Thinking about the meaning of life brought this on.

Why should I even play video games? I am not accomplishing or achiving anything, and I won't be rembered or admired for playing games. The best I can hope for is to be respected by other people who play games, and that isn't very impressive.

Instead of playing games, I could be exercising, which would garner much more repect due to my looks, and I would live significantly longer AND my quility of life would dramatically improve. I could read about proper posture, eating, (health in general) and then carefully imlement good health habits into my life so that I improve. Eventually they would become second nature and I wouldn't have to think about them. I could talk to people more, criticily analzyzing my own patterns of speech and other peoples behavior ect until I am a master conversationalist and have freinds and connection everywhere. I would probably become a master of influecing people too.

I could study more. My grades are excellent, but not perfect. If I truly knew all the material at a high level I could get a 4.0 GPA next year in college, and that would sat me up for future sucess at a graudate school. That combined with my good looks from exercise+ my great social skills and ability to win friends and influecne people, I would be set for life, even if I merely met new people and learned stuff for my job but coasted and didn't learn any more "life skills"

I know all these things and yet... I still play video games/ surf the internet for a combined 3-8 hours a day. What the Hell is wrong with me? Why can't I do what I know must be done and secure my own future? Why do I even bother playing video games?

Your sort of right, but playing video games/ going on the internet if funner.

I play because they're fun. I like the sense of accomplishment I get when I've done something (like get a gold medal in WipEout). Not everything you do in life has to be productive, sometimes its nice just to sit back and do something you enjoy.

Sometimes, it's the simple things in life that really make you feel good.

If you think long and hard, none of those other things are any more productive than videogaming if your goals in life are merely changed. You find excercising and getting good grades as being more productive because your end goals involve being healthy and getting a good job. If the end goals were to be changed to lounging on your couch having fun, then videogames would be far more productive than excercising and getting good grades.

However, there's very little reason why you can't accomplish all three. There are enough hours and days in the week to study, exercise and play games.

Life is about balance, not going from one obsession to another. You can do everything you want, you don't have to (and shouldn't cut out things completely).

How do you strike that balance? I'm so bad at it. I'll study 8 hours a day or not at all it seems like.

Willpower mainly, its hard at first but the longer you live a balanced life the easier it gets.

But as I said completely cutting out something you love to do isn't the right thing to do as everyone needs downtime.

I know its not good to eliminate things you enjoy, but I was just thinking... I have been a member of VG Chartz for 1.5 years. I have about 1,900 posts. If I had never found VG Chartz, and didn't waste time on the internet and had worked out for 1 hour every day instead of posting, I would be much better off.

Whats a good method for developing will power?

u play videogames /surf the internet for 3-8 hours a day?
maybe u should go exercise ure muscles must be atriphyed
or go read a book (jk)
hey my (hot) fiance plays like 4 hours a day and is awesome at games we met while i was at a local halo tournament so playing videogames does help

Well may be its 2-8. My point is that I am sort of obessive about stuff. Today for example I surfed the net for 4 hours I would say. Other days I might not surf at all but I will study all day. What I meant was, when I do play video games/surf the net, its for 3-8 hours. Often times I don't.

I just need to strike a balance. Do homework for 2 hours a day, go running, play games for an hour and surf the internet for 1/2 hour or something like that. I'd prolly get less burned out too.