regret spending so much time/money on video games/pc stuff when you were younger?

[brainhulk]

Particularly mmo crap. /facepalm what was I thinking

I spent alot of money on upgrading my pc's for fucking benchmarks too. Double facepalm

 

[soulcougher73]

I didn't go too crazy, but yeah. Could of spent that time and money better in hindsight.

 

[lxskllr]

I didn't spend much money. I got decent gear, but not the best, and I didn't play a ton of games. I got what I got, and played the shit out of them.

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

Never spent much time on video games. I did spend 4 to 5 k on pc gaming but it was mostly for benchmarking. I regret many things in my life much more than the insignificant amount of money I put into gaming.

 

[Charlie98]

I never had video games (or a computer for that matter) growing up... of course, there weren't video games when I grew up.

I don't necessarily regret the money, just the time. I look at the 'hours played' on Steam and wonder if I couldn't have spent that time better, or, for that matter, time spent on the computer. I used to read every night... books or magazines... but I haven't touched a book in some time.

 

[purbeast0]

only thing i regret spending a lot of money on was when i got new rims/tires, dropped my car, put a new grill and hood on it ... and it was a 1997 2.0L Jetta. such a waste of money.

however all of the money i spent on it was earned selling vcds of family guy and band of brothers on ebay lol. i would sell complete sets daily, sometimes multiple times a day, for $40 - $50. it was A LOT of time too because this was back when like 4x or 8x burners were the fastests, and each set was like 10 or 13 discs i think.

probably made over $5k in the summer before getting banned from ebay. really wish i had used that money on something else when looking back, wishing i had traveled when i was that young too.

that is actually the one regret i have in life - not traveling when i was younger. i started at 24 and wish i had started when i was in highschool or college.

EDIT:

i also did spend A LOT of time with video games, especially in my teen years. i did not however spend much money as i was pirating a ton of games. for playstation, dreamcast, xbox, ps2, etc. i did it all and modded tons of systems. i got the point that i was more about collecting games than actually playing them though, which is when i realized i had to stop pirating and haven't done so in a very long time. i had over 1300 playstation games at one point, and i didn't really even play any of them.

i also don't regret it though because gaming is what sculpted what i wanted to do with my life and is why i got into computer science, and it's the reason i have the great job that i have now making good money. video games are also the reason i got my first job at 14 - i needed money to buy an n64. i had that job and worked from 14 - 23 through highschool and college.

i also think that the competitiveness of video games helped me with discipline overall because i just don't like losing and want to learn from my mistakes when i do lose. to this day the main form of competitive games i play is fighting games, and that is literally the only genre of game you can play where if you lose, it's 100% because you were outplayed. there are really no variables that you can put blame on. i also like the mind fuckery that comes with it, because at the advanced levels, you aren't playing the game really, you're playing your opponent and trying to get them to do what you want them to do so you can punish and beat them.

 

[blackangst1]

This was the only video game I had growing up:

 

[Scarpozzi]

I luckily never played enough to be really good at any of those games. That kept me from getting locked in and playing too much. I probably spent more time on Battlefield2 than anything else...before that, it was CounterStrike. In all cases, I was typically playing with my friends in town or 100 miles away...so we were talking on headsets while playing. Without the social aspect and knowing people in REAL life, I probably wouldn't have been as interested as I was. Around 2000 or so, I used to have a hosting server in my apartment for quite a few games that ran on RedHat. I probably had 5 decent computers in my apartment at that time running and a few laptops. It was a pretty serious operation considering we only had ADSL at the time.

I have a bunch of games on my Xbox360, but have young kids, so I can't use a TV or computer without having company...

 

[gorcorps]

Not really. Never got into any MMOs, and when I played online it was usually CS with real life friends. I always built my own PCs with mostly used parts, so they were never that expensive. Yes, that time could have been better spent, but I was a kid or teen and nothing else I did would have been important. I played some games in college but it was all local games with friends (sooo much Rock Band).

The only thing I might regret is how many Steam games I bought and will never play. I just simply don't have the interest anymore, so I'm happy playing only a couple big releases a year. Even then, adding up all the money I spent on games I won't touch again I probably have less than $150 "lost" so it's not that bad.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I did not really have much if any money when I was young so most of my video games were Christmas/birthday gifts. I understood the concept of money at a fairly young age and knew my parents could not afford to buy every single game I wanted. I still remember getting my SNES and how excited I was. NES and SNES and Super Mario were pretty much my life, that and playing outside. It was really a mix of both.

 

[SearchMaster]

This was the only video game I had growing up:

You must have been spoiled rotten. This was my ride (though I think this image is from the re-release a few years ago):

 

[GRIFFIN1]

If you want to waste a lot of time and money, then get in a relationship with the wrong woman. The time I wasted on games and computer hardware was nothing compared to trying to make it work with the wrong woman. It does sting a little when you throw an old video card in the trash that you paid $250 for.

Other than women, I've always been pretty good about not wasting money on stupid stuff.

 

[KeithTalent]

Not at all. Wish I had more time to play them now.

KT

 

[dat722]

I bought Time Crisis 3 for Ps2 right when it came out. What a waste of money, the gun didn't even cock back! Underwhelmed but fun

 

[IGemini]

Money? Not really. I usually get more than my money's worth from games I buy. The only MMO I played with any frequency was EVE. On and off for about a year, and usually at promo subscription prices. I regret a smaller set of game purchases where I bought into hype and overspent but got very little game time from those. My computer is my primary use device. I don't buy top shelf stuff but I can do everything I want and usually stretch the bulk of upgrades over several generations.

Time? Fuck no. I've been a gamer since I could pick up a controller. I do it for the same reasons people read books: it's escapism and keeps my mind busy. It has the added bonus of exposing me to music and ideas I wouldn't find elsewhere. On the whole it's one of the most positive forces in my life.

 

[Kelvrick]

If it wasn't for games, I wouldn't have learned how to fix my computer whenever something went wrong. Before voice chat, I had to learn to type quickly in order to communicate with my teammates.

Computer troubleshooting and typing 100wpm+ has definitely helped me in my professional and personal life. Granted, the overall time invested in developing those skills probably could have been done more efficiently, but the games were the driving factor.

Consoles though were a complete waste of time.

 

[GagHalfrunt]

Nope, no regrets. I grew up in the arcade era. Video games were social then, arcades were the prime gathering spot.

 

[gorcorps]

If it wasn't for games, I wouldn't have learned how to fix my computer whenever something went wrong. Before voice chat, I had to learn to type quickly in order to communicate with my teammates.

This is a good point. Learning how to troubleshoot (and build PCs) is something that stays with you forever. Even if it's a problem you haven't handled before, the confidence in digging into things until you find what's wrong is what a lot of people lack.

 

[gorb]

Yep. I have a ton of games I've never played and will probably never get around to playing

 

[nageov3t]

pre-MMO's, most of my video gaming was spent with friends, and even most of my WoW addiction was spent playing with my sister and her husband, which was actually kind of a bonding experience.

I do regret a little the last year or so that I played WoW hardcore by myself after my sister/RL friends had quit, although I can't really say that I would have spent the time any more productively than just watching tv or smoking pot with my neighbors at the time.

 

[TXHokie]

Nope. I spend quite a lot of time tearing up my computer and swapping out/upgrading parts, and do all kind of research and tweaks to squeeze that last bit of FPS to improve my Doom/Quake/CS games (prob didn't help my game much but I felt good that I'm running high fps).

That skill comes in handy when I did sysadmin work tearing up the network/servers and trying to tweak the best performance with my network, RAID, Sql database, web-application, etc. Even hosted a few after hours CS battles with IT support vs developers.

Now when I interview people for our IT team, I always ask them if they play games and what games they play, if they build their own computer, and what they run at home.

 

[renz20003]

Particularly mmo crap. /facepalm what was I thinking

I spent alot of money on upgrading my pc's for fucking benchmarks too. Double facepalm

I usually build a new rig every few years, usually whatever $1500 gets me.

Never got into WoW or similar games and I don't go crazy on steam sales... No regrets.

 

[dr150]

I've bought enough Steam crap during their sales that I KNOW I will NEVER be able to play more than 5% of that during my working life.

Maybe when I'm in a retirement home, I'll have a legacy system to play all this crap when my legs give out on me.

 

[Loop2kil]

I didn't spend much money. I got decent gear, but not the best, and I didn't play a ton of games. I got what I got, and played the shit out of them.

Same here, still playing Quake 17 years later

 

[BurnItDwn]

Ehh, I think my interest in gaming is what got me into computers. I do OK with my day job. If I didnt game, I likely would be working dead end retail job.