I’m an older dude whose phase of staying up all night playing was back in the early console days. I prefer in-person tabletop RPGs like D&D, Traveller and Call of Cthulhu. Just not into computer games anymore, but that and social media seem to be most people’s primary computer activities.
Game chatter has changed over the years - I used to see a lot of talk about graphics quality and massively powerful hardware - maybe that was during a period when it was rapidly improving, I dunno. But the current focus seems to be more on game industry business decisions sucking.
Anyway I’m just wondering how common it is to use computers more for coding and other technical non-game stuff.
I never play, i always code… And i am not even that good at it 😢
Practice makes perfect!
My main computer is a 500$ laptop that I use for writing, bills, shipping, etc. My gaming laptop comes out maybe once a week.
I spend a lot more time coding than playing games. It’s not unusual for me to not be active on steam for a month.
Does collaborative writing for fun count as games? The communities involved call them games, but there’s no thoughts about control schemes or graphics, and no need to do anything outside your browser. That, chat, social media, reading (both for work and personal time), and the like take up the bulk of my PC time.
I would call collaborative writing computer use but not a computer game. Programming feels like a game to me!
I mostly use my Mac for business stuff, art and coding. The PC spends most of its time on offloaded AI tasks and rendering jobs. It was originally a toy for gaming but I’d rather use my Steam Deck for that now.
Funny thing I thought about when coming back home…
My work laptop has been used more for gaming than my gaming pc has, and inverse of that my gaming pc has seen more work done than my work laptop
Why? I don’t fucking know why it just is
I’m mostly using my PC for photo work, drawing, writing, and programming.
Most of my game time is on consoles (Xbox Series X and Switch).
I rarely play PC games, and they’re usually PC-friendly by design (e.g. heavy use of keyboard/mice, ready availability of neat mods) or distribution (weird indie shit®).
Oh and emulators. Recently started dumping all of my GameCube and Wii games, and I have to say Dolphin is just bloody incredible.
Technically my primary computer activities are gaming, but these days I game exclusively on the Steam Deck or the tablet (for mobile games)…
My most speced-out computer was actually purchased for work related reasons. I wanted a decent GPU because I thought I’d be working in deep learning. Well current job doesn’t require training models and I was required to use a dedicated work laptop so… This high-spec one I mainly use for just about everything else other than gaming
I don’t use my computers for modern gaming. Like OP, I prefer tabletop games, though I do speed run crossword puzzles and play some PixelDungeon on my phone when I have spare time. I also built a Retropie, and play some old Atari and PS2 roms on a bored Sunday. My stuff can run Civ IV, which is probably the last title I bought.
My main systems are for work, or for supporting self-hosted services including local infrastructure, home lab stuff, email, blogs, home automation, media servers, etc, etc. Lately I’ve been getting into SDR projects using RPi or old laptops.
So, uh… Yeah. Fun stuff, but not so much gaming.
I do game, but I have a dedicated HTPC that I game on. My laptop is mostly for work, I own my own business so I do a lot of design, spreadsheeting, etc. I also write lyrics and prose for a hobby, so I use my laptop for that, as well as some light music production. I think the only game I play on it is the KDE minesweeper clone.
I use the crap out of my computer.
-Video editing -Music editing -Word processing -Spreadsheets -Microprocessor programming -YouTube viewing -Image editing -Shopping -Investing -Web surfing -3D printing -CNC Routing -Website development
- Oh and gaming.
https://mastodon.social/@livelakemichigan/ https://mastodon.social/@livelakesuperior/ https://bsky.app/profile/lake-michigan.live https://bsky.app/profile/lake-superior.live
And if you dig hard enough you’ll see I’m an app architect closing in on 20 years in the industry.
Work: Video editing. And browsing the web! Andddd a lot of video games lol
I don’t use my laptop much anymore (don’t have a desktop either): Some modeling, accounting, spreadsheets, or doc composition; things that are cumbersome to do well on a tablet. General browsing and videos are on my phone, tablet, or cast to the TV. When I want to game it’s usually on my switch.
It’s The laptop is really my device of last resort. I know it will do exactly what I want it to do, but I have to dig it out, clear space for it and usually plug it in if it’s not a quick job because the thing is old and an energy hog. My tablet is newer and I got it a convertible laptop-like keyboard case. The battery lasts so much longer and it’s just easier to lug around to where I need it for whatever.
Laptops … I never could get used to them. The keyboards feel too tiny and I can’t stand trackpads. Give me my dual monitor PC! Apparently there are people who actually write code on phones, which would be my idea of hell.
Coding, surfing (too much), little gaming. To a 90s kid most modern games suck donkeyballs for lack of story or being developed to be console-friendly, or both.
I’m in my 40s and I sort of just dropped out of gaming on PC. I game on a console when I feel like I want to game.
My desktop rarely gets turned on anymore and I only use it for a cracked version of Wizards of the Coast’s 4E character builder because I play in a group that runs fourth edition.
My laptop is for learning things (IT related), general browsing, taxes, and whatever I feel like doing that feels cumbersome on a phone.
