Do these things make me "immature"

[xxazurexx]

Not true, most of the games based on movies are pure crap. The ones I'm talking about are just videogames, and in some cases spawned movies and books.

I don't know which ones you mean. But my young un has Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Silent Hill...a lot of movie ones and she likes them. She still has PS2, no doubt PS3 will be arriving this Christmas courtesy of her dad. PS2 games are dirt cheap now as compared to what they used to be, so I take her shopping for a couple of new ones every weekend.

[Wonder87]

Ok....

1) Holy crap. Did not expect this to get so many responses
2) Sorry for posting this in the love advice forum, as the first response said, it really isnt love advice
3) Im new on this board so i dont know how to quote people well, but there are a few quotes i REALLY wanna respond to

"I think it can become addictive though and that is the danger. I knew a few guys who started playing them, then became boggle eyed and played constantly. Not my partners, but partners of friends and how they put up with them I don't know. One of my friends had a partner at work all day, at night he'd sit in his pc room playing till bed time. She claimed she never saw him and despite sharing the same house. That would piss me off."


ALL things can become addictive though and that is the danger. There is NO difference between playing guitar hero and going out to lunch with your friends. None. Both are forms of escapism. Society just paints going out to lunch as more mature because gaming is introduced to people at a younger age than "going out to lunch to catch up with your buddies/friends". You socialize, catch up with friends, etc, when playing video games with friends. Maybe not as much as when you go eat, but you definitely talk about the good events in your life/bad events.

I think with reading, you're putting something in your brain. Hopefully, you would read good books. I don't discern the difference between video games and reading trash novels, though. Playing checkers, like having lunch with friends, creates an opportunity for conversation.

Like you said, it depends on the books. No offense, but modern literature like Harry Potter, Twilight, or some garbage book by bill o'reilly offer no knowledge to the human brain. They dont. Sorry if it offends somebody. And honestly, the majority of games that i do play (metal gear solid, civilization) are games that express moral arguments or teach you various facts about world history. I think people tend to label things they dont understand immediately as immature. And since girls dont understand video games, they label all gamers as immature.

But do men my age play these games? Personally all the guys I knew, would wander off to the pub, rather than want to be sit in front of a tv pretending to be Hercules for a few hours....lol

Just wonderin, do you think going to pubs is mature? To me, just because there is an age restriction on something doesnt mean its the mature thing to do. Cigarette smoking is extremely immature, and it (obviously) has an age restriction of 18. To me, going to pubs all night is just as immature as playing games. Not to mention the people you meet at pubs almost ALWAYS are just lonely old men who want to wave their average at best careers at young girls to intimidate them.

I'll be finishing college this december...ill be 23.... Yes, i needed 5 years to finish college. I guess i was immature in that regard. But my gpa is a 3.6, i work enough to pay for my books (dont need to worry about tuition since i have a scholarship), car insurance, phone bill, gas, and a small rent fee my parents charge me. I was gonna move out but i decided it wouldve been immature of me to add such a large financial burden as $350, only stalling my graduation for another year. Not worth it to me. But yes, i play video games whenever i have a spare hour or two from work, school, working out, or studying. If a girl really was to break up with me because of that...then id be wondering why she needs to control a man's entire "fun life".

With all that said, i have noticed i play less and less video games these days...so maybe that poster who said you "graduate" from gaming to other things is true. But i mean would all you women REALLY break up/not date a guy who plays games once a while.

[lahnnabell]

I would not break up with a guy if he played video games once in a while. I understand that my boyfriend enjoys it as a stress-relieving, fun activity, and I'm happy to play with him sometimes. If he began to avoid other responsibilities in order to play video games, I would raise it as a concern. If he chooses to ignore me or refuses to work with me on the issue, then he's gone.

[the_robot]

I don't know which ones you mean. But my young un has Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Silent Hill...a lot of movie ones and she likes them. She still has PS2, no doubt PS3 will be arriving this Christmas courtesy of her dad. PS2 games are dirt cheap now as compared to what they used to be, so I take her shopping for a couple of new ones every weekend.

Sillent Hill was a videogame first, the old ones were so successful they ended up making a movie about it. All the Harry Potter and LOTR games on consoles are pretty bad, there's an acceptable LOTR games, but that's about it. Most of the average gamers don't play good games though, the same happens with books and such, most of the readers just read the "famous books" like The DaVincci Code, which is a pretty bad book.

[Wonder87]

Then again, this is coming from a bunch of psych heads.......no disrespect to you or any other psych majors out there but sometime they go off on this "I know the type of person you are based on a few things you do" trip. SMH

Im actually a math major, just taking this psych class for a gen ed requirement.....

[IndiReloaded]

Just take Indie's post about playing strategy games on the computer with her family.

I have learned a lot of geography and history from playing games like Civ & Age of ___. Zoo Tycoon had a ton of animal facts. We tend to enjoy the puzzle and strategy games the most. Except for A Bridge Too Far, we don't have any 1st person shooter in my house. ABTF was actually hubby's purchase and I was pissed at first, but I grudingly admit it too had a ton of WWII history in the game.

Of course, playing these games still comes a far second to reading in my house.

[IncognitoSir]

Then again, this is coming from a bunch of psych heads.......no disrespect to you or any other psych majors out there but sometime they go off on this "I know the type of person you are based on a few things you do" trip. SMH

Im actually a math major, just taking this psych class for a gen ed requirement.....

you see the reply with quote button at the bottom right of this post.......thats how you quote people.

[IndiReloaded]

Im actually a math major, just taking this psych class for a gen ed requirement.....

LOL, poor you. Its a jungle out there isn't it? Imagine, people actually complete entire degrees in psychology. I know; I'm a recovered psych-degree myself.

[Wonder87]

LOL, poor you. Its a jungle out there isn't it? Imagine, people actually complete entire degrees in psychology. I know; I'm a recovered psych-degree myself.

LOL. I dont claim math degrees are super powerful or anything...but a math major, stat minor (minors are worth like nothing but o well) and a certification in SAS statistical software should get me a decent "fresh out of college" job. If not ill go to grad school for statistics.

[Alvy]

Gosh there's a lot of hostility to games in here. It's a shame too because just like missing out on a good, or even 'classic' film, there are games that are definitely worth playing, or even trying. Just to rattle a few recent ones: Portal, Half Life 2 + Episode 1 and 2, BioShock, STALKER - Shadow of Chernobyl and Call of Pripyat, Fallout 3, Mass Effect 1 and 2 and Dragon Age. Those games offer an experience, a story and characters that easily surpasses what a movie or even a book can offer, and best of all, you get far more entertainment out of those games.

[vashti]

I don't care what other people do with their time, but I am SOOOOO glad neither of my kids ever got in to the gaming. They are much more adventurous, preferring basketball and white water sports. It's so much healthier. And besides, I hate watching people sit around idly unless the weather is bad.

I don't really know any grown men (30s - 40s) that do this, but I've heard some wives complain that their spouse is addicted. That wouldn't be something I'd tolerate well. I DO tend to associate video games with college boys and younger kids, and not people who are responsible for themselves.

[Junket]

I don't care what other people do with their time, but I am SOOOOO glad neither of my kids ever got in to the gaming. They are much more adventurous, preferring basketball and white water sports. It's so much healthier. And besides, I hate watching people sit around idly unless the weather is bad.

I don't really know any grown men (30s - 40s) that do this, but I've heard some wives complain that their spouse is addicted. That wouldn't be something I'd tolerate well. I DO tend to associate video games with college boys and younger kids, and not people who are responsible for themselves.

I'm involved in another forum of older individuals (in the 30-40 age bracket) who have spouses, and children, and jobs, and other responsibilities.

It's great because nobody takes any games too seriously so if someone needs to quit in the middle of the game, it's all cool.

[vashti]

I'm involved in another forum of older individuals (in the 30-40 age bracket) who have spouses, and children, and jobs, and other responsibilities.
.

Yes, but what percent of the population of males in their 30s and 40s is actually represented there? It's got to be tiny.

[Gribble]

The average American watches over 4 hours of television a day. Something like 30 hours a week. Now that's pathetic, and that's not even representative of couch potatoes--the counter to the lifeless gamers some of you assume we all are.

[vashti]

The average American watches over 4 hours of television a day.

I wouldn't like that either.