Who Does this

the_spyder

It got me to thinking that I usually spend more time debating on these forums than I do on Facebook with my 'other' friends. I got to wondering if I was the outlier or of others were doing the same. So, share your obsessions. Or merely chime in and let's discuss.

meagloth

I don't have a Facebook or anything else, so it's pretty clear. I do spend to much time here though, and until recently when I got bg2ee, probably more time than on bg.

nano

I love BG and want to talk about it all the time, but most of my friends don't want to listen to me. So I think it's natural to seek out a community that shares my interests! That said I don't use facebook much.

kryptix

I definitely spend more time here theorycrafting than playing because I can do this from my phone anywhere, while I need time away from wife and kids and work to play...

Silverstar

I've probably spent more time cropping portraits and putting together sound sets than playing though...

meagloth

nano said:

I love BG and want to talk about it all the time, but most of my friends don't want to listen to me. So I think it's natural to seek out a community that shares my interests! That said I don't use facebook much.

@nano, this. Usually goes:
Meagloth: hey [megloth's friend] you should get bg so we can do multi player!
Meagloths friend: attacks meagloth
Meagloth: eeep! *runs away*
:P

the_spyder

LOL. Yeah, whenever I mention BG to any of my friends, I get 'That look'. you know the one that says "Why don't you Grow up." Followed by them watching a Sponge Bob Marathon with their kids.

My Wife totally doesn't get the game or the genre, nor any clue why I want to escape the 'Real world' and go play in a fantasy one. Go figure...

Plus, there is so much more that goes on here. I have had some really intensely interesting discussions on the nature of religion and good and evil. I have had discussions about characters and ideology. I have had debates with some really interesting and intelligent folks here. I honestly hope that my IQ has been raised a few points through learning from everyone here.

Kastion

I spend more time on here than elsewhere and I like it that way. I like my dork-dens. I just joined the site but already do more here just reading and screwing around as I'm not much into the social media scene. I'd like to learn how to mod as well as I love creating characters.

jackjack

But I am on here quite a bit.

elminster

Theres far too little talk of slaying Dragon's on Facebook for it to obtain my interest.

O_Bruce

The only reason I have facebook at all is that people from my university are too limited to use other means of communicating any important news. So naturally, I'm more often here.

FinneousPJ

I tend to have both open when the computer's running, so... not enough options, @the_spyder

DrHappyAngry

I don't have any "social media" accounts, so it's easy to be on here more. I'm not going to have my personal communications scanned so I can get spammed. Got my own mail server, too, so I don't have google reading all my email. At least since the NSA leaks, I appear a little less paranoid than I did a year ago.

A friend was nagging me about getting on facebook, and I told him "I'll give you two good reasons. My Dad and your Dad."

Tresset

I don't even have a Facebook account.

atcDave

I spend more time gaming than I do here, so that was almost the option I selected. But I thought it was more in keeping with the original question to say I spend the vast majority of my on-line time writing/hosting a blog devoted to my favorite television show (Chuck). Maybe not quite a "social media" site, but certainly an on-line community and a major time sink!

booinyoureyes

I prefer this forum over facebook, because if I said half the things on facebook that I do here, I would have no friends, my girlfriend would leave me and my parents would disown me.

Night_Watch

this forum is my FB =p

I hardly play BG anymore. It's fun supporting such an important game from my childhood though which is why I bought the EEs and hang out here

ReadingRambo

I tried out the social media sites for a while, but found they are not for me. I've always had a fair amount of friends and was well-liked in high school, but have always felt a bit socially awkward. Forums like these I feel much more comfortable and at home, maybe because its easier to express myself anonymously, and there are a lot more like-minded gamers like me on sites like these than on Facebook.

lroumen

I live under a stone where I play BG all day.

Ayiekie

I have a facebook account, but don't really use it for chatting.

Corvino

Facebook is a fishing hook, baited with the possibility of human contact. They're fishing for you because they want all the details of your life in order to sell you crap you don't need or actually want. If I want to talk to my friends I'll send a text message and meet them at the pub.

It's also a way to disqualify yourself from a lot of jobs. Even with privacy settings turned up some of those embarassing pictures have a way of making it into the wilds of Google.

To my shame I have an account, but it just gets used as a photo dropbox for friends and a way to contact people who're out of the country.

Son_of_Imoen

I dislike social media and don't use any of them (though I do use YouTube, which is considered a social medium, but which I just use to watch videos and very rarely leave a comment).

What worries me most, I spend much more time:
- wondering what game I'll start up,
- reading on forums about games,
- buying games in sales,
- planning playthroughs,
- sorting downloaded games,
- scanning for mods,
- seeing my backlog grow
instead of actually playing.

Antagonist

@Son_of_Imoen I saw that going differently in my mind. More like:

"What worries me most......


...instead of taking interest in my real life"

Maybe it's just me growing too old? No offense though.
Meh.

Anyway, I just realized I dumped Facebook the moment I found this forum a couple days ago. Is this normal?

karnor00

Surely the first two poll options would cover basically everyone?

Other than the very unlikely outcome of spending exactly the same time on these forums as on FB/other social media, people must spend more time on one than the other.

Kaltzor

Considering how I don't really use any social media... I do pretty much anything more than spend time on them.

Son_of_Imoen

Antagonist said:

@Son_of_Imoen I saw that going differently in my mind. More like:

"What worries me most......


...instead of taking interest in my real life"

Maybe it's just me, growing too old? No offense though.
Meh.

Actually, real life worries me the most: climate change, peak oil, peak Son_of_Imoen mental energy, so many things I want to do and so easily crossing the limits of what I'm able to do with the limited energy I have.

Gaming's a nice way to step out of real life worries, but gives it own worries of taking too much time and gnawing at night's sleep.

Once I start worrying it's hard to stop, even on medication, it's just what life is like with a mental illness like mine.

*edit: spelling error and no offense taken.

Antagonist

Yeah I think I kinda know what you're talking about.

Mrpenfold666

i've always been a gamer first and foremost and that will most likely never change !

Son_of_Imoen

Antagonist said:

Yeah I think I kinda know what you're talking about.

Your avatar-baby sure looks worried enough ;-)

*edit: so does my avatar :-(

booinyoureyes

btw, I just want to say well done @the_spyder for adding the option "just show me the results".
Every poll should have that choice!

BelgarathMTH

I have a Facebook account, and I used it a lot at first, but now I barely use it at all. I might log into it once a month at most just to see if anything's going on in there I need to handle.

Back when I used to use it more, I started to see over time that it was "learning" more and more about me, and publishing it in ways that other people could see. "Todd likes..., Todd recently clicked on..."

I didn't like that. Not one bit. I have "friended" a multitude of teaching and musician colleagues as well as parents of students. Practically everybody in that crowd would disapprove of the fact that I spend 20-40 hours a week playing games like Baldur's Gate and posting about it online.

So, I stopped using Facebook much, and I now check this site daily, in order to socialize with people who have similar interests to mine.

I notice that there is now (at least on my screen) a little blue Facebook icon along with all the approval buttons. I have avoided clicking it, fearful of what would happen.

I can imagine all kinds of horrible scenarios - if I were to click the blue devil button on one of my own posts, it might post the same text onto my wall, for everybody I know in real life to see it. I say things here I don't *want* people I know in real life to know that I think.

If I were to click the blue devil button on one of your posts, it might copy *your* post to *my* wall, and scream at the top of its digital lungs "HEY, everybody, Todd liked what *this* person had to say IN THE BALDUR'S GATE forums!

I have come to the conclusion that Facebook is evil. At least, it's evil if you care about your personal privacy, and in having control over exactly who hears or reads about your inner private thoughts and interests.