Do you feel guilty for not playing games?

I would never go as far as to say I feel an obligation to play games, but I often look at my games storage unit, and think about how very few of the games we've bought I've finished, and even worse, how many I've played once for maybe an hour. And it's not that those games aren't good games, but time to play is so much reduced, even in a house hold with no kids and where both of us game that it's so easy to move on to the next big thing without even giving due attention to those games you already have.
To this end we actually made a decision to not buy any new games for a while and really concentrate on completing some of the games we already have. I've even started posting up 'Pile of Shame' pages to my personal blog to keep a track of how we're doing. So far Gears 2 has been taking a hammering, finally finishing the story in co-op mode and now hitting up Horde mode as many nights a week as we can manage with one of our old gaming friends.
How long we will last without adding another title to the 'to be played' list I don't know but it's good to be going back and hitting up some real classics.

Nah. I don't feel guilty about it. About the only time I don't game for either personal reasons or for work is when I'm on no-electronics-other-than-laptop vacation or if something major has stopped me from gaming (like my recent wrist injury) which requires me to back off.

Beyond that, it's my job to play them, so even if it's not as much time as I might -like- to play, I still have to get some gaming in. Kind of a requirement of the job.

@Krys A wrist/hand injusy is something I really fear. Though I don't work in gaming I am in IT and so any such injury would render both my ability to work and to play minimal.. though I might actually catch up on some reading ;)

@countstex: Yeah. I'm lucky it wasn't hurt worse, although I still have to go in for surgery once I'm back from covering E3. Until then, it's all pain medication and no alcohol for me. :D

Thankfully, my orthopedic specialist works with major sports teams, so he's incredibly highly rated and notes that this operation is "routine" to him.

@Krys Ah good to hear, best of look with the recovery. As for E3, guess I'll pop you on my Twitter follow list ;)

@countstex: Welcome to, but I warn you I'll likely be talking mostly of MMOs, as that's my field. :)

I spent several years as a game retailer, which pretty much necessitated playing everything. Thank God I got out of that and am into advertising these days, so I have sort of gone on a new console game fast. Just not doing it for awhile. Last new game I bought was Dawn of War 2 because Warhammer 40k is a automatic buy for me :-) Its been rather liberating actually, the money saved has financed a couple of trips with the wife to a couple local dinner theaters to see some nice productions.

I don't feel that I have an obligation to turn on my console/fire up WoW on my laptop. This is something I do for me. Granted, I feel something when I don't game, but it's usually along the lines of "I want to play a game now, I'm going out of my freaking mind". Stress relief and all that.

Jobs aside. Game industry jobs are one thing. Gaming is typically what is done in your down time.
I'll put it like this: Anyone who defines their personality, their identity even, by the video games they play is leading a sad and unfulfilled existence. Shame is something that others make us feel, because of their expectations of us. We feel shameful when we miss out on gaming, because the social expectation is for us to fit that "gamer" stereotype.
To answer the question, no. I have a shelf in my game closet just for games that I never finished. Do I ever feel guilty about not finishing a particular game? No. Do I regret the 10+ hours and $30+ I wasted on particular game? No.
If any of us should miss out on quality game time, hell, we should feel proud. We are the one that have broken away from the "gamer" mold and defined our lives the way we want to, yet still maintaining a hold on the hobbies that we enjoy doing. If anything, we have found balance. Why should we be ashamed of that?

We get laid a lot more too.

I feel guilty only when, like now, I have a game that is still shrink wrapped sitting on my shelf. Tales of Vesperia for 360. Haven't touched it since getting it in December. I don't have the time for RPGs like I used to, but that's the one and only game that makes me feel a little guilty.

As others said, gaming is a "downtime" activity. There's nothing wrong with not getting to game for a while, since in the long run, that's healthier for you.

I've always considered myself a gamer. I have a job, a social life, a wife (10 years in August) and a loving family. I play games, therefore I am a gamer. It's not all there is to me. I also write, play with my cat, go to bars and such (loves me some Belhaven Scottish Stout), and yes, get laid every once in awhile. :) Cool thing about life is that we can be many things, and don't have to feel beholden to a single label.

I'd feel guilty if I spent $60 on a game that I didn't play, only because money isn't exactly abundant nowadays. Or anydays, for that matter. ProTip: If you want to get rich, don't work in social services. It's a necessary job, but it doesn't pay terribly well.

Nope, I feel much worse for PLAYING the games, than not.

10 hours spent on a game are 10 hours that I probably should have spent writing music, out with friends, programming, reading a book, learning, or exercising.

I mainly play games when I'm sick, bored, tired, lonely, or the weather is shitty (which is why my gaming in Boston takes off over the winter). I used to play the nonstop when I was a kid, but these days... a few hours seems to mean more to me.

All that being said, I did feel a little weird after I bought my xbox 360, and the only game I played was Braid and then just left it sitting there basically as a Netflix player.

I don't watch TV (only have the most basic of cable just so I can have broadband) so that frees up a bunch of time. Also, my wife plays alongside me (usually WoW on the MacBook while I'm on the 360) and we talk while committing unspeakable acts of violence on collections of pixels. We get some great conversations going while I'm ripping into soldiers in Wolverine, or whatever game I'm currently geeking out over.

Ages ago I felt obliged to play on a game I helped build and after a few years (12) it wasn't fun anymore. Nowadays it is more about the fun and any obligation I feel is towards balancing the time.

I do feel a little funny about working on a game company while my friends wonder why I'm not playing very much. That is a kinda weird predicament. Regular breaks from work is the trick! lol

I don't feel guilty not playing so much as guilty for playing one thing instead of another. When recently I was playing WoW I procrastinated on starting Civ4. Now I am a civ zombie who is supposed to be checking out Mafia Wars. It's hard to mix business and pleasure LOL.

What countstex said sounds pretty familiar. After a while of playing a certain game it's not uncommon for me to get distracted by another, newer game. I have quite the backlog of games I still need to finish, or even give a decent amount of playtime for that reason.

Sometimes it's just me getting stuck somewhere for a bit and pausing. Even if I find out I should be able to make it past that bit in a few more tries, after a while the pause becomes indefinite and I "forget" to resume playing that game. Then there are the older games I pick up for cheap which sometimes remain sealed because I want to finish the games I started already, but... see above. I don't buy a whole lot new games, unless they are really must-haves for me.

I feel somewhat "guilty" about not playing, but I reason games aren't work, just entertainment, so it's OK. I don't feel guilty when I am playing either, because gaming is my hobby, and I do like it. I am a gamer, but I am not a stereotype, and although other people's opinions may matter to me, my own matters the most.

nah most of the days on my calendar that I didn't play were work related, if not all. But last year I think it was I went like a month or two without playing games, no real reason behind it, I just had other things to do and there weren't any new games out at the time.

Live without regret.

Game without consequence.

I never feel guilty about not playing games. More often than not, the opposite is true - I feel guilty for playing games.

Now, I never shirk family duties for games. My husband and son always come first. If I have a choice between gaming and taking my son to the park, we're going to the park. However, chores and sometimes work (if it's really slow)....yeah. Those can fall by the wayside when I have the chance to play a game instead. Would I rather put away that huuuuuge pile of laundry sitting on my bed or play Free Realms? Free Realms wins, hands down.

I never feel guilty about not playing because it means that I had something more important that needed doing.

This weekend was rough for me gaming wise with all the travel and family matters. Found myself playing a lot of DS (mostly mindless Peggle) though as an escape.

I have never felt guilty for not playing games, that said I probably spend more then 40h a week on gaming. Its more the other way around, sometimes I feel I should do something different, like not play games for a week streight.

oh and congrats for the baby

I don't feel an obligation to play, nor guilty about not, but right now I am overly annoyed with no drive to play.

Sure if I had stuff going on outside of the house, I wouldn't have a problem with it, but I do not... I've just lost my will to game since Syndelin left me... I'll put in like an hour on GH: Metallica or something simple like that... but all in all... I'm bored with it.

Almost 200 games in my collection and I don't feel like gaming, feels kind of screwy.

Yep.

I never finished Okami or Metroid Prime 2, and I feel guilty about that.

I let it slide for a day, and then the next, and the day after, etc., all while thinking about how I should play it. It never gets done, though.

Some games are just like that. I even started Okami again on a new file since it had been so long, and I didn't make even half the progress I made last time.

Yeah I have a stack of games that I have yet to play, and some games that I just got a few levels in, like Mario Galaxy. But I'm somewhat of a collector and pretty much all the older games were bought used so I don't feel guilty about it.

Its hard to not feel guilty for not playing games that you spent your hard earned cash on. They just sit there and look at you and you think ''Hey I should play that right now'' but you just keep staring at it and you continiue playing something else.

I often feel bad when I sit at my desk with my 360 and PC right in front of me and I just look at my stack of awesome games thinking about how fun they all are but I never seem to get one of ''The Shelf'' (my mega nerrd shelf with my tabletop army and collector edition stuff ie. halo helmet etc.) Then when i look at the clock and its 11pm i get annoyyed because ive wasted the night when i could of been jamming gears or DoW2.

I have to admit it makes me feel better to read I am not alone slacking off on my gaming duties. :)

Never thought of it as a "duty". It's a passion, to be sure, but it's a hobby, and done for pleasure. My question when it comes to games is: Am I having fun? If the answer is "no", the thing goes back to the store. That's why demos are so important in my view. I can usually tell if I'm going to have fun with the retail version.

@TheKitchenSink don't feel too bad for not finishing Okami. Although, it's probably one of the best games I've played in the last five years, I was surprised at how long the game is. I forgot games used to go on like that. There were three separate instances where I was sure I was just about at the end. Only other game to do that to me was RE3

I don't feel guilty for not playing games. I feel guilty for the games I'm playing. That is to say, there are games that I've been meaning to get around to, but just haven't yet. I finally played Braid last night, but there's a lengthening list of games that get pushed aside for another round of vs. in L4D or seeing how another faction plays out in Rome: Total War.

@Leadpipe think I clocked Okami for myself at like 51 hours, was surprisingly long, but enjoyed it! I still haven't gotten around to Braid, bought it the day it was released and then never ended up starting it... argh.

Ontopic: I do really feel horrible looking at my calendar so far this month... huge chunks missing, going to be worse than April was and thats been my worse month outside of the 70 days that my original 360 died...

Ever since Katrina, my devotion to gaming had never been the same. I sometimes even feel ashamed to even call myself a gamer anymore.

However, there were no obligation I have ever held in gaming except for a guild I had once belonged to. You can already tell from this avatar from what kind. I had felt horrible for not being able to come back till I'm through with college, but since the guild had broken up I don't really have a purpose in coming back anymore. I don't think I ever will since none of my friends from Shaiya ever kept in touch with me or even tell me what was going down. I had to call to find this out, so I don't have that much faith in my friends in Shaiya anymore. So I guess I no longer have a social identity in any mmo game at the moment needless to say, but I don't feel obligated either?

The only game I'd find a place in gaming is Ragnorak Online which I still have a good friend who's still trying to get me involved. However, it'll take a while before I can decide to join him and his guild again. Yet, I feel much better in RO than I was in Shaiya guild-wise, I wasn't ignored and I felt rather involved even if I was inactive.

Well, also safe to say that if I ever decide on a game to come back to it'll be RO. I feel that as an artist, I should have some prior gaming experience especially interactively with other players in case my career bath leads me there.

I do feel guilty about not playing games. Especially when I have to turn down friends requests to play. It's almost become like a second job since I stopped studying. Now when I rarely find the time, longer games guilt me into stop playing at all.

Interesting. I never felt guilty or bad for not playing games. I use to be obsessed, but right now I haven't played for nearly three months. My friends are screaming at me to come join them, but seriously I have lots of other things I need to do. Plus, I have a life, that helps I suppose.

You can 'have a life' and play video games. If you feel like you can't do both, you have a problem.