How do you personally make time for gaming?

[AppleQueso]

Wow, was this topic really made yesterday?? It's already at 10 pages

Anyways... I'm 22 with a boyfriend, at college, living in a poop apartment with noisy roommates. (next semester I should be living with my bf though)

Generally I have a really hard time setting aside time for gaming. For one, I am very slow at cleaning, doing homework, and cooking (a 45min - 1 hr dish generally takes me 2 or 3hr). I'm also not that great at juggling my interests (gaming, learning Japanese, and drawing are my main ones). Finally I'm very easily stressed, and when I'm too stressed I want to do nothing.

So usually I'm trying to keep up with homework, school, food and other life things, then either something happens which makes me too stressed to do much else, or I can actually use my free time. Then it's a bit random on what interest I choose to do, but generally I feel bad about not doing one of the others ><;

So really it's a miracle that I get anything done ._.

I identify pretty strongly with this. Pretty close to my own experience. Especially the whole "not wanting to do anything when I'm stressed" bit. I handle stress really poorly

[Exhuminator]

I don't want to continue aiding in derailing my own thread. I will respond to dsh in a spoiler to keep things cleaner here. But I won't discuss this philosophical issue here any longer, we can continue it elsewhere if need be.

Nihilism doesn't disregard or critique "experience" as invaluable/non-worthwhile... it disregards the idea that any of the various moralities people cling to imbibes life with any kind of "meaning" or that such moralities can themselves create worthwhile meaning for one's experiences.

Okay, I understand the strawman argument you are saying I created. And I should have made a clearer correlation between going from meaning to experience. I will attempt to do so briefly now.

If one decides that life is meaningless, thus they choose to focus their existence on pleasure entirely, does that not by proxy suggest they see a meaning in life after all? That meaning being to live as pleasurably as possible until death? If one's meaning in life then becomes to merely seek pleasure, then that pleasure is of course brought on by experiences.

Should not one then seek experiences that bring the utmost pleasure? Well what if one ends one's pleasure seeking solely with the dreams of a childhood hobby realized to its maximum extent? Is that someone not artificially limiting their possible experience for potentially greater pleasures brought on by adulthood? How can they objectively say that isn't the case without having the tangible life experiences to contrast against? That is the conundrum in my eyes in which MrPopo explained his ideals. Again, that's not to say I think he's wrong and I'm right. It's just a consideration of the other side of the coin.

At this point I feel guilty for aiding in this thread's topic derailment. We could continue such a discussion in an off topic thread if you wish.

[ninjainspandex]

Reading through this thread has made me realize how different people are with their ideas on a fulfilled life. I play World of Warcraft quite religiously from the time it came out to around 2010 and those years I had around 500 days played, I used to get home from work and play and raid until it was time to go to bed and on weekends I would play for about 14 hours a day. Now most people would think that it such a waste of life but I made some amazing friends in that game and had some incredible laughs, I look back on those memories and just smile. I would never take back those memories and if I could go back in time I would do it all over again.

[J T]

An easy way to fuck with your own head is to start thinking you need to "do something" with your life. Life just is; enjoy.

Wow. Popo's gone full zen!

Or maybe it's just hedonistic nihilism. The two can be hard to distinguish.

[joehero]

Im the other part of the 5% on this poll. I grew up in what I would call the Golden Age of video games. I spent more time and money in local arcades than I care to talley. I have watch the rise and fall of quarter operated video games and arcades. My parents bought me an Atari 2600 for my first console at about age 7. Currently I am 41 and an avid retro gamer. I'm married, have 3 kids(2.5, 15, and 18), own my own house and own 2 businesses. I try to set a good example to my kids by completing my work and family time before playing games. But to answer the question, for me, portable gaming works best for me. My modded psp allows me to play everthing from NES games (currently playing The Guardian Legend), to Genesis, Gameboy Advance, and PSP games. I also own a DS Lite with an Acecard that also allows me to play a couple hundred games. Everyone on this forum is at different place in their life, so I say, whatever works for your situation, this is mine.

[Hazerd]

Reading through this thread has made me realize how different people are with their ideas on a fulfilled life. I play World of Warcraft quite religiously from the time it came out to around 2010 and those years I had around 500 days played, I used to get home from work and play and raid until it was time to go to bed and on weekends I would play for about 14 hours a day. Now most people would think that it such a waste of life but I made some amazing friends in that game and had some incredible laughs, I look back on those memories and just smile. I would never take back those memories and if I could go back in time I would do it all over again.

Mmmmm, good old WoW, im on a hiatus right now, not liking the raids or the pacing of Warlords of Draenor, but ive been playing since 2005, have almost 500 days on a Hunter.

Vanilla/TBC/Wrath were the best times, when the game was fresh, ill never forget my good times during Vanilla WoW, so many memories. Almost get a little teary eyed in some Vanilla zones.

[ninjainspandex]

yeah I left when Cata came out, TBC was probably my favorite. So many good laughs raiding Karazahn. I do miss my Troll mage named Luvstosplooge

[Tanooki]

I've got a three year old and a wife with a DVR she likes to share a bit most nights. As it is, I can rarely game when the kid is up so that's off the table mostly through 8pm. I find couch sitters that go for hours I just won't commit to anymore except in rare cases because I know they won't get finished or at least fair play time. Those that fall into that, can be done, but it has to be on a dedicated handheld gaming system, then RPGs and the like I can deal with a bit each night in bed for 30min or maybe 1-2 hours. Around that, sometimes if the kid is playing or into a tv show or better a movie, my laptop is free, so I can play on that while the console is stuck so that helps too.

Other than that, there's nothing else to really say other than because that time is there doesn't mean it gets used. I may not be in the mood or too damn tired to even bother and I'd rather do a movie or read something.

[MrPopo]

yeah I left when Cata came out, TBC was probably my favorite. So many good laughs raiding Karazahn. I do miss my Troll mage named Luvstosplooge

My guild didn't survive the transition to TBC. It seemed like things were going ok, then one of the raid leaders did a Gruul with half random people and beat it before the weekly guild run, so we had enough people locked out that we had to skip that week. A bit of drama later and half the guild leaves and we never recover. The game wasn't the same after that, as at that point the biggest thing keeping me in the game was hanging out with that group of people. I tried joining my brother's guild in WotLK but it just didn't click for me and I left for good.

Well what if one ends one's pleasure seeking solely with the dreams of a childhood hobby realized to its maximum extent? Is that someone not artificially limiting their possible experience for potentially greater pleasures brought on by adulthood? How can they objectively say that isn't the case without having the tangible life experiences to contrast against?

This sounds like the argument my parents use when they try to convince me to eat vegetables.

[Exhuminator]

This sounds like the argument my parents use when they try to convince me to eat vegetables.

Honestly I don't know now why I even cared at all in the first place. Probably because I was having a slow Friday. In actuality I come to this forum to discuss video games, not to philosophize about other people's real lives. If you want to spend the vast majority of your free time playing video games nonstop, have at it. We all have our own desires and needs. I hope I didn't offend you with my ethics spiel.

AppleQueso can kiss my face she hates though.