Comic Books or Video Games: If You Could Only Have One Hobby

[Figs]

I thought it was pretty cool, but maybe you'd prefer this...

[YT]S22I6o4UumU[/YT]

Yeah, that one was a lot better. t:

 

[Spider-Vader]

Video games because I'm usually talking to friends when I game. Alot of those friends I wouldn't have met if it wasn't for games.

If I could still play comic games I'd be fine.

 

[Arach Knight]

I'm gonna be honest, and say that I've never seen video games as a hobby. To me, hobbies take up a lot of your personal time, and you let them because you enjoy them. Collecting and organizing and reading comics, preparing and playing D&D games, setting up and running model trains, painting and building and perfecting metal miniatures, etc. Those are hobbies. Video games you just pop in and play, like watching a movie.

Honestly, I see it the other way around. To me, books are something you pick up and read briefly. You maybe spend 10-20 minutes reading a single issue. If you read seven books in a month, that is around an hour and some change. You can always use a bookmark to hold your place.

On the other hand, video games seem like such a massive distraction. Even with save points, people will devote hours to a single game session (World of Warcraft and Call of Duty come to mind). In fact, isn't that a popular trope regarding video games? The boyfriend or husband that is playing a game and won't hit pause so that he can help his wife or girlfriend or pay her attention?

I can personally attest to an incident involving one of my friends. His wife propositioned him and even told him that he could keep playing the game while she conducted her business. He actually rejected her because he wanted to focus on the game (true story).

Comic books were costing me too much and taking up too much space. I still like reading them, but I'd rather play video games.

How much were you spending on your pull list? I spend $35 a month tops and that is only when I am pulling event books. Without event books, I drop down to around $28 a month.

 

[SpideyVille]

Jeez, how many comics do you guys buy? Is it to follow a lot of different stories, or is it simply for collections?

 

[Arach Knight]

Jeez, how many comics do you guys buy? Is it to follow a lot of different stories, or is it simply for collections?

I do not read too many.

- Amazing Spider-Man
- Ultimate Spider-Man
- Astonishing X-Men
- Green Lantern
- Wonder Woman
- Superman
- Fear Itself
- Power Girl

The majority of my cost comes from the recent hike in price from $2.99 to $3.99 for a lot of Marvel comics. Slow stories may lead me to drop Power Girl, Superman and Wonder Woman. I keep holding on to Green Lantern because it has been so consistent, but I am really uninterested in yet another war between Lanterns.

 

[Silvermoth]

At the moment? Video games. Comic books aren't really pulling their weight as much these days. Even video game movies are starting to follow each other around a bit.

 

[redmarvel]

For me, comic books wins over Video Games (it already has, I rarely play any)... but ask me to choose between Comic Books and Music... then it gets tougher.

 

[Obi-Ron]

Comics

 

[Arach Knight]

I am noticing that those who favor video games are offering really in depth answers, where as comic fans are leaving short answers. Anyone care to offer an elaborate reason for choosing comics over video games?

 

[SpideyVille]

I do not read too many.

- Amazing Spider-Man
- Ultimate Spider-Man
- Astonishing X-Men
- Green Lantern
- Wonder Woman
- Superman
- Fear Itself
- Power Girl

The majority of my cost comes from the recent hike in price from $2.99 to $3.99 for a lot of Marvel comics. Slow stories may lead me to drop Power Girl, Superman and Wonder Woman. I keep holding on to Green Lantern because it has been so consistent, but I am really uninterested in yet another war between Lanterns.

Hmm, so I guess this is like paying to watch your favorite tv shows each week or month until you decide to stop watching and start to pass on it.

Personally, I never got into comics enough to follow one series, but what I usually get is graphic novels, which for the most part are just a collection of mini-series or arcs. And even then, I have a hard time deciding if I should get them online from Amazon since they're usually around $10-15 there as opposed to $20-30 at a comic store. I don't do that often, so I can't imagine doing that on a monthly basis.

 

[Arach Knight]

Hmm, so I guess this is like paying to watch your favorite tv shows each week or month until you decide to stop watching and start to pass on it.

Personally, I never got into comics enough to follow one series, but what I usually get is graphic novels, which for the most part are just a collection of mini-series or arcs. And even then, I have a hard time deciding if I should get them online from Amazon since they're usually around $10-15 there as opposed to $20-30 at a comic store. I don't do that often, so I can't imagine doing that on a monthly basis.

Following a few monthlies can be a bit more rewarding than following a series in trade form. In fact, save for a few DC titles, you usually pay the same price for the trade, as you would have if you just bought all of the issues individually. Anyways, if you read a few books in a month, you usually don't have a long gap between release. Amazing Spider-Man comes out two or three times a month, so that helps. It kind of is like following a favorite television show.

 

[amazingfantasy15]

I'd easily choose video games. More value for the cost. Comic books right now are $3-4/issue, for about 10 minutes of reading/entertainment. So you'll get about 3 hours of reading max for the same price as a video game that could get you much more entertainment time out of. I'll always drop comics whenever I'm feeling a financial pinch.

 

[Arach Knight]

I agree that comic books are becoming too costly. I am currently debating dropping a few titles from my pull list, just to balance out the dollar increase that Marvel has put on most of their titles. I appreciate that DC is still keeping with the $2.99 price tag. Honestly, I'd willingly sacrifice the glossy paper and go back to the old newsprint if it meant being able to save $1.50 off the cover price.

With that said, I still find that video games are the more costly endeavor. While it is true that a game lasts longer and that the dollar-to-time ratio is higher, I feel that video games in general are a really heavy investment. I can spend $35 a month, and that covers all of the comics that I currently read on a monthly basis. On the other hand, $60 may last me more hours, but I am also likely to beat said game in the same month that I buy it. That means that I will wind up spending $60 the next month so that I can enjoy something else.

Granted, there are online games that offer "unlimited" replay value. I have logged over 300 hours on Killing Floor, which I bought two years ago for $19.99. I still play the game to this day. But such games are few and far between. Most of the time, you beat a game and sell it off or stop playing it. I still feel that comics are more financially manageable than video games.

 

[SuperFerret]

I still say that the hours of organization and care involved with comic book collecting (not reading, collecting) trumps video games as a hobby. I'm not going to go into the whole hours long video game thing here, but suffice to say, it still doesn't have that common level of care that comics have. While there may be some gamers that are fastidious about their games, most give them a half-assed organization on the shelf (let alone the many of us with thrown controller syndrome). As for comics, there are some collectors that are more lapse with their care, but an overwhelming majority of those who consider themselves collectors take immaculate care of their collections.

 

[-Arya-]

I'd choose video games since I'm hardly a comic book reader anymore, and becuase I get more enjoyment out of them. So yes, a slightly biased answer on my part...

 

[Arach Knight]

I see comic collectors as a minority amongst comic fans. To me, comic fans are the types who go to Frank & Sons looking for statues, buying dollar comics, and keeping up on their pull-list for the sake of reading. I maintain my books, but I rely on old fashioned methods (polybags and long boxes).

The kind of collectors you speak of, are the types to invest in CGC grading and slabs. Even then, it doesn't really take hours. The actual reading of a comic takes anywhere from 5-30 minutes, depending upon the way you read the book (following words more than images, or taking the time to look over each visual detail, then the words). Even if you are more collector than reader, once your have your system of organization set up, there is not much more work to be done.

On the other hand, we have all heard the horror stories of gamers leaving their children unattended for hours so that they could keep playing Everquest or Warcraft. We have read news stories about Koreans passing out from starvation or dying from a failure to evacuate waste from their body, after days of continuous playing of Starcraft. Heck, there are support groups for females that are married to gamer husbands (the term is "gamer widow") and find that they receive no attention when compared to games.

I have never once heard of any comic fan spending an inordinate amount of time doing comic related things, leading to abnormal socialization, failure to attend to bodily needs or death. At best, comic fans take up a bit of time for cosplay at a con, but pales compared to the phenomena of gamer widows and MMO abandonment.

 

[SuperFerret]

It's not just the time or money that makes a hobby, it's the commitment to said thing, and video games do not have the inherent factor that generates that kind of commitment. Comics do, and there are more collectors than you think.

You can't just point out a fringe group (CGC level collectors) as being the reason comics aren't a hobby and then point out another fringe group (MMO addicts) as being the norm.

Generally speaking, most comic fans have some sort of cared for collection and most video game fans don't spend hours upon hours playing obsessively. That's what you need to be considering.

As for all these stories we're hearing, that's because video games (and technology as a whole) are the new boogeyman. Look up the history of comics and you'll hear similar tall tales and exaggerations. Trust me, I'm a comic book reading, D&D playing, video gaming, Heavy Metal fan. According to some, I should be a Satan-worshipping, spellcasting, socially inept, suicidal virgin, but I can assure you that I am NOT a virgin.

 

[Bubonic]

I much rather choose video games if that is my one option.
Look at a game like Shattered Dimensions, you get a lot of what is great about Spider-man and you also can control him, and I think that eventually a good comic adaptation game like that will become the standard instead of stinkers like Thor: God of Thunder and they'll try to fit as much story in it as they can.

 

[Arach Knight]

It's not just the time or money that makes a hobby, it's the commitment to said thing, and video games do not have the inherent factor that generates that kind of commitment. Comics do, and there are more collectors than you think.

You can't just point out a fringe group (CGC level collectors) as being the reason comics aren't a hobby and then point out another fringe group (MMO addicts) as being the norm.

Generally speaking, most comic fans have some sort of cared for collection and most video game fans don't spend hours upon hours playing obsessively. That's what you need to be considering.

Video game fans taking care of their collection is not the issue though. True, comic fans are likely to organize their collection and maintain them with accessories (shelves, long boxes, polybags, boards, CGC slabs). Still, that doesn't mean that they spend hours doing it. When I buy a new comic, I open my long box, file it, and read it when I get the chance. It doesn't take hours or even many minutes. I fail to see from where you get this image of people slavishly spending hours attending to their comic books.

On the flip side, even if a video game player has little regard for the condition or organization of their collection, there is a strong chance that they spend a large number of hours actually playing. For the record, Starcraft is not an MMO, and such addicts may be fringe, but only when considering extremes. There are still plenty of people who play Call of Duty for four hours straight on Xbox Live. I have had friends opt to not hang out, because they had a set raiding time with their guild. I observed my roommates playing the new Mortal Kombat for over four hours straight in an effort to beat the fifth stage of the game on the extreme difficulty. Not all video game players are so obsessive that it leads to social disorder, but gaming is easily the more time consuming hobby, unless your idea of gaming is Angry Birds or Facebook games.

 

[Bubonic]

You get more bang for your buck out of video games. Most games I get last a minimum of 10 hours, so it can be less than a few dollars an hour.
Comic books are full of ads, sometimes can be read in less then 20 minutes and cost 4 or more dollars.
Don't get me wrong, I love comic books, I read them religiously from borrowed sources.

 

[Franklin Richards]

So is Sudoku a hobby?

 

[SuperFerret]

Video game fans taking care of their collection is not the issue though. True, comic fans are likely to organize their collection and maintain them with accessories (shelves, long boxes, polybags, boards, CGC slabs). Still, that doesn't mean that they spend hours doing it. When I buy a new comic, I open my long box, file it, and read it when I get the chance. It doesn't take hours or even many minutes. I fail to see from where you get this image of people slavishly spending hours attending to their comic books.

On the flip side, even if a video game player has little regard for the condition or organization of their collection, there is a strong chance that they spend a large number of hours actually playing. For the record, Starcraft is not an MMO, and such addicts may be fringe, but only when considering extremes. There are still plenty of people who play Call of Duty for four hours straight on Xbox Live. I have had friends opt to not hang out, because they had a set raiding time with their guild. I observed my roommates playing the new Mortal Kombat for over four hours straight in an effort to beat the fifth stage of the game on the extreme difficulty. Not all video game players are so obsessive that it leads to social disorder, but gaming is easily the more time consuming hobby, unless your idea of gaming is Angry Birds or Facebook games.

Four hours? FOUR HOURS? That's what you call a commitment?

By that logic, anyone who's played a game of Monopoly or Risk is a board game hobbyist and anyone who's watched a single Lord of the Rings film more than once is a film hobbyist.

And like I said, it's not the time that matters, it's the commitment, and commitment to one thing in video games is rare.

 

[Arach Knight]

Four hours? FOUR HOURS? That's what you call a commitment?

By that logic, anyone who's played a game of Monopoly or Risk is a board game hobbyist and anyone who's watched a single Lord of the Rings film more than once is a film hobbyist.

And like I said, it's not the time that matters, it's the commitment, and commitment to one thing in video games is rare.

Well, yes, that is a commitment. Especially if it happens on a regular basis. It isn't like people play that way once a month. That is generally how video games are played. Long sessions, multiple times. Even I have had gaming sessions last that long. My brother and I once played Smash Bros. Melee for over 12 hours straight on a power play to unlock everything. Look at all of the speed run videos on the internet (and some games have lengthy speed runs).

And even then, we are only talking about time devoted to actual gameplay. Comic geeks aren't the only ones sitting around on forums, and we only have one major news publication. Gamers have far more forum communities, magazines (Game Informer, Gamepro, EGM etc) and web sites. To that end, gamers also spend time actually reading about gaming news. Gaming is just as involved a culture as comic book reading and collecting, with the key difference being that it is easier to put a bookmark in a comic (or to remember your place) than it is to put down a game if you are on a long quest and trying to complete objectives, or playing with your squad, or going through a four hour 60 man raid.

You want other examples of committment? How many people kept purchasing new Playstation 2 systems after they received the disc read error? How many people repurchased the Xbox 360 after receiving the "red ring of death"? That is a lot of money to sink into a hobby. People wouldn't throw cash around like that if they only gamed lightly. Gaming consumes a far more time than you are willing to concede/admit. And for the record, I have never spent four hours reading comics in one sitting. I don't even take that much time to read an entire novel (unless it is above 450 pages).

 

[SuperFerret]

I still wouldn't call video gaming a hobby. It's an activity. And again and again and again, it's not the money or the small-scale time, measuring a commitment is different, and video games change far too fast to build that sort of thing. When it's possible to follow Spider-Man month in and month out or play in years long Dungeons and Dragons campaigns or set up a model train set that conquers an entire basement over the course of a lifetime, video gamers don't have that type of mindset. Sure, they'll play the HELL out of a game when it's out, but how many people (aside from the MMO fringe) do you know that religiously follow Mario's adventures, or Solid Snake's escapades, or whatever other series to the near exclusion of all others?

Sure, video games have their venerable characters and lines, but all it takes is one or two bad games for them to be completely abandoned in favor of something else. Things move too quickly for a hobby to form of video games. The most you get are the obsessives and the fanboys. No true hobbyists.

 

[Arach Knight]

I still wouldn't call video gaming a hobby. It's an activity. And again and again and again, it's not the money or the small-scale time, measuring a commitment is different, and video games change far too fast to build that sort of thing. When it's possible to follow Spider-Man month in and month out or play in years long Dungeons and Dragons campaigns or set up a model train set that conquers an entire basement over the course of a lifetime, video gamers don't have that type of mindset. Sure, they'll play the HELL out of a game when it's out, but how many people (aside from the MMO fringe) do you know that religiously follow Mario's adventures, or Solid Snake's escapades, or whatever other series to the near exclusion of all others?

Sure, video games have their venerable characters and lines, but all it takes is one or two bad games for them to be completely abandoned in favor of something else. Things move too quickly for a hobby to form of video games. The most you get are the obsessives and the fanboys. No true hobbyists.

I see. You have...an idiosyncratic set of criteria for defining a hobby. I tend to run with the dictionary definition.

a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hobby?show=1&t=1306018320

I consider gaming a hobby. I do see your point about the continual following of a character's exploits. Though, to be fair you have to consider the fact that people frequently drop a book and pick it up later rather than following it all the time. I have stopped reading Amazing Spider-Man, sometimes for as long as seven years before I go back to monthly reading. As many fans have said the same thing in this very thread. Conversely, millions follow the adventures of Master Chief and the other Spartans in the Halo series of games (which since its launch in 2001, has spanned six games). People regularly follow the adventures of Mario, from Super Mario 1-3, to Mario World, to Mario 64 to the wildly successful Mario Galaxy. Comics are not the lone medium for continuity in a story. Heck, even without a story, millions turn around each year to buy the latest Madden, even though you could make the roster changes on your own. I'd say video game fans are every bit as committed and engaged with a hobby.

Still, I feel that we should end the debate here (unless you require having the final word on the matter). It is clear that we simply disagree, and that is fine. I am all for agreeing to disagree. I love you SF You are still my favorite mod, other than Vartha and C. Lee.