What's your gaming schedule like?

[Exhuminator]

Not too long ago, we had a discussion about how much time we all spend gaming per week. To take that concept further, I was wondering how many of you have a kind of gaming schedule. And by that, I don't mean a rigid schedule, but rather a habit of playing games at a certain time of day, or only during certain situations?

For example, I typically play games 10pm-12:30am lately. That's because during that time everything I needed to get done for the day is done, and everybody's asleep aside from me (I have that night owl as an avatar for a reason). Sometimes I'll play mobile/handheld games from 5:30pm-6:30pm or so, while waiting on my wife to get home from work. But the 10pm-12:30am thing has been my jam for quite a while now. Doesn't matter if it's during the week, or on a weekend, that's how I roll.

What about you folks? What time(s) during the day do you usually game? Is there a particular reason you choose that time(s)? Or do you just play randomly and sporadically? If that's the case, how come?

[MrPopo]

I get home from work pretty consistently at 6:30. I'll basically game from then til 11, and somewhere in there I eat dinner. It depends on what the food situation is. For example, this week I'm eating leftover chicken tikka masala I made on Monday, so I get my rice cooker going at 6:30 while I play, then after the rice is done I'll heat up the chicken at some point, depending on where I am at that point. If I'm making some boxed mac & cheese or a frozen dinner I'll probably eat closer to 10. And if I'm making something from scratch (like I did Monday) then I'll start by cooking and won't get in gaming until later.

Weekend is wake up, game, and I usually catch a movie around 10am on Saturday (depends on start time) since the theater by me serves food. So I do lunch and keep up with movies. Otherwise weekends are basically solid gaming.

[strangenova]

I get up and go to work and then get home to take care of a toddler for a few hours. My son goes to bed around eight and then I get a chance to play games from then til around midnight on weekday nights, if im not wrapped up in some netflix show. On the weekends I stay up til around two or so and game that whole time. Sometimes on the weekend ill find a good time to break out the 3DS and get a little handheld gaming in.

So my gaming time is all scheduled around my son going to bed and whether my wife wants to watch tv or not. Id love for a weekend day every once in a while where I can just get up and game for the day like I used to. Actually a few months ago they went to stay at her moms for the day and I beat Super Castlevania, Super Metroid, and Super Mario World back to back.......that day was a good day.

[Xeogred]

Well I'm single so kind of whenever the heck I want I guess.

Lately as I've become a morning person though, I love the feeling of being up early on the weekends to do some morning gaming. Kind of evokes those old feelings of being a kid sitting down in front of the TV and playing my NES and such.

What I can talk about, is the dreadeded sundown timeframe. I don't really want to rearrange my room at all again at this point, but I mistakenly have my computer/TV on the side of the wall that's closest to a large window, which is perpendicular to this wall with all my stuff, and the window is only 3 inches or so from this wall. I don't bother with curtains, so when the sun is setting it can be blinding. Games that are dark, or horror, or in night levels, become absolutely unplayable. The blinding light always seems to be at its strongest at the most crucial and annoying times too. This even seems to mess with my vision when I'm laying back in bed watching something, the light of the bright window in my peripheral vision seems to make it hard to focus on the TV or read stuff. What can I say, lesson learned... will definitely position my TV better next time.

All that said, I do kind of miss the long dark nights of binging anime or playing games. Has a nice soothing atmosphere to it.

[BoneSnapDeez]

^ Get some of those solid, light-blocking blinds. I installed those in every window when I moved into this house.

As far as Bone gaming....... The earliest I ever get any in is 8PM. Though usually I begin closer to 10. Maybe 90 minutes on a good day. I have tons of hobbies so I sometimes find myself doing various other things during my "free" time.

[MrPopo]

If you don't have the option of full window treatments you can get blackout curtains from Amazon for cheap and just run some twine through the hole and hang them with picture hangers. That's what I used at my apartment since I obviously didn't have the option of replacing the light-leaky venetian blinds (I'm sensitive to light when I sleep).

[ElkinFencer10]

Well, my gaming schedule is about to change radically since students come back on Monday, but my usual Monday thru Friday schedule during the school year is to start gaming whenever I get home (anywhere from 4 to 6 pm depending on how late I'm at the school working) and game until I go to bed around 10. That will probably get shortened this year since this is my first time teaching both Civics and Economics and AP Government and Politics (and I'm teaching both at the same time), but hopefully I can salvage as much as possible since - as I've progressed through my early career - I've gotten better at managing my time better and using it more efficiently for lesson planning and grading.

As for the weekends, I'm usually gaming fairly non-stop from the time I get up (between 8 and 9 am) until I go to bed (between 10 and 11 pm). Since I refuse to work on the weekend, that should be fairly consistent this year.

[Exhuminator]

Man some of you guys are super hardcore. I tend to burn out after 3 hours, playing 4 hours straight I get serious gaming fatigue, and just have to do something else. Now, I'm not knocking anybody who can play 8-12 hours straight or what have you, I used to be able to do that. It just doesn't work for me these days, for varying reasons. But I can respect the hardcore nature of it definitely.

And yes, if you've got light problems from a window, a blackout curtain is the ticket. They are relatively cheap and do a better job than any blinds I've ever seen.

[MrPopo]

I've got good blinds for my bedroom now; they are accordion fold blinds that have a layer of foil on the inside to make them opaque. Those work really well.

[Tanooki]

If my motivation wasn't shot, and I didn't have other things in the way I could put hours a day into it, but realistically it's hours a week. I enjoy it but I can't get myself pushed to start something most the time. It's not that I don't enjoy it, but getting going just isn't happening anymore.