Wasting my life programming ?

Miscellaneous Topics
#1

Hey guys this is a question I’ve been thinking about for a little while .

Well okay, I have a job (not game related) and a girlfriend and sometimes go out to play football with friends, and stuff … but I’d say 90% of my spare time I’m writing games … and it’s been like that for more than one year !

Even sometimes when I’m just taking a walk with my girlfriennd I’m actually far away thinking about some algorithm to enhace performance of something .

Do you guys ever felt like that ? Or is it just me ?

Well I won’t stop writing games anyway, I just want to feel that I’m not the only one :slight_smile:

#2

I kind of do, yeah, even though the only code I ever do now is for work. :frowning: I don’t get out enough (to do physical activity), and the sad part is that I don’t want to, often enough. I usually just have to sign up for something so that a time is set. That’s probably also part of having graduated from University and being away from friends. Making new ones is pretty slow going when you’re working most of the time.

#3

yeah I know all of those feeling except for the feeling of wasting my life ;).

I will be sitting in my class, and all I can think about is how I can implement something new into a game or something like that.

worse, and this is actually annoying:

whenever I play a videogame. I am constantly thinking about how to implement the things that the game uses. And it drives me crazy. cause I cannot just simply enjoy the game :(.

I also sometimes get mad at myself cause I don’t program enough, and instead watch tv, but when I am at school/elsewhere I wanna program :P.

#4

Enjoy all your free time to program while you can. My personal production has decreased after finishing my studies. Now is wife, home, work, and if there is time left, games playing and programming.

You keep seeing “The Matrix” (polygons, textures, particles, sprites, etc) instead of the game. i have been in that situation, in the PS2 era, I was most excited for the programming solutions than the games themselves.
I think this new generation is so far ahead of what I can do, I don’t try to see through the game to the program.

My own total:
Total Time Spent Online: 21 days, 1 hours and 47 minutes.

#5

unfortunatly I feel so, programming is as a hard drug.

#6

I don’t see what’s bad about it? I look at all the other chumps out there and I feel bad for them because most of them have no hobby and nothing they really do besides going to work, watching TV and playing computer games…

#7

DzzD => Total time logged in: 19 days, 16 minutes.

#8

Total time logged in: 10 days, 11 hours and 42 minutes.

not quite as much as you :wink:

but jgo is one of my opening tabs lol

#9

lol… Sounds familiar… You’re not alone believe me… And the good news it doesnt get any better… I wrote my first game about 22 years ago and I probably think more about coding now than ever before with a greater buzz, probably as its loads easier now than it used to be… (Yep… Am late 30s)…
Even at the dinner table with wife and kid my mind drifts off too, which kinda irrates the wife somewhat. Luckily my kid is at an age where he takes an active interest in the stuff I do and gives me suggestions… The last 2 weeks has been especially bad since I had an idea for the java4k game and I spent a few days trying to figure out how to make it playable… They havent left me yet so still hope…

Enjoy it, plenty of worse things to be doing in in life! Keep it up, especially the Android stuff :slight_smile:

#10

Definitely take advantage of it while you can. When you get married have kids you don’t get much time on the computer anymore unless your wife happens to be in the technology sector too or understands the time needed to learn/create.

#11

Heh, I’ve just realised I’ve wasted the last 20 odd years then.

Seriously, either you want to do it, or you don’t. Do what you want and don’t worry about what the “norm” is :slight_smile:

Kev

#12

Total time logged in: 32 days, 17 hours and 48 minutes.

I enjoy programming so its not a waste for me. Though these days I try to go out and have fun when I can.

#13

Hi!

[quote=“kevglass,post:11,topic:34687”]
I agree with Kev. If you’re happy by programming a lot, go on doing it. You have found your own way to happiness, this way seems very different of the ways that the other people have found, it is not a problem. What’s wrong? As some other people said here, we know lots of people who have no hobby. Game programming seems to give a meaning to your life, it is very positive. While your hobby is not an obstacle to your own happiness, while it does not become a real drug (you don’t become forced to program, you do it for fun), keep it up. Personally, I have been single for 6 months, I don’t want to get out, I have no physical activity, I have lost almost all my friends and the atmosphere at work has recently become unbearable as they know I’m communist whereas you have a girlfriend, you play football sometimes and you have some friends; your situation seems comfortable, I assume I have more pertinent reasons of being worried than you. Don’t look for the clouds when the sky is blue.

#14

[quote]Don’t look for the clouds when the sky is blue.
[/quote]
Very philosphical gouessej… I like it…
12.30am in Spain… Spent all most of today cramming in 50+ rooms into my new Java4K puzzle adventure game… Is it worth it? Probably not, but who cares… Its harmless fun…

#15

I’ve felt that way. Since I discovered Java and programming in general from my interest in robotics(Lego robotics that is), I’ve logged hours on the computer. It bugs me that I can’t really show anything for all that time, but I also look at it another fashion.

I think programming and especially game programming is like art for the common people. I would assume that the great artists and musicians that created great works of art thought about their art all the time. For a large time of earth’s history only the rich, fanatics who were ok being super poor, or the truly talented got jobs as artists and were able to spend their lives creating pieces of art. Today though, we have Democracy and a middle class that permits more of the population to engage in creation of art. Also, like some other people said on here, there are other hobbies out there that just deteriorate the brain’s abilities like TV watching or constant video game playing. Programming forces us to think and to expand our knowledge. True most of it is knowledge of computers and technology concepts, but IMHO computerized-technology has created a new universe of materials that humanity is slowly accepting as almost “real.”

Also, I’m a Christian, and I believe that when the Bible said humans were created in the “image of God” that really means humans are creators like God is a creator. So, can we really help thinking about our creations all the time? God thinks about His:humans.

#16

It’s much better than wasting your life game-playing, something that many poor souls do.

Life balance is very important.

Lol! You crack me up gouessej! Maybe you should be be more of a clandestine communist, and just wait for the revolution like the trotskyists instead of inciting it :smiley:

#17

well where do those life wasting games come from :wink:

#18

Lol I’m too straightforward, frank. I tried to hide my political convictions but despite my efforts, I ended by showing how much I am revolted.

It is a famous French idiomatic expression, I feared that the translation into English would mean nothing for you.

#19

main thing is that your happy dude.

but if you feel there is an area of your life thats lacking, then invest (time/money…) in it.

I hurd from a friend that used to work at lexus. that a motivational speaker was paid millions of bucks, to go around and speak to the emloyees about keeping there lives in balance, and gave seven areas that should be balanced.
and when there all running together than you lift the bar on all of them even across the board. but thats the short of what he gave me, im sure there was more to it.

so in short… get a motorbike.

#20

sort of like the one in your rts :wink: