Thought this would be a fun or interesting topic to discuss :).

For me, video games keep me sane, give me a sense of accomplishment, and are a great coping mechanism. I'm a chronically ill person, and the distraction games give also acts a a pain killer of sorts. Sometimes my illness makes playing impossible, but if I'm able, they improve my life. Books used to do that too, but books are often more difficult for me (reading has become a challenge, though I still love it, books just take me a long time to read) because of my health. So games it is!

I can't really handle fast-paced games very well anymore, but will play them occasionally on very good days. My favorites are and have always been puzzles, RPGs (c-rpg, action rpg, jrpg), and adventures.

Because of video games I don't have a life.

Does that count?

I feel for you, sorry about your health.
Personally I don't get that much of a sense of accomplishment from games...more like a feeling of wasted time :-( But yeah, I definitely use them for escapism and distraction from my unpleasant life as well.

Well, my love for gaming is what drove me to go into programming, with my goal being to successfully code a sufficiently complex and fully functional game. I'm not too bad at it either, though I've still got much to learn.

I can relate to the chronically illness part, don't know if games has changed my life but I think it's a great way to experience some amazing stories. Games usually get pretty boring if it don't have a good story so for that reason I play mostly adventure and RPGs. It's fun to get really deep into a story and be part of it :)

You may want to check out audio books, it's a good alternative.

I'm sorry to hear about your health *hugs*

Video games, I have found, have been my way to relate to people. My jobs have typically been in male-dominated fields and it can be hard to crack into their guy circles. As soon as they find out i'm a big nerd and into video games, I'm in :) If it weren't for that, I'd have a lonely time at work.

I think I could attribute gaming to much of the development of any creative habits I've had in life plain and simple.

Ah, sorry to hear you relate. I'm the same way, I love a good story. I just got into audiobooks this year, some narrators are less than ideal (or just plain bad), but I've found some great ones too! Definitely going to keep listening, still debating if I should just stick to my library's online collection or if I should do audible (for the 25+ hr books), but I don't really know if it's worth spending $15 a month.

I agree, it has helped fuel my creativity as well (no kidding, I learned to crochet and knit just to make video game related stuff, though I do other things too but that was my motivation to try). Currently working on a DQ Slime wall hanging as a gift for my brother-in-law, and a Stormtrooper ornament for a friend.

I'd love to try writing narrative for a game too, get some use out of my Creative Writing degree. Need a game to work on first lol.

For better and worse, I suppose. Learning how to get DOS games going on PCs with hardware limitations taught me a working knowledge of DOS (at the time - forgotten most of it by now), and that helped me land a job that turned into my career for the past 20+ years. Also taught me some hardware and repair stuff, which also helped on the job. Every once in a while the DOS stuff still comes up for work. Autoexec.bat and config.sys, boot disks, DOS knowledge in general, all of that helped.

But I've also sunk a lot of money into this hobby over the past 30 years. Gotta be pushing... well, a lot. Money that would be better spent on retirement or myriad other things. But ya gotta have a hobby, and most of them cost at least a little bit.

Gaming helped me reconnect with a good friend from school, and we'd play an MMO together for a while there.





And hey, gives me an excuse to hang around with the rest of you misfits and losers. ; )

One thing video games have done for me is make me stop playing board games with myself against myself and myself and as many more of me as are needed.

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My dad gave me my first PC at a young age, playing the games on there (mainly Commander Keen and Duke Nukem) got me interested in general computer maintenance and how to use DOS from a young age (around 5 or 6) and after my second PC was given to me with a fresh install of Windows 95, from that point on I had to fix and learn any problems on my own and I started building my own machines to use.

I was very interested in modding certain games heavily, forcing me to learn a bit of coding language and improve my math skills a bit (I'm still terrible). DOOM, Half-Life, Unreal Tournament 2004 and Command & Conquer: Tiberian Sun are four games I've modded to DEATH. I spent HUGE chunks of my life modding those games and participating in forums for them.

Video games (specifically PC gaming which was a little more niche when I was growing up) lead me to some good friendships. When I was about 15-16 I was a huge GTA fan and spent hours playing and dissecting it, when Rockstar released Manhunt this is how I met the love of my life, no joke. Snuff films + Cold blooded murder = love.

They also offer a form of escape sometimes, I have various mental issues that can make living hard sometimes so it's nice to forget about things like that for a while, though music has helped me deal with this more in life.

Perhaps games can be, at least partially, be credited with me getting into computers.

I also have a serious interest in the design and development of video games.

They thought me English, and modesty aside, I believe I am better at spelling and have a larger vocabulary than a lot of native speakers.