What's your Passive Hobbies?

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  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    Hello Legion Gamers!

    This month, we're discussing hobbies, for example, the "5 hobbies theory", and we even have whole threads dedicated to some hobbies, like @Saka Kendo.

    This time, I thought it'd be interesting to think about hobbies in terms of whether they are active or passive.

    To put it in simple terms, active hobbies are the ones where you create something, like @DracoTarot carpeting or @Saka drawing, and passive ones are the ones where you experience something created by others. Often active hobbies will have passive counterparts.

    For example, you do not need to have a hobby of drawing to have a hobby of visiting painting galleries and admiring the paintings, or you do not need to have a hobby of creative writing to be able to enjoy stories written by someone else.

    There are several studies on the matter, and some suggest that passive hobbies are of lower "quality" than active ones, as they do not require you to create something. Debatable, but there could be a point in that, not sure if everyone would agree?

    I like to think that everything is good in moderation: you can have a mix of both. Indeed, most, if not all of us here would likely have "playing video games" as a passive hobby, but not many of us would know how to make a video game @Saka, not sure if your coding is of "game dev" variety). What's important is, while having passive hobbies, not to neglect active ones. You can be a reader and a painter, a film watcher and a woodworker, a game player and a carpenter, and have a fulfilling "hobby life".

    We've already discussed many active hobbies in the "5 hobbies" thread, so this time I wanted to ask, what are your passive hobbies?

    I'll start. I do play games and watch a lot of series and films and do a lot of reading, which is pretty standard. I enjoy hiking as well, not sure where that fits, as I do not create anything new while doing so. But I also dabble in occasional amateur poetry and creative writing. I would not say my passive vs. active ratio is all that balanced, though.

    What about you? Aside from playing games (watching series/films and reading books/comics/manga are also popular choices), do you enjoy listening to music (maybe even live), admiring paintings, going to fashion shows? Or maybe something more exotic?

    And most importantly, do you think your hobbies are balanced?
  • 31 Replies

  • Saka's Avatar
    Level 52
    Regarding coding, I am sort of jack of all trades. But lately I haven't done anything involving games lately. If I had to do that, it'd take some time to learn.

    Does eating chocolate count as a passive hobby? 😂
    Unamused Snarktooth. Advocate for hearing loss & accessibility. Person, friend and a terrible/terrific* artist.
    *delete as appropriate
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    Does eating chocolate count as a passive hobby? 😂

    Not sure... Maybe depends on how involved you are?

    Do you do it fairly regularly and can discern, by taste alone, the country of origin and cacao percentage? For example, spot a difference between Colombian and Dominican chocolate?
  • DracoTarot's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch One of my passive hobbies is fishing. Once in a while, I and my family would visit the nearest lake and wet the fishing lines hoping to reel in a hundred-pounder.

    I would say blogging and uploading some photos here and there on social media would be a passive hobby of mine.
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @DracoTarot Do you ever catch that hundred-pounder?
  • DracoTarot's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch Unfortunately not. The biggest Carp I ever caught was around 21 pounds.
  • Saka's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch Alas I can't easily buy gourmet chocolate where I live, so I don't have that much practice. But I do prefer fancy, dark chocolates over the sweet milk ones.
    Unamused Snarktooth. Advocate for hearing loss & accessibility. Person, friend and a terrible/terrific* artist.
    *delete as appropriate
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @DracoTarot you can practice with a game:


    Maybe the virtual fish will be as good as the real one. Only not as edible.
  • DoctorEldritch's Avatar
    Community Manager
    @Saka I would not call it gourmet, really. There is a notion that chocolate from South America is more exclusive, but I do not agree, because the reason for its outlook is just that it is less common than chocolate from Central Africa which grows around 70% of world chocolate now. To me, gourmet comes more to percentage, quality of ingredients, and preparation method. Do you have a favorite chocolate type? Simple bars, truffles, maybe drinking variety (and I mean proper hot chocolate, not that powder Starbucks cocoa nonsense)?
  • DracoTarot's Avatar
    Level 52
    @DoctorEldritch I had a fishing game on my mobile and played for a while. It was fun but I still prefer the traditional way.

    I'm a catch-and-release kind of guy and would rarely eat fish from a lake or dam. 😊