Wasting time.

[Lemon]

Spoiler

There was a time, I think the summer of 2012 or 2013 that I played at least 10 hours a day. Those times during the summer I had absolutely no obligations and so I just spent the entire day, from waking up to going to bed playing NW and other games. My social life didn't really suffer as I still managed to make time for friends, but when the school year started again I had completely lost any good work habits and self discipline, and I nearly flunked that year. Luckily I stopped playing NW after only about 750 hours, which is pretty low compared to a lot of people in the community. Can't imagine what it must be like for people who have 2,000+.

2000+ no longer playing Warband checking in. I feel like this thread is good time for an honest reflection for those who stuck around for a while and can't fully check out because of old ties.

I started freshman  year of high school with some social life,  with the potential to grow within school. Instead of doing that I pretty much turned into a socially awkward yet normal looking kid without friends or desire to make any because I grew more attached to a team speak of people online dedicated to having fun in a niche game doing niche shit. The Internet allowed me to have friends who shared more common interests instead of being stuck with a few potential ones (phones make it easy to escape social situations as we all know). My interest in the game at first was purely immersion, I remember being giddy as fuck just to join a server then die in a line after shooting a single ball at the enemy. I saw videos about MM because of CHkilroy (still am a fan because of his Shacktac content)  and that really got me interested. However,  this interest eventually turned me in the average narcissistic community leader or someone more interested in power and organization (not necessarily totally but other people I remember seemed to embody this). I felt like I got my online community experience but neglected to leave earlier (thus the original topic,  wasting time).  I did neglect grades often times but I think that's unrelated. I legitimately wasted weeks of time when I was not actually playing the game so when I did play the experience was better. I still have this issue but at least it's not invested in a community that's toxic with narcissism. I do more productive things now like make videos and generally just have an attachment to being online instead of playing games.

 This seems to be an epidemic in the maturing world of youth in developed countries nowadays. Shit,  look at Korea and Japan with a staggering loss of birthrate faster than other developed nations currently. But there's good news,  and that this is mostly a phase thing instead of lifestyle. I'm going off to college like you did,  Walko. Hopefully on a personal level I don't continue these habits excessively there.

Sorry this post may be near the epicenter of people who may have these tendencies unknowingly but now that NW is getting older and more people are leaving like I did I hope to at least have some sort of closure with those who have been through this. If you read this,  don't understand it or think it's a problem then you may not have invested enough in online communities to at least realize that some people struggle to balance their lives offline.

What is wrong wasting your time and throwing away opportunities? You waste your time hanging out with your friends, you waste your time eating, watching TV, going to see movies, you throw opportunities down everyday and step on them and move on.
What is the definition of wasting time? What are these so called opportunities? You dont waste time, you spend it, you spend it for entertainment and on the forums, for socializing, all of it is being spent into this community and game, what is wrong with that? It wont matter in 20 years? No, you are wrong, you are living an experience that is unique and can only be defined to yourself. What you people are doing is trying to reject this game and you are trying to reject yourself and attitude towards the game.

 You have wasted no opportunities, you spent opportunities to use this community and organization of your own personal regiment to create new opportunities for yourself and others. There is nothing wrong with that, whats only wrong with this is that you are trying to reject the opportunity that you took.

I don't think that was the message, it was meant to be directed toward those who neglect priceless things such as family and their own futures. That or I just exploded randomly and I thought the thread was close enough.

tl;dr: if you read this first you shouldn't be in this thread, go find somewhere else to boost your post count or fill the void of boredom.

[close]

Menelaos. I see what you're saying there. I recently joined this community about 1 year ago. I join right into your regiment actually. Last year in 9th grade (last year) I failed, got kicked out of that school, and had to switch to a slacker school. Well, not so much a slacker school but like.. I don't know. But it wasn't your regiment that failed me (I was in there for a week lol) But it was just video games, in general, including mount and blade. I came home every day after school last year and hopped on my computer until 1 in the morning. In fact some days I am still doing that. I liked my friends that I have in school and I would have loved to hang out with them out of school, but I never get invited anywhere. The only times I saw them outside of school was at school football games and school dances. Now let me tell you a bit about my schedule. My mom doesn't live with my family anymore, my sister is up north about 3 hours at college, and my dad works every night until 2-3 in the morning but sometimes later. I see my dad for about 1-3 hours before he heads off to work. Then I have the house to myself mostly all night. I could go outside and do shit, But video games are fun, they get my mind off of stuff that is happening in the real world and I have met tons of awesome people who are funny as shit in tons of different teamspeaks, Mount and Blade, JANFU (Arma 3) and tons of other groups. The way I see it is that if I'm enjoying it. I'm going to have fun and play. I learned this year how to balance my grades and homework shit (which was my main problem) and I'm doing pretty good now.

tl;dr The way I see it is that if I'm enjoying it. I'm going to have fun and play. I have met many cool people that I would rather talk to than IRL people that I can only stand at school.

[Lawbringer]

I have 3 IRL friends in the 58e

Lol


Don't regret a second for playing this game. I have made many friends who I connect with outside of M&B and I love them all

I wish I wasnt't so addicted to the forums tho :p

Then maybe my grades would be a bit higher

[DaCrowh]

This game isnt a waste of time, whatever makes you happy is never waste.
Yes it might not be very useful for you but for example leading a regiment at a "young age" helps you a lot I think,
you work a lot with people and have to handle a lot of different situations, situations a lot of other people wont be in for a long time, which is an amazing experience

There is something to learn from everything you do and as long you enjoy yourself I wouldnt say anything is wasted of course there is always the "what if": "What if I spend my time in an other way?" What if I studied more, learned another language..." Well I dont know what would happen if you did something else, it isnt too late just do what ever you want, and if playing games is what you want then so be it, no shame about it.

I mean I am studying Philosophy and History it's like the nr.1 waste of time, but I like it, in fact I love it, so I think I will get through and if I dont, so be it.

[Riddlez]

This game isnt a waste of time, whatever makes you happy is never waste.
Yes it might not be very useful for you but for example leading a regiment at a "young age" helps you a lot I think,
you work a lot with people and have to handle a lot of different situations, situations a lot of other people wont be in for a long time, which is an amazing experience

God help you, man.

Experiencing those 'situations' at an early age in fatc may be helpful. The bigger chance, however, is that it completely backfires on the people. Proven is that young kids are not caapable of making a mostly-objective, rational decision when it comes to the most serious things. The greatest threat on the internet is that it is essentially anarchy. You cannot be held responsible in any proper way and therefor there are no incentives to do what most people would see as the 'right' thing to do. Add to that, that in gaming vs. school, named kids would, in their logic, go for what gives them the most pleasure, at the immediate moment. Keep in mind that this is not school.
Add to that, that perhaps the parents aren't quite as strict, you get a potentially dangerous cocktail of bad choices. Mind you, choices that may very well influence one's future.

Vote Riddlez, 2016

[NickyJ]

Pretty much everything we do for fun is a waste of time. Dream jobs aside, most of the things we enjoy can be considered time wasting in one way or another. Instead of playing NW, could I be doing something else more productive? Sure. Instead of posting on internet forums, could I instead take extra college courses? I suppose so. Instead of spending time in real life with friends, could I be working at a job while also going to college? That also is true. Anything we do, besides eating, sleeping, and working, could be called a waste of time by some stretch or another because it isn't making us any wealthier. But then again, what do we do with the wealth we make? Oh, I don't know, I guess just spend it on things we enjoy, things that waste our time.

NW, and video games themselves, are no greater wastes of time than watching a TV show or reading a book for enjoyment. As with anything, doing it in excess is when it really does become a waste of time. If you spend all your time reading books, or playing video games, or going out clubbing and getting drunk with friends, then yeah, that's a problem. The people that spend an hour or two a day playing a game that they enjoy? They're fine. Everything needs a balance, work to play, seriousness to fun-loving. Each is important, and each person balances it out in his own way. Don't paint everyone with the same brush and say that the joy people get out of a game is entirely worthless.

[Nipplestockings]

The incentive to making good decisions as a regiment leader is social recognition and the satisfaction of organizing a successful group of players into a respected force in the community. While we've clearly seen that not all regiment leaders are responsible, mature people, being a leader does contribute to vital socialization skills and does develop your maturity through social pressure making it important to be competent and level headed. Yes, the stakes are not actually high enough for a real developmental lesson to be learned if something goes wrong, but it certainly helps, and the claim that it's far more likely to backfire than to be a force of good in a person's development is not really something I can agree with.

[chuckdeezoo]

I liek you Walko.
I didnt waistid tiem with ur regiment Walko.
Eat shoe Walko.

[EdwardC]

Eat your shoes

[Locust]

I feel like I learned something from leading regiments in NW. Was it a waste of time? I don't know. I feel like this whole NW experience taught me more about people and how they behave than anything. Interesting stuff. Alas, I will be in college soon and will most likely not be playing computer games at the volume I used to (50-60+ hours a week easy). I will still play from time to time but who doesn't enjoy playing video games?

The one thing I don't understand is how people become social outcasts in real life from playing too much video games. I mean, you are socializing with random people on the internet already. Whats so hard to make friends in real life?

Another component I found interesting was how people could become very good friends without having actually seen what each looked like or in some cases knew what the other person sounded like. I could never see myself being friends with say Stox for example, who is 20 something year old guy who is bartender while I'm just a high school student yet, I got to know him pretty well. Interesting stuff.

[Betaknight]

Because on the internet you can be anything and not face the consequences like in real life.

[Michael Sparks]

i've actually managed to stop playing NW as a whole. I find it extremely tedious now and can barely handle one LB

[Professor]

When I first looked at the topic it made me want to turn off the computer. I guess that's bad.
So, after playing this game a lot over a pretty concentrated period (2500 hours over 2.5 years, yea, it's pretty cringeworthy when you do the math) I guess I got pretty attached to the game. There was a period sometime last year where I devoted waaay too much time to improving my skills at melee, spending like 30-40 hours a week playing nw, which is clearly way too much. Lately, however, now with my NCO/CO sorta stuff going on I've been more focused on trying to improve the reg, and it's tough, but going to be rewarding I believe. The only really regret I have right now is the hours I spent "training" to better myself at melee, even though I was still really good. I mean, great, now I'm really darn good at melee and that shiz now, but who cares? I'd rather be MLG pro for a game that people actually care about. However, the time that I spent bonding with members of my reg, trying to improve it, attending events, that's time I cherish, in a way. I got to know a great group of guys, and while some other things in my life might have suffered, no real permanent damage was done, and I don't think I would have it any other way. (Except for the hours "training")  As of now I'm trying to cut down my time more, maybe to 10 hours a week if possible, but I'm not going to be leaving the community for a long time. Still love the game, don't think I will stop loving it. So, yea. That's my rambly response to the question.

[EdwardC]

I feel like I learned something from leading regiments in NW. Was it a waste of time? I don't know. I feel like this whole NW experience taught me more about people and how they behave than anything. Interesting stuff. Alas, I will be in college soon and will most likely not be playing computer games at the volume I used to (50-60+ hours a week easy). I will still play from time to time but who doesn't enjoy playing video games?

The only video games you play are Mount & Blade.  Lol.

[Millander]

I had my fun and spent ALLOT of time leading in MM and NW from the beginning of my freshman year till just before my senior year. Im lad ive stopped since it has given me time to focus on my running, yoga, mountain biking and spending time with my friends. I dont regret my time with NW because I had a great time leading and also meting some really awesome people.

Also helped my public speaking skills allot.

[Getty]

It's called time management.  It's up to you to control if you have an addiction or not, you cannot blame anyone or any entity for it.  It's a game after all and the satisfaction of playing this game may be higher than that of doing real life stuff, for me I found that balance years ago.

I feel sorry for those who play Groupfighting everyday, I agree with the idea that some are addicted. I personally rarely play and even when I was playing with a regiment I'd only play for events then piss off to do something else. I think the game dies quicker for leaders as it's like being a mother to 80 retarded children.

This...very true
You are so right...

Your regiment wouldn't be filled with 80 retarded children if you actually monitored and had standards for acceptance. I do this and my regiment is probably only about 10% retarded and none are children.