Remember being 17 and the exact moment I thought I have so long before I'm real adult age so I can totally just play...

>remember being 17 and the exact moment I thought I have so long before I'm real adult age so I can totally just play video games all day and all night and not worry about a thing for a long fucking time
>suddenly I'm 29
>all those years spent gaming I can hardly remember

Did I make a terrible mistake? Are video games actually an awful waste of time and energy? I'm not kidding when I say I don't have many important memories from the last 12 years I feel like somehow you can't make many when your life is video games since nothing really happens to you.

I'm having panic attacks that I wasted the best years of my life moving from digital world to digital world and that it's too late to do anything useful.

Who cares? There is no meaning to life except what you make it.

Just spend time doing what you want instead of looking at others and telling yourself what you could be doing.

You are fucking 29, go out and do whatever you want if that is what you are inclined.

Yes definitely but it's too late now, might as well keep playing.

how do you lack so much will that you play video games for more than a decade despite not finding them very interesting without getting bored or restless?

Yeah, you kind of fucked up senpai.

But whatever, best time to start getting your shit together is today.

What else were you going to do? work 9 to 5 to feed your ungrateful wife and children? Progress your corporate career and amass wealth you never have time to spend?

29? You still have time. Your body is a a little slower but you still have a good 15-10 years to turn your life around.

well not really, not matter what you do its meaningless really. You'd probably feel the same no matter what you did

>it's too late to do anything useful.
like what?

It's not too late. Start creating memories.

It's too late now enjoy your shitty NEET life before you suicide yourself.

It feels like I'm reading a post I could of made

feels bad man

Bruh men have almost no limitations to what they can do until around 50. You've got 20 years.

You're not gonna remember every day you went to work, every movie you went to watch at the theater, ever book you read, etc. Games are no less memorable on average than other activities.

Don't worry, you can join the ranks of spineless shits who wasted their entire lives dreaming and subsisting off whatever fleeting social interactions and accomplishments fell into their laps.

Hope you enjoyed those White Nights.

What's considered a proper use of one's time and energy is largely subjective. If you feel like you made a mistake then you probably did make a mistake, if you don't then you didn't. But you can't take it back now anyway so you gain literally nothing worrying about it at this point, just move forward some other way if that's how you feel.

Here's my protip for games specifically though: Take screenshots, and don't spend all your time playing games without an ending like multiplayer shooters, MMOs or MOBAs. I've screenshots of most games I've played in the last 5 years or so, and looking back at them I do have a lot of good memories of the fun I had with them that I probably would've forgotten about if I hadn't taken them.

>Are video games actually an awful waste of time and energy?
Yes.
But then again I'm going to kill myself when I'm 25 so it doesn't matter.

I know that feel, OP
The past 5 years are so fucking blurry I need to concentrate real hard to make a timeline out of it, fuck growing up

>when you're too weak to live life to its fullest but also too weak to kill yourself

wew lad

>when I become an adult I can play vidya all day and not have to worry about anything
What fucking bizzaro universe were you living in?

he wants to find meaning through outside activities

>laughinggirls.mp3

>29
wow dude you're basically dead, may as well give up now

this is literally how youre supposed to live your life outside of video games as well

takes pictures of everything

We doing cautionary vidya tales?

>Have best friend from Elementary school
>We play vidya a lot but I'm mostly into what people would call casual bro vidya like battlefield games or AAA shit
>He's super into deep rpgs and MMO's
>College rolls around
>I play video games from time to time but not like I used to in high school
>Friend is in college but is playing 8+ hours of games a day whenever he can
>He drops out of STEM courses and decides to get an easier degree so he can vidya more
>He gets an English degree and doesn't even plan on teaching
>Obviously when college ends he can't get work
>He still plays games 8+ hours a day
>Meanwhile I've already started my own business and am making middle class money
>He's doing part time work at a dying video store
>Years pass
>I'm in my second house
>Work is so good and flexible that I can do most of it from home and am now upper middle class income
>Friend has been unemployed for 3 years
>Still plays video games 8+ hours a day

I honestly don't know how to help him. He's clearly miserable but he uses the video games to escape, but I don't think he realizes the loop he's in; the excessive video games are what's making him miserable. I'm sure this cycle actually describes a lot of people here.

classic video game addiction

I think the video games are something people do when they're too terrified of change or are just lazy.
In my case, I was terrified of growing up so I carried on playing video games. It took people dying before I realised I can't do this anymore, disregarded the negatives and just pushed myself into work and adult responsibilities.

you're just jealous

autism

literally not even joking

>26

Time passes so fucking fast after highschool. I'm also the same retard I was at 18.

>I'm having panic attacks that I wasted the best years of my life
Well, some say you're 30's are the best but that's usually coming from people who have worked through their 20's towards a career. So yes, you've wasted your best years.

this is accurate, i often forget things despite enjoying them immensely, negatives tend to stick though

Video games are the biggest waste of time in the world, unless you are playing with family or friends. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise.

Events you remember in life are the ones you have actual emotion in. Only games that can remotely do this are games that have you actively engaging with others, or games that have a spark of childhood excitement. Just recall your best memories, for me, they exclude video games 90% of the time.

I wish I had realized this earlier, though I am luckily only 17 and have a lot of good time left to do stuff, but I do recognize I have wasting a ton of time already. You still have plenty of time to do stuff as well, just plan the time out well.

Right now I am trying to ease myself off video games, only playing games that actually seem fun and interesting, not the same old shit with a new mask. Big one coming up being the new zelda, as it actual seems like it has a soul to it, unlike a lot of modern games coming out.

Besides cuddles, hot cocoa and a cool autumn breeze, digital is superior to anything you can do in the real world. What is it you're looking for? You wanna be an adrenaline junkie and be the one guy who bungee jumps and the fucking cord snaps. You want to party? Entheogens are good, drug abuse is not. Accomplishments are stupid because the world is largely deterministic and rigged worse than a carnival game. You're bound by your physiology. And you're bound by your caste, typically. Frontiers? There are no frontiers. Those days are over. If you want to go fast, Sega has got you covered.

It just goes faster and faster as you age. Childhood lasts a fucking lifetime but once you hit 30 I hear the years begin flying by. At 50 you can blink and be 55, blink again and your 65. It has to do with how your brain stores memories and how time affects them. Basically as you age everything feels like it's passing by faster and faster until you lose literal years without realizing it.

Your 17 huh

bye

>not the same old shit with a new mask
>Big one coming up being the new zelda
lol good one

get another hobby you fucking losers

I know this EXACT feeling and I started to realize this once I hit 28 and all I had done was play video games and surf the internet. I had nothing to show for, no big skills, no friendships, no photos to look back upon, nothing.

Video games are okay if you have other things going on in your life but for me my life was video games and anime 24/7 and nothing more.

Sad thing is if I told this 20-year-old me, he wouldn't care and just continue to play games.

What do you propose to do now?

>don't remember anything anymore
>past memories are just a foggy wall of nothing

JUST

Is this what a midlife crisis for nerds looks like? Amazing.

kill myself

>He's clearly miserable but he uses the video games to escape, but I don't think he realizes the loop he's in; the excessive video games are what's making him miserable

That doesn't sound familiar...at all...heh

I never understood how people play the same game for hundreds of hours.

Like don't you get fucking bored nigga?

Last game I finished was Resident Evil 7. First playthrough was about 10 hours and I fucked around some more afterwards and Steam says I have 17. And like that's it for now. I'm done until maybe a few years when I revisit it or or the DLC.

Like what the fuck are they even doing for 100 hours?

>29
>midlife crisis

He's still a young man, well more like a young faggot.

>run a small business
>don't know how to help your unemployed friend
I assume he's already failed at one of your entry level positions?

I started to work on fixing my life a few months before I hit 28. Got a job, an IRL friend, I'm taking care of my health, I started drawing on my days off, taking my driver's license.

Two years in and I'm happy with what I achieved but I want more. I want to have a gf and buy a decent computer and a few consoles. I'm going to fix my life.

I'm not bullshitting, you only start to realize this shit once you're past 25-26. I only started maturing really late.

There's a real quarter life crisis which people used to just call your 20's. For normies their 20's are about discovering who they really are and what they truly want to do with their life. A lot of people completely change gears in their 20's even if they got a degree in STEM they might drop it all and go start a completely different career.

For anons the quarter life crisis is realizing they can't possibly get away with being a "kid" anymore but they extended that lifestyle for so long that they wasted their most productive and healthy years doing nothing.

>meanwhile I started my own busisness

as if everyone can do that, this is just so dumb.. this isn't video games its just some people are lazy, unmotivated and cannot get shit done.. he might be doing something else if it wasn't games, but its not the issue its the thing he uses to escape.. there are deeper issues.

This.

a shame that your post with actual thought and effort into it also has you admitting you're underage

This is a trap. Never hire neet friends into your own business as a favor. They will always fuck up and you'll either have dead weight in your business or you'll have to fire your friend. Do NOT do it.

Could be shit, who knows, I just think it looks good. Not even hyped for it really. Low expectations usually lead to having a better time.

School (AP classes), work, played some football earlier this year, plan on getting to to track if I have time, lift when I have time (trying to make more of a strict schedule). Rarely play video games at this point in time. I have been a loser for the past years, but at least I'm trying to break out of that mindset.

Does it really matter when i'm posting on a board mainly for manchildren with the mental capacity of a 10 year old autist?

Wait...

Why are you stealing somebody's drivers license?

Why do you want more video games if you don't want to play them anymore?

I'm more embarrassed by how much of my life I've spent on this site. I get older every year yet the average poster stays the same age.

I'm buying a Switch and turning into a casual.

Yeah if you ask me Fortune.org is the real time suck.

>tfw will look back on life and regret everything

>best years of my life
Everyone's life sucks dick. No matter what you have, or how many memories you've made, you can be miserable. It's all just mindset. Grow up, dude.

How do I be successful Sup Forums?

Any tips?

It's against the rules.

>b-but no one cares about them
It doesn't matter, you're still cancer; not necessarily for posting here, but for admitting it like a dumb ass.

>be 17
>go to school tired
>be with friends
>go home and play games for 3 hours
>take a shower and go to party all night

That way of life lasted about 7 years, and I don't remember most of it either but I'm sure I had a lot of fun.

I just turned 29 today and I only regret spending so much time on the internet when I could have played more vidya.
Seriously, fuck working there's no sense in accomplishment there.

Take zinc and human chorionic gonadotropin, edge for at least 2 hours before having the best orgasm of your life.

I'm 24, have my own house, am married,
manage to play game 5-6 hours a day (10-12 on days off) and still have time for social interactions and making memories. You are typical facebook whiner.
>I'm having panic attacks that I wasted the best years of my life moving from digital world to digital world
Holy shit dude, you are 29. Time to get a fucking job.

Be born into a rich family, pay an underemployed adjunct professor to write essays for you while you coast through college, get a do-nothing supervisory job that pays a lot of money, and have yourself a good time. You might even run the country one day.

liar

Adult life just fucking blows, user.

>work
>vidya/TV/other empty entertainment to make time pass
>sleep
>miss being a kid

Live with it

Literally all of my best memories consist of me having a house to myself with all the free time in the world, immersing myself in a fantasy world.

I've had fun doing normie things but they grow old pretty fast.

get a dog, then play with the dog

i bet you'll remember why you fucking loved video games in the first place

make sure to take care of it like your mom takes care of you

This will be my strategy when I get a job. At least I will have a doggo even if I don't have a gf.

I've started coming here a lot less often when I realized how miserable most people are here, at some point I felt like the negativity would start affecting me as well.

Plus people still legitimately do platform war bullshit like this was middle school or something, I've never understood it.

Time spent having fun isn't wasted.
The real waste is wageslaving your life away 40 hours a week.

hey, if it's female you'll have a bitch at least!


nothing nasty now!

This. You guys are small time. I work part time and spend the rest of it on games/anime. I'm having fun

>I've got all this shit I'm doing so well
>work is so good I almost don't have to go there
>not a single mention of being happy
Leave him be, he could well enough be happier than you are.

Then the doggo dies and you feel absolutely devastated and lonely.

I managed to get over it after around two months... but I still miss her ;_;

People used to watch TV to live vicariously through others. But now they have games to provide a simulation of agency that they lack in their own lives, and that can be very addicting. It's easy to say, well, go grab that agency for yourself. We all know it's a game of musical chairs. You could spend your whole life trying and failing. Do you want to work yourself ragged with no guarantees, or does the simulation suffice?

You can't get lots of playtime out of linear-ish story-focused SP games. The only way to get hundreds of hours is to make the core gameplay deep and extremely enjoyable or multiplayer where you play because of the "community" rather than anything else.

>why you fucking loved video games in the first place
nobody loves video games, they only think they love video games because they haven't experience what it's like to actually love something

Ah, what the fuck else are you gonna do? If the rest of your life is in order, who cares how you spend your time. At least you're using your brain, most normies just completely zone out.

>Someone on the board I frequent has to have as shitty of a life as me
Tell mommy I said hi when she drives you to go cash in your autism bucks at gamestop.

Took you to 29 to realize? I started to realize it at the age of 24. Although for me I realized I don't spend all my time in front of the computer because I like it, but rather because it allows me an escape from the reality which I find to be terrifying. I'm an anxious basket case; most likely on the spectrum of autism too, which makes things even worse.
It's okay to like video games as an hobby. But when it's literally all you do in life it's not a hobby -- it's a symptom of something.

Emotion is actually important. There's no point in a life of apathy. Video games only serve to bring stimulation for the moment, but no emotion. Experiencing new things and facing hardships is what makes you grow as a person. Sitting at home experiencing nothing in a state of apathy keeps you in a permanent state of adolescence. No one is ever going to regret the fact that they didn't spend another 500 hours playing Dota.

Each day I see people my age who are perfectly functional people, each in their own way. Some of them likes video games, some don't.
I'm not functional.
What sets them apart from me is that they have a proper foundation to stand upon, which was created and has been nourished since their teens. I don't possess that. I spent all of my teenage years alone by the computer. Hell I don't even know how to "enjoy" myself: give me a bag of money and drop me off in the middle of Las Vegas and I'd just sit on a park-bench all weekend with no idea what I'm supposed to be doing, yet everyone else would have a million ideas and their only regret would be that it didn't last longer.
Barely remember anything of my teenage years other than a few highlights playing together with friends. Never made any stupid mistakes to learn from, don't have any wacky stories to tell, didn't meet any interesting people. Just sat at home hiding away from the world.

Please ignore my incoherent drunken ramblings, because drinking is the only thing I do nowadays. I should seek therapy.

29 here. Same thing happened to me OP. I dropped out of college at 22 because i was too addicted to WoW. I finally got a job and took it serious. Got promoted quickly and now make enough money to get back into school. Already on my 2nd semester back and feel more productive than I ever did at 22. Classes feel like baby shit because I am way more mature and dont know how i wasted so much effort not showing up to class. I still fill most of my time with games, but I am at least moving forward.

The big problem is when you only have one thing to fall back to, one hobby to pass the time, one activity to feel achieved, one thing to look forward to.

Variety is the spice of life, and humans are driven by fulfilling goals.
Video games are not a satanic life ruining object; lazy people are the ones ruining their lives for themselves, and if people like this didn't put the blame on videogames, then it would be the fault of TV, drugs, the internet, card games, gambling or even another person.

>before having the best orgasm of your life.

Or you could just take drugs and jack off to blow even that out of the water.

>give me a bag of money and drop me off in the middle of Las Vegas and I'd just sit on a park-bench all weekend with no idea what I'm supposed to be doing,
I could figure out a lot of things to do. Problem is I have no friends to enjoy it with. My real problem is having no friends, not vidya.

Question, how many of you regret coming here as a teenager?

Do you actually live in Vegas?

>29
>Work a shit job.
>$11 an hour
>no gf
>1 to 3 friends depending on how lose you stretch it
>Bachelors and Associate's degrees in meme liberal cuck shit so I can't do anything with those besides spread loads to the pozpulous and I don't even believe in that shit anymore
>getting my degree in computer science slowly but surely

How am I doing?

Gee, thanks for reading my mind and telling me what I love or don't.

This
In a 1000 years no ones going to remember you, and not only that but the entire world is just a grain of sand in the universe.

>doing drugs
stay in school, son

>I wasted my life doing worthless activity X instead of worthless activity Y and Z
I can assure that anything you would have done in the first 20 years of your life wouldn't have amounted no matter what. If you're trying to convince your self that those years could have meant anything more than doing what you enjoy, don't.

I only regret MGSV

By the time Sup Forums was founded, I was already a man.

How the fuck do I get motivation to fix my life? I'm only 21 but I'm pretty much on the same path as OP and some of the other anons in here but I just don't fucking care. Where does motivation come from?

Do you faggots not having anymore hobbies aside from anime and vidya?

You will just procrastinate until you realize its embarrassing to have a teenageers job like a working at a best buy when your 30 and you start to man up pretty quick.