Ask Lemmy

A lot of people in IT, especially programmers I have met, are completely uninterested in gaming.

To be sure, there are PLENTY of gamers in IT, but many people I have met are done with computers once they get home.

i dont really game. my hobbies are more self-hosting, service related stuff. giant media library.. distributed av system. lots of docker, server stuff.

the selfhosting communities have some interesting traffic

My main use is for porn.

I never play, i always code.. And i am not even that good at it 😢

4 hours and 52 comments, and not a single mention of what we all knew even before Avenue Q:

The Internet is for porn. Everything else is just what happens between porn.

More seriously, my desktop is where I do larger research that will require more than a couple of tabs. Little to no gaming there. Other PCs are mainly for videos.

I do play games, but I also work on creative projects and watch shows/movies on my computer. I use Illustrator to create typeface designs, graphic design for laser cutting or stickers, 3D modeling and slicing programs for my 3D printer, Google Docs for writing, coding for Raspberry Pi and Arduino projects, et al.

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.

I rarely play games on my computers, coding is the bulk of what I do, the rest is data analysis, email and research.

I use online games as a way to hang out with friends. Usually it's about an hour or two a day. The rest of my computer time is spent coding or doing work stuff.

I'm not a gamer. Work at computer all day, only mobile (no games either) outside work.

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.

I don't game very much (just recently I started playing outer wilds though a few times per week). I feel like I probably enjoy tweaking my laptop more than actually using it.😆 I dont even code much. I like finding open source alternatives to software and generally improve my laptop. Spent about 4months learning nixos:)

I don't know, at least I might be able to help others improve their pc's too

I'm a recreational coder first and foremost. Sometimes I play games, but rarely all the way through

I used to use mine for games but I don’t really play games any more. So for the last year or two my PC has been mostly dedicated to CAD, PCB design, coding, et cetera.

Audio! I'm a hobbyist musician.

Gaming is a close second.

Hmm it's difficult to quantify. On workday I spend an average of probably 6-8 hours on a computer with job related tasks. Not really coding most of the time, since we're maintaining and building a network, so it's more configuration, planning, coordination, and documentation work. Some days we're out to actually deploy hardware, or run around and debug stuff, so it's hard to estimate the average screentime.

My free time involves a lot of computer time too, but it is split up into more smaller categories, either on the desktop computer or the smartphone computer. Manga, Games, Youtube, Movies, Anime Series, Lemmy, Pornography, News, Banking and Investments.

In the end I think my job is the biggest unified chunk of time, but that's kind of arbitrary, if I started subdividing it into different tasks maybe gaming would become the biggest chunk.

I still game on my desktop. But it's never been the primary use.

Graphic Design, video editing, 3D modelling, etc... has been the reason for my upgrades over the years. The fact that each of those upgrades allowed my games to perform better was a side-effect instead of being the primary reason.

Same for me. Coding, 3d modeling (for fun), lately some fpv simulator to get better with drones before I shred a real one. I even worked in the gaming industry, but it just doesn't keep me interested for long anymore.

I don't even really have a computer.

For games, I have a switch or Xbox, and everything else I use my phone or iPad.

Same as you. I used to game a lot (too much) in my younger days. Now I use the computer to support my tabletop gaming hobbies, 3d printing, a little coding, and streaming.

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.

I'm a sysadmin, so non-game stuff is my entire day job.

When I use my PC at home, it's a variable split between internet, media and gaming, depending what I damn well feel like at the time :D

I do 3D animation and illustration. Fortunately, running games requires the exact same kind of hardware so my workstation doubles as a playstation

My gaming PC became my self-hosted server around 5 years ago. Now it runs 24/7 serving up media through Emby, providing backup/cloud/vpn services to my mobile devices, DNS adblocking for everything on the LAN/VPN, password manager syncing, and whatever else I feel like playing with :)

Time, energy, and willpower just never seem to come together for gaming anymore. And on the rare occasions it does, that PC still games just fine; even after making the move to Debian last year.

No games here, I never have found them interesting for whatever reason. Because of this my laptop is a 2018 Chromebook with reflashed BIOS running Ubuntu. It has significantly less processing power than my phone but is plenty sufficient for everything I ever need a computer to do.

Programming, research and education would be my primary computer uses.

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.

Mainly gaming but if I’m looking things up online and need multiple tabs. I won’t use mobile. Mobile sucks ass for that.

Multiple tabs and two monitors makes things much easier to do research.

Spreadsheet work for my business… on mobile?

I’m crazy not stupid.

I work all day on the computer. Its been a long time since gaming took up the majority of my computer time.

I think the stagnation in graphics improvements, combined with the extreme costs of high end GPUs and the massive growth in the industry, is what changed the dynamic. Most gamers just don't care about the high end like they used to and now its corporate BS that has a more direct impact on their gaming experience instead of better hardware.

I know you said you’re not into games much anymore but If you’re into D&D you might like Baldur’s Gate 3. I also know of a group for older gamers if you’re ever thinking of dabbling again.

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.

My job is coding so my primary use is doing that stuff. I do game an awful lot though.

I mostly use my computer for:

• CAD (both 3D modeling and circuit board design)
• Programming (mostly embedded firmware in Rust lately)
• Chatting because doing that on a phone is too slow and autocorrect sucks.
• Work (remote desktop, mostly)
• News
• AI tomfoolery with stuff like Stable Diffusion and LLMs.

Every now and again I'll get addicted to a new game and use my PC for that too. My latest addiction was Baldur's Gate 3 when it came out 🤷