Aspergers and gaming vs other interests

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My games obsession evolved as I grew up into modding games, then reverse engineering games, and creating games, then back to modding, so ...

I am more a fan of the classics (1996 or earlier).

I have played games since 6. It has helped me with hand eye cordinations and motor skills.

I guess you're right. I never saw it that way. Ive grown up being told that my gaming is one of the most horrible obsessions ive ever had. And with WoW, i logged on even if i didnt really want to. I dont even know why i did that. Mostly cause i didnt want to miss anything i guess. Since then ive tried to stay away from MMOs atleast... They scare me.

Maybe it takes my nature as a Nihilist to explain to you: The "Real" isn't any more vital nor important than the "Unreal". Life itself is no more than an illusion, and when it comes down to it, one layer of the illusion is no better or worse than another.

I regularly will tend to lose my nerve at people when they use that terrible line: "its just a game" .... to which I'll usually respond: "Life is just a game. This is no different. This is my game and I will play it as I wish to live my life."

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I play games just about every day.......computer (even occasional online games..i'm not good with the social part of it but i still play..currently DOMO...),console games, hand held systems,etc......my other game obssesion is CCGs (magic,L5R,etc.)..i can pull myself away for a while my other intersts help with this..... but i always fall back into gaming...it's helped me become friends with those few that i do socialize with....even my girlfriend plays games tho not nearly as much as me....btw in my relationship i'm the stay at home one, clean house, take care of the kids (that's a WHOLE other topic for discussion....),take care of the pets,etc..so it's not like i completely spend my day gaming....

Not to go off topic, but it's good to hear (from my philosophical/sociological perspective) someone say the part about being male & also being the "I do housework & childcare" person.
My boyfriend cooks & cleans-I can only stand to do very little of either. He's no less masculine by dint of his having skills & willingness to use them in "domestic" arenas.

Back to the subject at hand-
There are worse things (of the sort we'd agree upon defintion of-you know, harmful to oneself or others) one could be doing, compared to video games. There are things that various individuals would each consider higher priorities than playing these-but that answer would not be same for each person, at different points in their lives. In other words, am trying to acknowledge the wide variety of ways to consider the question.

What is healthy anyway, for any particular person ? The extremes of any aspect (too much of this, not enough of that) are likely obvious, but opinions will vary greatly on the behavior that is assessed/measured as falling somewhere in between (distribution of most people).
Default answer is finding balance-not relying solely on a single coping tool/activity (be it video games, books, posting online, etc.). Moderation, diversifying one's allocation of assets across multiple supports/comforts/tasks/sources.

I'm not a nihilist but an existentialist, so I do have a different take on reality...I believe there is no "One meaning" to life,so I chose my own "meaning" . However I do see life as a game but one that I need to know the rules of to function at a level that keeps me as independent as possible. I think this is because my particular neurology has made navigating a "other neurologically dominated" world...very challenging. I needed to invest a great deal of my energy in learning how to navigate it . I am 44 and was not DXed until I was 42, so I didn't have the DX to explain many of the difficulties I was having . I was not in a supportive environment growing up and then pushed out of the house at 16...so I had to learn fast. If I had allowed myself to get focused on video games that didn't help me function in RL<---the one where you have to come up with food and shelter or die, I think I would have ended up in some form of social services/residential housing and that would have been a very bad thing.

Perhaps someone who is on the higher end of functioning on the spectrum could afford not to spend most of their energy on just surviving but it certainly was crucial for me. I made a pretty big mess, in trying to fuction with out any kind of support but I am still alive and I do work a full time job and feed/cloth myself. I guess if I could do those things and still follow my obsessions to the degree I would like...that would be my idea of heaven.