What mistakes have you made gaming?

Obviously this is a broad subject with many interpretations, so take it as you will.

The biggest mistake I have made recently is...

... trying to play isometric RPGs -- and RTS games -- on console. I bought them cheap since neither genre sells particularly well on console, but the experiences have been so bad (incredibly imprecise) that I'm thinking of dumping them and re-buying on GOG. Plus, IMO they look mediocre on a large-screen television in comparison with a computer monitor. I could kick myself for thinking this might have been a good idea.

Bought a Nintendo Switch Pro controller for PC gaming just because I enjoyed the feel of it. Life would've been a lot simpler if I bought an Xbox One controller instead. Every time I get button prompts, I get super confused. I've bought one game so far on GOG here that I need to open up DS4 to use properly or it crashes my game (Ys Memories of Celceta).

Probably the worst mistake I've made in gaming in recent years was when I played Final Fantasy XIV online. I was a level 100 summoner, but I was still using Summon I and Summon II, because I hadn't learned the higher summoning spells for my class yet. (I was under the impression my skills would reset and I would have to grind the newly acquired skills.) My party and I entered a fight against the primal Garuda (a notoriously nasty, harpy-like boss that flies around and shoots feathers everywhere). Well, we got wiped twice, and the people in my party couldn't be polite anymore. Someone started screaming about how I was still using Summon I and Summon II against GARUDA, when I should have had the more powerful summoning skills. Another person in my party was trying to be unflinchingly positive, saying "it doesn't matter! Let's just try again." So, though our team spirit was pretty shredded, we tried again. And Garuda flattened us again. Hard. After they finally realized I wasn't a "master troll," someone explained where I needed to go and what I needed to do to obtain my higher skillset.

I recall another time in Final Fantasy XIV where I was disappointed with the lack of support from party members in defending me as a Black Mage after my MP was all used up. So, I stopped rotating through all of my attack magic and used only the ice, because that could be spammed without using up all of my mana and making me helpless against physical assaults. Well, someone was telling me to "do my proper spell rotations," but I had the chat minimized. I only noticed people were talking about me seeming like a "bot" after I was kicked out of the party.

The Final Fantasy XIV community was pretty toxic when I was there. If you don't play the way other people expect you to, you will get kicked and ragged on pretty hard. Hopefully, things have improved since then. The antithesis of FFXIV is Monster Hunter. The Monster Hunters have always had awesome online communities, where people help and have fun on a regular basis. I avoid MMOs in general, these days. A game environment just becomes too unstable when so many uncontrolled variables are introduced, imo.

I feel the same... often.

But then I live in a city where very few people move beyond childish pursuits

For me it's buying an Xbox Series S recently.
I thought the Game Pass was a great deal, but...
I realize now that I don't enjoy playing games on console anymore to the point where even this deal isn't good enough for me.
I'd rather spend the extra dollars to get to play them on my computer.

Dunno, maybe buying games at lower discounts than 75% off when I wasn't in a hurry to play them. Better offers tend to come along, and games I bought often dropped in price significantly before I even got the chance to try them; sometimes they were even given away for free afterwards ...

And not backing up a creative modding project I did with a sibling in the late 90's; I have fond memories of it and it's a shame that we lost it. :/

I got a job, got married, got a social life, got into board games...

Also:
* I tend to enjoy a ton of games that have high replayability (4x games, sims, builder/management games, deckbuilders, etc). This makes it hard for me to get the gumption up to start a longer single-play or narratively-focused games.
* I have a bad habit of "altaholism" or "too many games at once". This is related to the previous. But I have approximately twenty eight bazillaion different characters (each with a different build) in Grim Dawn. I'm somewhere in the progress of Tropico 6 (finished a level for sure), and am going to have to relearn how to play when I return. I "took a break at a convenient spot" in Disco Elysium, and now it's been largely reworked and I forgot what was going on anyway, so I have to start over. I got frustrated with the last level of the campaign of Megaquarium, and now it'll be even harder to get back and do it since I don't remember how to play now...
* Read the patch notes for and updates to certain games I'm "done with" and get inspired to want to play again and have to fight urges to do so (Craft the World, Rimworld, Prison Architect...)
* I Kickstarted some games that completely evaporated. (But I've done some that turned out really great, like Grim Dawn and Parkitect.)
* I bought 100% of the regularly-available content for The Sims 3, and even have a decent chunk of the limited edition/event-based content. [Sims 3 disc versions were DRM-free, though needed disc check removal. All the web-based mini-expansions are DRM-free as well.]
* I upgraded to Windows 7...10, breaking some games from working that I wanted to play. (The Sims Medieval. Night Watch.)
* I've played Reigns 4567439574398574 times and still can't get the good ending to trigger, even following a guide after 2567439574398574 failures trying on my own.
* Bought Rise Eterna yesterday. I guess at least I get to warn people off it?

Sometimes I think I should have tried a console or maybe a handheld. As I explore emulation some of the games I come across surprise me from what was available on Sega Master System to PSP and Dreamcast. Then others have pointed out that I'm playing these games with new features that I use often like save state and advanced filter options.

Stayed away from consoles due to their expense and back to back bad arcade ports but maybe I should have tried the other stuff when I was younger.

Buying Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel (at full price). Really believed the hype that it was a ''role-playing shooter'' and had 10 gazillion guns only to realize that its just a loot-oriented and level-based shooter with almost zero character customization and 99% of the stuff you get is trash.

SaGa 1: Saved after meeting the conditions to fight the first major boss, but before fighting it, when the party wasn't strong enough to win. (You can't leave without fighting the boss (unless you're lucky enough to have Teleport, which I did not), and the terrible RNG means you can't get lucky if you use the same commands.) Had to start over. Note that there's only one save slot in this game.

Ys 3 (SNES): I had a similar situation (involving an enemy that respawns when you reload, unlike most enemies which despawn), where I'd get killed on reload. Unlike the previous event, I did manage to get out of this; for a brief moment after reloading, you can open the menu before taking damage, and I used this to equip the Shield Ring, which reduced the damage enough to prevent the death.

I tend to think that if it wasn't for gaming, you would have used that same time to some other sort of escapism, be it TV, movies, social media, drinking yourself silly every other day...

So I don't necessarily believe gaming is necessarily the reason, but a consequence. Even if you had no gaming devices or any games, you (you in general including me, not you you) still would have probably spent that time to some other "unproductive" past time, not studying and inventing cure for cancer at your work.

Frankly, if I think what is taking much more of my "productive time" (which I should rather have used for studies in the past, or work now), is internet and online discussion forums. I mean, right now I should be re-registering a domain for our client and creating their DNS zone, but here I am talking shit to you people. I'll promise to do it right after this message, unless I go to check some Youtube videos first...

At least nowadays gaming doesn't really take time from me from e.g. work (internet, youtube etc. in general may do so). I usually play games later in the evening and nights and weekends if there is nothing special to do, and it is mainly taking time from other useless activities like watching TV, or writing to GOG forums.

Also, while I do feel I should do more physical exercise nowadays to stay fit (my belly is growing), I don't feel bad about my gaming habit. At this point of my life, I feel that if it is bringing pleasure to me and I find it interesting, then it is a positive thing. As long as it is not drugs or some other really harmful thing... So in essence, I don't consider "escapism" to be a bad thing at all, as long as you get your normal chores done and remember to wipe your butt after taking a dump. Reading a good book is "escapism", and no one seems to say it is a bad thing. But then you would be wondering now whether you should have tried PC and computer gaming when you were younger...

I pretty much only really enjoy playing RPGs and immersive sims, with some rare FPS games thrown in, but I used to try and force myself to play a lot of other genres. The sad fact is I don't have the time left in life to finish all the RPGs I want to, let alone everything else. I've had to learn to focus more, and it's still a struggle.

I also usually made the mistake of choosing normal difficulty until somewhat recently. There are still times when "hard" or whatever just makes everything take longer, but I've learned a lot of games (especially CRPGs) really require you to play on harder settings if you want to invest much in their systems and learning the mechanics.

In Mystery Dungeon: Shiren the Wander, I lost a really good shield (I believe it was +99 with lots of bonuses) when I was playing around. I used meat to turn into the highest tier of walrus, got hit, split into two, and the duplicate of me stole my shield.

(And, of course, this game is a permadeath roguelike, so no reloading here.)

My biggest mistake was cluelessly distributing stats for my shaman in Metin 2 which resulted in the weakest character you could ever witness. It was years ago and still stings.