11 was about when it started for me... not gaming addiction as much as internet addiction. I would talk to friends as often as possible, play MMORPGs, etc. I did not want to do anything else. Got my first online girlfriend, and it was all downhill from there. Nobody stepped in.

Thanks for all the comments, even the ones I don't like and wanted to delete.

Well I am sorry to hear that....if you are. I can't speak for anyone else, only my son. He is my responsibility and if he isn't prepared for real life, then its my fault...ya know? I can't be blasé about it.

"The point is, anything done by yourself for fun is a waste."

I understand the grips of internet or gaming addiction very well myself, having skirted the edges of it in the past. However, it's the above quoted sentiment that I wholeheartedly disagree with. By that line of reasoning, reading for pleasure (to yourself, not aloud) is a waste. Doing a jigsaw puzzle, a rubicks cube, a model airplane... and practically every other hobby out there would be reclassified as a "waste"

Is the time being spent doing those things productive? Unless it's how you make your living, probably not. But just because it's not productive doesn't make it "wasted"

For myself at least, it's an activity to de-stress. Despite all the kick-ass people in my life, sometimes I like to just be left alone and be able to retreat into my imagination. It helps me put my head back together after a long day or particularly stressful week. To that extent, the time I manage to spend gaming is anything but wasted. There's nothing wrong with wanting alone time. TIme to just let your mind recover and relax.

And is it really anti-social? Gaming is a unifying activity for me and my friends. LAN parties, voice chat while playing multiplayer games, and talking about gaming with friends when not necessarily in front of a TV or monitor. It can be antisocial, but it doesn't have to be. The choice is with the individual.

Nice job on feeling guilty for spending time having fun when you could be helping people. That is a wonderful mentality, and if everyone was like that, the world would be a much better place. Unfortunately, I can't say I'm like that, and so I can play video games without feeling guilty about anything, except for maybe the feeling I get when I play a bad game and wish I hadn't bought it. I know that video games will never get me or anybody else anywhere in life, and maybe I should feel bad about spending so much time on them, but I think that people need a way to chill out, and if gaming is how you do it, then that's fine. Some people read, some watch TV, others listen to music -- leisure is a part of life. God will understand if you feel the need to do something for yourself once in a while. Remember, we are mere humans, we are NOT perfect, whether or not we reach that stage at one point is an entirely different issue, because like it or not, you will never achieve perfection while you live on this planet. You don't need to be spending every minute of every day out there helping someone. If you ever end up doing so though, then God bless you -- you will have done more than I expected any normal human being to do.

It refers to your "I should do what god wants thing" You might as well sit at your computer and do what the Drengin emperor wants. It would make as much sense.

Especially when your rant is about things that are not real.

Why are people not allowed to cycle down and get a bit if escapeism? The UK and US have maddeningly long work hours and you shouldn't feel guilty or have some snob naesaying your leasure time and settting arbitary standards of what is and isn't meaningful.

That's what I thought it meant, but I figured I'd wait for you to clarify that.

While your opinion is valid as an opinion, it is not based in the fact that God does, in fact, exist. Therefore it is not relevant to me, because I know for a fact that God does exist. Just like the opinion of people who think the earth is flat that "it's a bad idea to travel that way, you'll fall off the earth" is not valid to one who knows the earth is round.

If you cannot prove something then it is not true. Hence why we don't shoot people cause they might be criminals.

There is no difference between final fantasy and the bible in terms of reality except that the bible is a better work of fiction.

You can't subsitute one fantasy for the other and berate people for living in the one you like least.

There is just as much proof that God exists as there is that He doesn't. I can't prove that He exists, just as you cannot prove He doesn't. That's why we call it faith.

There is no proof that he exists, there is some that he dosen't and of course there is the big study that the templeton foundation did that proved prayer was bad for peoples health.

Faith is the dumbest thing i have ever heard of. It essentially means i will just stamp my feet and refused to beleive anything else. Depressingly making it the most important thing for demagouges to instill. Do what you what people but just don't question all the stuff that dosen't make sense. politicians tell me not top think or criticise but i would be mad if i just had faith in them.

Are video games a waste of time? Probably. But is that a BAD thing? Not necessarily.

I put in insanely long weeks, and yesterday, my day off, was spent troubleshooting a friend's computer and upgrading his O/S. As we were headed home, I decided I was going to spend the next three hours conquering the world. Given the fact that I have been fighting a busting headache half the week, as well as the current crop of bovine excrement, it was a nice relief. I conquered the world, went to sleep, and woke up to a call this morning asking if I could drive 15 miles into town, then 30 plus miles to the Interstate rest stop to pick up a serpentine belt to help a stranded traveller, which I did. My headache was pretty horrid this morning, but I was mighty glad I had been able to decompress last night so that I didn't feel too overwhelmed to help out someone in need.

And what proof is there that God does not exist? How can someone know what happens after death?

'Faith is the dumbest thing i have ever heard of. It essentially means i will just stamp my feet and refused to beleive anything else.'

The problem is, that's the same thing you're doing. You and I have the same amount of faith, we just believe in different things. I refuse to believe God doesn't exist, you refuse the opposite. You can't not believe in God without believing that God doesn't exist.

It's not a belief. I think people that beleive in gods are wrong and have essentially just made up an extra big version of santa. If some guy materialised in front of me tomorrow and said "your wrong I am god now pack this nonsense in" and then flew off i would have to change my mind.

We have pretty much the same stance I just go one better.

As to being dead everyone knows what happens when your dead. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing happens when your dead. I was dead when the dinosaurs (which i guess you dispute) were around, I was dead during the middle ages and I was dead during world war 2 and it gave me no trouble, I'm probably unless someone comes up with immortality in a glass gonna spend a lot (if not all) of the future dead.

You weren't dead during the middle ages or dinosaurs (no point in disputing that which has physical evidence), you didn't exist. You couldn't have been dead, as you hadn't even been conceived back then. And nobody knows what happens after you die, because as far as I know, dead people can't talk. But whatever, I think one thing, you think the other, whoop-dee-doo. You're right, until Jesus appears on somebody's doorstep or someone finds out how the universe was created, everyone will keep on thinking what they're thinking. And even then some people are going to question whatever is found to be the truth.

science damn you real life for stealing all my precious snappy rejoined time!

Sorry been arguing with someone else (hmm patern emerging?) about mods and how accurate they really need to be.

I was making the point that once your dead you cease to exist and since you didn't exist pre life there is no difference.

Is it jesus we're waiting for? so we can narrow the issues in that you don't beleive in all the greek gods, hindu gods, celtic gods, norse gods, native american gods, the gods of the alien races in this game? not even the old blood thirsty jehovah of judaism fame?

well your getting thier I reckon we're only about 0.5% apart in atheism terms. I have a nagging suspicion we're not getting over that last half a percent though