Off Topic Rant

Why is it that it feels like I always have to choose between 'quality' projects and playing video games? Sure there are times where the projects can be put on hold and it's not that big of an issue, but it's entirely frustrating to have to choose between doing something that others deem as useful and playing a video game to relax to.

Case in point, I constantly have to keep thinking about assignments that are due anywhere from 24 hours to a few weeks away. If I end up playing a game, I still feel the stigma that I'm somehow wasting time. How is this different from hobbies that other people have like scrapbooking or reading novels? Granted, I miss reading novels and really should get back to them before my own writing starts suffering, but are videogames that much lower on the totem pole of useful hobbies?

I'm working on my hand eye coordination, or my reflex time in FPS. Maybe I'm working on character development in more of the open ended games and have a vested interest in how that turns out.

Is it because we get into that 'one more level' mentality? When we should be doing something else and something more pertinent, we always fall into that mode of thinking that one more level wont' hurt. The problem is that it turns into hours and one level turns into fifteen by the time we realize that laundry should've been put in the dryer three hours ago and the cat still hasn't been fed.

I'm not defending the people who get so lost in the game that they can't function on a normal basis of going to work and having some sort of actual life. What I'm defending is a system where videogames are held to the same quality as working on a classic car, or scrapbooking the fifth birthday party of the month that your kid went to. Where's the acknowledgement that finishing a game is something to be proud of and not something to be ashamed of while talking with family members?