My gamer regret usually takes the form of drawing up a humiliating list of other, potential activities I’ve forgone. I could have … volunteered at a local hospital! Learned a language! Cleaned up my rats’ nest of an office! Gotten a head start on a new writing project! Hell, I could have just, you know, played the guitar or something. Wouldn’t that have been a less howling waste of my precious time on Earth?
Do you suffer from it? If I sit down after I’ve accomplished something off the “list,” then I hardly ever regret the time played. But if I have to push a pile of stuff off the desk so I can play Everquest 2, then more often than not the time feels wasted. For as long as I’ve played games, though, I think I’ve done pretty well. The biggest regret for me would have to be all the time I spent with Diablo 2. I loved the game to death, but I played it way too much. Luckily there was no way to check how many hours I was logged on to Battle.net.
It wouldn’t be pretty.
Not really. I never really put off work. If I have to do something, I do it right away, THEN I spend 8 hours playing Metroid 3 or w/e
Now, if I DO have something I need to do, and i’m playing a game instead, I feel like I should pause, go do it, then come back. It bugs me enough that I don’t want to play until it’s done.
@FS – That’s a great system. I’m impressed that it bugs you enough to actually motivate you do take action. That’s the best kind of motivation.