Go!
Theyāre both really different activities that scratch different itches. That said, I tend to swing between doing a lot of making for a while and then doing a lot of playing for a while.
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I got thinking about this when I saw a thread on TIGForums with developers discussing WHY they make games. A lot of them were saying things like āI enjoy playing games, so I decided to make themā. I thought that was interesting, because itās probably why most of us THINK we got into developing games, but I donāt know that itās necessarily the REAL reason. Is it just a mistake that we fool ourselves into believing because weāve done both of those activities (play and make), and weāve done them in that order, so therefore we assume one gave birth to the other?
So I started to think - which do I ENJOY more: playing games, or making games - and I realised that I think that I enjoy the process of making games even more than I enjoy the process of playing them. And that in itself is REALLY weird. I mean āMaking Gamesā is work, right? And didnāt I only start doing it because I like PLAYING games? Is it possible that I could have enjoyed making games without ever having enjoyed playing them? Are the two experiences completely isolated, or do they ALWAYS have to go hand-in-hand? And does PLAYING always lead to the desire to MAKE, and itās just those that donāt have the skills to MAKE, that donāt? Is every gamer out there wanting to MAKE games on some level? Or can you enjoy playing games without ever having ANY desire to make them?
Anyway, I donāt specifically have a point 
I just think itās really interesting, and a kind of unique industry in that sense. I mean sure, a Tennis Coach might ponder āDo I enjoy coaching Tennis as much as I enjoy playing itā, but itās really not the same thing, is it? Or is it? Orā¦ IS it?
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I often point out to people that if this logic was correct then weād all be Steven Spielberg.
[Edit]Plus, look at all the people who start making games because they like playing them, and then never finish a single project.[/Edit]
For me, I always had a strong interest in computers. That got me into video games, because when I was a kid I didnāt have much useful to do with computers and games were a cool way to see what they could do. The interest in computers also got me into programming at a young age, though I always assumed that game programming was something crazy hard that only geniuses or nutcases would do, so it was ages before I put much thought into it. Eventually I did combine those two separate-but-related interests, and many years later here I am.
So for me, the two are quite distinct interests that just happened to overlap. Also of note is that when I started getting into games it wasnāt so much because I wanted to program cool things. I wanted to design cool things, and programming was a pre-existing skill that happened to be useful. This is probably a huge influence on my oft-given advice to not learn āgame programmingā, but to learn general programming (ie: how to use computers to solve problems) and then apply it to games.
Donāt forget me. I seem to enjoy talking about making games more then I like playing them or making them. 
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Your āOrigin Storyā sounds a lot like mine
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And yes, good point, I forgot the third category āThose That Enjoy Talking About Making Video Gamesā. Definitely a separate thing altogether
Iād say I have far more fun making games than playing them, under most circumstances. Sometimes I get frustrated with things not working and would rather go play a game, thoughā¦
When I do play games, I tend to prefer the games that let me be creative and build things. In fact, all my life Iāve loved building things in some form or another. And so maybe programming was a natural thing for me.
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Iāve found recently that I only play games that I feel might in some way contribute to games that Iām making - i.e. lessons learnt, inspiration type stuff.
For example, right now Iām playing Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir (easily one of the best video games of all time), and World Of Final Fantasy - both games satisfying an interest in collectables, crafting, skill trees, etc that Iām working through the prototyping of for my own new game.
Seriously, if you own a PS4 (or PS Vita/PS3?) go buy Odin Sphere: Leifthrasir. Do it now. Donāt think about it. Go do it.
Iāve been a creative person all my life, to the point that Iād probably kill myself if I didnāt have an outlet to create stuff. Lego, drawing, painting, sculpture, 3d modeling, modding, programming. That last one is always a major barrier, and the reason I didnāt get to game programming until later in life. While the late 90s and early 00s gave me many games to play and enjoy, I had difficulty breaking the barrier of actually making games myself, having generated reams and reams of art and game design that couldnāt ever be actualized. Of course, all those designs were either not good, not worth actualizing, or just simply too large to be actualized. So why then, would I prefer developing games over playing games if the chances of developing a completed game are so slim? Because along the way, there are many other skills that I develop to try and get to the end, and while I may not ever get to the end, I will have gained plenty of skills that can be applicable to other career-related advancements, and at the very least, knowing that when I pass, that I will have left something that I produced rather than have nothing to show for my life because I was too busy being a consumer instead. And this idea of the value gain always floods my mind when I give myself the decision of which activity I want to do.
Now, I realize this doesnāt fully answer the question of whether I find development enjoyable. Maybe I donāt. Maybe creativity is truly a curse, because some days, I do feel like Iām wasting my time. These sorry-ass planted ideas in my mind that want to hog up my free time, never seeing the light of day, thinking that Iām enjoying myself with a gift, when in reality, itās destroying my quality of lifeā¦? At this point, you do have to step back, and usually this is the point I switch to doing other recreational activities other than games, like hiking, or driving around, or drinking a beer and watching some sports, cartoons, movies, or binge watch a show. I guess I havenāt found much value in playing games lately. Iām trying to get through XCOM2, but I canāt bring myself to finish the campaign as excitedly as I did XCOM:EU. And other than Pokemon GO*, my gaming has resorted to reading about them, and wondering whether I want to purchase them on a sale on Steam for a future playing time in the retirement home. I had several opportunities to end this with a summarizing sentence, but failed to, so thatās what itās gonna be.
- Anyone else still playing? That Halloween event was great, especially since I spent most of the weekend in San Francisco. Itās a mildly enjoyable game that gets me out and about to places Iāve never been. I think thatās good value in a game, at least, personally. Unfortunately, since the FastPokeMap shutdown, Iāve lost significant interest in it.
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I loved (and still do) puzzle games. The more complex the better. The first game I was truly passionate about was the zorks and hitchhikers guide to the galaxy. Later stuff like lemmings, myst, and the incredible machine. I was never much into platformers (Mario and the like). But I did enjoy competitive games against other players. But games where you have to solve puzzles and figure things out are my passion.
Making games was a very natural progression for me. When first tried my hand at it on a PET, it was very challenging and basically a really hard puzzle. I knew what my goal was, I just had to find the right combination of code to solve it. Making games to me is just really just solving puzzles. These days I do lot more creating than playing, but is all just the same thing to me.
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The inverse notion, that someone who doesnāt like or has never played a game, yet somehow makes it into the core of the industry, just seems unfathomable though. Any industry fueled on passion is likely to be this way.
From an artistic standpoint, who else but consumers of that medium are going to understand what it can do.
So to be serious, I enjoy both. I probably spend more time playing then making. Developing requires a fair bit of brain power, often at the end of a day I have more energy to play then to develop.
Iām not really sure that they have a lot in common on a day-to-day basis. Playing games takes care of my short-term pleasure but it isnāt comparable to the experience of designing, creating and managing something - theyāre totally different really.
Aside from simple narcissistic pleasure, if I had to say the one thing that playing (some) games do for me is to ārebalanceā my personality. It might sound weird considering how violent games usually are, but it has nothing to do with that, in fact I find that violent games make it harder to identify these opportunities. Itās just an abstract question of being able to consider yourself in a certain light or in terms of a given exaggerated situation. If you do it right itās something you can take away and use constructively in a lot of areas of your life, but you have to be careful to not take it too seriously or āliterallyā or otherwise it feels (and is) stupid and ridiculous.
But creating games on the other hand is real, substantial and enjoyable work which is of course where I like to spend most of my time.
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I like making games only when Githubās bullshit doesnāt interfere and delete a week of work. -.-
I donāt always āenjoyā working on my game, but games are one of the few things in life that I genuinely care about, and my skillset happens to be diverse enough to work on all aspects of a game (I did try to make a movie once, but that isnāt for me). Combine that with an inner desire to ācreate somethingā, and it just seems like the most logical choice for a second hobby after gaming. I do see myself as a gamer first and a dev second.
I can very well imagine people only enjoying one of the two.
Have you seen this one yet?
store.steampowered.com/app/504210/
It is another assembly programming (and some circutry design I believe) game from the developer of TIS-100 and Infinifactory. It also includes the competitive statistical histograms at the end of levels that show you how good your solution performed compared to other players.
Iāve played some more Infinifactory lately, but I found that in the later levels Iām starting to ājust get throughā and no longer strive for optimal solutions, because the machines you build get soooo big. Itās starting to feel a bit like āworkā. Have you finished that game?
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Yes
They are different reward types, short term vs long term. Though theyāre part of a same ecosystem. I wouldnāt imagine liking making games if I didnāt like games.
This. Just recently started up building a prototype for a game that popped into my head. Iāve been spending a bit of time every day working on the prototype and playing Skyrim (the original since the remaster doesnāt support the mod I want yet). There are periods though where I work exclusively on the game for the day and days where I just feel like gaming only.
Have you seen Obduction?
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