Managing gaming time

Started by solops, May 11, 2019, 03:46:28 PM

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solops

How do you  guys manage to play so many different games? I own LOTS of games, but I cannot find time to play many. I am retired and gaming is one of my primary past-Times. If I seriously consider my average day in an average week, I spend 4 hours a day gaming, every day. It is not uncommon for me to spend 8 hours a day for three days in a row gaming before something like hunting comes along to sidetrack me. But all of this gaming time is focused. I have spent two weeks now on the same Endless Legends game. Yet I read of so many of you who play so many Different games. How do you manage it? There is almost no way I could spend MORE time gaming.
"I could have conquered Europe, all of it, but I had women in my life." - King Henry II of England
I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly. - Winston Churchill
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jamus34

If you figure out Solops let me know. Between having an active family, full time job and home ownership upkeep I grab whatever time I can get.

I figure I'll have a ton of shit to play once the girls are out of the house and I'm retired  ;D
Insert witty comment here.

-budd-

My complete lack of attention span, i bounce from game to game. It's rare anymore when i spend more than a week on a game before bouncing to something else. I have games i always go back to, particular wargames, my shooters, survival, those are my go to's. As far as time, usually have more time in the winter, but i will take care of everything and reserve Sundays for myself before starting another week , unless there's a kids sporting event or family obligations. Now that the weather is getting better i'll be out and about more so less gaming time. I'm a bit of an insomniac, the most i sleep is 6 hours, so i'm up at odd hours. Gaming is my decompress time, after work, yard work, kids activities, and any other responsibilities you need a little break from reality :D I also don't watch much TV or movies, so i usually game or browse the internet.

I'm on a self imposed gaming buying break. I'm finding when something looks good that i already own something similar, lets see how long i hold out
Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must.  ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Be Yourself; Everyone Else is Taken ~Oscar Wilde

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground*
I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

Sir Slash

Despite being retired, I probably play less now than when I worked but it's more flexible for me, I'm able to play when I really want to rather than just to have something to do. And generally I come to miss some games after taking a break from them and then go back to see where I left off at. So I rotate from game to game, type to type. Just like I used to do women when I was young.  :P   Some games I lose interest in and never go back, sometimes when at a tough point or I'm undecided, I'll take a long break and frequently go back over my strategy or tactics and something new or I haven't thought of before will come to me and before long I'm back at it again like I never left. Some of the inspiration comes from right here.  :hug:
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

Huw the Poo

Solops if you have that much time available to game, then I don't know what to tell you.  You have way more time than me.  Perhaps you always choose games that are open-ended, and coupled with your focus on one game at a time, it probably seems like you're missing out.

Myself, I rarely have more than an hour a day (on average) to play, but I tend to make a bit of progress in one game then move onto another.  It's also extremely rare for me to finish a game (and to be honest I tend to prefer open-ended games too).

I dunno mate.  Four hours every day?!  You aren't getting any sympathy from me! ;)

Anguille

I play in average one hour per day. To manage my gaming time, i use the information i have from steam and gog. This gives shows me how much time i have spend on the different games. I try to play games that haven't a lot of playtime in my list. My goal is 50 hours at least for the games i enjoy and at least one hour for each dollar i spent on a game. I try to avoid playing the same game over and over (which is what i did in the past with some games) and try to make a break after i finish a game of one of my favorite games.

Ian C

#6
Quote from: solops on May 11, 2019, 03:46:28 PM
How do you  guys manage to play so many different games? I own LOTS of games, but I cannot find time to play many. I am retired and gaming is one of my primary past-Times. If I seriously consider my average day in an average week, I spend 4 hours a day gaming, every day. It is not uncommon for me to spend 8 hours a day for three days in a row gaming before something like hunting comes along to sidetrack me. But all of this gaming time is focused. I have spent two weeks now on the same Endless Legends game. Yet I read of so many of you who play so many Different games. How do you manage it? There is almost no way I could spend MORE time gaming.

Great question. Four hours a day is perhaps what I'd spend on a single good session but if a game is great, I'll spend more time on it. Saying that, as I'm over 50 I don't spend too long sitting immobile to avoid the health risks involved and I have a damn comfy chair. If you are a heavy gamer I'd highly recommend investing in the best high-backed comfy reclining office chair you can find.
I can spend as much time gaming as I like as I'm practically semi-retired so I have a lot of free time available.

There are very few games that would hold my attention for such a long time. Those games that have done are a definite mix of strategy and RPG: Hearts of Iron 4, Saboteur, Dishonoured, L.A. Noire, Skyrim, Endless Space 2, Fable, GTA V,  Kingdom Come: Deliverance, Making History Gold, Mafia II, Star Wars Empire at War Gold, The Witcher 3 complete and XCOM.

Life would be considerably less enjoyable without having a good game to play. Thank heavens for them.

Huw the Poo

Quote from: Ian C on May 12, 2019, 04:26:02 AM
Life would be considerably less enjoyable without having a good game to play. Thank heavens for them.

The man speaks truth!

Gusington

Jamus34  put up the exact post I was going to.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

jomni

I'm stuck playing one game. And that's War Thunder.

airboy

Some of the guys finish very few games that they dabble in.  They play a lot of stuff, and finish very little.  Just ask people how many Steam games they have that they have not put at least 4 hours into.  Or how many board games they own that they have never set up (or even read the rules).

I worked three jobs for 30+ years.  At times my only leisure was reading a couple of chapters before going to bed.  When I finished a consulting job, turned in my grades for the semester, or finished a long business trip and I did not have anything else pressing I would play games for 10+ hours straight in one day aside from meals.  It was how I unwound from all of the stress.  Kill my self working, binge on games, go back to work.  About the only other leisure thing I did was go to local basketball games or go on 1-2 week vacations with my wife - some of which I played games on a laptop.

I went to Cons with gaming through College and grad school - then stopped for about 30 years.  I went to a Con again 3 or 4 years ago for the first time in 3 decades as I was winding up my work career.

I retired six months ago.  Now I'm a] going to the gym 5-6 days a week; b] going to sporting events (especially during basketball season); and c] gaming.  I'm also going to movies in the theater with my wife and we are also watching something streaming or a movie at home once a week or so.  When I find a game I like or a game system that I like - I tend to focus on that game or game system.  This keeps me from having to reload a set of rules or learn an entire new set of rules.  What I'm very jealous of timewise is learning rules. 

I played 117 hours of Aggressors Ancient Rome getting beat and then winning both scramble games and two of the 20 nation slugfest games.  I also read the entire rule book.  The only thing I played for a month was Aggressors.  Great game.  Wrote a very long (7 page) review.  I'm probably going to write a generic strategy guide for the 20 nation game and a specific strategy guide for Rome and Carthage.  And then I'll probably delete it from my hard drive and not play it again for a couple of years.  If I ever go back to it, my review will get me back up the learning curve really fast.

I've played every game in the Order of Battle: WW2 series - most multiple times.  But that was learning one set of rules running across a bunch of games.

I'm not playing very many games.  But when I find a game I like I tend to play it to death.

An advantage of gaming as a hobby is that you generally have a one time cost to buy the game.  Then you can play it forever with your only incremental cost being time.  Gaming, even PC gaming is a pretty cheap hobby compared to a lot of things.  My wife and I spent more money going to the Final 4 than I spent on games over the last 10 years excepting buying PCs (which I had to have for work) and going to game conventions in the last couple of years.  Even gaming conventions are pretty cheap - the hotels are usually inexpensive and you spend your time gaming instead of drinking or eating expensive meals.

But this is a leisure time activity - it is not a race.  Play what you want, when you want, for as long as you can spare the time.  Then quit.

Sorry to ramble on about this, but I've been looking forward to having the time to game since I graduated from College back in 1984.  I jumped on the work treadmill and it about put me in the grave with heart problems.  I've really enjoyed being retired and having the time to cook, play games, and exercise.

Gusington

Great post, because of the happy ending.


слава Україна!

We can't live under the threat of a c*nt because he's threatening nuclear Armageddon.

-JudgeDredd

Sir Slash

Back when I worked, I had an excuse to sit a couple of hours each morning and play... I can't get dirty or too tired out cause I gotta go to work. Now I have no such excuses. I generally can squeeze in an hour or two each day if it's quiet but damn, there's a lot of stuff to do now that I have time to do it.  :idiot2:
"Take a look at that". Sgt. Wilkerson-- CMBN. His last words after spotting a German tank on the other side of a hedgerow.

DennisS

I own 290 steam games, and perhaps another 20 computer games.

Board game totals are probably a hundred or more.

I don't have any issues keeping busy. I am completely retired as well. I may play a game for a week, solid, or I may play ten games in one day. I have a new PC game that I have played for about 70 hours over two weeks. Soon, I will purchase a hockey boardgame, and a soccer board game, from plaay.com. I will probably play these for a very large amount of time.

There is also WoW and WoWS, and WoT. The important thing is to enjoy yourself, and stay busy. I am nothing if not busy. With a complete lack of modesty, my work ethic was as good or better than anyone I have ever worked with...and this very high workrate is working beautifully for retirement. Oh..and I took over a Cub Scout pack a couple of months ago, and am getting them back on track.

MengJiao

Quote from: Huw the Poo on May 12, 2019, 04:43:42 AM
Quote from: Ian C on May 12, 2019, 04:26:02 AM
Life would be considerably less enjoyable without having a good game to play. Thank heavens for them.

The man speaks truth!

  And another thing: there are so many good games out there that there's no way you can ever hope to play most of them -- so just play the ones you really enjoy.  You're sure to be missing some great ones no matter what you do.