I’m an older dude whose phase of staying up all night playing was back in the early console days. I prefer in-person tabletop RPGs like D&D, Traveller and Call of Cthulhu. Just not into computer games anymore, but that and social media seem to be most people’s primary computer activities.

Game chatter has changed over the years - I used to see a lot of talk about graphics quality and massively powerful hardware - maybe that was during a period when it was rapidly improving, I dunno. But the current focus seems to be more on game industry business decisions sucking.

Anyway I’m just wondering how common it is to use computers more for coding and other technical non-game stuff.

  • make -j8
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    165 months ago

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

  • @Nollij@sopuli.xyz
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    135 months ago

    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.

  • Mechanismatic
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    115 months ago

    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.

    • Lovable SidekickOP
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      35 months ago

      3d modeling and printing are major things now. I’m into that as well, and also playing with Arduino and ESP32 for home automation and building little robotic tings. Writing code has always felt kind of like a game to me.

  • @Professorozone@lemmy.world
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    105 months ago

    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.
  • qaz
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    95 months ago

    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.

  • Blastboom Strice
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    85 months ago

    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

  • @sbv@sh.itjust.works
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    75 months ago

    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.

  • @Kazumara@discuss.tchncs.de
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    55 months ago

    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.

    • Lovable SidekickOP
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      5 months ago

      That reminds me, for a long time I’ve had an idea for a piece of instrumental music that would be the intro to a video. I’m not a musician but used to play the piano a little. I do have a little synthesizer keyboard from when my kids were young. If I noodled out a melody on that and recorded it, is there software I could use to make it sound like multiple instruments, add drum effects etc. so it sounds real? I don’t know if there’s a musical term for doing that - flesh it out?

      • @Underwaterbob@lemm.ee
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        24 months ago

        Maybe “arranging” or “composing”.

        As for tools to make it happen: You can use a “DAW” (Digital Audio Workstation) which is how most people compose these days. I use Reaper because it’s a tiny download, very full featured, and cheap. Ableton is very popular and has the biggest community online. Cakewalk is completely free (with a sign up.) ProTools is what a lot of professionals use, though it’s dying a slow death because it’s very expensive, they’ve gone full subscription model, and the things it can do that drew people to it can be done just as well with other DAWs that aren’t so predatory.

        A DAW won’t do the work for you, though. If you want something to make harmonies or drum beats for your melody for you, there are a lot of "plugin"s or "VST"s you can download that can help with that process. Or, if you just want to give something a melody and tell it to make a song, there are probably AI solutions these days.

        Good luck! Beware the audio rabbit hole. This can be a cheap, or ridiculously expensive hobby.

  • @Hadriscus@lemm.ee
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    45 months ago

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

  • @Boozilla@sh.itjust.works
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    45 months ago

    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.

  • @COASTER1921@lemmy.ml
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    45 months ago

    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.