It's had good and bad effects on my life over, well, I won't say how many years. Overall I'd say it's probably all balanced out.

Nope, great conversational topic.
I've actually reccommended Morrowind to parents of elementary and middle schoolers to help them improve their mathematics, reading comprehension, and ability to stay on task.
Plus, all the inside game jokes are funny! Especially when I am the only advlt in the room who gets the references.

Without video games I don't get two video game jobs, one of which I got because I knew a friend in a game who was a QA Manager, the other job I got based on previous game industry experience. I also don't marry my wife (which I met from an MMORPG) and have a daughter.

Games, like just about all things, are great in moderation, but if your priorities svck, things suffer. Lack of social skills comes with not being around social situations enough to know how to act -- it's voluntarily reclusive behaviour and I fully support reaping the (negative) rewards of these actions to learn why playing games and staying away people for too long is bad.

I play games a bit too often, my parents used to and still do complain about it and my arguement is would you rather have me on the street with everyone else getting drunk and pulled up by the police ?
Basically they have been useful in getting to know my friends that bit better and seems like the best and easiest way to keep in contact with them using xbox live and the games have taught me things I previously never knew anything about and sparked new interests in me.
I'd say they have been somewhat negative and somewhat positive.

I'm reading treasure island to my son.. it doesn't get much more interactive and 'multiplayer' than this


as far as gaming being a negative impact..

meh, who cares? :shrug:




so I don't hang out in bars all weekend, coked out of my brain -or drunk, talking BS while trying to impress people I'll never see again.. it must svck to be me.

Nope. Without video games, I'd still be an introverted somewhat geeky soul* who likes to stay at home with her spouse & pet cats. I'd just be reading more books/seeing more movies instead of playing video games.

edit: *whose typing skills are rapidly declining every year*

:shrug:

As far as being social is concerned, I've met a lot of awesome people through video games - not least on these forums.

I think without video games I would have done better in school, I'm doing well now but i could be doing better. Not to say that its the fault of the videogames, the responsibility lies with me to prioritise work over leisure and its something I took too long to learn.
It doesn't really matter, I'm happy with who I am and where I am in life. I get all my work out of the way before weekends so I don't have to choose between video games and work.

Assuming being social is good. I know for a fact this isn't always the case with certain people. They've made me both a better and worse person, though I'll wager to say more good than bad. They allow me to simmer down and calm down escape if you will, and they also inspire me creatively. Not just the works, but how they're compiled. The moral situations within them sometimes get me to think (if they're present). On the down side they do cost a lot of money and I devote a lot of time to them, so they've made me a little on the lazy side.