How often do you play games?

[so_tough!]

Every day? A couple of times a week? Once a month? I was going to put a poll, but it got too confusing

[+20ohm20]

Every day? A couple of times a week? Once a month? I was going to put a poll, but it got too confusing

 

Video games? I'm guessing around 15-20 hours a week. A little less during the summer, probably around 20-30 hours a week during the winter. Typically I don't play them much on the weekend since I almost always have something going on where I'm not at home.

[so_tough!]

Every day? A couple of times a week? Once a month? I was going to put a poll, but it got too confusing

 

Video games? I'm guessing around 15-20 hours a week. A little less during the summer, probably around 20-30 hours a week during the winter.

 

nope. Sex games! Kidding, yep video games

[VectorGamer]

It varies for me.

 

Sometimes I will play on my arcade cabinets like 5 times a week for a month and not even touch my consoles.

 

Sometimes I need a break and not play anything for two weeks.

 

Other times I play consoles for a few weeks and not fire up the arcade cabinets.

 

Then it varies which consoles I play. My ColecoVision is hooked up full-time but then I'll go an Atari binge and play some 7800 and 2600 games. Other times I'll break out the Commodore 64. If I'm really bored, I'll hook up the Intellivision.

 

Since I've setup the Retroboards, I've been playing a lot of console games, just about everyday for the last month. Now, I'm back to playing the cabinets for the Arcade/MAME Summer Showdown. Since it's a competition, I may take a day off in between if I'm playing lousy.

 

So, the short answer is a lot but I do need breaks.

[Reaperman]

A few times a week.

 

Usually a couple hours on a couple of weeknights, and probably ~5hrs on saturday. All told I probably average about 8 hrs a week. I spend much more time shopping for games than playing them.

 

Honestly most of what I currently play is to get footage for youtube, so it's starting to feel a bit like work. This week I'll probably do a lot more gaming though, because the wife's running club meets 3-4 times instead of just once.

 

...I hope I don't have to start putting "running club" in quotes like one does with "massage parlor" or "tennis instructor"

Edited August 8, 2011 by Reaperman

[ATARI7800fan]

once a day.

[Rex Dart]

Normally several times a week, but since I've finally added svideo to my genesis, it's been daily.

[GKC]

I don't often find the time to play during my work week so most of my gaming comes on my weekend. It's a good thing they are always 3 day weekends . I'd say I play a total of 8-10 hours a week.

[Seob]

Almost every day. Unless i'm on vacation. But then again i play boardgames on vacation, so i guess i always play games.

[PsychoKittyNet]

Mostly on weekends, but I sometimes get a little time in during the week though.

[+save2600]

Once or twice a week maybe and that includes my arcade and computer stuff. Guess most of it hardly gets used and when I do play, seems to be just a few minutes to maybe an hour at a time. Just like having it all nearby mostly

[Hatta]

Every day. Usually 30min-1hr of an arcadey action game, then 1 or 2 hours of something a little more exploratory and strategical.

[NE146]

Every day while pinching one out on the crapper. That is pure video game time.

 

And after that.. when everyone goes to sleep about 11pm EST time I'll squeeze maybe 20-40 minutes in.

[+Random Terrain]

If I get a new game, I might play every day for a week or a month or more. Sometimes I get busy doing other things and I might go days, weeks, or months without playing any games.

Edited August 8, 2011 by Random Terrain

[cvga]

Hardly ever during the summer except for games on the iPad or sometimes the DS. I play more during the winter but it varies. I maybe average 2-4 hours per week.

[SlowCoder]

I'm actually spending a lot less time these days actually playing. If I've got free time I usually end up finding a console for joystick to fix. But when I do get something fixed, I'll usually "test" it for a while ... you know ... to make sure it works like I think it should. Other than that, I might plop down for a 15-20 minute Atari bonding session. I mean, we can't be strangers, right? Right? Yeah.

[segasaturn]

I play games almost everyday. I play whatever game I'm in the mood for though.......

[so_tough!]

Thanks for answering guys I'm not playing any thesedays! I didn't play any games from 15 years old until just before I joined this site (when I picked up a Jaguar on ebay). You are talking around 7 or 8 years playing no games, maybe occasionally at a friends house.

 

I don't have a big collection, honestly I'm thinking of selling all my games. I think some people just grow out of them.

[DickNixonArisen]

I went through a period of depression during which I was far too anhedonic to play videogames. That shit was SAD, like a stoner who wants to smoke up but is too unmotivated to roll one. You know it's bad when even escapism is too much to handle. Usually, I go through phases with certain systems, all NES for a while, etc. Most of my game-time goes into classic or new JRPG's, or maybe Arpg's like LoZ titles and knockoffs; I mean, that's normal, you generally need to toss at bare minimum 30 hours into one of those kinds of games to beat it, and 30 hours of practice is enough to get pretty far in old-timey non-saveable games. I felt like I was pretty good at Ikaruga, and that I had played it a lot, but I hadn't hit 30 hours or even close yet when I checked the counter. I play through them slowly and tend to overlevel as well as save items beyond what is reasonable, there are a lot of timers maxed out at 99 hours. I have an FF3 cart with all of the saved games maxed (and most of the characters in them maxed in level, too.. wow) I probably play for as many as twenty hours a week when I'm into an RPG, usually for four or so hours at a time, then i'll have a few weeks where I am just busy with other stuff, fun or serious, and not touch anything. Another thing about playing RPG's for extended amounts of time is that you're not always paying 100% attention to the game like you would with a fighter or shmup; sometimes you are cooking or even reading a book and just level grinding with the occasional glance at the screen. All told, though, this year I probably played videogames less than any previous year save those that I lived prior to HAVING games. When I lived down in Oklahoma, it was a constant thing, since life was so boring there. Symphonia, Baten Kaitos, Ikaruga, Chaos Field, Samurai Shodwon and Guilty Gear accent core. My doctor made me quit Showdown, though... blood pressure. Now that I'm back up here in CT I have more non-game interests which take up time, like fencing, fine cheeses, leatherwork, art, singing, poetry, guitar, piano and typing huge walls of text on atariage.

[so_tough!]

I went through a period of depression during which I was far too anhedonic to play videogames. That shit was SAD, like a stoner who wants to smoke up but is too unmotivated to roll one. You know it's bad when even escapism is too much to handle. Usually, I go through phases with certain systems, all NES for a while, etc. Most of my game-time goes into classic or new JRPG's, or maybe Arpg's like LoZ titles and knockoffs; I mean, that's normal, you generally need to toss at bare minimum 30 hours into one of those kinds of games to beat it, and 30 hours of practice is enough to get pretty far in old-timey non-saveable games. I felt like I was pretty good at Ikaruga, and that I had played it a lot, but I hadn't hit 30 hours or even close yet when I checked the counter. I play through them slowly and tend to overlevel as well as save items beyond what is reasonable, there are a lot of timers maxed out at 99 hours. I have an FF3 cart with all of the saved games maxed (and most of the characters in them maxed in level, too.. wow) I probably play for as many as twenty hours a week when I'm into an RPG, usually for four or so hours at a time, then i'll have a few weeks where I am just busy with other stuff, fun or serious, and not touch anything. Another thing about playing RPG's for extended amounts of time is that you're not always paying 100% attention to the game like you would with a fighter or shmup; sometimes you are cooking or even reading a book and just level grinding with the occasional glance at the screen. All told, though, this year I probably played videogames less than any previous year save those that I lived prior to HAVING games. When I lived down in Oklahoma, it was a constant thing, since life was so boring there. Symphonia, Baten Kaitos, Ikaruga, Chaos Field, Samurai Shodwon and Guilty Gear accent core. My doctor made me quit Showdown, though... blood pressure. Now that I'm back up here in CT I have more non-game interests which take up time, like fencing, fine cheeses, leatherwork, art, singing, poetry, guitar, piano and typing huge walls of text on atariage.

 

Good post. That's a typical symptom of depression, not being interested in things that you once were. Actually lately I haven't been feeling that good (but when most people ask me how I am on Atariage, I usually just say fine!), but I don't think that's why I'm not playing any games. I can look at that huge gap in my life of not owning any systems and realise that games were more fun when I was a kid and for whatever reason I just began losing interest in them.

 

For example, I alway wanted a neo geo when I was a kid, a couple of years ago I bought one. All it does is gather dust, a couple of weeks after purchase at most I was thinking, "why did I buy this thing?".

 

Anyway, all those other interests you have sound good to me!

[tz101]

Rarely do I play video games these days. Work and school take up a lot of time lately.

[Christophero Sly]

Not much during the summer, especially this one. Maybe 40 min. to an hour here and there over the course of a week. Maybe 3-5 hrs. a week in total. During the winter I can carve out larger blocks of time for videogaming.

[BydoEmpire]

Not nearly as much as I used to. Modern games have completely lost their appeal. I haven't played a game on my 360 or Wii in ages (although I did fire up the Wii when my niece & nephew visited and played with them a bit).

 

I don't have tons of time for classic games, either, but I like the 5200 and Inty high score clubs so I'll play one of those every few weeks. In total I might play a classic console game once a week or so, if I'm lucky. I do play games on my iTouch fairly often, but it's usually really quick, like waiting in a doctor's office or something. I don't put lots of time in it. A couple times a year I might get the itch to play a computer game - whether it's on my iMac, Apple 2 or Amiga.

[CGQuarterly]

I started a new job a few months ago that leaves me with a LOT more free time, and I had expected that I would start playing more games, but I think these days I'm playing less than ever. Not sure why, but I'm just going through a phase where I'm not that interested in them. I haven't even been coming around here as often. I've never spent as much time playing games as most "gamers" do, though.

 

Chris

[Lord Helmet]

It varies for me. Usually only a couple times during the week, and almost every weekend night. I play less in the summertime though since we spend so much time outdoors.