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

[Vdubchaos]

Yes, I definitely do.

Spending money on gaming is similar to spending money on upgrading/modifying cars.

It's like stuffing money down the drain.

Gaming in general is a HUGE time waster as well. If time is money than one will be APPALLED at the money/time wasted.

I've since limited gaming...hardly ever play. Here and there. Not really happy with where gaming world has gone, not happy AT ALL.

I don't remember last time I purchased a game....well, I guess the question is, is it really a game. Seems like Devs are selling people 1/2 games and selling them other pieces as "DLC" etc.

No thanks

 

[DrPizza]

Nope, no regrets. We had Atari, but no one I knew spent more than an hour a day playing it, and not as frequently as daily. We built forts, rode bikes, played kickball, baseball and other games. We went fishing. We went swimming. During summer vacation, if the weather was nice, kids weren't home - they were out somewhere playing with their friends. Rainy days - almost never on sunny days, we were hooking together slot car sets and racing the cars. We were building model rockets. We were discovering that potassium/sodium nitrate burned really bright in a tin can, once you managed to get it to ignite. The drug store up town where we bought it always made us sign for it; we claimed it was for science experiments. We were never successful at making gun powder with it. But, we were playing with fire crackers and other fireworks that we somehow managed to get our hands on, often finding unexploded consumer fireworks on the dikes by the river, where thousands of people gathered each year for the 4th of July fireworks. We were going to the bus terminal, where they worked on the buses, and getting used inner tubes from them, patching up the inner tubes, and floating down the river. We were letting our parents know we were camping out in a friend's back yard in tents - which usually meant we were up all night, out fishing, and building a big bonfire.

We weren't playing video games.

 

[Subyman]

I don't regret playing games when I was younger at all. Youths no longer have to pick turnips and change horse shoes, so you have to fill your time somehow

 

[Sonikku]

What use is a family weighed against having the Rivendare mount?

 

[thegimp03]

Same here, still playing Quake 17 years later

I think that's what saved me from spending too much on gaming. I played Q3A all the way from demo to about 2010 - basically from late teens to late 20s. I couldn't get into and stay with any other games for significant amounts of time. I'd pick up and play UT2k4, FarCry (which forced me to upgrade my videocard), and BF2 every once in awhile, but I was never really forced to have my systems on the bleeding edge.

 

[Kaido]

Nope, wouldn't have done anything productive anyway. And like others mentioned, it helped introduce me to the computer world & a circle of nerdy friends.

Downside is, despite hundreds of thousands of hours into Counter-strike, I'm still terrible at it

 

[CountZero]

When I was much younger, much like DrPizza, gaming was just part of a large variety of things I did with friends so no regrets there. It also got me interested in computers which led to programming and learning computer stuff very early on. This all held true through college.

At college I was a hardcore introvert put into a dorm room with seven other roommates. To my surprise gaming turned out to be a universal interest. With literally nothing else in common we had gaming which helped me open up and become more social. Being more social ultimately led to meeting my wife. Being into computers led to my decision to get into engineering which has paid off so far.

Wife and I play MMOs together quite a bit and that was always more fun and interesting than watching TV together.

I game with my friends who are all over the world these days so it is a great way to get together even if virtually.

As a kid it was a hobby that led to interests that would guide my life and as an adult it is a hobby that I still enjoy. Like the vast majority of hobbies it doesn't gain me anything except enjoyment.

The only wasted game time I can think of is MMO raiding and since I did that mostly while I was otherwise broke the entertainment hour per dollar was exceptionally high.

 

[KingstonU]

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

KT

+1. I cherish those memories and would love to spend more time playing games. Also like another person said, nothing is a bigger waste of time and money than trying to make a relationship work with the wrong person.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I much more regret the thousands of hours I have spent on web forums. I could have learned to program or learned a new language with all that time.

Now I am addicted and old so it would have hard to switch careers anyway. So here I am.

 

[Insomniator]

Time You Enjoy Wasting is Not Wasted Time

 

[AznAnarchy99]

What use is a family weighed against having the Rivendare mount?

I still don't have that piece of shit.

I think it's crazy that I've been playing World of Warcraft on and off for over 10 years.

 

[Schfifty Five]

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 never went overboard with spending money on PC items, but I did play a good amount of WoW and no, don't regret it at all. I had plenty of fun from the game and experienced a virtual world that was really amazing.

If I didn't play WoW, then I would have probably just played another game. I enjoy playing games and it provides entertainment so no regrets. I still make sure to get all my other priorities done/in order first though, so maybe that's why I don't regret playing games.

 

[PlanetJosh]

Seems like the older ones of us probably have more money. But then after spending for family needs I'm not sure how much money and time is left for gaming pcs. I'm still single so I was wondering about others.

 

[TheVrolok]

Not in the slightest. I learned a great deal about a great many things due to video games. I also made a number of friends in the process. Many good times. That said, Ive had a balance - I was also a varsity athlete in high school and continued with fitness into my adult life, had a number of gfs, social circles, etc. Video games (like any other hobby) should generally augment your life not dominate it.

 

[OverVolt]

..

 

[OverVolt]

..

 

[brianmanahan]

i had fun, but i really wish i would have spent time making money instead of playing games

 

[Belegost]

I spent a lot of time gaming when I was younger (UT99 I'm looking at you) and I figure I could have done worse. I never spent that much on my PC, usually just picked up used parts, and I never let it get in the way of more important things, so I finished my undergrad with a 3.98, and scraped together money to spend a summer in each of Japan and China.

Along the way I learned a lot of skills from building/maintaining my PC, and later coding for mods that translate well into my engineering work.

 

[MongGrel]

Nope, no regrets. We had Atari, but no one I knew spent more than an hour a day playing it, and not as frequently as daily. We built forts, rode bikes, played kickball, baseball and other games. We went fishing. We went swimming. During summer vacation, if the weather was nice, kids weren't home - they were out somewhere playing with their friends. Rainy days - almost never on sunny days, we were hooking together slot car sets and racing the cars. We were building model rockets. We were discovering that potassium/sodium nitrate burned really bright in a tin can, once you managed to get it to ignite. The drug store up town where we bought it always made us sign for it; we claimed it was for science experiments. We were never successful at making gun powder with it. But, we were playing with fire crackers and other fireworks that we somehow managed to get our hands on, often finding unexploded consumer fireworks on the dikes by the river, where thousands of people gathered each year for the 4th of July fireworks. We were going to the bus terminal, where they worked on the buses, and getting used inner tubes from them, patching up the inner tubes, and floating down the river. We were letting our parents know we were camping out in a friend's back yard in tents - which usually meant we were up all night, out fishing, and building a big bonfire.

We weren't playing video games.

A lot of this growing up myself I guess. That and BB gun fights etc, but there was a three pumps rule on them in those and no one lost an eye Was mostly from not shooting there I guess, most of us had little Glenfield X4 scopes even on those air rifles.

Spent more time than I care to think about playing MMO's later beta testing EQ and looking for the perfect MMO later I guess, have really radically cut back on gaming over time myself.

I still keep meaning to get my IL10 I had in WOWP back again and trying out World of Warships, ad just don't feel that motivated to play games in general lately.

Had a tier 10 sky whale jet I was having fun with in WOWP in beta. The rear gunner and guns in general on that thing were just sick, eve if it manuevered badly. Was fun dogfighting in the thing for grins and giggles.

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

There weren't any video games or pc's when I grew up. We were too busy playing outside.

 

[Eug]

I wasted way too much time on these, but they were worth it. Awesome!

My Voodoo3 served me well, until I went ATI.

EDIT:

Heh! I just found this old AnandTech thread from over 15 years ago in which I posted about my Voodoo3 and UTBench:

http://forums.anandtech.com/showthread.php?t=336955

 

[SP33Demon]

Less money spent on MMO cash shop, yep. Don't really regret the time because I met some kickass people, some whom I'm still friends with today.

 

[Childs]

hmm...I spend more money now than I ever did to play games, yet spend way less time actually playing them. Played one game in the last 4 months, and it only lasted 3 hours. But in the last 6 months I've probably bought 5 games, a video card, SSD, and new case. Oh, and new audio components to go with it. Last month I actually packed up my PS4 and games and put them in storage. Back in the Doom/Quake/HL/CS/BF days I rarely spent any money at all. I would play the hell out of one game on minimum hardware.

I dunno, the desire to play is still there, but the games themselves aren't very compelling. Too much grinding...feels like work. But I don't regret the time I spend playing games...if I had space for a workshop I'd probably tinker and build stuff, but since I can't there isn't much else to do besides watch TV.

 

[Fire&Blood]

Bought many games that weren't worth it but there are worse ways to spend money and a lot more of it. My first water kit was junk but other than that, no regrets with hardware either. I've already set some money aside to make the 4K jump.

I regret buying a luxury sedan 10 years ago and not buying my place sooner...

 

[Eug]

I was just thinking about that. My sister used to bug me about spending too much money on computer hardware so I reminded her the extra cost over my family hatchback for the luxury sedan she bought was probably 4X as much as the money I spent on computer equipment in a decade. She shut up about it permanently after that.

Also, I just bought a RAV4 Hybrid. The Lexus NX has the same engine but is nicer inside. However if you want the same safety features it costs 44% more. It also has less storage. I knew if I bought that I would regret the cost premium.