Has gaming had a positive or negative impact on your life?

Two of my biggest passions are gaming and music, and Final Fantasy IX is probably the one that started it all. Uematsu's OSTs were my first delvings into rock/metal, my favorite genres of music. Also, thanks to games like Counter-Strike and Sherwood Dungeon I met some of my first online friends, whom I've met in real life and are still in contact. I'm really grateful for it and I don't imagine my life without gaming being part of it.

That being said, I admit that I've used games as a way to escape from real life, especially a few years ago while dealing with depression and anxiety, but thankfully that has changed.

To those that put negative...why are you still here on SteamGifts, a site that reinforces the idea of gaming constantly...

It seems a bit like self-abuse at that point...

Video games have added a lot to my life.

I was an awkward kid that lacked communication skills so I didn't have any friends in elementary school. That is until Pokemon Red, Blue, and Yellow came out. I was in love with the games and found other kids at school that were as well. Suddenly I had something to talk about and made friends. Playing Pokemon also improved my reading level.

Playing educational games at the library helped with my coordination. Oregon Trail and the Humongous Entertainment games. I think they also helped me learn how to problem solve.

I credit Civilization for getting me a top grade on my high school history class exam. Also in high school I would mod my friend's Nintendo Wii's and PSPs, which wasn't actually too difficult but got me into learning about electronics and impressed people.

In my one year in college I had an Xbox 360 in my room and Guitar Hero and Rock Band. People would come hang out and play and I felt like I was a part of the community.

I was disabled in my late teens and really didn't plan to live past 20. But in my deepest depression I could escape to fantasy worlds in RPGs. At the very least it got me through the day. (For the record I am in a much better place now.)

I have pretty bad anxiety. Totally casual games that a lot of people think are lame calm me down, though. Like match 3 games, time management resource gathering games like the 12 Labours of Hercules series, farming sims, and my favorite, Coloring Pixels. I use these as tools to improve my mental health when needed.

I use VR games as a way to get in some mild exercise. For a while I went for walks everyday while playing Pokemon Go and when it was big made friends with other local players.

I could probably think of other ways video games have been a positive thing in my life, but I'll stop rambling here.

When I have time, I play.
When there is no time, do not play.

It's just a matter of keeping to this.
However, multiplayer online games often have to be adapted to other people's time.

Take extra "sleep time". Maintaining good mental and physical health later on will ultimately increase your total playing time.

Avoid MMOs that have a so-called 'work game' or 'offline RPG' feel to them, with 'systems that only get stronger with time', as I have been at the forefront of many such games.
Many people's 'desire for self-expression', 'fulfilment in completing tasks' and 'recognition from others' take precedence over their social and family life.
If you switch to a game that is less prone to such tendencies when you feel a bit, well, unsavoury, you will be able to stay in a healthy balance.
　Well, don't rely too heavily on the 'collar' of 'companionship' - 'socialising with the people you used to play with in your previous MMO'.
　Just having one means of contact outside the game (even Steam chat is fine) is enough.
　Avoid logging into games you don't like to touch and trying to contact them.
Because the "reality" of "modern society" can seem like a nightmare, toxic, doomed, decadent and apocalyptic (especially when talking about near and far things), it's important not to play too many games. Be careful not to overplay the game.

Long story?
Oh, then set the alert to go off once an hour. Break time.🕛
That's where you can switch to something different. Don't become too dependent on it.
You might get plates, gills, a tail or a radio signal while you sleep.😉

I play games too much and at this point, I think it's negative but through the years, I made some solid friendships, and overall it was worth it.

It's been very positive for me. With my disabilities and chronic pain being what they are, I can't really do all that much. I can game pretty well, however, which is really nice. It's also a distraction that helps me deal with mid and low-level pain. I hardly thought of my lower-level pain while playing through Spring Falls and Psychonauts 2.

Gaming has also helped me meet lots of nice people. Without games, I wouldn't have met my many friends. And without games, I wouldn't have come here, and I wouldn't have found such great folks to chat with.

I'd say positive in general. From early memories of my dad holding me up to be able to reach the controls on an arcade cabinet, through playing on a C64 with a "rich" neighbor, getting my own third-hand Atari 2600 from cousins in another state, to some of the hardest times in my young life being "saved" by me and the cousin playing a NES-clone (Terminator 2) daily after school...

Visiting "SEGA clubs" where you'd pay to play 10-30min of Genesis, if you can find an available spot among dozen of kids all wanting more of MK3... all the way to getting our first PC's in mid 1999 (mine was Celeron 333Mhz, 64 MB RAM and 3Dfx Banshee 16Mb, which was a shock, because when - after NES/Genesis and barely seeing SNES IRL - I saw the transparent water in Thief 1, using shadows to hide, turning off torches with water-arrows, exploring the non-linear maps (which were "hand drawn" and imprecise when actually looking at a map) and not to mention different sounds when walking on stone/tile/carpet... OMG... I knew PC gaming is something else completely. Sadly games went the other way (less effort, more streamlined).

Still, some of my favorite memories are playing games with friends, and later online. Never got "addicted" to MMO's or MOBA though, and was old enough when those things came around to have discipline to put University and later life in the first place. Even got to be an IT/gaming journalist in the oldest and most known IT monthly issue in the country for 6 years, which was a dream at first...

Today what makes me happy is seeing someone play and enjoy a game I made, and hope to see more of that later this year when I release my next game.

I'd say positive, I still play games with some friends that I don't see often anymore. Had some great gaming experiences with LAN parties and tournaments that I'll never forget. There are negatives though, I've definitely used it as a crutch or escape instead of dealing with an issue which is not healthy. Overall though games are one of my favorite mediums and I imagine I'll always enjoy playing to some extent throughout my life.

I believe if it weren't for gaming I would have associated my life with something most of my average friends do. Some of them neglect themselves to the point they overwork to death just to fill up a fridge and have little time for themselves. For me, gaming is a way to explore new worlds, new adventures and forget about the rat race. It's a way of escape and acts as a reward nowadays after a long day of work and a productive day in the office, which is dedicated towards gaming as well.

Gaming is something I will always look forward to, even in my late years of my life. I do not know if I will look at it in the means to complete it 100% as I do now, but I will certainly be surrounding me doing that.

Despite being important to me, career-wise and to blow some steam off I realize that too much is never too good. So, it's important to have a good work-life balance sometimes.

At this stage of my life gaming doesn't have a negative effect on my life.
I really like my "alone time" when I play. I always have.

But I might have played a bit too much when I was younger and didn't create as much (real life) social contacts as I might have be able to.
I was always open for the idea to have children someday and I really would have loved that, especially maybe introducing them to video games and play with them.
But over the years I didn't find the right woman to have those children and now I'm turning 40 this year and thats an age where I don't want children anymore.

I can't be sure, but I think if I hadn't stayed as much home and played, my chances would have been better to find the right woman.

Therefore "not having children" is my maybe only reason to cast my vote for negative. But its an important one for me.
The best game in the world can't replace family.

considering im 34, and have almost 200,000 hours of confirmed game time which is like 23 years of my life was spent in games. i would have to say gaming was a negative for me lol. autism is a heck of a drug. i dont recommend anyone having it, lol. ive never gotten to have a life at all like normal people cuz of gaming.

thats just 23 years of confirmed game time though. lets not even get into the early years of my life i spent from playing atari/NES/SNES/sega/n64/playstation before it was possible to record game times. i def have some more years worth of time, of unconfirmed game time with early consoles.

i super miss xfire and raptr, those were such good ways to keep game time.

I voted positive, because I feel that's what weighs the most for me. Of course saying there hasn't been negatives at all, would be a lie.

The biggest positive for me to this day is that I'm married to my wife whom I met while playing The Secret World.

The biggest negative is the same as many others. I've had to battle addiction while I was younger as well. Especially MMOs. It impacted a lot of different subjects in my life. School, social circles, work. To this day, even though it's easier, and I can control it, I still can get that "sense of duty" so to speak, when playing MMOs. So much to do, and you have to do it all, all the dailies, all the gathering etc.

Can't say I regret anything. I'm happy where I am today, although it has been a struggle at times. A struggle that might have been avoided with less gaming, but also one that was much easier when I at times could escape into virtual worlds.

Games is a great part of my life, because my socialization revolves around it.
And I rarely plays mmo's at all, more like couch coop games.

It's not only a story about videogames, I'm also fond of boardgames and TTRPG (especially TTRPG).

I couldn't have social bonds when I was a kid, because of my family situation. But I could play some games (also read books), and it made my childhood somehow bearable. But as an adult, it made me able to get friends and life partners.
In the end, games helped me endure being alone, but it also enabled me to be with people.

Seems weird but, games these days help me focus and be productive. It keeps me away of social media, but also of worries external to my life I have no control of (bad newsreports, politics, social media havoc).
I always admired the craftsmen that were able to produce entirely new worlds for players to experience, or new ways to learn (because games are also a great way to learn things).

I never viewed games as something useless, and for me they are not only important, but they are needed and will stay for many years to come.
I will always be grateful for my ability to play games, and always seek for others to experience them as well.

Not all games are special, but those who are will always have a privileged place place in my heart.

And BTW, I voted positive !

While gaming has some negative aspects for me as well - mostly as a teen, where I maybe should have gone more out and done stuff instead of gaming, but let's be fair before I really got into gaming, I was reading a lot and... didn't go out and did stuff. So who cares.

Mostly tho I'm grateful to have games and enjoy most of them a ton. It probably saved my life in the worst times. Not having any reason to even get up, there was always some gaming. Since that was also my time with MMOs, I also had friends I could spend time with - yes, some of them are still my friends, so not just random ppl on the internet giggles - and I knew they needed me to go on raids and get stuff done.
So yes, I'm super grateful to have gaming. Even if it robs time and I could have done so many awesome things instead. I even rob myself - up to know - of time to do other hobbies. Reading for example is coming way too short. Or rl puzzling - but let's be fair, who needs rl puzzling, if we have PPU?

Sadly I feel like my life has changed at the moment so much, that I don't have as much game time as I want or maybe even need. I actually had a couple of days last year, where I didn't manage to play at all, bc work was too much. Sad Nin D:

Growing up, gaming was a coping mechanism for a lot of stuff. It also was how I became educated. I learned to read and write from video games. If games were as voice-acted back then, I'm sure I would have practiced my speech skills through them, but back in the day, everything was text bubbles and boxes with bleep sounds.

I was just gonna say "Neutral" and move on, but if you put it that way (life stories) then... I don't know...

I mean, gaming basically is my life...
As a kid I didn't really have any... goals to aspire to. I just kinda wend with whatever was expected of me, aka school (communication with others doesn't really fall under the umbrella of expectation unless they approach me themselves). Video Games were kinda the only thing I wanted to do rather than just... doing because it's the thing I'm supposed to be doing. Y'know... it was "fun". So, when after the second year of this computers outside-of-school place my parents send me to... to learn computers...?? Anyways, when after the second year there I was asked if I wanted to continue with programming or "design" (drawing stuff) I picked programming because I reasoned that if I knew programming I could "Make games, so that those games would make people happy the way games made me happy.". Or something like that. So, that was my "life goal", if you can call it such. I guess that would be the "positive"...

I was in 5-th grade then. I'm 29 years old now. As you can tell, that "make games" thing didn't really work out. :)))
I guess then there is the negative of gaming exposing me to all the regular shit-shows that the gaming industry gets into. From money-grubbing abusive corporate bullshit, to money-grubbing scamming could-barely-even-be-called-games bullshit, to... well, the people who actually wanna make fun games who are on the edge of going bankrupt at any given time unless they get really lucky. So, the message is pretty clear- MOONNNEEEEYYYYY first... "fun"- somewhere down the line, maybe. Add to that any self-esteem I might have had completely crashing and burning during university (what's even the point of me being here or anywhere, there are so many people who are better than me...), me ending up actually knowing jack-shit about making video games at the end (8 years during school learning "Programming" and 5 years in uni in a """Computer Science""" course well spend [/s]), having absolutely no actual realistic ideas about what games I would even hypothetically make if I could, and humanity in general being a fucking cesspool of garbage... well, the result is complete hopelessness. Otherwise known as depression. Please, would you kindly, end me.

But, well, I can't really blame "gaming" for my depression. It would have happened either way. No matter what I'd end up doing, the end result would have always been being exposed to all the MMMMMOOOONNNEEH bullshit of the world. There is no way around it. The "negatives" that came from gaming would have just come from... whatever else I settled on. The world is crap, hopeless and pointless in all its aspects after all.

So... what impact has gaming had on my life? I don't know. You tell me. From my current engagement with it- when I can get myself to actually play stuff, they are a decent (and maybe the only) distraction from the pointlessness of everything, but they can be quite stressful due to this weird OCD/perfectionism obsession I seem to have and starting any new games is extremely difficult...; SteamGifts is basically the only community I can remotely claim to be in any way engaged with, but I'd rather not engage with anything or anyone in my current state...; ...and Pokemon GO continues to be a condensed piece of shit (which an idiot "friend" begged me to play all the way back in 2016, evidently unaware that when I start something, anything, I tend to have a hard time stopping). Yeah, it sound negative, but for my current(?) state of mind, everything is negative. :/

I think the games themselves, the content, format, is not always the reason for positive or negative impact on someone’s life. It is an form of entertainment. It is up to people who they deal with it.

It can be positive because people can get in touch with people all over the world, practise their language skills, enjoy an interactive story and just to relax and unwind and have fun. You can do it alone or with others, which is nice. And if you are lucky, you can also make a few lasting bonds. It is also a form of escapism if people need it. The wide variety of genres, art and playing styles, stories and so on is a bit like pick-your-own-adventure. It is hard not to see how that would appeal to people.

It can be negative if players are toxic to people (mistreating people because they disregard that they are dealing with an actual person, while also being cowardly knowing they can hide in anonymity online) or if they just get in touch with too much toxicity online (games are supposed to entertain and make them relax and happy). Getting overly competitive does not seem like a healthy, balanced state of mind either; games are supposed to be fun, putting strain on yourself or others and beating yourself over it, is not great.

It can also negative if gaming starts consuming a player's life. If they become addicted. Or if they start to prioritize gaming over just about everything else (as example, neglecting their social circle “irl”, such as their family). Players can end up isolating themselves to varying degrees from life in favor of gaming,

I also think more game related negatives are that people can lose track of time and lose too much time into something that has not necessarily other “irl” benefits, physical or mentally. As example, reading a book is a passive entertainment activity as well, even more passive than gaming, but you can also take a book out of the house, it helps your language skills and is entertainment that does not strain your eyes. Games can also be a money sinker. But above all, it gets negative when people actually pay a lot for microtransactions and gacha.

Definitely negative. I've locked my self so long in a virtual world that I have no real meaningful social interactions anymore.

I would like to say positive but there's no way I can be objective about that. I have had many good times and made connections because of video games, but I fear it would be like asking a drug addict if drugs have had a positive impact on their life.

My biggest regret ever is that I missed a concert because I was wrapped up playing league of legends and forgot. I am glad that I don't have any worse regrets but that sticks with me, but as with anything that you're invested in for years there will be positive and negative experiences involved.

It gave some kind of purpose in life

Both, for sure. Definitely not a black and white thing.

In a nutshell, it steals time away from important things, but also makes for some great memories with myself as well as real and online friends.

Overall... it's roughly neutral, and still trending in both directions.

I was pretty suicidal before SG, somehow got a path to relieve trough gaming, sharing, and how gaming communities interact between them.

I have meet people from around the world, and well, I'm still here.

I chose "Neutral" because for me it's been both.
On the one hand, as a kid, it helped me master English much faster and much better than my peers. And this it something that continues to bear fruit to this day.
And it was also something around which many of my friendships were formed.
From talking about games, to coming to each other's houses to play together, and later playing over phone/LAN together.

On the other hand, I definitely spent too much time doing that as a kid & teenager.
I would spend any available waking hour gaming.
On weekends I would have 12-14 hours straight gaming sessions.
I almost never did homework, so both my grades suffered, and I had to really struggle going into bachelor's degree, and having to learn the homeworking habits I never learned in school.
Instead of going out with friends, even when invited, I most of the time preferred to stay home, alone, to play games.
So both my grades and social life suffered due to gaming.

Not to mention MMOs.
I tend to get really addicted to those,
In a very unhealthy way.
Like a recovering alcoholic or a drug addict, I have not touched an MMO for close to 20 years.
And I know I never will - because I don't know if I'll be able to stop, and I have too much other things I care about and don't want to lose.

On the other hand, in recent years, I feel kinda reverse from my childhood.
I don't have the earning to play games anymore.
To the point that if I don't make a special effort to play games, I find myself going months or years even, without playing at all.
I probably spend more time on SG, than actually playing games.
So for me it's become kind of a hobby.
Among other hobbies I have (History, Gadgets, TV shows, 3D printing, etc.)
It's something I do in my spare time.
I need to be conscious to make time for it.
I only play games I enjoy very much, and drop games that don't "grip me" within the first 1-2 hours (I used to be obsessed with having to finish every game I start. Not anymore).
I sometimes play with my kids, games they like.

I maintain a gaming PC (which I use for other stuff as well), and like tinkering with it, and shopping for improvements for it, etc.
This has also became a hobby of mine, unrelated to gaming.
I can spend months researching and buying hardware to improve my gaming PC, without playing a single game, or even having a game that needs a better PC.

So in general, games is something I enjoy nowadays, and has some positive impact on me in relaxing after a hard working day (like watching a TV show).
But not MMO.
Never MMO.
Never again.

Only positive for me. I learned English from a very young age thanks to games. When I was young and visiting my dad I often used to stay up two nights in a row (the weekends) playing Starcraft. I also played a lot of Guild Wars later. And Counter-Strike 1.6 and Source.

I never felt like I should've been doing something else instead of gaming. I don't think irl stuff is more important than gaming. I don't have any social interactions apart from 1 close friend. I'm fine with it as long as I can keep playing games, watching tv series and whatnot. I would like to get more online friends though.

All of the above