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Some good posts above. I've been a painter for 10 years now, and it's the hobby I'd not consider giving up.

While single, I played a lot of video games as well as painted, as many of my friends lived far away. Once I got married and had a kid, something had to give. As Coldhatred (lol, funny username to cite in this context...!) points out, I wasn't getting anything out of video gaming. Something had to give, so the video games did. I paint probably five evenings a week, and feel lucky to have a permanent little table set up in our modest apartment. My wife is very accommodating, and my son loves my "manyas" (his diminutive version of 'little man', I have no idea where the -"yas" comes from)

Though I very rarely play, it's the meditative aspect of assembling and painting that I enjoy so much. Escaping from life's stresses, just for an hour or so, is a luxury that I am grateful for.

pancakeonions wrote:
Some good posts above. I've been a painter for 10 years now, and it's the hobby I'd not consider giving up.

While single, I played a lot of video games as well as painted, as many of my friends lived far away. Once I got married and had a kid, something had to give. As Coldhatred (lol, funny username to cite in this context...!) points out, I wasn't getting anything out of video gaming. Something had to give, so the video games did. I paint probably five evenings a week, and feel lucky to have a permanent little table set up in our modest apartment. My wife is very accommodating, and my son loves my "manyas" (his diminutive version of 'little man', I have no idea where the -"yas" comes from)

Though I very rarely play, it's the meditative aspect of assembling and painting that I enjoy so much. Escaping from life's stresses, just for an hour or so, is a luxury that I am grateful for.

Cheers for an awesome response I appreciate it! A lot of what you've said kind of rings true to my current situation. I've played videogames for more than half my life (currently 23) and when i was younger 40K was the perfect accompaniment, now however I can honestly only justify spending time on one or the other, they both require a lot of time and commitment to get anything out of.

But I can't honestly remember the last time i had an enjoyable experience playing a videogame I usually spend an hour/ hour and half playing a game every evening and can't remember the last time i felt rewarded by the experience. This is possibly the biggest cause for me picking up hobbying again. This past month I've swapped out my gaming time for hobbying time and I've been enjoying it.

Sorry.. for ranting on here now. But well no one in the real world puts up with this nonsense hah. Every so often I feel the urge to play a game and when ever I do succumb I more often than not feel letdown by the experience and wishing I'd spent time painting/reading a codex/ scrubbing up on a rule boom or even just looking at some fantastic mini's's online!

But I'm finding it hard (especially with the Witcher 3 less than a week away) to give up videogames entirely. They've been a part of my life for so long that even though I no longer enjoy them I'm finding it hard to let go... it sounds stupid but it's like I'm in a destructive relationship!

The world of 40k and tabletop gaming in general (malifaux, Guildball and Batman have certainly perked my interests) has more than enough to keep me entertained for a long time and I'm fortunate enough to live close to an active gaming community.

The long as short i suppose is Did you find it hard to drop videogames , you think you made the right choice? and Do you still return to them every so often?

Cheers for the excellent responses thusfar!

Making, and keeping to, a schedule helps me do the stuff I want to do. I work night shift so on days off when the sun is up I spend time with my family and running errands. When family and friends are busy or are sleeping I get my computer games fix done, then I try to paint for three hours. On working days I do nothing but work then sleep. Full time 13+ hours a night kills that day.

I am still single so I can afford to hold onto all my hobbies. When and if that changes I will have to give up something.

pancakeonions wrote:
As Coldhatred (lol, funny username to cite in this context...!) points out[. . .]

Great post and completely agree. As for my username, I think I was trying to be edgy or something at the time. I'd change it if I could change it on all the other hobby forums too.

 xbenblasterx wrote:
But I'm finding it hard (especially with the Witcher 3 less than a week away) to give up videogames entirely. They've been a part of my life for so long that even though I no longer enjoy them I'm finding it hard to let go... it sounds stupid but it's like I'm in a destructive relationship!

I completely understand where you're coming from and whilst this is simply advice from a relative stranger on the internet, if you are at that point where you are questioning the time spent (like I was mind you) then it might be a good time to give it up. I don't get pulled in because I'm on a laptop without Steam and I don't go to any sorts of video/PC gaming sites anymore. I've just cut it out. Now I did have one last hurrah, with Shadow of Mordor, but when I felt I was done, I uninstalled and made the change.

 xbenblasterx wrote:
The long as short i suppose is Did you find it hard to drop videogames , you think you made the right choice? and Do you still return to them every so often?

I really don't miss it at all. In the end, like most hobbies, video games are excellent time wasting tools. The difference with this hobby is that I have tangible fruits of my time spent in the form of nicely painted models. Hope this helps.

It's tough, but I have cut things from my life, like movies and tv, in
order to make room for hobby and exercise.

Pick a day a week to paint and gak. Paint for 2-3 hours.

Perhaps while listening to a ball game.

And drinking bourbon.

As a husband and father of 4 kids (from 13 down to 2 years old), hobby time is my special alone time. I try to get in a few hours of painting a week, and I play in a league on Sundays.

Life is all about balance (as others have stated) It's all about finding the sweet spot of tending to work, family, hobby, life maintenance etc.

I usually paint at night after all the kids are in bed and my wife is in her office doing her work.

 xbenblasterx wrote:


The long as short i suppose is Did you find it hard to drop videogames , you think you made the right choice? and Do you still return to them every so often?

I found it surprisingly easy to give up video games. I thought I'd miss them, and miss chatting regularly with my friends, but I was so caught up in being a first-time dad, that by the time I got out of the sleep deprived fog that is the first few months of infancy... I was "cured"!

I have gone back briefly, and played online games with friends, and some solo games too, but the total amount of time played in the past three years (a few dozen hours?) might amount to a month's worth of gaming back before I was a dad. I do miss my friends, who I don't see very often, but we mostly focused on the games anyway, so it wasn't really quality friend-time.

Perhaps what does it for me is the sense of actually doing something. When I finish a session of video games, I regret not having spent that time with my son, or getting outside, or finishing up some important thing around the house (or even for work!). When I finish painting a unit of orcs, I sit back with a big grin on my face and regret nothing!

That for me was what made it very easy to give up (for the most part) video games. I also wasn't one to play for days straight, so I don't think I had an addictive predisposition towards them. I think for some, giving up video gaming would be considerably harder.

Do not let the married crowd sway you. If you know what you want, simply apply it to your life and follow through. Create realistic goals for yourself and do not back down from them. Communicate to those who are close to you about your interests. Marriage, kids, jobs, commitments etc can all be allotted for if you manage your time accordingly, set a precedence for your actions and define your standards as real and achievable/maintainable goals.

Can be good when you can work it backwards as well..

Taught myself to use Excel building starships for Traveller, learnt more about probabilities gaming than 'education' ever taught me..

Now do commercial cost modelling for multi million squid transport projects

leopard wrote:
Can be good when you can work it backwards as well..

Taught myself to use Excel building starships for Traveller, learnt more about probabilities gaming than 'education' ever taught me..

Now do commercial cost modelling for multi million squid transport projects

Hah! That's how I learned Excel too... And building vehicles for Striker and Striker II using Fire, Fusion, & Steel.

Only the first spreadsheet program was Lotus 1,2,3. It used almost identical commands to Excel, only it had little to no graphics capabilities (for producing graphs and such).

MB

Sounds like you learn all kinds of useful skills in this hobby