To settle down?

I guess i share both opinions... Like Rex said, i play to relieve stress and relax and RL (kid, job and house) keep me from being able to play and train as much as it's needed to be on top. However, i agree with Spiky about the fact that gaming is a good way of socializing and for me it allows me to push the boundaries of my city and my country and meet ppl from all over the world with different cultures. And since gaming involves real ppl somehow, it is serious to some level. As a clan leader, i gotta take it seriously enough to make sure other be also serious about it.

A Game is a Game, if you lose your Computer or if the power supply says bye bye in the middle of a hard Battle where you are needed from your mates the world will keep turning around and nothing will have changed but a maybe lost battle or some of your ego.

The world keeps turning around,
You have to go to work/shool or university in the next morning,
You have to pay your bills and plan your holidays,
Your childs will remain asking you questions and and.

Gaming is virtuell the only active and important part are the people you are interacting with. Ask yourself how many of your Gaming friends knows your real name and something of your reality. For most of us there are two worlds and one was created by ourselfes - this is the easy world to "live" in cause nothing will have real consequences.

some ppl have consequences in the RL due to gaming.

I agree that the real important thing is the people behind you play with but i think that what you build and accomplish in link to the game has importance to some degree. Do you think modding CF hasn't meant anything to OP and the Dev Team over the years when everyone asked to do more when the modders could just have enjoyed more free time ?

If it was not of video games, i wouldn't got so fluent in english so fast. It's somehow a good immersion. Helps develop some qualities too that can be used later in RL.

Sadly enough, playing a successful char in a game may prevent some rejected kid to suicide or get crazy and shooteveryone at school because ppl just make fun of him/her... (this is not recommended but i guess there ar worse stuff than be locked down in a basement with tons of Mountain Dew cans on the desk...

If you have or produce problems simply switch the machine off for a while. Also you are doing well in improving your english cause i didn´t wrote anything about modding or development teams. I even disagree with kids initiating real life masacres because of Computer Games it´s more a fail of their parents and/or social enviroment nor do i see it vice versa, in preventing anything through a virtual char cause even those Chars can make you going angry in RL as you can read in tons of posts here. Finding a balance and a good way for every player him- or herself will make the trick, still it´s science fiction cause emotions can´t be controlled by something virtualy yet. Anyway first place this is not the topic here and 2. place my pov. The rest is fun and decisions of individuals.