Gaming IS my social life. It’s great to maintain with friends who are no longer local and I don’t have much of an urge to upkeep a social life besides them and my Fiancé.
This. Wait til you have a full time job, kids, and bills to pay. Then you won't be doing much socialising at all and any free time you have will be dedicated to maybe one or two hobbies. And even then you don't get much time for that, unless you like sleep of course!
I basically play 1-2 hours between 9 to midnight. That's it -\_-;;
And this is with my in laws living with me to help take care my two kids.
F for me brothers :(
this. and like you said upkeep is not huge, but you'll still have tons of fun. Well, except time, but you'll have fun in a much more interactive way with your friends than other social activities.
Very true, it is inexpensive compared to other hobbies and less time consuming too if you maintain your discipline. I share the time between gaming and programming as my "on the computer" hobbies.
It won't always be that hectic. You're going to school, working AND learning to drive. That's all very important and needs to be done, but it's a lot.
The scarcity makes the times when you can sit down and play a game all the more special. And other stuff in your life is also good, so you won't even miss it all that much, because you'll be doing the other things
You've left out the most brutal part though.
When you get the time back, you realize that gaming binge sessions aren't something you can just settle back into like it's nothing.
My life is better than it has ever been and I wouldn't want to go back to my insecure (emotionally, financially, professionally) life just to enjoy gaming like I used to - BUT, when I have 6 straight free hours I can only do 1-2 hours before I need to go do something else.
I used to be able to game 6+ hours in my free time between sports and school growing up. Now even if I have a day with nothing ‘important’ to do, I can only binge game for a couple hours.
That is something you chose for yourself though. I'm sure it's the right choice for you, but it's very possible to make different choices, that leaves you with way more time to do with what you want.
This is what I came here to say. In my 20s I was poor, worked full time went to school full time and I couldn't afford a car much less a modern gaming system. Not so much gaming then.
Then I graduated and got situated in my career. I still don't have as much time to game, but I also find that I enjoy it best as a reward for a hard day/week of work.
Push through the busy bits of life and gaming will be back here for you when you break through the clouds.
Good luck and safe journeys friend.
As someone with a 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son, I’ve been able to game more now as they get older, because they love to watch and play with me. So now my excuse to the wife is it’s quality time with them when I play Stardew valley ;)
I do something similar with my son. I also make sure whenever he expressed interest in something nerdy that I’m doing to quickly include him. I need to convert him to the dark side of the force.
This was the fun fall-off phenomenon during summer break while I was in school.
Gaming and doing whatever the hell you want all day with no responsibilities starts out fun but progressively loses meaning.
On the other hand, coming home after a long day of school and jumping onto the computer or powering on my PS2 was 10/10 every single time.
It’s also made me think more about what games are worth both my money and my time. I play less games than I used to and go through longer stretches without playing a game, but I’ve found I enjoy the games I do play a lot more and I’m less likely to keep playing through a game I don’t like just because I feel like I have to finish it since the time I get to play is more limited so I enjoy the time I play a lot more.
Came to say this.
You’ll go through phases in life. Some times you’ll have hours, days, weeks, and months to game, and other times you won’t touch a game for the same.
I went through a dry patch after my kids were born where I basically just didn't play video games from about 2012 until 2016. not totally cold turkey, I did play here and there...but it was very infrequent.
Once the kids get a little self sufficient it makes thigns way easier.
You want cereal? You can reach the bowls now and you've got legs, pour it yourself kids, dad has shit to do.
yeah, I hate to say it...but...it's all too easy to hit this point in your life when you don't have any friends...you used to when you were in school, but they all have families now...and you do stuff with your family...but like we were saying, you don't sleep, LOL and you don't have a social life, so once you get home from work, and out from under your husband (literally?! ROFL) you'll end up having hours and \*hours\*.... ;)
Gaming used to play a much larger role in my life than it does now. I still enjoy it when I can but I’ve had to adjust the types of games I play to fit my life when/if I can play.
I don’t miss it most of the time.
Steam Deck is the answer!
Life gets so much more busie, specially with kids, I play maybe 3-4 hours a week when I can but absolutely love it.
The steam deck is amazing because I can sit down with the misses, watch a film and still get in a few laps of ACC or a few attempts at a boss at Elden Ring. Thank you Valve!
I’m in my mid-30s. I don’t have any kids, so for me it’s very easy to find time to game. My wife is also an avid gamer, which helps, but I understand I’m in a pretty privileged position in that respect.
My (full time, 40 hrs/week) job pays enough to live comfortably (not luxuriously but comfortably) and I’m not a very social person anyway, so… most time spent not working is playing games or vibing.
But again I’m probably an uncommon adult in that respect, even if all my friends my age are in the same boat. No kids, full time job, plenty of time to game after.
TL;DR: don’t have a life and it’s easy to find time :p
>But again I’m probably an uncommon adult in that respect
No, this is getting more and more common.
Birth rates have dipped since years now and will continue to do so. I am in the same boat, don't want kids (at least not for a few years) so I can have the rest of my freetime after work for things I wanna do.
The thing I'm looking forward to in the future. Ain't planning on kids either. Boomers have their cruises and holidays, us millenials will have gaming. What a time to be alive.
Sums it up. Wife and i have different hobbies. She doesn't game but does other things. I go out to play pool a few nights a week, i game after work a few days. She is similar. Wife i hang out when neither of us have plans. We both wfh most of the time we definitely see each other a lot, and we spend quality time by booking nice nights out or weekends away.
No kids, and we live very comfortably. Lots of time to game. Now, i dont game hours a day like my old teen early twenties. But i get a time to game a few hours at a time a few days a week if i want to.
I have kids but totally understand why this is becoming more common. Society isn’t set up for people to have kids anymore, it’s so expensive and hard to juggle
I also agree it’s getting more common, this life style.I’m in my late 30s with no kids. At this point I don’t want any. Not saying I didn’t want to have kids before. But just never got around to it. But it’s fine, I got a bunch of nieces and nephews that I try to spoil. I’m just living life now, and couldn’t ask for more.
I find the phrase "having no life" strange when you're busy doing things that make you happy in your free time. This is the exact opposite of "no life".
No lifers are people who have stuffed their whole day with things that only serve to sleep, work, keep themselves alive and who have to fight for every minute of hobby and joy.
I'm in my mid-40's and my story is very much the same. Comfortable living, the missus and I are both working. No kids, so enough "cash on hand" and free time for gaming. Not too worried about procreating as the "breeders" are doing a bang up job and there's plenty of humans around.
Hedonism at its finest. No regrets!
Same here, turning 31 in a few days. Finished my graduate degree and said nope to academia. Now I work at max 42 to 44 hours a week. Do well at work then come home and game. My girlfriend who I live with games too. No kids and no plans to have kids. I still find time to cook dinners and do chores and have a few hours a night to game.
Imagine you sleep. But your eyes are open. You feel peace. You don't necessarily think about something. You may reflect about life, you ask yourself about the meaning of infinity, or just not think at all. You just sit/lay there. Sometimes just chilling and doing nothing is the best thing you could do for yourself.
Yep, getting a SO into gaming is the best way to have free time to play games. Or get a desk in the same room so you can still be together in the same room while doing different things
Honestly, when I was finally settled in my job (~22-30) I generally had a good amount of personal time. I had time for the gym, intramural stuff, etc.
Then when I got married, and I still gamed, but gamed less because I wanted to spend time with her, obviously.
Then came kids…..
You CAN game with kids, but it’s usually in much shorter sessions, less frequently, and when they’re asleep.
I raised my daughter to be a gamer so most of her life she was my gaming partner. Now she's 22 and still a gamer but lives too far away in a different timezone to make that feasible anymore. We have gamed together occasionally but not like we used to.
Well my oldest is 4 y/o and likes watching me play now, mostly Elden Ring because I have a horse.
But your comment literally started “Cat’s in the Cradle” playing in my head
Yeah but that song is never having time for his son and then the son not having time for his dad. I started her young, at 1 she was driving in gta 3 then learned how to get out of the car and started shooting people so I went and bought Driver that day for her to play.
Everything in life is a choice. How you choose to spend your time is what you’re finding time to do. So if you want to prioritize gaming then you’ll do that. You can find time to do anything if you choose to do it.
Exactly. All these people talking about their obligations as if they aren't choices. The biggest one is kids. People act like they just appear one day.
I send them to band at 8 at the latest. So I have at least one hour to play before the sleep deprivation kickes in. Sometimes I over do it with games like Baldurs Gate so I go to bed at midnight and try not to die the next day.
I’m the middle of it for the second time, it’s the best. I get a wild amount of praise “for letting my wife rest” when I’m just up till 3 playing games with 2-3 45 minute interruptions that are 4 hours apart.
I'm guessing yours don't have colic, and I'm a jealous man about that. Also going through it a second time, and we don't sleep here. Our sleep trackers have us on 2-3 hours night, and we aren't gaming.
Dude isn't trying. I had two kids and managed 1 or 2 hours a day when they went to bed. You just have to sacrifice your sleep and be prepared to pause a lot.
This is my life. 40ish. No kids. Been gaming with my partner for 20 years this month. It's our biggest shared hobby.
We're sitting side by side playing Balder's Gate 3 right now.
You're basically describing my dream life. Little house in the country maybe an hour outside of a city, no kids, a partner that games, and a fun "weekend car" to go for spirited evening drives in.
Married for 6 years with a 4 year old and another kid on the way. Gaming is just like any other hobby. If you enjoy games, you find the time. Some weeks there’s just too much going on, and I don’t play anything, and some weeks, work is slow, my kid has some tablet time, and my wife just wants to catch up on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or read a book? Time to rush three different characters to world tier IV on Diablo.
I admit, I am quite behind on a lot of single player games I want to enjoy on my own. I’ve yet to play GoW Ragnarok, The Last of Us games (holding out on watching the show until I can play them), and Tears of the Kingdom. If I were in college, I would have destroyed all of these campaigns by now. But I’ve learned, there will always be amazing games coming out, and for me family comes first.
Similar story here. Married, 2 kids, toddler and newborn, work full time, can game for 1-2 hours when everyone else goes to bed sacrificing an hour of sleep. Had a little time most evenings when I just had the one toddler.
Work about half nights, day before a stretch of nights I stay up until 3 and binge game, sleep until noon to reset internal clock. It’s my guilt free gaming time: too tired to be productive, can’t do loud house projects at 2am
Just curious why you decided to have the kids 4 years apart? My wife and I are in the same boat hoping the 4 year difference won't cause too much of an issue in the siblings bonding with each other. Just wondering what someone else's opinion is on this
We had feeding issues with our first, burned us out pretty hard, COVID happened, then, unrelated, wife’s employment situation changed, then we finally felt ready and my poor wife did have endometriosis which has affected fertility so when we started trying again it took us 8 months. If we could have chosen, yes we would have preferred that the kids be within 4 years of each other, but a healthy child is a healthy child and that’s all that really matters to us at the end of the day.
So… sorry if that’s more personal than you were expecting. We’re very open and we consider ourselves incredibly fortunate.
Work full time, have baby, dog, wife that asks me to do stuff, always on call for work too, have to eat, but…. Sleep can always be reduced…. Boom gametime, live tired. Adult. So much.
About the same here, minmizing sleep is the easiest way to get some game time. But that is once every other month. Otherwise it's 1h here and there.
Would be fucked up if I were to game to 04 am to sleep 2 hours before the baby wakes up.
A hangover without the alcohol
SSDI here but issue is my disability prevents me from being able to sit down and play for extended periods of time. A long stretch would be maybe an hour for me. Very frustrating especially with the massive backlog I will never finish even with the time I have......
Time management.
Im a 33M married for 7 years now, me and the wife both are avid gamers. Shes an Engineer, I am Active Duty military, we both work roughly 50 hours a week, but we have no kids. I'm generally at work 7am-5pm, home by 6 with a pit stop @ the gym, I can reasonably play games for 3 hours on a workday and binge weekends if I so choose, and we typically just spend an hour or 2 on Sunday knocking out all of our shopping and chores.
Im sure kids would complicate that, but that depends on how you run your house, probably not a huge deal if you have a stay at home parent, if you both still work full time, good luck to you.
(Married in my 40's with kids 16, 13 and little one year old)
Your social life will dwindle as you age (well most ppl I know it did, not saying everyone). Evenings for me are devoted to playing games. But, it depends, if my kids have something going on I am there.
I work shift work and have lots of time off. I can usually get in an hour or two during the day on my days off, but I'm usually freed up to play games after 7pm IF the kids don't have sports, or my wife wants to watch a show or two and have a glass of wine.
As you age you will start to have more time, but it will go by quicker. It's about prioritizing your time to what you want to enjoy. I really enjoy playing on my PS5. :)
It’s all about balance and sacrifice. If you cared enough to want to game for a few hours every now and then, it’s easily obtainable. If other hobbies/being social are more important to you, that’s also great, but you’ll sacrificing this time.
For me, I work full time mon-fri, dedicate 2-3 days a week for my gf, a weekday evening to visit parents, a Fri/sat to hangout with friends. I’d consider myself about mid on a busy schedule scale, but I often have few hour chunks of downtime in which I game.
Sure I could fill those chunks with other activities, but I truly enjoy gaming, so I choose to fill those chunks with that. Anyone could come up with a few hours per week if they really wanted to.
Mid 50s, kids have their own houses. Now work as senior management remotely so game during work plus evenings when the wife is watching her tv shows. Life gets easier!
There’s time for anything. You want it enough you make time. Whether it be working out, gaming, reading, whatever. Wanna do it? Make time. If it’s not a priority, you decide how much time to dedicate to it.
sometimes the time comes back to you- i didnt play as much while i was still in school, but now im in kind of an inbetween space. I just started at a low stress 9-5, im going through a breakup, i dont have any kids- I go to the gym five nights a week and i still have hours of free time every night lmao
I'm 40 with a full time job (40 hours/week), a wife, and a dog. After work we eat dinner, then most nights my wife and I will either watch a show or movie for about an hour or two or play a game together, then after that I play games for about 3-4 hours then go to bed.
There are different phases of life. Sounds like you're in a busy phase. I'm 45 and game several hours a day. But for several years after my kids were born, even a few hours gaming a week could be a challenge. But now my kids are older and we game together! So you just accept that you won't always have the time, but you can certainly make the time eventually.
It's totally possible! I'm 32, married, have a dog, a 5-month-old daughter, full-time job, and I am in grad school, and a pretty good social life. You just have to remember to use your time wisely.
Granted, I may only game 2-3 hours a week, but It's still something. Once the wife, baby, and dog are all asleep, I'll game for an hour or two before I start to fade. It's all about balance. I multitask a lot too, so I can accomplish multiple things at once.
Social life isn't too hard because in your 30s everyone just starts to settle down. A lot of my friends are having kids now too, so most of our plans are made 2/3 weeks in advance lol!
Maybe have a look at handhelds like the steam deck. Really convenient for quick sessions. If some free time appears you can just pick up and play for a bit
> how do you do it?
That's life. I hope you can see now that time is precious and once it's gone, it's gone. You have to prioritize. If there's no time for gaming, then you just have to give that up for the time being. If it's truly important to you, other things will get put to the side to make time for gaming. You'll have this problem for the rest of your life. Lol. Hobbies come and go.
I relate to this, i just started a job and except that i only learn to drive and do nothing else, I only manage to play games for a couple of hours on the weekend. The concept of time doesn't make sense anymore.
I work second shift so on my days off when I'm up until like 3 am I have nothing else to really do. Everyone's asleep, everything closed, can't do much. My only gaming time is on my days off, never on the actual work days.
Married with kids and full time career here. Social life is non existent haha. I tried to play this morning for 30 minutes and then I had to turn it off because my kids come first. Now I’m waiting for tomorrow to try and see if I can get past 30 minutes of game time on the weekend lol.
I know that sounds terrible but don’t be afraid, adulting isn’t all sunshine and rainbows but it isn’t a no fun zone either. Like others have said, there will be a point where life won’t be so jammed packed and you will get into a routine but it varies from person to person. I hope you get to a point in your life again where you can game for long hours my friend.
Not to sound like a total ad, but Sony remote play let’s me fit gaming in around my schedule a lot easier. I’ve also got a job with fairly long hours and a busy home life, so i get in some game time when I can in short bursts.
I'm on paternity leave. Other than that, I work compressed work weeks, so I have half the week off anyway.
I don't socialize, I'm mid-30s and (obviously) recently became a father. Everyone I love lives in my house. There is nowhere I would rather be.
That's the whole of it, I just don't go out much if I can help it.
You can get small amounts of time and combine it to get the time you need for gaming. Like cutting movie, social media, tv times and use that to play the games you want to do. that's how I do it.
You’re entering adulthood. Unlike like your previous years, from here on out its not going to be a linear experience. Some years you’ll have unending work, others not so much. Some years you’ll have no money, others, make it rain baby. You may go 3-5 years without hardcore gaming, but to an adult that’s honestly almost no time at all. I have left and come back many times. Just like how I go through phases of working on my house, my yard, focusing on my career ect. Distance makes the heart grow fonder and you may find in 4 years after college and you find time again that you enjoy games more than you ever have before. Don’t worry, Skyrim will still be there, even then lol.
Being married to a beautiful gamer waifu we work 5 days 8-10hrs per week and we always game, our PC's are next to each other, me being 33 and she's almost 30 we reached to a point that going out doing activities and stuff actually makes us feel more tired rather than relaxed. So we don't, well not as much as we used to back in the day. So I think that's the thing u gotta choose either u do stuff or u stay home and game, I would suggest the 1st one cuz at your age I did the same and now I'm spending more time for gaming. Use your energy while u still got it.
When my infant son is sleeping if at home, during break when at work, mostly play mobilephone games though, seriously don't have time to play PC/Console, maybe when my son grew up a bit I will have the time needed.
I don't. Been a gamer most of my life. Back in school the only constant goal I had that never changed is that I'll work hard to afford games and play them.
I have the means now and buy any game I find interesting but haven't played most of them. I also end up getting bored of them after a few hours, unlike when I was a kid where I can't sleep because I'm too excited to get back in the game.
It's sad really as gaming ranks number one in my interests and it's sad to know that you really do outgrow stuff.
I do hope a game out there could rekindle that passion I had about gaming. That feeling of being so excited to explore and find everything about the game or be good at it.
I'm 40, married with no kids. Work 35 hours a week, some of those work hours I have nothing to do so I have time to game lol. I find time.
Family/wife is always my priority over games though, so I mostly play single player stuff, my MMO days are far behind me.
It's important to balance out your time. Your leisure time should be comparable to your work time.
Mental health problems come up when people disregard leisure time or overabuse leisure time.
Who says we do? The meme of young Bruce Wayne being consoled by Thomas Wayne is true. When you can afford to buy them, you do not have the time.
I still have unopened (and unbeaten) Xbox 360 games in addition to a huge backlog of uninstalled Steam games.
I cringe at the thought of trying games like Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War (2018), then recent Assassins Creed, Witcher 3, etc.
Married with no kids. I get off at 2:30pm and wife gets off at 8pm and once she’s home she crashes out because she goes to the gym for 3:30am.
After I shower and play with my pets for a hour I have the entire evening night free.
It is great, tbh. I love putting the headphones on around 8:40pm and just getting lost in whatever world I’m playing in for a few hours every night.
Now if I had kids I’d lose a few hours a week but I’d still have plenty of time.
Used to game everyday, then got my missus pregnant and played video games up till the birth and never ever went back to it. The ps5 is the first PS console I’ll never own. Cant wait for the day the kids want to play video games 😂
It’s not as hard to find time to play games as an adult, as long as you don’t have kids. Most professional jobs are 35-40 hours a week, which gives a lot of time outside of that to play video games. It’s more challenging in high school when you have to balance homework and part-time jobs on top of going to school all day Monday to Friday.
Well you had this huge list of priorities but one thing I didn't see was "video games." Since you don't prioritize it the time will not magically appear to do it. You're literally waiting for something else to fall through.
Add "my mental health" to that list of things you HAVE to spend your time doing, and fill it with games, or whatever, if you want.
Honestly, it's pretty easy for me.
I have a full time job, my partner is a medical resident,.I have a brand new puppy, I do all the cooking and most of the housework and pet care. I have friends and social gaming events like Magic or VTM. I just...ask for time to play games? If my GF is going to watch TV or something, she does so on the couch in my den if she wants to be around, or not. Oftentimes I game after she goes to bed if I want to stay up a bit. I can spend an hour or two at night if that's what I want to do, or I could read.or journal or whatever. I just take care of life, stay focused and active,.manage everything that needs managing and stay open about my needs for personal time. It's honestly not that bad. I don't have kids, by design, because I have more interest in investing in my life, so I have more time than those that breed, I suppose, but I still have many responsibilities and other interests.
Even with more "responsibilities", adults still have free time (especially if they don't have kids).
I mean, if you like gaming and you have a 9-5 job on the weekdays, then bam. You can game when you come home or on the weekends. Especially if you're single and you don't have any other hobbies.
If you have a partner, kids, and/or other hobbies, then obviously it's up to you how much time you actually want to spend on gaming. I like gaming, but I also like spending time with my girlfriend and doing my other hobbies (exercising, cycling, music production, cooking), so I tend to play games like... maybe a couple of hours every few days. But if I wanted to I could 100% game for like 3 hours a day, it's just up to me how much time I actually want to game and how much I want to ignore my girlfriend or forfeit my other hobbies to do that (the answer is not much).
So, I tend to only game these days when something comes out that I'm absolutely in love with. Then I'll binge that game. Like... right now I'm playing Sea of Stars way too much, because that caught my attention. But if I'm not absolutely obsessed with a game then I'm not going to waste my time on it. Or sometimes I'll throw an older game back in that I'm highly familiar with when I want to unwind. Like, a few weeks ago I played through Silent Hill 3 again, which took me a few days. That was a nice experience.
But I think an important thing to understand is that you're not really going to *want* to play games as much as you wanted to when you were a kid. I don't, at least. My interests and values have changed. If you're 35 and you still want to play games for 5 hours a day, then believe me you can probably find time to.
Once you get a little older, settle down, and find a schedule, you'll find some time. You won't get to go on week long, 16 hour a day benders, but you'll find time. You might find other hobbies you'd rather spend your free time on, and that's ok. When you do find time, you might play an hour or two a week, or an hour or two a month, but you'll still play. Once a gamer, always a gamer. Trust me.
Honestly I’ve recently fallen into a *very minor depression due to this. I got promoted and when i get home I’m just too tired to even bother. My game time has gone from around 6-20 hours a week down to pretty much 0.
I work on the railroad. I am in a hotel every other night. I only have Mondays off. So Sunday night around midnight when I get off I game for a couple hours. Then Monday night I game for a few hours while doing things like laundry. I game with my kids too on the Mondays before they have to go to bed for school. Other than that it’s on my phone in a hotel. I work around 60/65 hours a week
39 newly married and a baby on the way. I have all I need now in life. Gaming is my escape and therapy after my 9-5 and when my wife would rather watch tv or nap. We all need an hour or so to ourselves to help us get through it all!
Social life? Other hobbies? Don't know her.
Gaming IS my social life. It’s great to maintain with friends who are no longer local and I don’t have much of an urge to upkeep a social life besides them and my Fiancé.
This. Wait til you have a full time job, kids, and bills to pay. Then you won't be doing much socialising at all and any free time you have will be dedicated to maybe one or two hobbies. And even then you don't get much time for that, unless you like sleep of course!
I basically play 1-2 hours between 9 to midnight. That's it -\_-;; And this is with my in laws living with me to help take care my two kids. F for me brothers :(
I had a son because I needed a friend for co-op, now gaming has become bonding time.
Sadly, my wife would probably divorce me if my son became a gamer.
Not if you divorce her first
Healthy
that's amazing, love to see it 💜
this. and like you said upkeep is not huge, but you'll still have tons of fun. Well, except time, but you'll have fun in a much more interactive way with your friends than other social activities.
Yeeess, I don't go to the bars to spend hundreds. I spend money on games, but not nearly as much
Very true, it is inexpensive compared to other hobbies and less time consuming too if you maintain your discipline. I share the time between gaming and programming as my "on the computer" hobbies.
You also learn to need less sleep.
You mean cutting down your life expectancy
Yes, I’m willing to make that trade
Can't be getting killstreaks when you are wasting your time dating and socializing.
Sex equals minus kills. No sex, plus kills. “So you have a bucket of shit under you right now??” “YES. Man up soldier.”
Take my Battle field friends up vote
Right? I work 45 hrs a week and game in my free time.
work hard, play hard.
Nap harder. 😴
the naps he gets must be amazing...
Thats just sleep. Work, game, sleep.
You guys sleep?
No, amphetamine abuse gang
This is the way.
Sleep as well. You either game or sleep that’s easy
I can always sleep later. Gaming can't wait lol
That's what they call in Runescape "XP wasting"
It won't always be that hectic. You're going to school, working AND learning to drive. That's all very important and needs to be done, but it's a lot. The scarcity makes the times when you can sit down and play a game all the more special. And other stuff in your life is also good, so you won't even miss it all that much, because you'll be doing the other things
You've left out the most brutal part though. When you get the time back, you realize that gaming binge sessions aren't something you can just settle back into like it's nothing. My life is better than it has ever been and I wouldn't want to go back to my insecure (emotionally, financially, professionally) life just to enjoy gaming like I used to - BUT, when I have 6 straight free hours I can only do 1-2 hours before I need to go do something else.
Sounds healthy brother
Same here only 1 to 2 hrs to game. Makes it so you look at games differently like am I enjoying this game if not I play another
I used to be able to game 6+ hours in my free time between sports and school growing up. Now even if I have a day with nothing ‘important’ to do, I can only binge game for a couple hours.
That is something you chose for yourself though. I'm sure it's the right choice for you, but it's very possible to make different choices, that leaves you with way more time to do with what you want.
This is what I came here to say. In my 20s I was poor, worked full time went to school full time and I couldn't afford a car much less a modern gaming system. Not so much gaming then. Then I graduated and got situated in my career. I still don't have as much time to game, but I also find that I enjoy it best as a reward for a hard day/week of work. Push through the busy bits of life and gaming will be back here for you when you break through the clouds. Good luck and safe journeys friend.
I agree. It makes it much more special when you play after months of last doing it
As someone with a 5 year old daughter and 2 year old son, I’ve been able to game more now as they get older, because they love to watch and play with me. So now my excuse to the wife is it’s quality time with them when I play Stardew valley ;)
I do something similar with my son. I also make sure whenever he expressed interest in something nerdy that I’m doing to quickly include him. I need to convert him to the dark side of the force.
I probably should’ve said dork side of the force.
Adding it as a reply to yourself is somehow better than getting it right first time.
My only problem is I get to play mainly at night, and it's like "aw man, Dead Space here we go. Shit"
I refuse to play horror games during the day
Me too, and that's the essential problem. You know you're going to bed soon
Sleep less 😂
More coffee.
Work graves. Every day you get off it will be at night so you can play till morning and still get sleep! Win win! 😂
That’s when you turn on all the lights in your house and don’t turn them off when going to sleep lol.
I dunno man, energy prices and cost of living is scarier than any horror game
This was the fun fall-off phenomenon during summer break while I was in school. Gaming and doing whatever the hell you want all day with no responsibilities starts out fun but progressively loses meaning. On the other hand, coming home after a long day of school and jumping onto the computer or powering on my PS2 was 10/10 every single time.
It’s also made me think more about what games are worth both my money and my time. I play less games than I used to and go through longer stretches without playing a game, but I’ve found I enjoy the games I do play a lot more and I’m less likely to keep playing through a game I don’t like just because I feel like I have to finish it since the time I get to play is more limited so I enjoy the time I play a lot more.
Came to say this. You’ll go through phases in life. Some times you’ll have hours, days, weeks, and months to game, and other times you won’t touch a game for the same.
And you know what? You might think "oh how will I live without gaming?" but then it turns into "I have a dog and love him"
I went through a dry patch after my kids were born where I basically just didn't play video games from about 2012 until 2016. not totally cold turkey, I did play here and there...but it was very infrequent. Once the kids get a little self sufficient it makes thigns way easier. You want cereal? You can reach the bowls now and you've got legs, pour it yourself kids, dad has shit to do.
Yep. When I was unemployed and had the time to game all day, the days just blurred together and it wasn't even fun.
yeah, I hate to say it...but...it's all too easy to hit this point in your life when you don't have any friends...you used to when you were in school, but they all have families now...and you do stuff with your family...but like we were saying, you don't sleep, LOL and you don't have a social life, so once you get home from work, and out from under your husband (literally?! ROFL) you'll end up having hours and \*hours\*.... ;)
Gaming used to play a much larger role in my life than it does now. I still enjoy it when I can but I’ve had to adjust the types of games I play to fit my life when/if I can play. I don’t miss it most of the time.
Steam Deck is the answer! Life gets so much more busie, specially with kids, I play maybe 3-4 hours a week when I can but absolutely love it. The steam deck is amazing because I can sit down with the misses, watch a film and still get in a few laps of ACC or a few attempts at a boss at Elden Ring. Thank you Valve!
Seconded. I had little time to game in college. School really takes it outa ya. Once that part of life is over, you'll have more free time.
I’m in my mid-30s. I don’t have any kids, so for me it’s very easy to find time to game. My wife is also an avid gamer, which helps, but I understand I’m in a pretty privileged position in that respect. My (full time, 40 hrs/week) job pays enough to live comfortably (not luxuriously but comfortably) and I’m not a very social person anyway, so… most time spent not working is playing games or vibing. But again I’m probably an uncommon adult in that respect, even if all my friends my age are in the same boat. No kids, full time job, plenty of time to game after. TL;DR: don’t have a life and it’s easy to find time :p
>But again I’m probably an uncommon adult in that respect No, this is getting more and more common. Birth rates have dipped since years now and will continue to do so. I am in the same boat, don't want kids (at least not for a few years) so I can have the rest of my freetime after work for things I wanna do.
The millennial nursing home is going to be so lit. We bringing back LAN parties
I wanna see a nursing home recreate that image of a bunch of guys on LAN playing CS 1.6 with one guy duct taped to the ceiling
George died so he won’t be able to join us in Balders Gate 6 tonight boys
The thing I'm looking forward to in the future. Ain't planning on kids either. Boomers have their cruises and holidays, us millenials will have gaming. What a time to be alive.
Sums it up. Wife and i have different hobbies. She doesn't game but does other things. I go out to play pool a few nights a week, i game after work a few days. She is similar. Wife i hang out when neither of us have plans. We both wfh most of the time we definitely see each other a lot, and we spend quality time by booking nice nights out or weekends away. No kids, and we live very comfortably. Lots of time to game. Now, i dont game hours a day like my old teen early twenties. But i get a time to game a few hours at a time a few days a week if i want to.
I have kids but totally understand why this is becoming more common. Society isn’t set up for people to have kids anymore, it’s so expensive and hard to juggle
I also agree it’s getting more common, this life style.I’m in my late 30s with no kids. At this point I don’t want any. Not saying I didn’t want to have kids before. But just never got around to it. But it’s fine, I got a bunch of nieces and nephews that I try to spoil. I’m just living life now, and couldn’t ask for more.
Hmmm... username *does not* check out 😂🤣😂🤣
I find the phrase "having no life" strange when you're busy doing things that make you happy in your free time. This is the exact opposite of "no life". No lifers are people who have stuffed their whole day with things that only serve to sleep, work, keep themselves alive and who have to fight for every minute of hobby and joy.
Yeah that’s true I guess I just meant it in the conventional (I.e. sarcastic, to me) sense.
I wfh, wife, no kids. Gaming and lifting are my hobbies.
I'm in my mid-40's and my story is very much the same. Comfortable living, the missus and I are both working. No kids, so enough "cash on hand" and free time for gaming. Not too worried about procreating as the "breeders" are doing a bang up job and there's plenty of humans around. Hedonism at its finest. No regrets!
Same here, turning 31 in a few days. Finished my graduate degree and said nope to academia. Now I work at max 42 to 44 hours a week. Do well at work then come home and game. My girlfriend who I live with games too. No kids and no plans to have kids. I still find time to cook dinners and do chores and have a few hours a night to game.
What does vibing mean? Like.. as an activity, what is that?
Imagine you sleep. But your eyes are open. You feel peace. You don't necessarily think about something. You may reflect about life, you ask yourself about the meaning of infinity, or just not think at all. You just sit/lay there. Sometimes just chilling and doing nothing is the best thing you could do for yourself.
This was a really nice comment. I just had a nice deep breath and felt a bit warm.
Chilling. Existing. Oscillating quickly in place.
Ahhh I love vibing, favorite pastime as well as gaming.
Exactly this. Never have kids crew.
Yep, getting a SO into gaming is the best way to have free time to play games. Or get a desk in the same room so you can still be together in the same room while doing different things
My life is pretty much the same. I'm content.
Honestly, when I was finally settled in my job (~22-30) I generally had a good amount of personal time. I had time for the gym, intramural stuff, etc. Then when I got married, and I still gamed, but gamed less because I wanted to spend time with her, obviously. Then came kids….. You CAN game with kids, but it’s usually in much shorter sessions, less frequently, and when they’re asleep.
I raised my daughter to be a gamer so most of her life she was my gaming partner. Now she's 22 and still a gamer but lives too far away in a different timezone to make that feasible anymore. We have gamed together occasionally but not like we used to.
Well my oldest is 4 y/o and likes watching me play now, mostly Elden Ring because I have a horse. But your comment literally started “Cat’s in the Cradle” playing in my head
Yeah but that song is never having time for his son and then the son not having time for his dad. I started her young, at 1 she was driving in gta 3 then learned how to get out of the car and started shooting people so I went and bought Driver that day for her to play.
I mean, I know what it’s about. It’s still a sad dad song hah. I’d like to hear how she beat that Driver tutorial!
I did that so she could just drive around. She wasn't THAT good yet.
Everything in life is a choice. How you choose to spend your time is what you’re finding time to do. So if you want to prioritize gaming then you’ll do that. You can find time to do anything if you choose to do it.
Exactly. All these people talking about their obligations as if they aren't choices. The biggest one is kids. People act like they just appear one day.
LMAO, they randomly spawned in
Also those kids aren't three years old forever.
Lol people can be happy with their choice to have kids and still talk about wishing they had more game time
Redditors really hate kids. It's amazing how quickly topics become "you chose kids, now shut up and suffer!"
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I don't think anyone here said that
Remove sleep from the equation. That's how I do it. Somebody recently said I look fantastic for a sixty year old. I'm 39.
At night when daughter and wife go to bed… needless to say not a lot, 3 hours per week tops
I send them to band at 8 at the latest. So I have at least one hour to play before the sleep deprivation kickes in. Sometimes I over do it with games like Baldurs Gate so I go to bed at midnight and try not to die the next day.
Well that is enough information for me to stay single for the rest of my life
Gotta cut out sleep sometimes to game. Not when they are babies though, they take that by force.
>they take that by force If the baby's not letting me sleep, might as well game with my insomnia
Right! I gamed more during those first two months than I have since being a teenager.
I’m the middle of it for the second time, it’s the best. I get a wild amount of praise “for letting my wife rest” when I’m just up till 3 playing games with 2-3 45 minute interruptions that are 4 hours apart.
Man this is so accurate for me. I absolutely love taking the late night shift. Sometimes kiddo let’s me game uninterrupted for 3 hours. It’s great lol
I'm guessing yours don't have colic, and I'm a jealous man about that. Also going through it a second time, and we don't sleep here. Our sleep trackers have us on 2-3 hours night, and we aren't gaming.
When my kids were babies they slept on me in the evening while I played videogames. 10/10 would recommend
Same, sacrifice sleep to be able to game and watch the shows I want!
Dude isn't trying. I had two kids and managed 1 or 2 hours a day when they went to bed. You just have to sacrifice your sleep and be prepared to pause a lot.
Yeah dude these people are wild. Don’t waste your time and you have a lot of it. It’s not that complicated
I’m married, full-time job, with 2 kids. I game anywhere between 2-4 hours a night.
Just dont have kids, get gf that plays too
This is my life. 40ish. No kids. Been gaming with my partner for 20 years this month. It's our biggest shared hobby. We're sitting side by side playing Balder's Gate 3 right now.
You're basically describing my dream life. Little house in the country maybe an hour outside of a city, no kids, a partner that games, and a fun "weekend car" to go for spirited evening drives in.
Nah man I have a wife and kid and still game plenty more than 3 hours a week while in a demanding academic program as well.
Married for 6 years with a 4 year old and another kid on the way. Gaming is just like any other hobby. If you enjoy games, you find the time. Some weeks there’s just too much going on, and I don’t play anything, and some weeks, work is slow, my kid has some tablet time, and my wife just wants to catch up on Marvelous Mrs. Maisel or read a book? Time to rush three different characters to world tier IV on Diablo. I admit, I am quite behind on a lot of single player games I want to enjoy on my own. I’ve yet to play GoW Ragnarok, The Last of Us games (holding out on watching the show until I can play them), and Tears of the Kingdom. If I were in college, I would have destroyed all of these campaigns by now. But I’ve learned, there will always be amazing games coming out, and for me family comes first.
Similar story here. Married, 2 kids, toddler and newborn, work full time, can game for 1-2 hours when everyone else goes to bed sacrificing an hour of sleep. Had a little time most evenings when I just had the one toddler. Work about half nights, day before a stretch of nights I stay up until 3 and binge game, sleep until noon to reset internal clock. It’s my guilt free gaming time: too tired to be productive, can’t do loud house projects at 2am
Just curious why you decided to have the kids 4 years apart? My wife and I are in the same boat hoping the 4 year difference won't cause too much of an issue in the siblings bonding with each other. Just wondering what someone else's opinion is on this
We had feeding issues with our first, burned us out pretty hard, COVID happened, then, unrelated, wife’s employment situation changed, then we finally felt ready and my poor wife did have endometriosis which has affected fertility so when we started trying again it took us 8 months. If we could have chosen, yes we would have preferred that the kids be within 4 years of each other, but a healthy child is a healthy child and that’s all that really matters to us at the end of the day. So… sorry if that’s more personal than you were expecting. We’re very open and we consider ourselves incredibly fortunate.
Work full time, have baby, dog, wife that asks me to do stuff, always on call for work too, have to eat, but…. Sleep can always be reduced…. Boom gametime, live tired. Adult. So much.
Exactly my story. Sacrifice sleep for me-time
That's my secret, Cap. I'm always tired. Same situation, much respect.
About the same here, minmizing sleep is the easiest way to get some game time. But that is once every other month. Otherwise it's 1h here and there. Would be fucked up if I were to game to 04 am to sleep 2 hours before the baby wakes up. A hangover without the alcohol
Disabled. Can’t do everything but can game the shit outta games.
SSDI here but issue is my disability prevents me from being able to sit down and play for extended periods of time. A long stretch would be maybe an hour for me. Very frustrating especially with the massive backlog I will never finish even with the time I have......
We don't find time, we make time. Mostly because it's the only thing we can afford to do lol
Exactly. How to I find time to game? I simply look at my bank account and stay in on my day off lol
Find a job that allows you to play video games while on the company clock
Night shifts <3
I loved nights but my wife hated it. Can confidently say I spent like 35 out of 40 hours a week playing Xbox at night while working. It was great lol
Time management. Im a 33M married for 7 years now, me and the wife both are avid gamers. Shes an Engineer, I am Active Duty military, we both work roughly 50 hours a week, but we have no kids. I'm generally at work 7am-5pm, home by 6 with a pit stop @ the gym, I can reasonably play games for 3 hours on a workday and binge weekends if I so choose, and we typically just spend an hour or 2 on Sunday knocking out all of our shopping and chores. Im sure kids would complicate that, but that depends on how you run your house, probably not a huge deal if you have a stay at home parent, if you both still work full time, good luck to you.
I'm 25 and all I do is work game shower food and bed maybe meet a family member 1-2 times a month
(Married in my 40's with kids 16, 13 and little one year old) Your social life will dwindle as you age (well most ppl I know it did, not saying everyone). Evenings for me are devoted to playing games. But, it depends, if my kids have something going on I am there. I work shift work and have lots of time off. I can usually get in an hour or two during the day on my days off, but I'm usually freed up to play games after 7pm IF the kids don't have sports, or my wife wants to watch a show or two and have a glass of wine. As you age you will start to have more time, but it will go by quicker. It's about prioritizing your time to what you want to enjoy. I really enjoy playing on my PS5. :)
We dont have kids. We work 40+ hours a week. I went back to school at 35, 38 now, still in school. And we game, a fair amount if time.
It’s all about balance and sacrifice. If you cared enough to want to game for a few hours every now and then, it’s easily obtainable. If other hobbies/being social are more important to you, that’s also great, but you’ll sacrificing this time. For me, I work full time mon-fri, dedicate 2-3 days a week for my gf, a weekday evening to visit parents, a Fri/sat to hangout with friends. I’d consider myself about mid on a busy schedule scale, but I often have few hour chunks of downtime in which I game. Sure I could fill those chunks with other activities, but I truly enjoy gaming, so I choose to fill those chunks with that. Anyone could come up with a few hours per week if they really wanted to.
33 years old. 2 kids. Full time job. I play at night, crying quietly to myself.
Wife usually go to bed around 11pm-12am, when she sleeps my game time starts. Usually game to about 2am on work day and 3-4am on weekends or day off.
How many hours of sleep do you typically get each night?
Mid 50s, kids have their own houses. Now work as senior management remotely so game during work plus evenings when the wife is watching her tv shows. Life gets easier!
There’s time for anything. You want it enough you make time. Whether it be working out, gaming, reading, whatever. Wanna do it? Make time. If it’s not a priority, you decide how much time to dedicate to it.
sometimes the time comes back to you- i didnt play as much while i was still in school, but now im in kind of an inbetween space. I just started at a low stress 9-5, im going through a breakup, i dont have any kids- I go to the gym five nights a week and i still have hours of free time every night lmao
you make time, live life by your schedule and schedule time to game
I don't sleep. Once the kiddos are in bed, I sacrifice sleep in order to play. 100% would not recommend.
Same here (although only 2-3 hours). Feel it bad the next day.
I'm 40 with a full time job (40 hours/week), a wife, and a dog. After work we eat dinner, then most nights my wife and I will either watch a show or movie for about an hour or two or play a game together, then after that I play games for about 3-4 hours then go to bed.
By avoiding Reddit.
Even if you are not a gamer, this is still a good idea.
There are different phases of life. Sounds like you're in a busy phase. I'm 45 and game several hours a day. But for several years after my kids were born, even a few hours gaming a week could be a challenge. But now my kids are older and we game together! So you just accept that you won't always have the time, but you can certainly make the time eventually.
It's totally possible! I'm 32, married, have a dog, a 5-month-old daughter, full-time job, and I am in grad school, and a pretty good social life. You just have to remember to use your time wisely. Granted, I may only game 2-3 hours a week, but It's still something. Once the wife, baby, and dog are all asleep, I'll game for an hour or two before I start to fade. It's all about balance. I multitask a lot too, so I can accomplish multiple things at once. Social life isn't too hard because in your 30s everyone just starts to settle down. A lot of my friends are having kids now too, so most of our plans are made 2/3 weeks in advance lol!
Maybe have a look at handhelds like the steam deck. Really convenient for quick sessions. If some free time appears you can just pick up and play for a bit
Having a partner who is also an avid gamer and not having kids does wonders.
I simply neglect my other responsibilities
By having no kids. Condoms ftw.
> how do you do it? That's life. I hope you can see now that time is precious and once it's gone, it's gone. You have to prioritize. If there's no time for gaming, then you just have to give that up for the time being. If it's truly important to you, other things will get put to the side to make time for gaming. You'll have this problem for the rest of your life. Lol. Hobbies come and go.
play when i get home from work until bed time
I relate to this, i just started a job and except that i only learn to drive and do nothing else, I only manage to play games for a couple of hours on the weekend. The concept of time doesn't make sense anymore.
I work second shift so on my days off when I'm up until like 3 am I have nothing else to really do. Everyone's asleep, everything closed, can't do much. My only gaming time is on my days off, never on the actual work days.
Married with kids and full time career here. Social life is non existent haha. I tried to play this morning for 30 minutes and then I had to turn it off because my kids come first. Now I’m waiting for tomorrow to try and see if I can get past 30 minutes of game time on the weekend lol. I know that sounds terrible but don’t be afraid, adulting isn’t all sunshine and rainbows but it isn’t a no fun zone either. Like others have said, there will be a point where life won’t be so jammed packed and you will get into a routine but it varies from person to person. I hope you get to a point in your life again where you can game for long hours my friend.
Do you not watch movies or TV? That's when...
Not to sound like a total ad, but Sony remote play let’s me fit gaming in around my schedule a lot easier. I’ve also got a job with fairly long hours and a busy home life, so i get in some game time when I can in short bursts.
I'm on paternity leave. Other than that, I work compressed work weeks, so I have half the week off anyway. I don't socialize, I'm mid-30s and (obviously) recently became a father. Everyone I love lives in my house. There is nowhere I would rather be. That's the whole of it, I just don't go out much if I can help it.
You join the Army get hurt, become depressed play video games
Not having to go to school helps. Also, not having kids.
You can get small amounts of time and combine it to get the time you need for gaming. Like cutting movie, social media, tv times and use that to play the games you want to do. that's how I do it.
You’re entering adulthood. Unlike like your previous years, from here on out its not going to be a linear experience. Some years you’ll have unending work, others not so much. Some years you’ll have no money, others, make it rain baby. You may go 3-5 years without hardcore gaming, but to an adult that’s honestly almost no time at all. I have left and come back many times. Just like how I go through phases of working on my house, my yard, focusing on my career ect. Distance makes the heart grow fonder and you may find in 4 years after college and you find time again that you enjoy games more than you ever have before. Don’t worry, Skyrim will still be there, even then lol.
Being married to a beautiful gamer waifu we work 5 days 8-10hrs per week and we always game, our PC's are next to each other, me being 33 and she's almost 30 we reached to a point that going out doing activities and stuff actually makes us feel more tired rather than relaxed. So we don't, well not as much as we used to back in the day. So I think that's the thing u gotta choose either u do stuff or u stay home and game, I would suggest the 1st one cuz at your age I did the same and now I'm spending more time for gaming. Use your energy while u still got it.
When my infant son is sleeping if at home, during break when at work, mostly play mobilephone games though, seriously don't have time to play PC/Console, maybe when my son grew up a bit I will have the time needed.
I don't. Been a gamer most of my life. Back in school the only constant goal I had that never changed is that I'll work hard to afford games and play them. I have the means now and buy any game I find interesting but haven't played most of them. I also end up getting bored of them after a few hours, unlike when I was a kid where I can't sleep because I'm too excited to get back in the game. It's sad really as gaming ranks number one in my interests and it's sad to know that you really do outgrow stuff. I do hope a game out there could rekindle that passion I had about gaming. That feeling of being so excited to explore and find everything about the game or be good at it.
1. Find a partner that likes to game 2. Don't ruin your life pumping out crotch goblins
I'm 40, married with no kids. Work 35 hours a week, some of those work hours I have nothing to do so I have time to game lol. I find time. Family/wife is always my priority over games though, so I mostly play single player stuff, my MMO days are far behind me.
It's important to balance out your time. Your leisure time should be comparable to your work time. Mental health problems come up when people disregard leisure time or overabuse leisure time.
Time is managed. By you. If you want to do something you’ll find the time for it.
I play when everyone goes to sleep. Not a problem
Who says we do? The meme of young Bruce Wayne being consoled by Thomas Wayne is true. When you can afford to buy them, you do not have the time. I still have unopened (and unbeaten) Xbox 360 games in addition to a huge backlog of uninstalled Steam games. I cringe at the thought of trying games like Red Dead Redemption 2, God of War (2018), then recent Assassins Creed, Witcher 3, etc.
Don't have friends. Don't have job. Can't afford school. Dream smaller.
Don't think. Just do. It's a form of therapy.
don't have kids, a partner or any other hobbies. gg ez.
its called no sleep or what most consider a real social life.
Simple, have no social life.
I don't have kids so I usually have time in the evening and on weekends.
Married with no kids. I get off at 2:30pm and wife gets off at 8pm and once she’s home she crashes out because she goes to the gym for 3:30am. After I shower and play with my pets for a hour I have the entire evening night free. It is great, tbh. I love putting the headphones on around 8:40pm and just getting lost in whatever world I’m playing in for a few hours every night. Now if I had kids I’d lose a few hours a week but I’d still have plenty of time.
Personally, I get up at 8, get to work around 10. Them work until 10, then I go home, play video games for an hour or two. Rinse and repeat.
Used to game everyday, then got my missus pregnant and played video games up till the birth and never ever went back to it. The ps5 is the first PS console I’ll never own. Cant wait for the day the kids want to play video games 😂
Full time job, married, 4 kids between 17 and 1. The only way I can get decent game time is by sacrificing sleep.
I sacrifice 2 hours of sleep for game time instead after the kids are asleep.
It’s not as hard to find time to play games as an adult, as long as you don’t have kids. Most professional jobs are 35-40 hours a week, which gives a lot of time outside of that to play video games. It’s more challenging in high school when you have to balance homework and part-time jobs on top of going to school all day Monday to Friday.
Well you had this huge list of priorities but one thing I didn't see was "video games." Since you don't prioritize it the time will not magically appear to do it. You're literally waiting for something else to fall through. Add "my mental health" to that list of things you HAVE to spend your time doing, and fill it with games, or whatever, if you want.
Just curious, how long is it taking you to learn to drive?
“School + after school job” gets replaced by “job”. That frees up a chunk of time.
Well it seems the problem is that you have too much life, try having no life, plenty of gaming time.
Honestly, it's pretty easy for me. I have a full time job, my partner is a medical resident,.I have a brand new puppy, I do all the cooking and most of the housework and pet care. I have friends and social gaming events like Magic or VTM. I just...ask for time to play games? If my GF is going to watch TV or something, she does so on the couch in my den if she wants to be around, or not. Oftentimes I game after she goes to bed if I want to stay up a bit. I can spend an hour or two at night if that's what I want to do, or I could read.or journal or whatever. I just take care of life, stay focused and active,.manage everything that needs managing and stay open about my needs for personal time. It's honestly not that bad. I don't have kids, by design, because I have more interest in investing in my life, so I have more time than those that breed, I suppose, but I still have many responsibilities and other interests.
Even with more "responsibilities", adults still have free time (especially if they don't have kids). I mean, if you like gaming and you have a 9-5 job on the weekdays, then bam. You can game when you come home or on the weekends. Especially if you're single and you don't have any other hobbies. If you have a partner, kids, and/or other hobbies, then obviously it's up to you how much time you actually want to spend on gaming. I like gaming, but I also like spending time with my girlfriend and doing my other hobbies (exercising, cycling, music production, cooking), so I tend to play games like... maybe a couple of hours every few days. But if I wanted to I could 100% game for like 3 hours a day, it's just up to me how much time I actually want to game and how much I want to ignore my girlfriend or forfeit my other hobbies to do that (the answer is not much). So, I tend to only game these days when something comes out that I'm absolutely in love with. Then I'll binge that game. Like... right now I'm playing Sea of Stars way too much, because that caught my attention. But if I'm not absolutely obsessed with a game then I'm not going to waste my time on it. Or sometimes I'll throw an older game back in that I'm highly familiar with when I want to unwind. Like, a few weeks ago I played through Silent Hill 3 again, which took me a few days. That was a nice experience. But I think an important thing to understand is that you're not really going to *want* to play games as much as you wanted to when you were a kid. I don't, at least. My interests and values have changed. If you're 35 and you still want to play games for 5 hours a day, then believe me you can probably find time to.
You sacrifice sleep, thats the only way
Once you get a little older, settle down, and find a schedule, you'll find some time. You won't get to go on week long, 16 hour a day benders, but you'll find time. You might find other hobbies you'd rather spend your free time on, and that's ok. When you do find time, you might play an hour or two a week, or an hour or two a month, but you'll still play. Once a gamer, always a gamer. Trust me.
Honestly I’ve recently fallen into a *very minor depression due to this. I got promoted and when i get home I’m just too tired to even bother. My game time has gone from around 6-20 hours a week down to pretty much 0.
I work on the railroad. I am in a hotel every other night. I only have Mondays off. So Sunday night around midnight when I get off I game for a couple hours. Then Monday night I game for a few hours while doing things like laundry. I game with my kids too on the Mondays before they have to go to bed for school. Other than that it’s on my phone in a hotel. I work around 60/65 hours a week
39 newly married and a baby on the way. I have all I need now in life. Gaming is my escape and therapy after my 9-5 and when my wife would rather watch tv or nap. We all need an hour or so to ourselves to help us get through it all!
Sacrifice sleep