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NEW VIDEO: The Dark Side of Gaming (Documentary)

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Hey all - am a 34 y/o male who stumbled on this site and figured it was the best place to share my story.

I've been a gamer for a long time.  I built my first rig back in college, then my second right after I graduated (and still have it - made some upgrades about 2-3 yrs ago).  Am not sure when things started getting serious/more entrenched--would have to check Steam--but I'm pretty sure it's right around the time I bought GTA V.

I'm not a MP gamer by any means (the last time I even dabbled in it was 8yrs ago when I was going through a stretch of unemployment) and still don't like it.  I prefer SP games w/stories that I can get into and despite the varied opinions out there, GTA V has one that I enjoy replaying over and over again  (one of the things that helps is a trainer that allows one to using MP cars & such in SP).

Living on my own, gaming used to be something that was a weekend (Saturday) only thing,  Then somewhere a long the line, I decided to fire up GTA V on a weekday, after I got home from work, while I was just sitting around killing time before I got dinner ready.  From there, oh boy, things really took off.

On Saturdays, I traded GTA V and its free-wheeling, lightheartedness for titles that were slightly more serious - either Max Payne 3, LA Noire or CoD: Black Ops.  My usual routine would have me wake up, make a pot of coffee, read and/or write a bit, then sometime around noon or so, start cracking open some beers and fire up the PC for some gaming (which I would usually do til about 3:30-4, when I'd scrounge up some dinner, then crash on the couch with a movie or two.

.....and that was my routine.  During the week, I'd get up, go to the gym, go to work, then come home, have a beer or two & play some GTA, make dinner, clean up and crash.  Come Saturday, my routine would go exactly as described above.

 

I'm not sure how long I did that--at least two years, possibly three--long enough for it to become an entrenched/ingrained thing.  I never viewed it as a problem either - all that was a great release/escape from the monotony of my weekly routine and it gave me something to look forward to too on days when work wasn't going so well, or I didn't have anything going on the weekends.

 

What caused me to come to this point though was a two-fold series of events, starting with the rent on my apartment causing me to have to move out at the beginning of July.  It had risen 5 out of the 6yrs I was there and so this past March when my lease came up for renewal again, I told my landlord I had enough.  Secondly, back in early June, I stumbled on into a relationship with a girl that is still going strong.  Rather than stay with my parents (where my PC is set up and where most of my stuff will stay until I buy a house here in 9-10mos), I've been staying with her.  Because her place is small and doesn't really have room for a desk, my PC stays at home and the only thing I have with my besides my phone, is my little 11" MacBook Air.

There's been a time or two when I've gone back to my parents on a Sunday to get clothes and stuff, when my GF didn't come along and when I could kill some time gaming, but for the most part, it's been about 5 mos now since I was last in my 'routine' that I described above.

I'm going to start a journal here and will explain more in my first post, but wanted to drop by and say 'hi' here first.

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