I’m 30 and have played video games my entire life. I still play video games almost every day as it’s a hobby at this point. It allows me to relax after a day of work (although I’m playing competitive shooters).
However, I often feel guilty about how much time I play video games for. I feel like I’m wasting my life away. But another part of my mind is like, no, this is a hobby that you enjoy so why are you feeling guilty? I have a steady job, no wife or kids, and lots of free time. I workout daily, and am still very active. So I’m wondering, do others at this age still play?
18 comments
I play frequently, not every day but almost. I can only play for a bit at a time though!
Early 40’s. I still game a few times a week, or so. Sometimes more, sometimes less.
Video games are entertainment, not a hobby. Doing this is no different than how other people spend time watching their favorite baseball team, binging Netflix or scrolling Tik Tok.
I’m in a similar position. I am 32 and have been pretty into video games since I was a kid. From Pokemon to Halo, I can’t really recall a time in life I didn’t play video games. Currently I play Valorant nearly every day, but I’ve been growing sick of it. I’m trying to cut back because it feels like my only hobby lately. I’d love to just quit, but I honestly don’t know how to replace my time. The hardest part for me is finding something to do at night as a hobby to replace it.
I’m 39 and if we are counting video games on a phone I still play every day, counsel doesn’t get booted up often but is still used. Really need to finally buy a current gen system so I can get college football 25 and gran Turismo 7 finally.
I did until I ran the command “/played” to see, five years in, my main toon had over 365 days of play time and I had many others with multiple months. It was then I realized how much time I wasted gaming instead of bettering myself or my family’s financial position. I immediately thought if I had spent half of that time, ~4500 hours, learning a skill, I would have mastered it and been able to make even more money than I do today. 4500 hours doing automotive work/welding/home improvement/etc… that’s some serious education time. At the point I realized that, I deleted the game from my computer and I tend to stay away from games now in favor of fishing and camping.
Yes, playing video games is 100% fine and even therapeutic. Playing as much as I did went well beyond “therapeutic” though.
All things in moderation.
I’m 46, married, full time job and everything. Gaming every day, pretty much.
>I often feel guilty about how much time I play video games for. I feel like I’m wasting my life away.
If you feel like you should be doing something else, then try doing that thing for a month and see if that helps.
Not me
Tell menyou have no kids without telling me that you have no kids
Not for me sadly. 3 kids and a 50 hour/week job pretty much sapped all my free time. Now any free time I have I try to put towards something physical like hiking or rowing.
But I’ve started trying to find some mobile games to scratch the itch. Vampire Survivors has been great because I can play one-handed while giving my son a bottle, lol.
32, married, no kids and still play pretty often like 5 + days a week. There’s a sweet spot though, too much and I can get antsy like I should be doing something else. I am running a lot lately though and training for my second consecutive marathon, so I don’t care if I game for 3 hours straight on a Saturday when I just got done running 10 miles. If you think it’s too much, it might be and breaks are nice, but I think you just gotta figure it out for what works for you and making sure you’re not neglecting anything in real life. My main problem is none of my running friends give a shit about video games and all I want to talk about is elden ring right now lol.
Edit: I don’t think I see mention of social life, so maybe filling some free time with something social with in person interaction may be good. I run social runs twice a week with a local club and have made friends there.
I haven’t played a video game in decades.
my so is 42 and has been on simulators for 13 yrs since I’ve known him sometimes 16 hrs a day. do what makes you happy
I’m almost 35 and play almost everyday and most of my weekends. Currently on Ghosts of Tsushima.
Yea, I do at 40+
It’s a hobby and entertainment to decompress.
Sure, you can be more productive by learning a skill, but it’s impossible to always be grinding.
As long as your life is together and you are making progress, then do what makes you happy.
I’m 36 and I play games often, although not every day.
There’s nothing inherently “wrong” with video games as a hobby or passtime, but when I get that guilty feeling I find there’s often an underlying reason that’s worth examining.
Often, I’ve found in those moments I might be playing to avoid something. Sometimes something as basic as dirty dishes in the sink that need my attention. Sometimes as big as a feeling that I’m not moving my life in the direction I want to be, or the pain of facing the deeper parts of my life that are lacking.
Gaming can start to eat up bigger and bigger chunks of time if I let my guard down. Games are designed to be addictive, and they trigger the reward parts of our brains that would ordinarily motivate us toward other pursuits. That can cause (and for me, absolutely has caused) months or years to breeze by where I just kind of coasted. Purpose is important in life, and gaming can fill that hole just superficially enough that the bigger problem can be ignored for a loooong time.
I’m 34 and I pretty much do the same if I have the time, problem is I only have the time