How do you personally make time for gaming?

[prfsnl_gmr]

I work long hours; I own an old house; I have two relatively small children; and I have other interests. (Moreover, my aging personal laptop is unfit for gaming, and I have only television, which I share with the rest of my family.) Accordingly, my gaming time is limited. I still manage to fit in some gaming in the evenings, however, and my children now enjoy playing videogames with me on Saturday mornings. (I cannot wait until they are old enough to play by themselves.) Accordingly, I am able to fit in a fairly good number of family-friendly and portable titles. It is much harder for me to fit in games with "mature" subject matter, however, and it is likewise much harder for me to fit in very long console games.

[dsheinem]

I neglect the kid, neglect the wife, neglect the job, and focus almost all of my waking hours on getting cheevos, reading Kotaku, and making witty forum posts.

[prfsnl_gmr]

I neglect the kid, neglect the wife, neglect the job, and focus almost all of my waking hours on getting cheevos, reading Kotaku, and making witty forum posts.

No time for gaming sadly.

[Gooseberrysoda]

I'm 21, live in a house with four other guys- usually, I only play at night, after I get out of work (around 11:30). On days off, it's rare that I play any time before sunset. I've still got this midwestern idea that it's wasteful to not spend every warm day outside, even though it's super nice down here most of the time.

[Exhuminator]

This is a very interesting discussion to me, and I appreciate the replies so far. You'll have to excuse the length of my coming reply, but as I said, I enjoy this topic.

First my responsibilities... I have a full time job, live with my fiance (who also has a full time job), we own our own home, I have a teenage daughter (who stays with us often but lives with her mother), two cats, a dog, and a grumpy elderly bearded dragon. We own two cars, and my dad's health is not the best so I have to help him often. We have family that lives three hours away and often we visit them which takes up a weekend at a time when doing so. All of these factors take a lot of time to maintain in any semblance of proper order.

I do however make time for gaming a priority as it's my number one hobby. At home my personal gaming time takes effect after my fiance goes to bed (and necessary chores have been accomplished). She usually goes to sleep around 9pm because she gets up at 5:30am. I will usually start gaming around 9:30-10pm until 12:30am, as I like to be in bed by 1am because I get up for work at 7am. Sometimes during the week, she will do co-op gaming with me if we have time. When that happens it's usually on a weekend, and occasionally during an evening. As far as gaming time goes on the weekend, sometimes I have a lot, sometimes I have none... depends on what's going on. For example last weekend we went camping so I barely played anything at all outside a bit of phone gaming.

As for mobile gaming, randomly during downtime throughout any given day, I will slowly work my way through a game on my smartphone. There are a lot of RPGs on smartphones that one can beat with 5 minutes here, 10 minutes there. This is good for while you're waiting on food to cook, or code to compile, that sort of thing. I don't take public transit, so that avenue isn't an option.

At my dayjob I work in IT. Half of my job is reactionary, as in support for existing infrastructures. So I'm required to be in my office at my computer and phone in case any of our hundreds of customers need my help. A side effect of this is I have a lot of downtime at my dayjob. In that regard if all my current projects are caught up, and I'm not actively helping a customer, I will indulge in emulation to pass the time. This allows me to catch up with retro classics while also being stationed at the ready for whenever the next email or phone call comes in. The amount of gaming time I get in like this varies greatly. Some days it's none at all, other days it's a fair bit.

Lastly when I am gone from home while visiting relatives I will usually take a handheld. I will play a DS or PSP game at night after the social day is done. Got to love portable gaming.

All in all I wager I get between 14-20 hours of gaming in a week using all these methods. It certainly takes a concentrated effort and a purposeful allotment of scheduled gaming time. I freely admit I don't have as much of a social life as I once did (or could still have), but at my age and dispassion honestly I get more fun out of an RPG than I do engaging in mindless smalltalk at a party or barbecue. I mean, that's what forums are for. ;p

[dsheinem]

I neglect the kid, neglect the wife, neglect the job, and focus almost all of my waking hours on getting cheevos, reading Kotaku, and making witty forum posts.

No time for gaming sadly.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cheevo

[Ack]

I neglect the kid, neglect the wife, neglect the job, and focus almost all of my waking hours on getting cheevos, reading Kotaku, and making witty forum posts.

No time for gaming sadly.

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cheevo

He desperately wanted to believe you were talking about Cheetos. And was judging you.

[prfsnl_gmr]

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=cheevo

He desperately wanted to believe you were talking about Cheetos. And was judging you.

This is completely correct. I also do not understand these "slang words" all you ragamuffins are using nowadays.

[Exhuminator]

I am skeptical because a lot of the games I see dsh beat aren't cheevo compatible?

[MrPopo]

Full time job, own my house, but single. I farm out the yard work and the cleaning so the main timesink around the house is cooking. Fortunately, most recipes make enough that I can make one thing on the weekend and have leftovers for most of the rest of the week. So I'm able to spend a good chunk of time every night and a large portion of the weekend to games.