I have a more than average paying job. Cool manager who is okay with almost anything I do .The work place and colleagues are awesome but I'm not getting any work. My title says SE but all I do at work is play. Should I leave this place or stay and work on my side projects?

I recommend you leave, because your personal projects will not put you through real life examples but they remain to be a great place to learn, try and improve.

You better work on your projects while at work when nothing to do, but yet keep on searching for something new

@ThatDude NEVER! NEVER EVER DO THAT!

Once he talk to manager about it they will start by:
1. Think of dismissing him because he does nothing at work and have no value for the job
2. Make him do things outside job description and he can't say no about it unless government rules support employee in this case
3. They might consider a salary cut because if there are no plans to dismiss him
4. They will be keeping a close eye on him

Just my two cents

@ThatDude this is no school or university, in those, if you talk to management they will fix it because if not, they will destroy their reputation.
At work usually if not all of them are just for money, if x doesn't bring money in, then x is out!

Actually I did talk to manager, he said he will train me on something and it takes time. And most of the employees are like that they don't have much to do. It's like crawling when everyone is running

@kingjoker "he will" but does it help or actually start?
Once a colleague talked to management about same thing, ended up resigning because one year passed and nothing changed

You can't be sure that in your next job the coworkers are going to be cool or dicks. Maybe your'e next boss is a complete bum and you have to do stuff you don't even like. If it was me I would stay and do alll the side projects that have piled up and learn all the stuff I want to learn.

Stay at your job and start a bit of freelancing alongside your pet projects. That way you'll stay in the loop and you'll have something to show for yourself if shit hits the fan and you start looking for another job