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It is no big secret that I am an avid gamer. I love to have fun, and after a long day of work I come home and relax by firing up my PC and running around in a make belief world. That world for me is Azeroth, set in the World of Warcraft universe. Just a little background I started my time in wow at the end of the Burning Crusade content. I was a raider through Wrath of the Lich King, and in Cataclysm I have taken a more casual approach due to real life time constraints. I have also enjoyed battlegrounds and a small, very small step in arena play. I play on The Forgotten Coast server Horde faction in the Macabre guild, I play a Tauren Hunter. The guild is a late night raiding guild which is one reason I haven’t raided as much these days. At Blizzcon 2011 the next World of Warcraft expansion was announced Mist of Pandaria, I am excited about this to say the least. I am not going to include a list of facts and updates there are plenty of sites to do that. This is after all Food for Thought. Which brings me to my point, is online gaming a problem for some people? I have heard it discussed both ways. My general play time is from 6-8pm cst on Thursday nights. That is my time to get away and kick back. I feel it is very important to balance time from whatever your chosen hobby is and family time. With a wife and son, it is vital as a husband and father to give them all the attention and love they need. it is also important for me to have my time as well as my wife. So how do modern couples and families balance there lives? I don’t think this question has an easy answer. It is a topic that has constant debate. I can tell you this, if you spend more time working and doing whatever hobby you like, than spending time with your own family, you need to revamp your way of thinking and strive to do better. This is a goal that I myself constantly work on. I challenge all of you to do the same. For just one hour put down the magazine, turn off the computer, put up the fishing rod, put the car in the garage, and enjoy what we so often take for granted. You will be surprised in what a difference it makes in your quality of life and the quality of life of your family.
Food For Thought 
Online gaming used to be a problem for me, only because I was using it as an escape from my problems in the real world. Because I felt an overall lack of achievement in my personal life, I invested thousands of hours (I’m currently over 7,000 hours logged) pursuing achievements in a virtual world. I often wonder what I could have accomplished had I not sought out progress in my personal life, rather than spending so much time with my avatar.
Personally, I think balancing online gaming comes from one’s ability to self-differentiate. Self-differentiation is fancy psychology talk for a person’s ability to remain an independent person and to be aware of his or her identity without being influenced by family, friends, or other outside sources. When I first started playing WoW, I had no differentiation. I was my avatar. There was no difference in Andy and Maelstrom. His achievements were my achievements. His progress, was my progress.
Fortunately my perspective has changed regarding WoW. I no longer require my avatar to live my life for me. I have a sense of differentiation between my real and virtual persons. I think that is true for all of us, regardless of our hobbies (or obsessions). It’s not just about having a hobby, but it’s about getting to know who we are as individuals. I know this is a bit cheesy but I think Christian Bale as Batman put it this way: “It’s not who I am underneath, but what I do that defines me.”
Andy
Well put Andy, I think that the way you presented that information was spot on.
ANDY!!! hi
I often wonder why people will scoff at gamers and praise avid TV watchers. No one thinks twice about making a family member “get off the internet and off that game and come in here with the rest of the family”…to watch this movie.
Jon and I spend all day everyday together. I am always sad for people that have to spend the whole day away from each other. Although, Jon does have officer chat. 😉
As a 3 night a week gamer, I balance my relationship by gaming with my fiancé. Granted we have no kids yet so we’ll see how we manage then. Great post btw.
Thank you very much, I haven’t had much time to work on the blog. I will be posting more soon.