Balancing life and video games as an adult: Some time management tips

[Jos]

Growing up sucks. Jungle gyms are replaced by cubicles and healthy almonds replace gobs of Gushers. One of the worst things about growing up is that you never seem to have any time left over for yourself. For anything. Including video games, which may be the first thing to go when it's time to make compromises.

One of the saddest things I hear is, "Well I used to play a lot of games but I just don't have time for them anymore." In the list of priorities, games didn't make the cut. Sure, you may still watch a bunch of television shows and go to concerts all the time, but video games? Video games could be kicked to the curb.

Yes, even though you're busy launching your new company and, yes, even though you just got a brand new puppy, there's still time in your life for video games. Please make time for video games.

Read the complete article.

 

[cliffordcooley]

there's still time in your life for video games. Please make time for video games.

That's borderline to begging people to intentionally waste time playing games. Makes me wonder if it originated from a developer's standpoint.

 

[Versutus]

Nice article.

I can relate all of these points.

 

[Hammayon]

there's still time in your life for video games. Please make time for video games.

That's borderline to begging people to intentionally waste time playing games. Makes me wonder if it originated from a developer's standpoint.

drinking, doing drugs, getting into fights, chasing sluts...these take up time too. If more childen played video games they'd be safer for sure. Wouldn't be distracted by all the garbage out there. They'd be spending time doing things they enjoy.

Video games can fight off depression too.

 

[Thorney]

Yes I practice most of these hence I have barely starterd Witcher 3 or Dragon Age, just no chance. I play mostly Oni and The Blind Forest and Quake Live. Even Arkham Knight is a struggle as cutscenes waste my precious time btw works fine for me on PC no idea what all the fuss is about.

 

[cliffordcooley]

drinking, doing drugs, getting into fights, chasing sluts...these take up time too.

You would leave out the positive aspects of life while promoting gaming. You couldn't name all the positive things within a full week that someone could be doing instead of gaming. People choose to do negative things to be spiteful to society. Gaming will not stop them no more so than any other positive thing they could be doing.

 

[red1776]

Is it April 1st? this is the most preposterous and condescending article it has been my displeasure to read in a very long time.
If the baby needs changing, hit the pause button?......gee thanks for that bit of ageless wisdom.
god almighty.

 

[BSim500]

Some good tips, but as for "avoid lengthy games", sometimes there's no substitute for getting stuck into replaying a much loved 60hr pre-EA Bioware game. Or maybe I'm just lucky in that my spouse is an avid gamer too. I think the unfortunate trend towards 'modern' checkpoint-only save game design impacts game choice. If you can save anywhere but have only a 15min gaming session, you're more likely to start / continue a game with checkpoints set 10mins apart knowing you can pick up where you left off without being forced to replay half of a section the next time. In fact, I'm pretty sure that's the real reason behind this trend - nothing to do with "preventing quicksave spamming" (if people wanted to cheat in SP games, they'll just use cheat codes / trainers, and why does controlling other people's single-player play styles matter anyway), but rather devs have figured out checkpoint-only saves typically "pad out" the gameplay time by 15-25% vs quicksave games, thus inflating the playtime without adding any extra content. There's zero reason why modern games cannot have both systems integrated into one (Deus Ex, Bioshock, Mass Effect, Elder Scrolls series, etc, all managed it).

Agree with changing the difficulty though. Personally, I find Easy too easy, but Hard just for the sake of it often does little more than adds extra hitpoints to the enemy, making the weapons feel weaker, and the game more bullet-spongy / grind-festy without really being more challenging, and the overall "gunplay" can actually feel less solid / satisfying vs a more balanced Medium setting which games are often designed around anyway.

 

[dividebyzero]

Is it April 1st? this is the most preposterous and condescending article it has been my displeasure to read in a very long time.
If the baby needs changing, hit the pause button?......gee thanks for that bit of ageless wisdom.
god almighty.

I'm also perplexed by the whole "play on easy settings". What is the point of buying and firing up a game just to play in what amounts to god mode in some games. All that careful game balancing and levelling up tossed out the window (Maybe they should have Microsoft Nap Time Simulator for people who want to game with minimal challenges).
Novice/Easy means bopping the ineffectual nasties with a single haphazard blow....Master means taking on hard-to-kill nasties with a broken gun and nowhere near enough ammo. One is a breeze, one takes a lot of thought and judicious use of resources. I guess it depends on whether you want the challenge, or just want to get to the end credits as fast as possible.

 

[Guest]

Screw this going to play hard all the way

 

[stewi0001]

I skimmed most of it after reading the first couple of paragraphs. This article comes from the wrong angle by saying make time for video games. Video games are a luxury and not a necessity. Really the angle should be if you still want to play video games...

Anyways, my main tip to keep playing video games, in my current status of having a job, a wife and a baby; is to play games that you can pause and save. Thus you can walk away any time needed without raging.

 

[Guest]

Im 36, been a gamer my whole life (I played space invaders in arcades FFS) and yes, this is mostly spot on, a problem that I battle is that I have enough time to play videogames still but the energies are not the same, I arrived tired from work and many times just want to lay down or take a nap, which sucks

I have been proud all my life of never playing games on easy, only normal or hard, but I think im gonna start doing it so I can see more of the games I wanna play on my limited time/energy reserves

 

[CobraA1]

I'm also perplexed by the whole "play on easy settings". What is the point of buying and firing up a game just to play in what amounts to god mode in some games. All that careful game balancing and levelling up tossed out the window (Maybe they should have Microsoft Nap Time Simulator for people who want to game with minimal challenges).
Novice/Easy means bopping the ineffectual nasties with a single haphazard blow....Master means taking on hard-to-kill nasties with a broken gun and nowhere near enough ammo. One is a breeze, one takes a lot of thought and judicious use of resources. I guess it depends on whether you want the challenge, or just want to get to the end credits as fast as possible.

Well, the point of this particular article is how to keep playing when you don't really have much time to play anymore.

 

[CobraA1]

I'm in a similar situation - got a full time job, don't have a lot of time anymore.

Also decided that I don't want to play games that don't respect my time. I'm really tired of games that have grinds.

World of Tanks is essentially a dead game to me now. Super repetitive, and getting the higher tier tanks means a long and painful grind. Individual battles can certainly be fun, but playing on the same maps with the same tanks all the time is not.

Also, many mobile games have a similar grind, so they are a no-go as well. That, plus I've grown to hate the free-to-play mechanics that ruin practically every mobile game out there.

I still play some Hearthstone. You can get in, play a game or two, and get out. But my play time has been drastically cut.

I'm trying out Knights of Pen & Paper right now. Looks decent so far, although some comments in the reviews warn it may become grindy as I get to the higher levels. Right now I can easily get in, play a battle or two, and get out.

Playing some Kerbal Space Program. I need a longer period of time for it, but it's probably one of the most fair games on the market today.

As far as Minecraft goes: Beware of some of the mods for it. There are mods that can make that game rather grindy. I played a collection of mods called "feed the beast," and while it was very interesting, it also made the game more like an MMO in terms of the scope and the grind. Stick to smaller, less consequential mods.

 

[DriverJ]

I can definitely relate to this. Time has become scarce as I've gotten into my 30's, being married, raising a child. All take up my time. Both of these things make my life more complete (to me). But I still do enjoy gaming. I still find ways to sneak in enough time to enjoy games. I've found most of my success comes from having a system for everything and discipline in how/when I play what games. Now that said I still have a lot of un-opened unplayed games. I pick up titles I know I want to play, and if I have a group of friends that plays something I try to dedicate my time to that first to make sure I get time with those people and game at the same time.
The only real problems I run into is how to get back to some of those old games I have sitting around, because when I do finish something there is so much I have to play, that its hard to decide what to play next.
So I've started putting together a list of what I move to when I finish a title. I try to move to a different type of game unless I have a direct story sequel that I want to see the story unfold before forgetting what happened in the previous title in the series.
A few good tips for those just entering the busy adult life.

 

[amstech]

Pretty funny article.
I would always play games on hard from the get go, so when I got good, I got real good.

 

[cldmstrsn]

Great article! I don't really plan on having kids ( I am married and 29) and so that leaves a lot of free time which I do spend playing video games and I have a hefty backlog of games ( I also collect) that I want to go through and even replay my favorites from time time. It is a never ending struggle.

 

[gamoniac]

Good tips. Good article. I can definitely relate.

 

[hitech0101]

I quit gaming after I got a job. I did get back to playing a couple of games recently it is a nice break from routine . Like mentioned in the article investing huge amounts of time or playing on schedule is just not possible for me. It is really difficult to hit pause when you are enjoying, heck I even wanted to take a day off to finish the game but eventually decided not to and completed it on my day off.

 

[Guest]

What a crock of BS!


the Nanny society we live in now. LMAO
the EMO brats that feel they need to counsel everyone else,
especially adults, into make appropriate life decisions.

 

[Guest]

... even worse,

all the EMO brats that "feel" the points.

ROFLMAO

 

[Hammayon]

You would leave out the positive aspects of life while promoting gaming. You couldn't name all the positive things within a full week that someone could be doing instead of gaming. People choose to do negative things to be spiteful to society. Gaming will not stop them no more so than any other positive thing they could be doing.

True their are many positive things you could be doing other than playing games. But there are a lot of ways to get into trouble and ruin your life as well. I've seen examples of teenagers. One, dealing with depression by hanging out with all the wrong friends, having sex with boys, getting pregnant, doing badly in school, getting in trouble because of the drugs she is doing (getting into fights), and getting kicked out of her house for being obnoxious. The other, dealing with depression by playing multiplayer games in online like League of Legends. She gets her socializing in through her online buddies. Does well in school. Doesn't get involved with drugs. The video games give her balance. I myself as a kid grew up loving video games. For me there was nothing else I could really do where I lived. I was awarded each time I did well in school with my dad buying me a nice expensive NEO GEO game. I worked out regularly as well. I had good grades in school and I stayed out of trouble.

Video games can be therapeutic and beneficial. You can spend time with your kids playing games and bond with them over it.

They can also be addictive keep you distracted from other life pleasures.

I'd look at each person's video game habits as a case by case basis to judge how good it is for them.

 

[Guest]

Yes you are absolutely correct! It's case to case, as long as it will give balance to your life.

 

[mrjgriffin]

there's still time in your life for video games. Please make time for video games.

That's borderline to begging people to intentionally waste time playing games. Makes me wonder if it originated from a developer's standpoint.

if it did he'd be begging you to play specific games......

 

[mrjgriffin]

Is it April 1st? this is the most preposterous and condescending article it has been my displeasure to read in a very long time.
If the baby needs changing, hit the pause button?......gee thanks for that bit of ageless wisdom.
god almighty.

some people work 8-12 hours a day and don't always have a godsend of a girlfriend who will take care of almost all of the needs of the baby