'Healthy gamer'

[illusive Fox]

A friend of mine and I were having a discussion about gaming, more specifically about gamers and people who play video-games. He came into the discussion with the view that playing games is useless and childish (familiar, anyone?). That view was changed when I managed to convince him that games are a form of entertainment, they can have a powerful narrative, they engage you to interact as opposed to just watch flashy stuff happen,they're social and the potential they have as a medium.
He still has the impression that gamers take themselves too seriously and invest too much time into their 'hobby'. At this time the model and term 'healthy gamer' was introduced. It was meant to shield from negative generalization and extreme cases, but managed to drive the discussion to the ground. We couldn't agree on what sets the bar for a 'healthy gamer'.

So I ask you, if you had to define what makes a 'healthy gamer' what would you say ?

 

[Toriver]

I would say a "healthy gamer" is anyone who enjoys games but doesn't let it become the ONLY thing they do. If you have a full-time job and you're playing WoW for a longer time than you spend at work on a regular work week (this can also be applied to students and school), you are not a "healthy gamer". If you have no RL friends because you spend all day in your house gaming, you are not a "healthy gamer", no matter how many online and/or in-game friends you have. Now, if you can game for even as much as a few hours a day and still, you know, get out and do stuff; have another hobby, hang out with friends, work out, travel, whatever, that to me is a "healthy gamer", someone who has perspective over gaming as a hobby, something you do in your free time. Basically, don't let gaming interfere with the other things that are important to you. If you can follow that rule, you're a "healthy gamer". If you let it consume every minute of your free time, or it becomes the thing that designates what is or is not "free time", you're not.

EDIT: Also, I'd be careful with that contest shout-out. The mods don't take too kindly to advertisement on the forums. It can be seen as spam.

EDIT 2: Welcome to the Escapist! Don't go in the basement. If you have to go there, watch out for Bitey.

 

[HerrBobo]

I feel like I'm a "healthy gamer".

I have a girlfriend, a good social life, a job, I go to college, I read a lot of books and I work out.

If I never told you I played games, you'd never guess it. Gaming is just one of the many things I like to do. However, I decided many years ago never to let gaming get in the way of real life. Any time I get a call from my g/f or mates I'm out the door.

Gaming is fine as long as it does not replace life.

 

[Duck Sandwich]

One who is physically/mentally healthy, and doesn't use gaming as an excuse to shirk responsibility.

Also, one who isn't any less social because of their gaming habits. Let me elaborate. If your friends invite you to go out to a movie theatre, and you don't want to go because you're not interested in the particular movie that they're going to see, and you say, invite them to have a few rounds of your game of choosing, you shouldn't be considered to be any less social because of it, regardless of whether or not your friends take you up on your offer.

On the other hand, if you don't spend any time at all with friends, doing things that you would normally otherwise do, or even playing online with them because you're focusing entirely on playing single-player games, then there's a problem.

 

[Raikov]

*snip*

Hmm. Thinking about this, and comparing it to those soccer supporters that are messing up the town because their favourite team lost/won.

So, why don't ppl bash on soccer supporters the same way as they bash on gamers?

But of course, gaming is only a hobby, like knitting, keeping a garden or fixing up old cars. Soccer is apparently a 'lifestyle'.

I all honesty, no matter what kind of gamer you are you are still 'healthier' than a soccer supporter.

 

[Artina89]

I think I am a "healthy gamer". I have family and friends with who I keepin touch on a regular basis, I go out for a run on a morning and on an evening, I hang out with my friends, and I have an honours degree in Biochemistry and Chemistry. Gaming is a hobby, part of the tapestry that makes me who I am, it is not what defines me. That is what being a healthy gamer means to me.

 

[Richardplex]

I play games as an escape, so I feel I'm unqualified to answer that. But you can't go with "if you remove games from that person's life, it won;t change anything" because everything contributes to who you are. I can't go with my normal ethical view of "If it doesn't hurt anyone else, or inconvenience them, it's cool" because it would be self-destructive. I feel HerrBobo's "gaming is fine as long as it does not replace life" is close enough, though I still find that dissatisfactory, as it implies gaming is wrong and implicitly gets in the way in life, which is also wrong. If games make you happy, and this happiness continues after you play the game, I don't see any maximum time before it becomes unhealthy. Maybe it's because I'm in denial that I am in fact an unhealthy gamer, but I also read books as an escape, and I haven't been told my interest in books is unhealthy.

 

[taylorton147]

i think im a healthy gamer, strangely i do most of my gaming in the morning, so that leaves the rest of my day free to do other stuff. though i will admit if i feel like it i could game all day. i do eat healthily and work out to an extent. and have a good social life so yeah :L

 

[Toriver]

Hmm. Thinking about this, and comparing it to those soccer supporters that are messing up the town because their favourite team lost/won.

So, why don't ppl bash on soccer supporters the same way as they bash on gamers?

But of course, gaming is only a hobby, like knitting, keeping a garden or fixing up old cars. Soccer is apparently a 'lifestyle'.

I all honesty, no matter what kind of gamer you are you are still 'healthier' than a soccer supporter.

1) Because most soccer supporters, even the hooligans, don't spend their entire lives outside work absorbed in their favorite soccer club. At least not to the extent that many gamers do with games. Even the hooligans are quite probably less likely to let soccer interfere with their daily life and the other things that are important to them than gamers, in my experience.

2) Because most soccer fans don't try to push soccer fandom as a "lifestyle". This is one thing that concerns me about the whole "games are art" thing as one of those not-so-great things that I feel many gamers are pushing for this to justify. You said it yourself: gaming is a hobby. If you let it overtake everything else and become who you are, you're overdoing it, and quite honestly, as much as any sports fan I've ever known can get into a sports game while watching the game, unless they play in a local sports league or are training for a big sports event, pretty much any sports fan I know doesn't make their sport a "lifestyle" or try to promote it as such. Once the game is over, they can return to the other things they do without "needing" to continue watching or playing. They can quit when it's over. Again, once the riot is over, even the hooligans will get up and go to work the next day and go back to their daily routine without obsessing over their club all day. At least, not at the level of many of my fellow gamers. And the hooligans do get bad press any time such riots happen. Nobody likes them, and it makes them look stupid.

You get where I'm coming from? I see many gamers actively try to promote the "lifestyle" of gaming and playing at unhealthy levels, and defending those who do. And that makes the rest of us look bad. So yeah, maybe the press can sometimes be too harsh on gamers. But there is a grain of truth to some of what they say, and if we do nothing to try to improve ourselves and promote "healthy gaming", or if we even go to the extent of promoting unhealthy gaming and gaming obsession/addiction (flameshield up), we kinda deserve some of the bad press we get, IMO. Not all of it, but some.

EDIT: Watch this. I agree wholeheartedly with this.

http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.com/2010/03/episode-33-building-better-gamer.html

 

[NoNameMcgee]

Gaming is fine as long as it does not replace life.

This is a good way of putting it, I like this.

Yeah for some people Gaming is a way to escape their problems, which is understandable, but some people take it much too far in my opinion and gaming becomes their life because its easier to absorb yourself in games than to make an effort to improve your life.

For me gaming is a hobby, one of several, it will never be a "lifestyle" and should never be a lifestyle for anyone. I think to be honest if you're averaging playing games 10 hours a day or you spend much more time gaming than not gaming you probably need to reassess your life. There are many amazing things in the world, and social contact is important particularly, you're not doing yourself any favors by sitting down with controller in hand for most of the day. I know many people here will contest that, though.

But its the old chestnut, "everything in moderation." It's an important thing to live your life by, in my opinion.

 

[MCrewdson001]

If you can turn off your console and go out,watch a movie,read a book ecc then in my opinion you are a healhy gamer

 

[Fooz]

yeah, as long as you do other stuff than game, then you are a healthy gamer

even if you do game a lot, as long as you dont let it get in the way of your life, then you're fine

 

[geizr]

I would add that some distinction should also be based why someone plays game to determine if that person is a health gamer. If a person is playing games as a means of escaping reality, to run away from problems and difficulties, or as a crutch for coping with personal insecurities, then I would say that person is not engaging in healthy gaming. If the person is playing games as an interest and lifestyle, however passionately, then that person is can be engaged in healthy gaming, if they are not letting their passion for gaming override other, more important responsibilities and obligations. Naturally, quite obviously, if the person is pursuing gaming to the exclusion of all else, then they are not engaged in healthy gaming.

The thing is, this question of a healthy gaming lifestyle(and I very much consider gaming, be it video gaming, RPGing, board gaming, or physical games, to be a perfectly normal lifestyle choice) really generalizes to any lifestyle. Anything, when taken to the obsessive extreme and to the exclusion of all else, becomes unhealthy. Even exercise becomes unhealthy, to the point of severely damaging and depleting your body, if taken to extreme and exclusive levels. Life is about balance and diversity. There are many things that go into life and living, just as there are many facets that make a person be who they are. No one thing is singularly more important than all else, though some things may be more important than some other things at varying times and under varying circumstances. Even so, everything must always be put into balance.

Finding the point of balance, mentally, physically, and spiritually, is what, in my opinion, creates a healthy lifestyle, be it gaming or otherwise. And realize that one's own lifestyle choice does not confer superiority to others because they chose differently(and this extends to others' choices in the particular games they play).

 

[monken8]

some one who plays for fun on a regular basis

 

[Flutterguy]

I spend 10-12 hours on my days off gaming or being on the internet in general, and i often go a full day without eating because I am too busy gaming. Whatever the limits of being a healthy gamer are I am sure I am outside of them, far outside.

 

[Kevlar Eater]

I must be an unhealthy gamer, according to many peoples' description. Outside of work, communicating with people is too much hassle, and I hate thinking about other peoples' problems, so I game to avoid all that, even if don't develop a social life.

Then again, I don't define my life/hobby by other peoples' definitions.

 

[deathninja]

I work out, play 2 rounds of golf a week, keep to my studies, look after my disabled partner, manage my house and finances and generally do OK.

However, when I have downtime, aside from the odd book, movie or cross-stitch it's exclusively gaming, so I rack up a fair amount of time on my systems.

I'd call that healthy gaming.

 

[teebeeohh]

is gaming a part of your normal life? healthy gamer.
do you organize your life around your gaming habits? YOU ARE DOING LIFE WRONG.
Everything in between should be judged on a case to case basis, i spend yesterday doing nothing but gaming, eating and watching the world up, it's cold, rainy and all my friends are out of town, what was i supposed to do?

 

[Sunrider]

One who is physically/mentally healthy, and doesn't use gaming as an excuse to shirk responsibility.

I couldn't have said it better myself. I dunno if I agree 100% with the rest of your post, but this really hits the nail on the head for me.

 

[TimeLord]

I'd say I was a "healthy gamer". Gaming isn't the only thing I do, I have a full time job, I go out paint balling with friends, generally socially interact etc