Ask Lemmy

Yes. It's the only thing keeping me sane at this point

Yeah and the only way I've been able to make it work is with the steam deck since it allows me to hang out in the TV room with everyone. Sequestering myself away in a dedicated room is over I'm afraid lol.

Adult here. I have now over 10 years of experience as an adult, although closer to 20 years of experience playing video games.

There are two realizations that are needed to understand the relation of someone in this life style who is also a fan of video games.

First, no I do not have as much time as I used to have to play video games. In school and university times I would easily play over one hour per day on a week day and much more on a weekend. But nowadays, I spend 8 hours per day on a weekdays working on my job, plus a few hours doing house work. So can't play as much as I could.

But second, I also want to do other things. Nowadays I actually read much more then I used to. I also try to do other hobbies, and try to do social activities much more. I tend to spend more time with other people too. So out of my free time that I would use for video games in the past, I actually allocate that time for other activities.

I still absolutely love video games. They are a part of my life. But I probably play two to four hours per week only. These hours are few but highly meaningful anyway.

I think part of the journey for me to become an adult, to have a job, responsibilities, and such, has also been about broadening what I do, so it doesn't upset me that I can't spend so much time on video games, but rather it makes me happy that I have a fuller life.

I work from home and have no kids, so yeah I have plenty of time.

1. Cook at home and eat healthy
2. Sleep enough hours every night
3. Cultivate and maintain healthy non-familial relationships
4. spend meaningful amounts of quality time with family
5. Work at a full-time job 40+ hrs a week
6. Play video games or engage in other hobbies

Choose 3

You cannot effectively do the rest.

I do 4, 5, & 6.

I slept 3 hours last night and have an embarrassing number of Uber Eats deliveries each month… but on the bright side I count the video game time sometimes as “cultivating healthy relationships” when I can get ahold of my fellow gaming dads who don’t go to bed until after 1am… 🫩🥱

People watch about 3 hours of television a day. Yes, you have time to play video games.

Yes. But I worry about your premises. Except for a few thing, gaming is not a 10 hour long experience every time; you can just easily slip-it in any free time. Not having the time to play video games sort of implies you never have free time, which would be concerning.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding the question and it is not about having time to play video games as much as will to play video games. Interests can shift over time; for some people, it's playing different types of games, for other, it's having different hobbies over time.

I think the same way people have to be a bit social, they need a bit of "me" time here and there. All things in balance and all that. But the material "time" needed to play video games? Yeah, it's there.

If you got time to browse the internet, you got time to game

I shall always make time <3

You also begin to realise how much of a waste of time gaming actually is.

Yes, just dont have kids

I cannot answer this question. I am a 40 year old kid, not an adult.

I have lots of time. Other than work, I don't do anything but play video games, watch videos/movies/shows, and shitpost comments on Lemmy. Got no money to do anything else I would like to do. Ain't got no friends IRL to do anything with.

Steam deck helps

Barely anymore.
When I have free time, I spend it on my hobby projects, or I'll watch YouTube because it's less commitment (i mostly play multiplayer games where I don't wanna quit on my teammates mid-match).

in my experience, adults yes. adults with kids, not for a while.

you get to play some games again when your child starts sleeping longer hours at night. if your spouse is ok with it you might be able to go to sleep later and play a session. just make sure your spouse is ok with it. even better if your spouse also plays.

and hopefully when they're old enough you'll play together anyway.

if you have another child only a year or two apart however that'll set you back a couple years probably. 2x children is like 4x time sink for some reason.

if you don't have kids, you should have plenty of time for video games.

If you do have kids that can become harder to justify.

The "average adults" in my bubble all complain about not being able to game, but somehow know all about the popular TV shows of the moment. And of course Formula 1 and the many football leagues (world football that is, not 'American' hand-egg).

It's all a matter of priorities.

Also, as my kids are a bit older now, we sometimes game together. My son loves coop Portal and my daughter enjoys it when I play Valheim. She loves watching me explore the game world.

Yeah. Often when I talk to people who say they "don't have time" I wonder where their time is going. Often to watching TV. Sometimes podcasts. Social media is a big time suck.

But like if you have time to watch all of the office again this year, you had time to play video games.

A friend of mine realized they were just losing hours a day to Instagram. Delete that, and you have time for better hobbies. Play a game. Read a book.

Having children seems like a bigger factor. The only couple I know that has kids still has time. One spends it on DND, and other on TV and simple phone games.

I'm 39. I have a 15 year old daughter. 2 year old son and a partner who's still hot as hell.

Sometimes I can get away with a few cow levels in diablo 2...

No, but i neglect important things to play anyway.

Only on the weekends, between chores.

I drive a truck for work, and it's my home during the week. Theoretically, I've got some gaming time while waiting on loading docks, but in terms of providing time for gaming, I can't count on it. Some of my customers are annoyingly efficient. I prefer to nap anyway.

I could always play once I'm parked at the end of my trip, but after 11 hours of driving, I'm often too mentally fried to even watch TV.

Plus, my truck's power inverter can't handle running my gaming PC anyway. So it waits for me at home.

I have all the time I ever did (little), but I use it differently. I’d rather take a walk in the mountains with my wife than play a game. In my mid-30’s I quit smoking, smoking, and playing games. Nothing against those things; I just wanted to use my time differently.

I read a ton more too, and find it far more enjoyable.

Yes, as I chose not to have kids and my wife also enjoys video games.

Edit: However, I do tend to hyperfixate on other interests for periods of time.

Even when I do I can't truly enjoy it cause I know there's something I gotta do.

Don't have kids.

I play videogames with my 9yo daughter every night for 30-45 mins before bed. It started a few years ago with me playing and her watching, but she's starting to drive these now. I would much rather she plays games rather than watch game streams like most of her friends.

Yes, I barely watch any TV and social media is confined to the bus or calm periods at work like now when I have to wait. So at home I have time for video games.

Yes. Less but yes.

I dom't have kids so yeah.

Very seldomly.

Gaming for me at this point is playing Rimworld on my work computer while I am waiting for something / someone.

I do but I've noticed games don't hold my attention like they used to. Eventually I start to feel like I'm wasting my time and not attending to responsibilities like I should be and its not fun anymore. Sometimes I'm able to ignore that feeling but the game has to be real special. This has also caused a worse problem where I sink lots of money into games hoping I'll find one that will give me the same joy I used to feel, and sometimes it does. But its over in about a week or 2 and then I lose interest again. I've recently started learning gdscript and how to use the godot engine, and am hoping that I can shift my unhealthy habit into a positive hobby that makes me feel happy and productive.