Hmmm...well this thread has already gotten confrontational, but I'll still throw my vote in on the side of the guy who said he plays just for fun. I would not go so far as to say that it is "bad" or "depressing" for those who look to games as a means of escapism. I think everyone has some device that they use for that. For me, it is sitting on my patio drinking a glass of wine and smoking a cigar...not wearing my watch so I'm not constantly looking at the time, and my cell phones somewhere in the house where I can not hear them. Or riding my motorcycle, SCUBA diving, or backpacking alone...things that require your focus and attention so that there is no left over capacity to be worrying about the BS back at the office.
For me, games are not a means of escape, and they are not a proving ground for my skills. Although I do feel a sense of reward when I employ a particularly well played strategy in an RTS or turn-based strategy game, that is about the extent of my 133t-ness. I'm not interested in measuring my gaming performance against anyone else. When I play online it is becuse I enjoy the circle of friends that I've accumulated on XBox Live or XFire, and the enjoyment is out of the time we hang out together laughing and joking and talking about games, technology, and entertainment. So I guess the social aspect is one of the reasons that I play.
At the end of the day, gaming is simply my preferred choice in entertainment. I like it more than watching TV because I think TV is predominantly a passive activity. You sit in receive mode and have the artist's perspective of a story broadcast at you. While there is some assessment on your own part, it is not interactive. I like gaming because you spend every minute thinking. You act, the Ai or human opponent responds. You are presented a puzzle, you have to figure it out to move on.
I do not think that anyone's reason for gaming is right or wrong, good or bad. This is an interesting thread because people are voicing the different reasons that they have chosen gaming as a hobby. It should be enough that our hobby is becoming more and more recognized as a legitimate past time, and not just something kids do on Saturday mornings or to get out of homework, or something adults do to waste time.
- Vr/GulliverJR.
GulliverJr
One of the purely best posts I've ever read on here. Absolutely.
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