I think video games ruined my life

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Do you like going outside? Do you like going for walks? I do (when the sun's gone down, of course.)

Life's a game.

Camping & backpacking are great activities, provide interest and are good for getting away from the consul!

I suspect almost starting a forest fire has taught you the very important lesson of Not starting a forest fire!

I'm trying to figure out why books are expensive but an XBOX 360, and of course the accompanying expensive games and peripherals, is OK. Slight lapse in logic, which at first interpretation would lead me to believe that mum would rather encourage your habit to keep you young and reliant on her than allow you to expand your mind and eventually grow up enough mentally and emotionally to not need her any more. Just an observation.

Question: in your first post are you actually quoting something said to you? Is someone getting on your case for not having a social life and only playing video games, or are you, yourself, legitimately concerned with the depth of your involvement?

The thing is, these obsessions ('special interests' for the politically correct) are perfectly normal to us as aspies, and for someone with as many forum posts as yourself I would assume that would not be new information. For me it's guitars, specifically ones with more than 6 strings, but when I was a lot younger it was passenger airplanes, specifically those made by Boeing. It has taken me many years to be able to hold a conversation without eventually steering it toward guitars, but I do fine these days, and function rather well, all things considered, in a relatively high profile job working for the US military.

We have intense obsessions/passions, and as long as they are not measurably harmful to us or anyone around us, there's nothing wrong with them. The key is to find a way to make them work for you.

Now think of this: if no one were passionate about video games how would there be so many great ones out there? Someone had to dream the games up and put heart and soul into making them.

Embrace your passion. Learn about game development. Study rendering, AI, DirectX, map design, conceptualization, game maths theory, or whatever aspect you find most interesting, and pursue it. As an aspie, you will find your greatest potential for success in doing something related to your passion. As for your social life, I've always believed that you will meet the kind of people you are most compatible with while you pursue your passion. You will just bump into them along the way without ever having to look for them.

Tie Fighter kept me from burning the school down.

in my country, video games are cheaper than books...if you know where to look *wink* *wink*

Ask your relatives? I'm sure you've got like, some cousins, or some family members who know some people. And you might meet people in your area on video games. Xbox Live can be a fun place, where you can combine gaming with hanging out with people.

You can't blame video games for ruining your life. It's up to you to use willpower and expand your horizons.

Why don't you try to get a job in the VG field? It's a huge industry. There are technical and creative jobs available.

I'll try to impart some of my own ways to live considering that video games are my prime interest and obsession as well. I can't really recall a time when I didn't spend most of my time awake playing a game. Ever since my brother and I got a SNES for Christmas when I was 5 nothing else has really been as interesting or fun. I've dialed it down a little now that I'm older simply because I have other interests now, like going for long walks, but as early as two years ago I was spending at least 6-7 hours of the day on weekdays and probably 12-14 hours a day during the weekend. This has caused me to miss out on a lot of things in life but I don't regret it. Everything I know I learned from games.

Many frown on this behavior seeing games like nothing but a pointless time spender. But how do you define reality? My thoughts on reality is simply that there isn't a single reality, but as many realities as there are people. Each of their realities are formed by whatever way they choose to perceive the world around them. For this I'll draw upon an example which requires some knowledge but I think I can get the general thought across.

In the game Persona 3 for the PS2 you play as a standard mute protagonist. He's designed this way so you might shape him as you see fit, according to the games options. Said game makes use of a relationship simulator which ties in with the rest of the game in various ways. When you spend time with these people you get points depending on you answer to their questions, how you act etc and when enough points have accumulated your relationship goes up a level. Five of these said relationships are with women which with whom you can form a romantic relationship. Problem is you can't choose whatever you want to pursue these women for romance or friendship. So if you want to gain the tie-ins these relationships offer you have to become romantically involved with all of them which means that you have to cheat on them.

Each of the relationship are written very well, which gives a sense of reality to them. As such I personally developed a kind of a crush with one of the girls. I perceive the feelings I have for her to be real and as such she herself becomes real to me. This lead me to seriously wonder if I could betray her in the fashion that was needed in order to gain all the tie-ins, which I wanted because it was a game I enjoyed immensely. It felt wrong, and I felt a disdain for having to be forced into that situation. In the end, I decided to pursue the other romances, but I kept the files where she was the only one to remind me of my feelings for her and what I learned.

It's true that an obsession often isn't a good thing. But in my case, it's the only way I want to live. My advice is simply that if you feel the need to break off from games for a while, dial it down a notch. But in my view, there are worse things to be obsessed with.

You just need years of physics, math, and programming. But, you too can design video games!

(Digipen, the leading video game programming school in the country, has a drop out rate of 90%. Good luck!)

http://www.kromestudios.com/careers/index.php

If you ever want to do anything then, you need to have a serious discussion with your mom.

Damn, there's no such thing as game design career possibilities in my country. . . I'd chosen that.

I managed to quit since around my 16 years of age; I began having other goals.
I took up gaming again around 21 and I often go on gaming binges depending on my situation.

I don't know many games but some I play for hours and months.

Magic the Gathering is my other obsession though I'm not playing as much now nor feel so absorbed by it.

Time spent on gaming does take a toll but I think what ruins or has ruined our lives is not gaming but that which lead us to those addictive behaviours. So called normal people spend a similar amount of time in hollow converstions or passively watching some mainstream sport.

I put my PS2 in a box, so I won't play it. Plus I passed Okami twice and Juiced 2 is bloody hard!! I also passed Yoshi's Island DS and Drawn To Life, so now I have nothing to play except Final Fantasy III and LoZ: Phantom Hourglass. x____x

ive been an avid gamer since I was like 12 and I dont think it's ruined my life.

In fact, quite the opposite. I gained a lot of skills because of it.

I learned the nits and grits of the DOS system (this is in the 80's-90s) which helped me tremendously later on on my tech support job. Once Win 95 came out people with DOS skills dissapeared.. and anyone who remembers Win 95/98 knows it was DOS but with a graphical user interface slapped on top of it.. and it messed up systems so badly most techs just told people to erase and reinstall everything. Me? Pfft, go to DOS, put in a few commands and voila! fixed. Got me a couple of raises others didnt get too!

Taught myself HTML and later XML when I was 14 ... just because I wanted to make a website for my online 'squad' (Air Warrior).

In the 90's did the same with FLASH .. self-taught. And today I still get some people asking me to make them some flash websites and pay me some money which i'm happy to take.

hey matter of fact I just found my OLD website done in flash.. wow I think i did this one when I was like 19. Again, made for another game I loved. Some of the links in the site dont work no more (I dont know how that server still has that website running.. i cancelled that account almost a decage ago!) but you can get an idea.

http://home.cfl.rr.com/wraithfleethq/


I've been reading that where you live there seems to be few options for you to do stuff Berserker so I can suggest you try your hand at website design?

HTML is not a programming language per say.. in fact its very structured and logical but with no math. I spent (and still do) tons of time just making websites for the fun of it (and for money some times). To me its like art.. and since i cant draw a stick figure if my life depended on it this is a great outlet for any creative bursts you can have.

HTML+PAINT+FLASH = FUN.