Is gaming to you a habit or an addiction?

TheOneTrueLegit

Writing a poll for my dissertation in advance.

Is gaming to you a habit or an addiction

Please, don't be a stranger to write a reason why, your opinions is the life blood of this poll.

==============UPDATE!====================================================================================================

Thank you for you opinions,
A lot of you have raised valid points on the Polls "black and white" answers
I have made an updated Poll with -
Both
Hobby
Causal
Other [please sate why]
None

I still need your life blood
--> http://www.polycount.com/forum/showthread.php?t=156038

I am reading all your opinions and once again thank you.

slipsius

Neither. It's a hobby. I can quit when I want to.

Shiniku

Yeah habit is a weird choice. I never catch myself accidentally playing videogames.

It's just one of many recreational activities I partake in, like going to the movies or reading comics. I love games, and there are certain games that I will clear a day for (I'm looking at you Fallout 4) but aside from that and my career videogames make up a relatively small part of my life, I go weeks at a time without playing any at all.

skyline5gtr

needs to be a both option

GrevSev

More like a stress reliever or scapegoat for me

kolayamit

For me, i get addicted if i play games. I just cannot stop .

slipsius

Shiniku wrote: »

Yeah habit is a weird choice. I never catch myself accidentally playing videogames.

Very true. Checking your phone is a habit. Looking in the fridge every time you walk in the kitchen is a habit. But playing games? Wouldn't consider that a habit. Doing certain things IN the game can be a habit. Logging in and doing the dialy quest before doing other stuff. stuff like that. but turning on your console / pc to play a game? I dunno. I feel that's more of a conscience choice.

GrevSev

Just remembered I have a friend that treats gaming like a habit. If there's something like Destiny's heroic/nightfall to do or whatever hes there for it or he feels like he could potentially miss a good item. He also must own and play the latest flavor of whatever to keep from being spoiled

Some times he'll randomly turn on his PS4 and realize there's nothing for him to do because the challenges haven't reset

Wish I could help him some how. He wastes a lot of money and It seems like he doesn't even enjoy games the same way others do.

I know 2 other guys like this. They're all wow players too.

Torch

Used to be an addiction, back in the days of Vanilla WoW... and WAR Online. Seems to be a trend with MMO's :poly136:

Jakub

Depends, right now people sacrificing their work/college etc. to become professionals in gaming, which can lead to really good money.

For me...well, I play DotA for 10 years and I never say no when friends want to play, but it's more like a hooby

lefix

slowly turning into work, as games are kind of getting repetitive in their concepts and mechanics and i often play them with an increased professional interest (art/game design). especially true for mobile games i play.
but every once in a while there comes a game like rocket league that is actually alot of fun

.nL

More of a pipe-dream. Hard to find the time to really sit down and play a game right. Witcher 3's been languishing on my HDD since launch, but I've only had the chance to give it a couple hours.

beefaroni

Neither

almighty_gir

Torch wrote: »

Used to be an addiction, back in the days of Vanilla WoW... and WAR Online. Seems to be a trend with MMO's :poly136:

well they're kinda designed to be that way :P

teaandcigarettes

A hobby, most certainly. I still enjoy playing games, although I don't do it as much as I used to.

Wasting time on the internet? Now that's a whole different story. Ever since I started tracking my internet use, I've been terrified how much of a timesink it is.

Mstankow

This is simplified too much.

First of all, videogame addiction is a real thing that needs to be taken seriously. However, a ton of people might consider themselves addicts are not. The real problem at hand comes mostly with free to play games and such which are designed with the same ethics as slot machines are designed with. So so games are actually designed to make and keep people addicted to them. There are traits and other aspects of games that can make people addicted. Exploiting those can and will cause addiction. People have lost thousands of dollars to free to play games because of this.

clinington

It's a hobby

Joopson

Neither... In fact, I hardly play games, really. When I do, it's usually games like "Dear Esther" or "The Vanishing of Ethan Carter", that I'm playing for the experience (like a movie), more than anything else. I don't usually have much patience for games.

Fuiosg

neither, more of a random pastime these days.

pigart

I can quit anytime!

On a serious note, I used to be quite addicted to games, especially csgo, but I decided to not play anything for a whole month and that really helped me. No I just play 30-60 minutes of quick games like rocket league or hearthstone and then do art. After art I play a bit more in the evening.

Add3r

Definitely a hobby, as I enjoy playing games I play with my friends that game as well. If I am playing a game 95% of the time it's with others. Minecraft, WoW, Terraria, Heroes/MobA's, Starcraft, Battlefield, CoD, and Halo all come to mind when I think of great gaming experiences with friends.

That other 5% was to play Bioshock Infinite when it came out, went off the grid for that one.... So good. Was definitely addicted to WoW growing up though, but once again primarily because of that awesome experience with friends.

Malus

Neither.
Recreation, escapism or relaxation.

EarthQuake

Neither as well. Strange poll choices, seems like a preconceived angle?

Bek

Yes, it's a (likely unintentional) loaded question, like: Do you prefer stealing from children or pensioners? (No matter how you answer you're "guilty" / question presupposes something).

The problem here being "habit", which is much too close to 'addiction'; you should have the poll phrased in a way that "no" is an option. So, replace "habit" with "casual hobby", or better yet, rephrase the question to: "Would you consider yourself addicted to gaming, yes or no?"

FullSynch

Both these options imply some form of dependency, I just play for fun occasionally.

Blond

Haven't played seriousy for years now. Back in highschool, my parents allowed me to play only on weekends. I used to spend all of my summer gaming though.

When I started college three years ago, time spent gaming drastically dropped.
The last game I thouroughly played was Assassins Creed 3 (80 hours- 98% complete over a one year time lapse)


Today, it's sad to think of it but I have to ''force'' myself to game. It's not that I don't enjoy it cuz when I start I can't stop. It's just that I spend so much time working on my art or just browsing the net that I never feel like progressing through my games.

So it's neither, it's not a habit nor an addiction.

I use games more as sources of inspiraiton now.

Blond

I will also state(even if it's out of topic) that the real addiction out here is mindlessly wandering on the Internet doing basically nothing.

Cuz when you're playgin game you are actually simulating your senses, reflexes and such, but watching stupid videos on youtube, browsing facebook and 9gag and other gaming forums, this is where most of my time get wasted and I sincerely hate myself for that...

I could spend all these hours drawing...

TheOneTrueLegit

Blond wrote: »

Cuz when you're playgin game you are actually simulating your senses, reflexes and such, but watching stupid videos on youtube, browsing facebook and 9gag and other gaming forums, this is where most of my time get wasted and I sincerely hate myself for that...

I could spend all these hours drawing...

Pretty much the same story with me, finding the motivation to keep doing the work at hand. procrastination is my worst bane.