Ask Lemmy

No, most definitely not, and it.... Sucks.

I just wanna sit down and play Minecraft or something again.

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.

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. mid-40s, no kids, and I work from home.

Wife and I play RPGs on the weekends (currently enjoying Last Epoch and waiting for the next Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader DLC), and during the week I usually play single player games (right now in the middle of Lies of P and Fire Emblem: Awakening).

Looking forward to when my office moves into a new building; I will then have an hour-ish commute by train where I can whip out my Steam Deck and catch up on my backlog.

Until then, it’s basically just getting whipped out for a couple 15-ish minute sessions most days.

Yes, just dont have kids

I play some during winter, but only single player games with good storylines, and decent and relatively easy gameplay. I live so far north that I get maybe 1 hour of actual sunlight in the middle of winter and due to global warming I get maybe one or two weekends for skiing so I'm glad for video games to keep me entertained along with books.

What I don't have any time for is TV.

No, but i neglect important things to play anyway.

Time? Actually yes.
Am I spending it on gaming? Rarely.
What else do I do? Biking (if time and weather is right) or this:

it's about making time.

just got a retroid pocket 5 and installed steam player on it.

I love it. I've played at least an hour every day since I've got it.

Yes but I need to carve out time for it. I explicitly warn others about that, that I will be unavailable because I'm playing. I usually think of it as a choice between playing vs something else I enjoy doing, namely sports outside, watching a show, reading a book, coding, etc.

To expand a bit on the "I explicitly warn others" it also means I dedicate time for others but I also expect to have time for myself, including to play. I actually even recommend other adults to do so. Video games can be absolutely amazing. They can be an art form or something casual, they can be about any topic. I genuinely believe that adults who do not play, and I mean in a healthy fashion, are missing something. It's just so damn fun!

IMHO if you consider it a valid hobby like any other and don't try to "cheat" by squeezing it in in addition to everything else, removing time for chores or worst, sleep, then sure you might have time for it BUT, yes, like every other hobby it is a privilege.

Edit: anyway, back to Clair Obscur. FWIW finished BG3 last year (3x), Elden Ring this year (offline), so I do spend a bit of time on long, very long games, but it does take me a while.

Sometimes, but I have to make time. So I think in gaming sessions of 30 minutes to a few hours at most, depending on how much time I have. Then maybe I can't play for a week.

This means it's quite hard to pick what I want to play. Grand strategy or Civ is out for me, takes too long. Long campaign games I never even start. Often I end up with the same few staples like CS2, or a digital board game against AI. Lately I've been enjoying Balatro a lot

No.

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

Yes. Less but yes.

no :( I play Balatro on my phone when I poop, and I boot up Minecraft about once a year...

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...

I get an hour or so if I’m lucky.

Yeah. What else would I do after work?

Steam deck helps

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

I don't have a "battlestation" that I game at anymore. No more 5 hour raids in Naxx. I have a steam deck and thats all I need for now.

One to two matches a day. Thats as much time that I get.

Yes

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

I actually have time, but I often spend it doing other stuff. Once in a while, I will play some of my videogames, but I also play boardgames, which are great for my needs to socialize and interact with people

I find the time to do it, but is mostly with my kids and their games. I got them into my Steam library, so it works out. We're plowing through Subnautica currently, and they absolutely love it.

I do, but I don't have a whole lot else going on

Yes. I have lots of time but I do not have a kid yet. We are planning to adopt a kid in a year so check in after a year.

Been using my free time to cook, write, code and game.

Yes. Make time.

It helps to not have kids. Also helps to have a job with downtime, like when i. recompiling the software or publishing which takes forever sometimes.

I make time but now a days I just don't have the same zest for it as I did when I was younger. I think I also just don't see it the same as I did before. I'm sure there'd be games I'd love to spend 100+ hours on in one sitting but I just don't have the time. It no longer feels fun or accomplishing to spend so much time on games and I just feel like I'm wasting my time which could be spent being more productive. That's just me though....

I definitely don't have as much time as I'd like.

i have time because i have no life

Sure. I do have some benefits that help, like a WFH schedule, but even on the work in office days I can do games that don't require a ton of time, like a few Monster Hunter hunts (3-12 mins a hunt) or a few Warframe missions, but thats usually because I don't cook those days, don't exercise,and I have no kids and don't really do other entertainment except reading, podcasts and some of those I do while gaming. When I read I often don't game same day.

I used to game more, but had less sleep, so I do less in work from office days. WFH days I get much more time (2-2.5 hours not spent driving/getting ready), plus I can sometimes play less intense games while working, on short breaks, during lunch, etc. I do usually exercise and cook those days, but even then there's time. I don't go out often except for the exercise though.

My husband and I are in our mid 30’s and don’t have kids. I even work from home 90% of the time so no commute time. I have so much time that I do volunteering next to my full time job. And then I still have time for hobbies.