Personally speaking, I don't drink, and I don't smoke, and I'm terrified of doctors and their slapdash medications.

Mind you, there's always been a bit of a stigma attached to gamers. Some folks would be content to believe we are a slovenly crew, with addictive personalities abounding.
So, out of curiosity, how accurate is that conception? How many of you... drink casually? Compulsively? Are there any smokers among us?
Dabblers in the illicit?
Who gambles?

And how do you feel about this (mis)conception?

Now, I realize a certain percentage of this forum are underage in their respective nations. Ya'll are throwing off the numbers, since controlled substances are harder for you to get. Mention something, and make a hazy picture a little clearer, hmm?

(For those of you who are wondering where the deuce the poll is... keep wondering.)

I do have quite an addictive personality, & I do smoke, drink & take drugs, but not nearly as frequently as I used to, not since I got my 360, new computer & moved towns.

I find for me though, my vices are linked to socialising & my gaming addiction is more of a substitute for those vices. If I'm going out drinking & doing other things with people, then obviously I won't be gaming as much & when I'm coming off my vices then I usually game a lot more to distract myself from the chemicals I think I'm missing.

Even though dope & gaming seem to go together well, my performance in games is a lot better when I'm straight. I spend less time procrastinating (e.g. the OCD tendency to constantly re-organise my briefcase in Resident Evil 4 every time I get a new item) and actually play the game properly.

I don't drink anymore, not since I became legally allowed to.
I don't smoke, I don't see why anyone would.
I don't do drugs, <gay>I get high off life!</gay>
I don't gamble, I win.
I'm not any other kind of addict.

I disagree that gaming is addictive. It's fun, and people like to have fun. However, I do agree it is unhealthy and unproductive, and that's why it's looked at as a bad thing.

I can't say whether mmorpgs are addictive though. People can get lost in those things.

I'm pretty much straight edge, except I don't have any tattoos..... or beat up drunk homeless guys. I'm even a vegan. I don't do any "thrill/adrenalin" things, including roller coasters.
So, I'm extremely "clean".

In contrast to that, though, I have an extremely addictive personality, and if I tried any of those things, would probably be hooked on them. But only for a short time(I'll be addicted to something for a few days then completely forget about it).

I don't drink very often. I never smoke cigarettes, and only occasionally smoke cigars when I'm feelin' fancy.

I do smoke pot quite frequently, and that usually goes hand-in-hand with playing video games for my friends and I.

I tend to stay away from all other "drugs"-- anything dangerous, addictive, or really expensive is out of my league.

Never smoked, and don't.
Never drank alcohol, and don't.
Never did any other drugs, and don't.

If I do have an addiction, it's with gaming itself. First thing I do when I get home is get on the computer. And that's about it for my home life. This however doesn't mean I stay up to ungodly hours playing, no no, because, that would (and I have tried it once or twice) negatively affect my performance and my enjoyment of games. It really isn't all that great binging on junk food and staying up till 5.00 am. My brain just got fried and I wasn't having any fun.

So...that way I'm healthy, get enough sleep and still can devote the majority of my free time to it.

I used to smoke waaaaay too much pot, and for all those who say it has no effect it can and does fuck up your mind if you have a tendancy towards depression and can make you paranoid. Now Ihave a few cigs of an evening as I won't smoke or allow myself to be seen to be smoking around my son and only have a few beers once of month with friends.
My diets pretty healthy although I do have a sweet-tooth.

Hard core you know the score!

I don't smoke, consume alcohol, take drugs or gamble so I would consider myself as a "clean" gamer.

You know, I'd never actually heard of that misconception before. Odd.

As for myself, I don't drink, smoke, or anything else, never have and most likely never will. I just play games, and I don't do that addictively except in special circumstances.

Well, I changed myself a lot during the last years.

Quit smoking, reduced drinking to maybe once in a month, dont do drugs (well I tried once), dont do any kind of stupid adrenalin actions, dont gamble/bet and lost 24 pounds after changing my way of eating. Damn, I even wear nicer cloths lol.

Beeing like that became even more "difficulty" because I am the only one in my inner circle who doesnt smoke for example, or drinks like there is no tommorow.

Only got drunk once, never truly want to do it again ever, I'd prefer to be my level-headed self. Never smoked or done any drugs even though a large marjority of my friends have, which is quite unsettling.

The only thing I've been addicted to was coca cola because of the caffeine and I got headaches and cravings when I hadn't drunk it on that day. I'm underweight but have an incredibly bad diet full of junk food and can't eat fruit or veg because of a mental block towards it.

Don't smoke.
Barely drink.
No drugs.

Only addiction is gaming. Which started when I first played halo (god I love the original).

I'm pretty healthy, I think. Eat a lot of raw fruit, don't smoke, closest thing to drugs I take are chewable vitamin Cs, I only drink if it's either really classy or really funny (which doesn't happen all that often), and I get out pretty often. I play poker, but I don't put anything on the table I wouldn't want to lose. I don't think I suit any gamer stereotypes, to be honest. I guess I have nerd elbow (when your left arm gets a bit of a red spot from leaning on your desk while you're reading online) but that's nothing big.

well I do drink but rarely till i'm drunk, don't like being drunk.
I smoke weed from time to time but no sigarets
don't de adrenalin thrills don't see why I should. It's not that fun.

games can be addictive but all things that give one pleasure can be.

i drink alot (frequently not in one sitting) but i am usually the most sober one in the group (i dont like losing controll lol, also, i said USUALLY XD)

i smoke Cigars pretty much any time i drink, dont care for ciggarretts as much.. and not these cheap ass cigars from like petrol stations, i for one am taking advantage of the fact that in the UK we do not have a trade embargo on Cuba (like America, where i used to live).

expensive Cigars, expensive scotch (refuse to call it whisky lol) and some Frank Sinatra in the backround is all you need to keep me content.

oh, and i play poker with some friends occasionally... although i almost always lose its only a £10 buy in.

I do all three but not compulsively. I only smoke when I get drunk. I drink two or three cans of lager every other day but only get drunk once a month. I take drugs when they're someone elses. I gamble when I have spare money.

I'm not changing for anyone. I do these things because I enjoy them, they don't ruin my life and I have a pile of great stories to tell because of them.

I don't have a particularly addictive personality. I rarely get addicted to games. I just use them alleviate boredom. I buy the sheer number that I do because I get bored of them. I rarely spend longer than an hour at a time on a gaming session.

So no. I don't personally see a correlation between willingness to do naughty things and the addictive nature of gaming.

vamp rocks:

oh, and i play poker with some friends occasionally... although i almost always lose its only a £10 buy in.

ghe, I know how that feels

I seem to have a rather "addictive personality". I do smoke, drink and gamble, although I am not the guy who gives all his money away for any of these things. Well, scratch that, I spend a lot on cigarettes, and a modest amount for alcohol, the gambling part is rather the social gamer in me.
To be honest, my idea of a good weekend is being with 2-4 friends, playing something (poker, wii, etc...), and having a couple of beers. But belonging to a slightly "older" group we have no real need to drink, for drinks sake (several of my friends don't), it's really not about seeing who has the highest blood-alcohol level.

But I fail to see how that makes me an unclean gamer :(

I've got an inhuman resistance to chemicals, but i don't do anything. I drink casually among friends every once in a rare while but i try to avoid it most of the time. Anything which has the possibility of lowering my inhibitions or reflexes would get in the way of the things i enjoy, sex, gaming, rock climbing, etc. you need to be at 100% to get the most from these things, so i try to stay there.
plus since i'm not affected noticably without a severe dosage of chems, its a rather blatant waste of money.

I don't smoke or drink but I have an addiction to Coca-Cola(probably just caffeine in general)

Caffeine addict here.

I drink very, and I mean very rarely.
I don't smoke, and didn't ever smoke.
I don't do drugs, and haven't ever.

Well, I'm not addicted to anything, besides gaming :)

I dont drink but ive dabbled in the illict

I drink probably far more than I should, but I point blank refuse to have anything to do with drugs or tobacco. I don't even like to take paracetemol unless my head is on the verge of disgorging something.

Strangely, the thing I found myself most addicted to was Orange Lucozade. I started using it as a hangover cure, and in that capacity it does marvelous, marvelous work. It's when you realise you're drinking bottle after bottle of the stuff as though it were water that you think you might have a glucosey problem.

A close friend of mine died from alcohol poisoning about two years back. I actually had a drink with him the night before that. I don't think I saw him sober more than about twice in the three years prior to that, and the inquest said that he had a roughly 30% healthy liver at the time of his death. So I've tried to cut back a bit since then. Not easy though. I tend to go for long periods without drink now and then binge as a release, whereas before I would be drinking more slowly over a more extended period. At one point, the first thing I would do after getting out of bed in the morning would be to go downstairs and crack open a can of Strongbow out of the fridge and drinking about half of it at once, to the disgust of my housemates' girlfriend as she poured milk on her cereal. In the year since I've graduated from university, my living arrangements and financial situation have changed, and I'm more self sufficient and better funded, and it's been a struggle not to spend more money on alcohol than I have, but spending most of my days doing 9am to 8pm shifts at work doing manual labour and being too tired to do much of anything when I get home has been a help. Good exercise too.

With those kind of circumstances, I consider my time off with gaming to be a release from those pressures. And not just a casual rampage around Liberty City, as Okami and Sonic Rush achieve the same goal. Still, when The Dark Knight was such an awful movie and a huge letdown, it's hard not to get depressed enough to want to drink again.

I don't drink
I don't smoke
I don't gamble (much)
I don't do drugs and never will.

Although I am addicted to games...

vamp rocks:
i for one am taking advantage of the fact that in the UK we do not have a trade embargo on Cuba (like America, where i used to live).

yeah me too cept replace the UK with canada, as i like to say "Castro might be a commie pinko bastard but he's got a fine taste in cigars" currently my humidor is full of cohibas

i smoke nice cigars, i drink beer and wine mostly, some scotch, i have a bit of an allergy to harder stuff and i smoke pot on occasion

mercurio:
I don't smoke or drink but I have an addiction to Coca-Cola(probably just caffeine in general)

Cherry Coke is THE shit!

LowLadyDeuce:

And how do you feel about this (mis)conception?

Go visit a QA testing floor and tell me what you find... it isn't pretty.

cleverlymadeup:

as i like to say "Castro might be a commie pinko bastard but he's got a fine taste in cigars" currently my humidor is full of cohibas

i smoke nice cigars, i drink beer and wine mostly, some scotch, i have a bit of an allergy to harder stuff and i smoke pot on occasion

hahah too right, i like the way you think.

vamp rocks:

hahah too right, i like the way you think.

sadly you can't get the exact cut Castro, they're freaking huge, but you can get some nice ones

I drink, and I mean drink hahaha. 24 standard drinks a week minimum. But I am a fitness junkie and a game junkie as well. Irony+5

I don't drink, smoke or take drugs. The only games I've ever been addicted to are Pokemon and Zelda, but aside from that I'm just a bit of a hypochondriac (although with good reason at times).

I drink sometimes..never smoked or done drugs though

I'm not yet old enough to be allowed to have any vices, but I think drinking is going to be one of them.