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MrPopo wrote:It's all about what's important to you.

This is why I never give homework in my classes and why almost all of my classwork is graded based on participation - if I don't actually have to grade anything, it leaves more time for gaming in the evenings. Including the weekends, I probably average 50 or 60 hours of gaming per week.

We are having our first child in about 3 weeks. I imagine that will cut into my gaming time to some degree but I still intend to have some.

marlowe221 wrote:We are having our first child in about 3 weeks. I imagine that will cut into my gaming time to some degree but I still intend to have some.

My daughter's birth amped up my portable gaming. So you will have time, just in different ways.

BogusMeatFactory wrote:

marlowe221 wrote:We are having our first child in about 3 weeks. I imagine that will cut into my gaming time to some degree but I still intend to have some.

My daughter's birth amped up my portable gaming. So you will have time, just in different ways.

Yeah...right before your daughter's birth was actually a pretty great time for you to get into Pokemon, marlowe221.

Two levels left in Forsaken 64. Some of these have been nasty, and any time I have to fight enemy bikers is bad times, since the CPU bots are really good at maneuvering.

It really bugs me when people say "I just don't have the time" or "I'm too busy". To me, that's like a life not worth living? But seriously, I can't shake the feeling that it's basically code for "I don't really care" or it's not truly in their heart, it's just a very lazy excuse and clearly not a priority in their life. Which is fine if it isn't, but why mope or make excuses? Either a lot of people in life truly do have issues managing time and hobbies, or people also just get very boring with age and for some reason go out of their way to prevent themselves from having fun. I've definitely noticed it with some friends over the years. Anyone else?

Definitely not pointing fingers here at all, but adding to the discussion above. I can easily see how a family and kids throws a wrench into things, but some of you guys above clearly make it sound like it's still easy to make time for something your passionate about. I predict that will be the same case for me whenever the time comes with family stuff. You simply either do something or don't, don't dilly dally. Other people, I don't know. Last year was one of the most chaotic and inconsistent years for me recently and I still had a lot of good time playing games and doing other hobbies.

I work full-time, with at least 2 hours of commute time a day added in, have a wife and 2 kids, and I still have time for gaming.

I can play in long stretches, and often don't play certain games unless I know I have atleast a 2-3 hour window. Many of the games I play lend themselves to that such as MMOs, Civ, XCOM, RPGs etc... a lot of just 1 more turn or 1 more mission type of games.

Ive had several all day gaming sessions, and have been to all weekend LAN parties where we all game for 2 and a half days.

A big reason why I have more free time than most is that I dont sleep as much. I generally sleep 3-4 hours a night on weekdays and 6-8 on weekends. You can throw in an occassional nap or 2 in there.

It isn't a matter of not having time, it is just a matter of having nit as much time. More responsibilities lower the amount of time you have and, being the primary caretaker of an 8 month old means that a lot more time is allotted to precious sleep. Sure I still get about 10-15 hours of game time a week, which isn't bad.

Xeogred wrote:it's basically code for "I don't really care" or it's not truly in their heart, it's just a very lazy excuse and clearly not a priority in their life.

I think that is an absolutely correct deciphering.

Xeogred wrote:people also just get very boring with age and for some reason go out of their way to prevent themselves from having fun. I've definitely noticed it with some friends over the years. Anyone else?

I'm going on 37 now, and I've seen this in plenty of people my own age. Basically they just give up on any other hobby other than devouring TV. I think it's because TV takes the least amount of effort to enjoy versus say reading, creating art, or even playing video games for example. Also TV has an incredible amount of great content now when you get into what's available from digital sources. And that's fine if someone wants to watch TV for 20 hours a week, as long as they don't then say they have no time for gaming but wish they did.

Jmustang1968 wrote:A big reason why I have more free time than most is that I dont sleep as much. I generally sleep 3-4 hours a night on weekdays and 6-8 on weekends. You can throw in an occassional nap or 2 in there.

That's my trick too, sleep deprivation. I'm playing games when I should be sleeping, if you know, I were to actually get 8 hours of sleep a night as I'm "supposed to". I do pretty good on 5-6 hours of sleep, but by Friday I'm dragging and quite cranky. Then I recharge during the weekend by actually get 8 hours of sleep Friday and Saturday nights. There's no way in hell I could get by on 3-4 hours of sleep a night though. I would be a cranky monster and probably ruin my marriage. There's studies that have shown some people can legit get by on 2-4 hours of sleep a night, it's actually genetic.

It's still possible to prioritize gaming when you have a kid, but the kid and sleep do have to come first.