Time spent on gaming

[RCBH928]

Hello everyone,
I think I asked this before here, but I will do it again.

I am wondering how much time do you actually spend on gaming?
I got 4 consoles, N64, dreamcast, 360, and a Wii. I also have a PC.

You are retro gamers(I am guessing you also play current generation games)
How much time do you spend on games?
It seems to me that its very important thing in your life to spend time playing and purchasing games. You even go into areas I wouldn't dare , like philips-cdi , Lynx, jaguar. I will never purchase those consoles .

It takes me like a week or so to finish short games like COD4 , its like 2 or 3 weeks I am playing Sonic Adventure on the dreamcast. I am currently not studying and I am not working, yet I still don't have the time to do so much gaming. Do you actually play your games or you just purchase and store?
How long does it take you to complete a game?
I also want to mention that some games take hours and hours of gameplay(RPG) and some are endless(MMORPG)

So, how do you actually do it?
Did I mention some of you will actually go through a single game a couple times for replay value?

[Thierry Henry]

I set aside around 8-10 hours a week on gaming. A big chunk of that time is used up on the weekends.
It used to be a whole lot more but I just can't manage to find that extra free time anymore.
So I guess I'm slowly seeing myself turn from being strictly a gamer to being a collector to being someone who buys games and will leave them in sealed condition. I hope though the latter doesn't happen for a while yet.

[deathclaw]

Great post!I constantly think about these things..
So-I tried to play through all those games I'd missed,but after a year or so(and dozens of games I played through) I found out,that it's an impossible task and I didn't enjoy the games so much. So now I try to enjoy games rather than quickly run through them,thinking about 'all the great games' out there I'm missing. So I would say-take your time and enjoy games..if you are playing through some game for the 5th time,or 'waste' dozens and dozens of hours playing multiplayer..why not to, if you still enjoy it?
so it doesn't matter, how many games you have played through. the only thing that matter is, if you have enjoyed playing through those games.
because nowadays,with so many great games out there,and many others coming,why to try such a ridiculous task,when you can play,what yo really want to,and what you really enjoy?

[jfrost]

I only buy games to play. If my time doesn't allow it, I won't buy something just to put on the shelf.

About how much time I spend to complete one game, it depends. If it's a Mega Man title, about 2 hours (if I never played it before and thus don't know my way around the game). If it's an RPG... well, it takes a lot, but I always commit to one game. I have a Final Fantasy X save with 240 hours. And it didn't take that much time overall. I think I played it for one month. Newer games have a higher entry barrier, so that's a reason for me to turn to old titles, as it's easier to just pick them up and play.

Normally my week of gaming consists of fighting games and other shorter games, so I don't sink too much time in them. But sometimes, if I'm brave enough, I'll start an adventure or a RPG and use every free time I have to play it. Some time ago I started playing Dragon Quest VIII and in one week I had played it for 70 hours.

[Hatta]

Couple of hours a night, more on weekends. It's better than watching TV for sure. If I find myself not enjoying a game, I just switch to another one. I usually have 3 or 4 that I'm actively pursuing at a time.

[arion]

I buy games regularly. I like to have some variety in games when i find time to play them.

[superlarz]

I dont really watch TV, so the time most people spend watching tv I spend gaming or on the computer. I dont set aside time for gaming, and some weeks I dont play any games at all. Some weeks I spend 20 or more hours playing games. It depends on what is going on that particular week.

I usually only play games that are fun to play. If I have a significant amount of time with nothing to do, I will get into a game that people rave about and try to finish it within a reasonable amount of time. This doesnt always work, and as soon as I am bored with something I usually stop playing. That game then sits on the shelf.

[RadarScope1]

Sometime tough carving out time for me. I spend maybe an hour or two on most but not all weeknights, and get several hours in on the weekends. Maybe 10 hours at week at the most. Makes it tough to finish a game like Fallout 3, and really hard when I'm trying to play multiple games at a time. I almost feel guilty spending time on sorta-old games like Ridge Racer 6 (which is a grind) when I could be playing either new games or retro classics I missed out on in the past.

Luckily my wife is cool with my hobby (even though she really doesn't play). However, she digs it when I play story based games like Zelda or Fallout, so sometimes other things get left out in favor of those types of games. If you're trying to write about games (even just for fun) it's even harder. You feel like the time you spend writing or reading about them could be better spent playing.

[t0yrobo]

I usually don't play very much at all. 5 hours a week is quite a bit for me. When a game gets my attention I'll spend a fair amount of time with it though, shorter games that I got really into like BG&E or Okami I finished in about a month. Most games though it will take me 3-6 months to finish.

[Mozgus]

15 hours a week lately. That'll change when I get a job again.