, homeowner, full time employed and just about to get married in September. We plan to have a baby in the next couple of years as well. I am also playing in 3 bands currently with a large gig schedule ... and yet I need to game, daily if possible.

I have been gaming since I had a Spectrum48k and an Atari2600 when I was 6yrs old in 1983. Since then, gaming has been a part of me.

Gaming is my time. It allows me to escape. To just relax and, in recent years, be social with friends.

If I don't game I get irritable until I have scratched the itch.
 
it's part of my life. I been steadily playing games since 1986, with no intention of quitting anytime soon
 
It has been a massive part of my life since the age of 4. My father introduced me to gaming and for the next 19 years it was the #1 thing we did together. I think it went a long way in building the close relationship we had until his passing.

I've gamed pretty every day of my life for the last 10 years and it is by far my number 1 pass time now. At the tender age of 34 I don't go out on the lash or to the football as much as I used to so It's basically what I do to unwind. Without it I think I'd go crazy.

Some of the most defining moments in my life I remember fondly based of which game I was playing at the time. From meeting my wife and playing on Resident Evil together to the birth of my kids while playing GTA 3 and then Uncharted.

I think it has defined who I am as a person and the social circles I generally hang about in.

tl;dr I quite like games
 
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