I haven't gamed seriously in about 5 years, because I have been busy finishing up my undergraduate degree. Now that I've graduated and I'm employed I've started building a gaming rig, with hopes of getting back into the hobby. Now that I've read this I'm wondering if I should even bother. Perhaps I should focus on building my portfolio more. I find video games help me unwind so that I don't have a restless feeling when I'm focusing on what really matters. In adequate amounts I think video games are alright. I'm wondering what your threshold for "addiction" is though ...

Do you want to spend your life gaining work experience and building a portfolio to ensure maximum salary, or do you want to spend your life doing what you want do? Some people program as a hobby and convince themselves that anyone who has different hobbies is a worthless programmer, but that is nonsense. Build that gaming rig.

Do what you find enjoyable. There's little point fighting it. My personal threshold for addiction is "this is a mindless time filler keeping me away from other things I want to accomplish" which is enough for me to determine that the activity is only marginally more enjoyable than doing nothing. Plus, except for the pricy GPU, a gaming rig is mostly a good development rig!

I take your point, but I get enough pleasure from Kerbal Space Program that wouldn't blame others for needing their occasional gaming fix. But sure, being a productive and active person should come first.

> But sure, being a productive and active person should come first.

This viewpoint is garbage. Outside of work hours, a person has no obligation to be career-focused. Tech shouldn't require someone to be about their career in their free time as well.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding you. I sure hope I am because this expectation to make CS your hobby to be a valid CS grad in the workplace is awful.

I agree with this. Even when I used to game seriously, I wasn't gaming all the time (some of my friends shocked me with how seriously they took the hobby). I really envy people who can dedicate their entire lives to doing one thing and one thing only 24/7 - whether gaming or coding. That is beyond me.

> I really envy people who can dedicate their entire lives to doing one thing and one thing only 24/7 - whether gaming or coding.

Similarly, I used to have a crippling envy of accomplished coders who were same age as me, which has long since evaporated.

Probably a symptom of ADHD, my life consists of many short distinct phases where I hyperfocus on an interest. Knitting, woodworking, programming, reading, etc. I do have several projects that I wish I could just dedicate a couple of months too, however! Seeing how far I could get in a dedicated week always makes me long for another month of intense focus.

That's not my point at all. I'm just saying that if you don't have a career history to demonstrate your ability and experience, there are still many, many ways to do that. I'm not saying it's a requirement, but it's a valid and useful option.

Interesting perspective, but consider time allotment for a day. You get 24 hours generally broken down into: ~8h sleeping, ~8h working/studying, ~8h "free time". Can't you argue that they're being productive by virtue of their day job or the courses they've taken?