It was about 1:30 am and I had to be at work early in the morning. For all intents and purposes, I should have been in bed hours ago. But the task at hand was infinitely more important than my job making sandwiches all day. I was on the verge of finding and capturing the serial killer who had been murdering people ever since I moved into the small, rural town of Inaba. Yes, I was playing Persona 4, and had finally made it to the boss battle of a very long and difficult dungeon crawl. I had been playing for almost 4 hours straight, but I just couldn't let myself go to sleep until I finished off the boss and saw what happened next. 

After having been thrashed by said boss twice already, I decided to grind a few more levels and fuse the Personas that would give me access to "Black Frost" and the devastating combination of Mind Charge and Agidyne skills. So, was staying up late to the point where I knew I would be dead tired at work the next morning really worth it? I have to say, I truly believe it was. The hours of grinding and strategizing for the dungeons final confrontation and finally walking away victorious filled me with a sense of accomplishment that I could only dream about getting at my part-time job. 

This is why I game. Because working a dead end, minimum wage job part-time at a sandwich shop isn't exactly my idea of fulfilling work. Sure, it's only until I finish college, but any time spent not doing something that I enjoy feels like a complete waste to me. 

That's why I stay up later that I know I should, clutching my DSi at night, trying my damndest to solve that last puzzle in Professor Layton before I hit the light switch. 

Serving sandwiches and coffee and such to a bunch of rude, stuck up, and unhealthy city employees isn't what I consider to be the highlight of my day nor do I consider it purposeful social interaction. Teaming up with friends to slay elder dragons and wyverns in Monster Hunter Freedom Unite, however, is teamwork and social interaction at its best.

I guess my point is, I will never consider gaming to be a waste of my time. The time and effort put into breaking your highest score, upgrading your best armor or just seeing the story through to the end is always worth losing a couple hours of sleep.