How do you feel when people claim gaming is a waste of time or for kids only?

[Kane99]

I thought of this after commenting on another topic. You know how some people, mostly adults and the elderly like to say "Gaming is a waste of time", "Why don't you do something more productive", or "Gaming is for kids" etc. 

I still hear these excuses about how people think video games are below them or something. Yet someone will watch 90 day fiance on repeat. I just find it highly hypocritical to call someone's hobby a waste of time. Like nah man, I enjoy video games as much as you enjoy binging your favorite shows and watching your favorite trilogies or hell, reading that novel before you head to bed. 

I hate when I hear people say that, because they sound so dumb. Today, gaming is one of the biggest things in the world. From streamers, esports players and casual gamers, gaming has grown to become a billion dollar industry. 

It kinda reminds me how people thought gaming was a fad or a gimmick back in the 80s. Now days people are working in gaming, streaming, playing in tournaments for millions of dollars and more. 

What do you guys think though? Do you hate when people say this stuff to you about video games? Do you ever respond with quips like "Well you watch tv all day"? 

[NightmareFarm]

Insecure masculinity. The same people will watch grown men kicking a ball around for hours on end. 

[Clasher]

I just tell them to do what they enjoy and since I Don't complain they shouldn't be bothered about mine.

Atleast I don't complain when they waste their entire day watching porn or some other stuffs .

[Kane99]

10 minutes ago, NightmareFarm said:

Insecure masculinity. The same people will watch grown men kicking a ball around for hours on end. 

Yes exactly. I love when fans of sports say this, because they are lazing about watching a sport they're not doing themselves. There is a joke I heard about this exact situation, where they made fun of the sports fan for making the comment. I forget who made it though. 

8 minutes ago, Clasher said:

I just tell them to do what they enjoy and since I Don't complain they shouldn't be bothered about mine.

Atleast I don't complain when they waste their entire day watching porn or some other stuffs .

Yes, I will sometimes just ignore them, because arguing goes nowhere. I have told people it's the same as them watching their favorite show all day. Or sitting around on tiktok watching videos lol. 

As long as they don't comment on me, I don't comment on them. 

[Clasher]

4 minutes ago, Kane99 said:

Yes, I will sometimes just ignore them, because arguing goes nowhere. I have told people it's the same as them watching their favorite show all day. Or sitting around on tiktok watching videos lol. 

As long as they don't comment on me, I don't comment on them. 

Though no one really bothers about how much I play video games but I am always quick to shut them up when they try to talk down on how much I enjoy playing videogames.

[Kane99]

52 minutes ago, Clasher said:

Though no one really bothers about how much I play video games but I am always quick to shut them up when they try to talk down on how much I enjoy playing videogames.

It's especially annoying when family says it, because they think you're wasting your life away gaming or something. I can understand to some extent why they say that, but it's just hypocritical to me when they say stuff like that and then turn around to watch sports or tv. 

Times are changing though and people aren't saying it that much anymore. 

[Withywarlock]

John Lennon adequately sums up my thoughts on the subject: "Time you enjoy wasting is not time wasted." That shuts down most arguments quite well. If it continues, I'd ask them to be held to the same standards as they hold me. Writing the next great American novel or learning to become a surgeon would be a far better use of my time, but I possess neither the intellectual capacity nor am I sufficiently arsed to do so, and neither is the person telling me to do so because if they did they wouldn't be busying themselves talking to me.

[Shagger]

I made the post quoted below on this thread quite a while ago that sums up a lot of my feelings on this:

 

 

On 4/22/2022 at 7:40 PM, Shagger said:

Not only will I state categorically that gaming is not for kids alone, I can even prove it. And that's not me being a 30-somthing grown man trying to justify what some might regard as a juvenile hobby, I promise. This is about the facts.

 

Back in th 70's and 80's, gaming was very much a kid's pastime. Games were only made for and marketed to children, whether it be in the booming arcades or on the early home consoles like the Atari 2600, Intellevision, Colecovision, various Pong Consoles and Vectrex consoles. Think and say what you will about the games, there were obviously primitive, but there were kids toys. Even some of the big names in gaming like Nintendo were toy makers first and that was thier pull into the video game's industry. So yes, games were toys.

 

But then in the 90's things started to change. As games became more ambitious and detailed, the line between action and violence started to get blurry. Games like Mortal Kombat and Carmageddon caused controversies with thier violence and detailed gore. Parents were angry that toys like this were allowed on the market, because face it they were toys, so to me they actually had a point. Something had to change. Video Games needed regulation.

 

It wasn't long after this that things like these started to appear on game game boxes.

 

 

The moment this started to happen, video games were not toys anymore. The are rated with the same scrutiny as movies and TV broadcasts, making them an entertainment medium. Like any entertainment medium, any work that within it is made for a target audience. They can be made for very young children, but they can also be made only for adults and everyone in between.

 

So for me, it's not even open to debate. Video games are not kid's toys. If they were, there wouldn't be any of these ratings and warning labels. Organizations like the ESRB and PEGI wouldn't even exist. The fact that they exist and enforce these rating systems is actually what has allowed video games to evolve into the entertainment medium they are now. An entertainment medium that can, and does, cater to adults as much as anyone else. Yes, organizations like the ESRB and PEGI aren't prefect, but we should all be grateful that they exist. Without them and the systems they enforce, video games probably still would be toys and games like The Last of Us, Metal Gear Solid, Grand Theft Auto, Assassin's Creed, The Witcher, The Elder Scrolls just to name few would not have been allowed to exist.

 

To take it further, those people do have a point. Face it, playing video game's isn't productive. You'll never cure cancer or solve world hunger by sitting on your couch with a controller in your hand, but the same is also true of playing golf, watching TV or sitting by a riverbank with a stick getting piss ass drunk (Apparently, it's called "fishing", but as far as I know that's all you do). These things, like gaming, are called past times for a reason. The clue is in the name, they are literally ways to pass the time and nothing more. They are nothing practical, profitable nor helpful to anyone, it's just leisure. So the next person who talks down to you for being a gamer as an adult, ask them what thier hobbies are and if they answer with literally anything, they're hypocrites. If they answer with nothing, feel desperately sorry for them, but feel vindicated as you are the one with a soul.

[Kane99]

2 hours ago, Shagger said:

I made the post quoted below on this thread quite a while ago that sums up a lot of my feelings on this:

 

 

 

To take it further, those people do have a point. Face it, playing video game's isn't productive. You'll never cure cancer or solve world hunger by sitting on your couch with a controller in your hand, but the same is also true of playing golf, watching TV or sitting by a riverbank with a stick getting piss ass drunk (Apparently, it's called "fishing", but as far as I know that's all you do). These things, like gaming, are called past times for a reason. The clue is in the name, they are literally ways to pass the time and nothing more. They are nothing practical, profitable nor helpful to anyone, it's just leisure. So the next person who talks down to you for being a gamer as an adult, ask them what thier hobbies are and if they answer with literally anything, they're hypocrites. If they answer with nothing, feel desperately sorry for them, but feel vindicated as you are the one with a soul.

Oh of course. Gaming is a hobby, it isn't something I'd say is important. Well, maybe important to myself, but it isn't important to others that I or you game. It's like any other hobby. I just can't stand when people go out of their way to badmouth it, when they have similar hobbies and do similar things. Just the hypocritical aspect of it bugs me. 

And now days, some could claim it's more than a hobby. Either it be a pro gamer competing in an esports tournament, or someone who streams video games on Twitch to make donations. I'd say in  a away that is a bit different, but still it's just someone using their hobby to make money. 

[Clasher]

4 hours ago, Withywarlock said:

John Lennon adequately sums up my thoughts on the subject: "Time you enjoy wasting is not time wasted." That shuts down most arguments quite well. If it continues, I'd ask them to be held to the same standards as they hold me. Writing the next great American novel or learning to become a surgeon would be a far better use of my time, but I possess neither the intellectual capacity nor am I sufficiently arsed to do so, and neither is the person telling me to do so because if they did they wouldn't be busying themselves talking to me.

What's the value of time if it is not Invested in the things that brings you true happiness.

Time is only a quantity of measurement and doesn't define outcome or results , you might spend your whole day reading and some one who just spends a few minutes doing something achieves Better results.

It goes far beyond an activity but something you are genuinely interested in and not everyone is even inclined to playing videogames as much as not everyone is inclined towards making scientific research, we can't all function the same way or else we seize to become human but a preprogrammed entity.

[Justin11]

When I was a kid, that ranged on my mind, that video games are only for kid. Because, during my childhood only the children plays it adults don't partake, why? because they aren't civilized back then, and it was early stages of game development around my geography. But now, both children, adults play games nowadays in my geography. 

[Clasher]

8 hours ago, Justin11 said:

When I was a kid, that ranged on my mind, that video games are only for kid. Because, during my childhood only the children plays it adults don't partake, why? because they aren't civilized back then, and it was early stages of game development around my geography. But now, both children, adults play games nowadays in my geography. 

My parents didn't play video games but they never stopped from playing because they were aware about how much of a good time I had with my Consoles.

My older siblings did play with me and even my uncles too, video game was just a normal thing in my house.

[Yaramaki]

There isn't a whole lot interesting anybody could add after @Shagger his post. He pretty much killed this thread on the spot lol, as i couldn't agree more with his  entire posts and could not have a better job at phrasing it. 

There were days i feel like a complete loser for playing videogames all day on a free day mostly during the winter when there is not much else to do then stay inside,wondering wherest i could have done something more usefull. Take today it's too hot to do anything and since i still have vacation, so i spend the entire playing day playing dragon quest 11, right now i've got the feeling i could have done something better with my time on the other hand i enjoyed my time because it's rare that i get to play a couple of hours after one another. 

Anyway To the topic at hand, some people just love to call out others because they have different hobbies. It's so easy to call out an adult who watches cartoons and plays videogames and tell to them grow the fuck up, while on the other side they watch the most stupid shit imaginable on tv and are mostlikely bitter because of their own shitty life so they work their frustration out on somebody else. 

[StaceyPowers]

On 8/11/2022 at 11:02 AM, Shagger said:

You'll never cure cancer or solve world hunger by sitting on your couch with a controller in your hand,

I'm not sure I fully agree with your point. Perhaps this extreme expression of it, but I think video games, like literature or art, can have a transformative effect on individuals and society with their messages. That could add up to significant social change, however indirect.

[Grungie]

I don't get angry over it, because who cares what others think of my hobby.