I'm 17 years old and i'm dividing my time between gaming and programing. Should i give up gaming?

Yes.

Must add my two cents.

Never give up on gaming!

Coming from a well versed coder, I still find time to play games.

I code @ work, i code @ home, I code in my free time. I love to code and I enjoy it very much, but life isn't just work and learn.

Sometime you need to do things that enable you to just turn off your brain and enjoy the moment.

For some it's sports or spending time with loved ones, etc. For some it's gaming.

Be careful not to fall into a eat-sleep-code-repeat routine. You can be good without it! ;-)

no, it's good for relaxing

Don't give up anything you enjoy for programming. Programming is so much fun and it's great to make a living from it but you need to just step away some times and do something else. Take a break every now and then.

Dont give up on it! But it might be a good idea to learn making them ;)

Hell no!

Don't give up gaming! I know people who program in God Mode but still enjoy their life lavishly, after all the sole purpose isn't to code d whole life rather to enjoy life doing things that we like and Coding is 'ONE' on those things

I bet all the best game developers are gamers too ;)

Balance

Why would you give up on a part of your life you enjoy (I assume)? What is more important than enjoying life?

Definitely not. You need down time or you'll burn out

@Unipheas @UltimaQ @StefanH

So do you guys/gals just spend all your time working? Or is your hobby programming as well?

Balance is important, yes, but being a workaholic is no better than being a consumer.

It really depends on whether you *can* balance your gaming. A lot of people can't, and their quality of life suffers as a result. A lot of those people might take years to recognise the damage that lost time has had on relationships, study and work. Or they might never recognise it.

Only you will know if gaming is getting in the way of leading a fulfilling life, and if you feel like it is, and you can't balance it to a moderate level, then I would recommend cutting it out of your life for good.

@StefanH first off PC gaming was never mentioned, and yeah I totally agree that IF gaming takes up too much of your time then if course you should cut it out. But that's the same thing as anything else.

I play PC games but it doesn't consume my free time. On nights that I'm not with friends/family I spend 75% doing my own programming thing and 25% playing a PC game (averaged out, usually I 'dedicate' a night to one or the other, so if I have 4 free days then one night I'll play a game) and even then I end up spending half of my game night doing programming.

Should I give up gaming as well?

Satoru Iwata said it well. He was a business man, and a game developer. But in his heart, he was a gamer.

@StefanH well I appreciate your viewpoint. I think it's misguided but we can agree to disagree. Spending my whole life in the binary states of working or being with family sounds absolutely abysmal to me, not because I dislike work or my family, but because I'm an introvert (maybe this is the biggest difference between us?) who enjoys hobbies.

@le717 It's true but if you want to do some side projects you have to let go of gamming.

@Shadow117 it depends on how intense those side projects are. Yeah if you're running a small business on the side you probably won't have time to play games but if you're running a blog then maybe you will have time.

Again, balance is always key. You don't want to waste your time and you don't want to burn out.

Don't give up. Just plan your days. I have a full time job and some big sideprojects and still have time to play.

I probably game too much. Games are very addictive. And it's a short way from an IDE to Steam, when already infront of the pc. What about thinking of it as a prize for a good (or-even-not-good-at-all) coding session?

Never. I did for a year then started programming as a job rather than just for fun. And when it got that "work vibe" I got stressed so much until I started gaming again. Doubt I will ever be a gamer as a career so it is an awesome outlet.

My suggestion is to only have 1 hobby that involves staring at a computer/tv all day. You'll be doing that for the next 40 years at work anyway....might as well enjoy the real world after a 40 hour work week + programming (or gaming) as a hobby.

doing both after work isn't sustainable. Try to do as much as you can while you're young though!

No, just learn how to get by on less sleep. (That's how devRant gets built)

Gaming isn't bad mate. I code and game too. But, I do code more than game.

Play Screeps. Learn javascript while you play an rts.

Jokes aside, you're 17, man. Do whatever you enjoy, just keep a balance to everything you do. Play games to relax, do coding to learn. Just be clear of your objectives you want to achieve.

I did like something that someone mentioned here though - try finding a hobby that doesn't involve staring at a screen. It can be as mundane as collecting stamps, whatever. Anything to get you out of the house.

I'm a father, a developer AND a gamer at the same time. It's all about striking an equilibrium.

never give up your hobbies or things you love.
In my case development started as hobby roughly at your age.
I was doing music and gaming... I was a good guitar player, but stopped practicing as I used to.
Today when development is my career I feel stupid for leaving music.

At least I still game... and have my guitars to mess with. Keep your hobbies and things you like, otherwise you be sorry, trust me!

I am 17 and i was in the same situation. I quited gaming. But it was a time when i started again. It is very addictive hobby and its really hard to balance those 2 hobbies which eats a lot of your time. For now i can manage only 1 hobby and thats programming.

No. Wait to be 40something for that... lol

@le717 to me it's a great way to learn javascript. Learning curve is quite steep, depending on how good you are in javascript.

It's... Definitely interesting, to say the least. It's like a digital ant farm, tell your minions / buildings to behave in a particular manner, and let them go off. You can even do some trading with other players if that's your thing.

And yeah, the whole reason why I started playing it is because of private servers; I don't like playing it competitively with strangers, rather build something cool together with my brother.

Alternatively, code a bot for your game. So you can do both :)

@kevinkev
What games you would suggest?

@Michailas the game I just suggested.

Screeps. Look it up.

You're literally programming bots using javascript to survive in a RTS like environment.

@kevinkev
I will sure check this game!