How do you gamers manage things while at college?

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I have a son just finishing his junior year in college. He has been an avid XBOX player, but he still managed to get a 3.5 GPA and works on homework first before he plays games for his downtime. I have played the games very sporadically with him at times, and I feel that playing normal games online with others is a social outlet. My son has no outside interests -- doesn't do sports, doesn't belong to any clubs at school, and doesn't do anything like band or choir that will develop social outlets.

I don't think he's addicted to the games -- currently he plays maybe, at most, an hour a day, and more on weekends. He will also watch tv with the family or socialize with our friends (not his -- he has friends at school, but never does anything with them outside of school).

I look forward to him going to college in a little over a year, but I am wondering how gaming impacts college.

He will probably try to get into an untraditional college in the NE where there will be plenty of other gamers. I LOVE the idea of him playing actually side-by-side with other games, but I hope that they will quit at times to go do other stuff like go out for pizza, watch a movie, play board games, etc. Like any parent, I also hope that his gaming won't interfere with his schooling.

What has your experience been with gaming in college? I'm concerned that with no restrictions it's hard to tear oneself away from the game to go to class. I'm more concerned that my son use the gaming to SOCIALIZE like he has never socialized before!! ! Is this possible???

We had video games, but not consoles or online gaming during college.

If you can discipline your time, it's not a problem. If you can't it will be a problem.

The "internet" came into being when I went to college. Some people were addicted to it and spent hours online rather than doing homework.

I went to a local college, so videogame-wise, nothing changed for me.

I did have to drop out of working on Nexuiz, though, because I was so busy with homework =( Kind of regret it, kind of don't.

Huh?

Anyways, as with anything as long as he does it in moderation it is fine. He just has to make sure that he devotes the required amount of time to his schoolwork and only plays games when all of it is done. Additionally, I would strongly recommend that he try to join some clubs and stuff in college since you can have a lot of fun and meet a lot of great people that way.

oops. Meant to write "high school" instead of "college" -- my son's a junior in HIGH SCHOOL.

Thanks for your replies!

I like the concept of clubs. The college he hopes to attend has all sorts of odd but interesting clubs to join, and I think that could really help pull him appropriately away from video games part of the time.

oops. Meant to write "high school" instead of "college" -- my son's a junior in HIGH SCHOOL.

Thanks for your replies!

I like the concept of clubs. The college he hopes to attend has all sorts of odd but interesting clubs to join, and I think that could really help pull him appropriately away from video games part of the time.

I go to a relatively local university(about an hour and a half commute each way), but still live at home, so things are different for me. I tend to procrastinate with my assignments and test prep, but no more than your average student. As a highschool student, I never took school seriously, and was more concerned with spending as many hours gaming as I could in my time off. I averaged 6 hours on school days, and 10 hours on weekends(my mom and dad thought I wasn't ready for a part time job till I graduated). Overall, I was a terrible student, but I was way more into the electives I took than I was in the so called "required" courses, and I honestly only went to school because I had to. My GPA was around 70%(I think). I graduated, but not with honors.

That was several years ago, mind you. I graduated in '06. I worked for two years, and at the time, I was convinced I was done with school, till I ended up in a job I disliked, and was convinced by my family, and older co-workers to go back to school. I was surprised to find out that post-secondary was a much different experience. I enjoy classes more, and take school more seriously for two reasons. One is that all my courses are electives, and I don't take anything I don't want to, unless I need it for my major, but I'm glad courses like Stats have been few and far in between. The other reason is that I pay for all my courses, so there's an extra incentive to do well.

The point is, if you're concerned that your sons gaming habits will get in the way of his schoolwork and social life, don't be. I was one of the worst students in high school, but often beat the bell curve at university. Granted, grades matter a lot less at university, except when applying to a different university. It's important to at least get the credits, which will happen unless a student fails or drops a class, but the most important thing is to learn what needs to be learned.

As for the social aspect, I can say that while I don't live on campus, and am terrified of the idea of going away to go to university, I'm pretty sure I would develop a close friendship with whoever I roomed with. I like to have a few close friends, rather than a large group of friends. When it comes to school, I tend to make semester friends, which are friends I talk to over the course of a semester, but part ways with after that, since there's a different group for every class. Sometimes some of the same people are in more than one of my classes, or I may see someone else I met in another semester again, in another one of my classes, but otherwise, I meet different people every time, so I don't really get close to them. With that said, it would be a completely different story if I roomed with someone. I would probably really get to know them, and maybe stay in touch after I moved on.

I think your main concern isn't your son's gaming habits, but how well he'll do being away from home, in an unfamiliar setting. It sounds like you're just like any other parent whose son or daughter will be away from them for a length of time. My recommendation is to try to stay in touch with him. If he's in his junior year, there's still some time yet before he's planning on going away, so maybe spend as much time as you can with him in the meantime. Well, within reason. Don't smother the kid. But once he does go away, make sure you stay in touch with him and find out how he's doing. Well, don't harass him then either, but with social media, it's never been easier to keep in contact with someone. Granted, what I said should be taken with a grain of salt, because I'm a student myself, who still lives at home, and isn't a dad. I'm a sociology major who likes to observe people, and my recommendations come based on observations of people I know and have known.

I think it honestly has to do with being interested in the work - as a gamer myself, I can say that being greatly interested in your own career path makes things much easier. I'm planning to be a novelist/writer, and I think so far I'm greatly on the way to doing well - my English teacher has called me a savant on numerous occasions xD.

What's he planning to do when he grows up? Is it something that truly interests him? Even if it's not, don't treat the gaming like some bad thing - it usually helps my subconscious sort out the schoolwork while my consciousness is focused on the game, so it can help.

I personally have accommodations for turning in work late - it helps resolve routine conflicts and gives me the time to sort out how I plan to do it without over stressing - speaking from experience, it works great and helps to remove the stress, which can sometimes result in a meltdown - and I think we all know those are to be avoided.

Could you elaborate on this accommodation and how you got it? I might need something like that soon when I start uni again..