Ask Lemmy

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.

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).

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.

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.

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.

Don't have kids.

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 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.

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

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

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

Yes. Make time.

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, but I often sacrifice sleep to find the time for it.

Yeah. What else would I do after work?

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.

I have two kids and still game probably 3-4 nights/week, it's just much shorter sessions. I'm not pulling full gaming days on the weekends anymore, I'm playing for an hour or so before bed.

I find that most people who say there isn't enough time for gaming simply choose things like watching TV instead 🤷‍♂️ which is fine, to be clear, but it's a choice

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

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.

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.

As a working class adult you have to start applying time management skills to your life or you'll be overwhelmed.

One of those skills is budgeting time for recreation and hobbies. If something is important to you, put that time on your calendar.

I have teenage kids and a busy life. We plan for game nights on the PC, usually Tuesday and then one other night during the week as long as there's no sportsball practices or whatnot.

Unfortunately the old "I'm bored, time for gaming" won't work anymore. You have to assign value to your activities. Doing nothing on the couch can be an activity, gaming can be an activity, doing the dishes can be an activity. If you don't assign values to activities and schedule them then you'll get overwhelmed because you won't have time to do anything.

Mate, i did 12 hours overtime last week and still got my game on.

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 do have time. Working an 8-5 with no kids makes it easy, so long as you plan your meals out.

That being said, I have gravitated towards reading recently and have been forgoing the games as a result.

the only reason I have time is I never got married or had kids on purpose

I don't prioritise gaming anymore. The family comes first. Work comes next. Gym. Hunting. Fishing. They all come before gaming. I still do game a bit. Mostly once I've put the kids to bed and I get a few hours me time. But honestly, I'm normally too tired and instead put a brain-dead show on that I don't need to think too hard about.

we should always make time for play (in general)

i have time because i have no life

Yep. Just don't have kids.

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.

Absolutely.

I will always make time for my hobbies.

If some optional obligation would prevent me from getting enough me time then I don't agree to it.

The time I get to be free during this short, indentured life is worth more than anything else.

I just play games 20 years after they come out. In five years I'll finally discover red dead redemption

Not really. I got 2 kids. I sometimes have an hour a day to play. And even then it’s decision paralysis of what to play that I can get a satisfying enough session in the little time I have.

I have a steam deck and it’s handy, but I also have game pass and I’ve been wanting to play some gamepass games on it. So it becomes the decision paralysis of what do I play. I would love to play games like Heroes of Might and Magic 3 or Civilization or Cities Skylines but I don’t have that kind of time to dedicate to complete a FULL session anymore.

Lately is been Doom Dark Ages.

Yes, pretty much every evening after 8 or 9 I have time to play games. I need my unwind time. I can't always find something I feel like playing though.

Yes, no kids.

I have gobs of free time. Too much, really...but I'm also 35 and my main hobby was still video games two years ago. There's a lot of "been there, done that" fatigue setting in when you've played thousands of games for decades. Even going back to retro, I've played most cream of the crop including fan translations by now. Once and awhile a genuinely old good foreign game still gets translated and I'm all over it.

Now I play less on average, but if a game comes out now that grabs my attention I'll still dump 60-100 hours in two weeks into it for RPG or play shorter games in 8 hour chunks no problem still. It's just a matter of capturing that attention.

I got other new competing hobbies now where I don't know everything yet and that's more fun. I my have drifted away from games slower than most, but I still did eventually. It's natural and I don't force myself to play. I'm okay with change.

I do mourn the loss of my core 4 player co-op group still :s

My wife and I have no kids, and plan to keep it that way, so we have plenty of time to play video games together several times a week.

I got a wife and kid, theres usually an hour or two between our bedtime and kiddo's so gaming can still happen.

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