for me playing games is just for entertainment, like watching tv, surfing the net and dating.

as i observe in most cafe, is that almost all of it's customer that play games do it for sake of competition. They feel the excitement during the war, the joy of being a champion and the grieve of being a loser.

it's quiet fun to watch, how this kids and grow up game players competing each other.

There are a few reasons I play video games, as many have said. One, the 'escapist', is a big one for me. Stesses of life can be overbearing at times. When I want to just immerse myself in a diffenent 'world', I play a game. For a time, I forget the stresses of life. My mind is free to wonder in a different reality. Also, there is the pure challenge of the game. I love to try to out-do myself, especially in sports/driving kinds of games. Having a fairly solitary life, challenging myself to make it to that 'next level', keeps me going for hours. It's all pure fun.

One reason i play games is because i have nothing else to do, and playing games is my easiest form of entertainment. Also i am involved in competitive play, i need to play games to help my team win. If it wasn't for competitive play i'd still play games anyway for entertainment. Some games such as world of warcraft are probably the most entertaining games out and you'll have a hard time trying to get off it.

-HellFire

Well, it's different from person-to-person, but I usually play just out of pure boredom. If I have nothing better to do, I'd just occupy my time with random flash games that I find on the Internet. I also prefer them because for the most part, they're short and can be finished within a certain timeframe, leaving me plenty of time to do actual work. If I did play an addicting game then I'd probably spend all of my waking hours playing it, which, frankly, would kill any productivity I've ever had.

On the other hand, if I had a large chunk of time on my hand (say during the summer break), then I wouldn't mind playing a more addicting game, as long as the addiction was controlled and didn't last longer than several days. If it did, then the addiction would probably spill over to school days as well, which causes some rather...mind-boggling issues.

I usually prefer games that require some amount of strategy...those just seem more interesting than repetition over and over again just to achieve some great goal in the end. (Though real life is probably more like the latter...but the point of games is to escape from real life, right? XD)

I have met people who play games to nullify some of their rage and relieve stress, but that has never worked for me. I always find that a game tends to cause more stress than it actually relieves (let's say I fail just before I can achieve some sort of rank--it's much more likely that I'd be pissed, causing more stress than calm). Therefore, I can only play games when I'm really calm or else my anger will just go overboard.

invest in time?
Why People Play Games?

I know people who play games to procrastinate, fear of many other things, like success or failure...So they avoid.
I use to play games all the time...I quit cold turkey because my life was passing before me...Opportunities.
If gaming out is productive and makes your life better...All the better...
But what game does that?

-reply by manifest

People play games because the world that we live in has so many limitations; existing past times don’t provide adequate scope for our growing levels of intelligence. This includes Religions that just separate people and create wars, Education just reproduces the same proletarians and students want to break out, Money just replicates misery and this is all we see on the MEDIA such as the TV. Thus the Mega drive generation that is I began a movement, which never stopped.

I hate it when the media blames Video games because it’s because of the MEDIA, which is so boring, predictive and controlling that we choose Video games. We are not escapists; we are a creative generation that chooses alternatives to the TV that is just a control in society. We want to be in control of our world, and if we have to submerse ourselves in Video gaming technology to do that we will. That is probably why in China there are so many cases of Video game addiction; people want to have a sense of control in their lives!

Another key point; children only choose Video games over family because their existing family relationships are meaningless. If children believe that video games are real its because something 'real' is missing at home not because video games are evil. The media always blames Video games; perhaps if the media gave people a real voice we could hear a real viewpoint.

The media and politicians feel threatened by everything that gives people are sense of purpose. I choose my games console over the News any day....

This post has been edited by jesysk: Nov 16 2008, 12:54 PM

Nowadays, I use it as a means to vent, relax, and put extra burning night energy when I cannot sleep. I am married and have two kids... So I don't play and have time to play like I used to... So now I get right to the point in what I am playing. I love that I am a gamer, and always will be.

It was fun at first to keep yourself entertained, and now it is a lifestyle choice. I think you like games, or you don't.

Off the electronic series, I love to play board games and card games, too. So anything to keep me interacting.