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Crazedrabbit89,
If you spent all your time on schoolwork, you could have straight A's. But there's more to life than school. You can turn the dial, spend more time on school and get better grades, or spend more time on other things and get correspondingly worse grades. I think the most important thing is that this balance is a conscious choice.
It's not wrong to spend your time on hobbies instead of school/work. But no matter how you divide your time, my advice is to always stay in control. As I'm sure you know, it's not good to spend all your time playing games while your school-life balance haphazardly falls to one side.
I personally have always tried to err on the side of following my hobbies.
I disagree with betaflame: so what if progamers ultimately go back to school? The real question is whether progaming was worth it as a life experience. I don't know whether it is or not, but I think it would be foolhardy to toss out the very idea just because you think you'll go back to school anyway.
I assume you plan on going to college, just because most kids do these days.
When you're writing your college applications, you should make sure that your biggest hobbies are spoken for. If you've gotten recognition related to gaming, that could be a great thing to add. Just because it's not "academic", doesn't mean it's not relevant, and doesn't mean college application readers won't think it's cool.
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you sound like you just haven't go out and try out other hobbies, no offence.
otherwise you won't be saying "if I wasn't playing video games all day I have absolutely no idea what I would be doing", you should be saying out of everything, gaming is your fav thing to do.
I am older than you, I started playing longer than you ever did and the reason why I am telling you this is because if you don't change your attitude, you will either end up with poor grades and forced to work in long hours low paid jobs and no time to play or you push yourself to try streaming and be successful until you hit reality.
I am of cause not saying you shouldn't try, but look at the scene, streamers can make a living without making video game their only thing to do and it certainly shouldn't be because it isn't healthy.
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GrandInquisitor
New York City13113 Posts
If you don't have the work ethic to succeed in school, what makes you think you have the work ethic to succeed as a pro gamer?
Imagine you show up to a job interview. When asked what you do, you say, "I play video games". Does that impress your interviewer?
For some, yes. Why? Because they've worked really hard at playing video games. They've put in so much effort, in fact, that their gaming is now actively providing a benefit for other members of society. So much benefit that some of those members of society actually pay to watch that person play games.
But if all you're doing is just grinding games mindlessly because it's fun and gives you a little dopamine rush, you're not doing anything productive. You aren't contributing to society. You aren't filling a need in someone's life. In other words, you're just jacking off. You're spending all your time leveling up a stat that no quest or NPC ever checks. You need to take a step back and re-evaluate your priorities in life.
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5 stars to GrandInquisitor.
A guy in high school should be questing for pussy, grinding some homework, and most importantly, exploring career opportunities that interest him. If you're super-passionate about games don't even think about a career in gaming, unless you're willing to have a shit life, and eventually grow to hate games.
Making games is also very different from playing them all day, but you actually have to be interested in putting in some work, and catering your education in preparation for this. If you flunk out of school, you'll delay your life by years, or completely flush your dreams down the toilet. You won't have money to afford the things you enjoy, nor will you have time to enjoy them.
Make some friends, try some new activities (sports, outdoorsy stuff, arts & culture); explore the world of things other than gaming, man. Forget trying to get a subscribe button on twitch. You have no responsibility to try and entertain others like a circus monkey while your life crumbles around you. Focus on what matters. Vagina and Money.
EDIT: I'm not saying to give up your hobby, but try and understand the difference between a hobby and an obsession. Learn to manage your time so that your hobby doesn't affect your career (right now, your career is student). Find some time for social activities, too. Lastly, have fun when you play games; don't attach an agenda to what you do for fun.
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Your teacher is right. Stop pissing away all your time on a useless activity and work on your grades, figuring out what you want to do (IE. if you have an interest in programming and your school has comp science stuff, sign up) and becoming a more well rounded individual. Having one hobby is stupid.
On March 20 2014 00:39 GrandInquisitor wrote:
If you don't have the work ethic to succeed in school, what makes you think you have the work ethic to succeed as a pro gamer?
This is really, really right.
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gaming all day is really fucking toxic. You are literally not advancing yourself in any single area of your life other than gaming. In the end when you look back, you will see that being good at a particular game by sacrificing everything else is not worth it at all.
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Offcourse video games are a waste of time. The sooner you realise it the better. Everyone realises it eventually.
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Crazedrabbit89,
Don't listen to these people saying video games are a waste of time. They are not. Humans play. It's a fact of life.
No one knows whether you should play less video games. Your teacher doesn't know, it sounds like you are unsure, your parents probably don't even know, and forum posters like me especially don't know.
Listen to yourself honestly. Admit all your flaws to yourself, without judging yourself harshly. That's easier said than done, but it will enable you to make the right kinds of decisions in these kinds of situations.
Unrelatedly:
I saw you were interested in programming. That just stood out to me because I'm a programmer. I have always loved video games. The idea of making video games is what got me into programming in the first place. It's a good life 
Anyway, good luck with your life and everything.
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I'm just gonna quit gaming I'm shit at it anyway, this will just leave me with nothing else. I feel so bad right now because my life is going to be all depression from this point on maybe everyone is right maybe I am good for nothing I don't really care. It was fun while it lasted. Cheers
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On March 20 2014 10:20 Crazedrabbit89 wrote:
I'm just gonna quit gaming I'm shit at it anyway, this will just leave me with nothing else. I feel so bad right now because my life is going to be all depression from this point on maybe everyone is right maybe I am good for nothing I don't really care. It was fun while it lasted. Cheers
You're just fishing for people to tell you to continue gaming, and poorly at that
I hope you find some good new hobbies. A good one to start with, that is admittedly not even a hobby per se, is doing your best in school. Seriously, it's boring but it is the best, and if you get good at it you will meet TONS of interesting people
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I don't want to continue gaming like literally at all this thread was about me making that decision I just wanted to see what people had to say because the people on TL are awesome and very supportive.
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On March 20 2014 10:20 Crazedrabbit89 wrote:
I'm just gonna quit gaming I'm shit at it anyway, this will just leave me with nothing else. I feel so bad right now because my life is going to be all depression from this point on maybe everyone is right maybe I am good for nothing I don't really care. It was fun while it lasted. Cheers
No one said you are good for nothing. Hopefully you will consider some of the good advice you were given when you've finished with the self pity.
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On March 20 2014 10:20 Crazedrabbit89 wrote:
I'm just gonna quit gaming I'm shit at it anyway, this will just leave me with nothing else. I feel so bad right now because my life is going to be all depression from this point on maybe everyone is right maybe I am good for nothing I don't really care. It was fun while it lasted. Cheers
I strongly suggest you find someone to talk to. School councilor, teacher (the one that first talked to you seems to care), clergy, psychologist, friend or even a parent or family member.
I say that because I've had the exact same train of thought for the exact same situation...(offer to PM still stands)
We all NEED hobbies and free time activities. They help us relax and be able to get back to what's really important.
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I guess high school is like 11-17 years old? The world is your oyster mate. I'm 27 years old and i've always been well into my gaming but sometimes you have to commit and exceed at something worthwhile even at a time when you'd rather just be gaming.
Pick a goal (computer science, game design, car mechanic etc) and make that your target, find out what you need to do to get where you want to be.
Little anecdote for you... I work 8-5 monday to friday and sometimes saturdays and I have a girlfriend and no kids. Yesterday I took a day off work (mainly because I had a day I needed to use) and played League all day.
You will still have time to do what you want to do, just make sure you focus on what you NEED to be focussing on. I don't even understand how some of the weaker pro gamers manage to feed themselves let alone pay rent.
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GrandInquisitor
New York City13113 Posts
You don't have to quit gaming. But if you can't think of anything to do if you're not gaming, that's a problem and one that can only be solved by forcing yourself to quit gaming for a little bit.
Imagine if someone told you that they only watched TV, and didn't know what to do with their life if they weren't watching TV. What would you tell them? Tell yourself that same thing.
Also, it's high school. I was a real shut-in in high school with few hobbies of any sort. In college I discovered a whole bunch of things I liked to do, and then my life took off. It gets better, man.
For example -- you said you like programming but you didn't have any good programming courses. Talk to a teacher you like and see what they can do for you. Try working through something like Project Euler or some online learning course about programming. Make that the center of your college application. There are lots of options out there.
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GrandInquisitor
New York City13113 Posts
I thought of this post when I read this post on reddit:
I used to be in a very similar place to you. For me, it was movies or the internet. Hours gone. Some people say it's not wasted if you're enjoying yourself. But I wasn't. It was more of a passive, unproductive, numb way to spend my time when I should've been doing something else.
Here's what I learned. Self awareness is the key. What I mean by that is when I would say I was going to quit, I would later find myself back on the computer or on the couch watching tv. It took a long time for me to even realize what I was doing. It was like a habitual auto-pilot for me. You have to wake up. Be aware of what you're doing and where you are. If you need to, make a schedule. And adhere to it very strictly. Set alarms if you want. But you just have to wake up and be present and plan your time. Know what you're going to do, and do it. If you don't know what to do, you'll fall back into your natural pattern and just say "I'll start tomorrow."
Once you've got that down, you have to make sure you don't transfer the obsession/addiction to something else that's just as bad. The goal is to make positive, long lasting changes. But you also should just take baby steps. That will help the reinforcement. For example, when I first woke up, I would want to immediately turn on the tv or get on the computer or worse: both simultaneously. At first, I did something small. When I first woke up, I would just sit. No television, no computer, no phone, nothing. Just quiet. Allow my brain to wake up, process, slow down, and make plans. The reason I did that is because, like you, I wanted to transfer my leisure time to reading but I was too annoyed/used to a quick fix to immediately start reading all day every day every chance I could. I had to transition slowly away from relying so heavily on screens for entertainment.
Don't think you're a failure if you relapse. Don't say "Well, I messed up a little while today so I might as well go back to my old habits for the rest of the day/week/month." No. Small corrections. Positive encouragement.
When you do start reading, make sure you are reading things that truly interest you. Don't read something because someone else said it was great and you just HAVE to read it. If you don't like what you're reading, you will stop. Then you'll feel guilty. Then you'll go back to your old habits and feel even worse. So if you don't like what you're reading, move on. Find something else. It's okay not to like everything you read.
We are our own worst enemies and problems. But we're also our solutions. So just be honest with yourself, know and recognize your limitations and weaknesses, and move forward with your head held high.
The OP hasn't been back in a while. I hope he's doing all right.
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Hey.
Dont try to make a living out of gaming please. Your teacher probably ment what he said in a good way. You want to live in a team house getting paid a wage that is below the poverty threshold? Yea...you dont get rich from it. Besides that, trying to be the best in a game like starcraft does help you to succeed in other areas of life...so its not a waste of time...just dont try to only succeed in gaming, because while the world of pro gaming looks really cool...its actually a really really sad place...low wages, lots of stress, alot of hard work... i've heard stories from ex-team members who had joined big teams that i will not name...its frustrating when you realise these people are heavily underpaid and get abused like shit. Sorry, but e-sports still has a long way to go...i really hope that in the future it grows into something that actually offers people a real future, and more perspective after their careers...now its only the happy few the happy few that actually make it...you can probably count those people on 2 hands... Besides that, i never once regretted putting many and many hours into starcraft, i am 100% sure it helped me in other areas of life...im now into game dev. So yea, try find some useful skillsets besides gaming and you'll be fine...and who knows, maybe you will be the next big name in gaming!
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EPT
