The new forums will be named Coin Return (based on the most recent vote)! You can check on the status and timeline of the transition to the new forums here.
The Guiding Principles and New Rules document is now in effect.
Gaming, Life, & Free Time
phamtq
Portland, ORRegistered User regular
Portland, ORRegistered User regular
You know you're getting older when the one of the things you love gets put on the back burner and eventually you don't have time for it anymore. That's the situation I'm facing with gaming. Like a lot of us here, we're getting older. We have families, school, jobs, etc... and we got to rearrange out priorities. I'm down to about 4 hours a week; down from 4 hours a day in my hay-day.
Looking at the previous post "Game club like a book club?" and "Another World (Out of this World)" got me thinking. Are there any groups out there that cater to people like us? People who can get in some hours in on the weekends?
Being older does have some benefits though. I can actually afford a decently priced game instead of begging the parents for one.
Looking at the previous post "Game club like a book club?" and "Another World (Out of this World)" got me thinking. Are there any groups out there that cater to people like us? People who can get in some hours in on the weekends?
Being older does have some benefits though. I can actually afford a decently priced game instead of begging the parents for one.
phamtq on
0
Posts
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
Having certain place and time for gaming makes organizing easier. Of course, it doesn't work for everybody, but it can be useful if you have busy scheducle.
A bunch of my games just collect dust because of my lack of free time. Many times I have put a game down for a while only to forget about it. Only to return to it a month later and think, man this game is a blast, why did I put it down in the first place?
It seems for me that I just played games when I wanted to, now I have to set time aside to play games. I have to schedule play dates with my 360! (man, that is sad)
Errr... no. I'm "lamenting" that I have considerably LESS time for gaming. Also, my choices seem to gravitate towards games that I can play with other people. The problem is finding other people to play with/against that are in similar situations. Gaming has always been a social thing for me.
Steam BoardGameGeek Twitter
I think the last run was Another/Out of this World.
We still need to do one for Rez.
With peripherals?
Haha.
I'm honoured you remember. :oops:
I ran than for similar reasons to the OP, but, ironically, sorting the thread out took a lot of time, and the "classic" games meant a constant battle against the E word being brought up by new people and getting the thread locked, despite massive efforts to only focus on available games. So in the end I couldn't commit to it.
I plan to do one again sometime, but you know, PhD.
If someone else wants to do one, I'll offer what advice I can.
(Talking of which, I'm meant to have played Donkey Kong with Mr Grinch. Fuck!)
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
The threads alive so someone's welcome to quote the code out and start a new thread. It would be nice to keep the old scores, if it started again, but maybe a fresh start is best.
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
I am pretty new here but this might be something to run by the Mods. If they give their blessings I would be very intereted in helping out.
This whole thing reminds me of some clan named the "Weekend Warroirs" or something, where they just played on the weekend cause of time issues.
I personally have a really, really social job. So when I get home I don't feel bad for sinking an hour into gaming.
When I get home in time to do anything other than fall asleep the second I get into my house.
I have no idea how people with kids or wives or husbands do is, but I suppose my hours are a little off the absurd end of the spectrum.
Also, anyone in the Portland, OR area interested in getting together at this gaming location I know? I could rent out the room for 4 hours and people just come and chip in what you can.
Try a 40-hour job, full-time school, a new home and now our baby's about to be born any day. All these things are great...but deep down I know things will never be the same.
Also, don't bite off more than you can chew. I limit myself to 1 handheld and 1 console game (single player ones anyhow) at a time, I play to completion. Only game I did not complete that I have purchased in the last year and a half is... Pokemon Pearl, and thats cuz I got stuck on the stupid psyducks not moving for a couple months and lost interest. (Though I am sure to alternate between FFIII and Pokemon).
ALSO! Things get easier. Assuming you take things slow, when you move out initially you are not living with a spouse/girlfriend/ etc... so spending time with them/gettign them takes up a lot of time, but when you live with them prior to kids, things are pretty sweet, and you have plenty of time.
PS2
FF X replay
PS3
God of War 1&2 HD
Rachet and Clank Future
MGS 4
Prince of Persia
360
Bayonetta
Fable 3
DS
FF: 4 heroes of light
If you want to get into "Shitty schedule war" I will win!
Sorry, I can just never resist when people complain about any schedule.
I have also heard that TF2 is the new fad in multiplayer gaming. I wouldn't know - my computer sucks balls.
It's easy, once you accept that you will never:
(a) play GH3 on Expert.
(b) get all 120 stars in SMG.
(c) get on an XBL leaderboard.
(d) AA Candy ♥
(e) Join a guild
(f) etc ...
I don't have kids yet, but I'm still pretty busy and don't have a lot of time for gaming. Now that I've come to accept that the ridiculous accomplishments from the past were really just monuments to massive amounts of childhood free time I've learned to enjoy playing games at a mediocre skill level.
Are crap, it just deleted a really long post.
Short version, my thread was entirely for retro, small hi-score challenges, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Mario Bros, Tetris, Shoot em ups and so on. Virtual Console fair to be honest. Stuff that could be started and completed within the hour, to give people a "completed" experience if you wish. If you want modern games or online games then the way I did it won't work very well.
Basically it went like this.
A) 14 days before the weekend, announce the game to be played. Have a discussion, but in the end go with what you think will work. This gives people time to get it.
C) People can play for an hour whenever they want, but with two important caveats:
1) No practise before hand. Play from cold.
2) Don't post your results till the Monday after the weekend.
D) Then we all post and discuss the results. I would say, no screen shots, as this lead to issues. Though the Let's play threads survived. So maybe thats ok now.
E) Tot them up and put them in a table.
F) Repeat.
LewieP and a few other awesome people like Ben even dished out presents to the winners.
As I said, it's a lot of work. But it would be awesome if you could give it a go.
* So rubbish people, could focus on an easy bit. This was popular.
2009 is a year of Updates - one every Monday. Hopefully. xx
Even when I was "busy" Mass Effect took about 5 evenings and one weekend day of play. Assassin's Creed was about 2 evenings and one saturday.
So the only thing to do when you're broke and you've gone through games is to play Oblivion or some other random strategy PC game like Hearts of Iron conquering the world as Germany for the 47th time in the past 3 years.
Yeah, gaming with a life means you have to make some adjustments. Personally, I've found that it helps to limit myself to gaming that gives you big, immediate rewards.
Getting all 120 stars in SMG? Sure, each star quest gives you something interesting to do.
Finishing the songs in Elite Beat Agents on the toughest difficulty? No, I've already played through each of the songs three times already.
Playing World of Warcraft? As long as I'm exploring new worlds, I'm happy. But mindlessly grinding through dungeons over and over or spending far, far too long on raid appointments? Fuck that.
My patience for difficult games has also dropped. Recently, I was Mega Man ZX and learned that you MUST finish a mission without running out of lives, or you have to start again aaaaaaaaalll the way back in the beginning. The levels themselves are tough enough, and the bosses usually make mincemeat out of you the first time. After I played through a mission five times, including a mid-boss that rarely exposes his weak point and takes 47 skillion hits to kill, only to die at the end AGAIN, I said "fuck this" and turned it to easy. It was the first time I ever did that, but it allowed me to finish the game and see everything.
I've also got a lot less patience for games that are significantly less than awesome in my mind. If I'm not having bales of fun, it's a waste of time.
tl;dr: You can play games if you have a life, but forget about painstaking work to build your e-peen.
So, come over to the thread and discuss what games we should play.
As long as you don't try to take on endless 60 hour Japanese RPGs or 100% everything that comes out, gaming can absolutely remain a part of your life.
Has anyone else dealt with "real life" for a while, then suddenly found themselves with a ton of free time and wondered, "How is it that I used to spend hours doing this?" I just came back home from my college dorm, a place to which I had brought no gaming devices (not even a computer). (This was sort of a deal with my parents that I begrudgingly agreed to.) For the most part I went crazy without the stuff, and up until the very end of the semester I was either in someone else's room watching them play Halo (college dorm, remember) or I had managed to sneak a contraband handheld into my bag for the week. (Brought from home, which I visited on the weekends whenever possible.)
The first day and a half of break was really awesome. Then I realized I had nothing to do but play video games and do chores. All of my friends from the dorm went home, just like me. Next I came to the horrifying realization that I missed studying. Pray tell, is this what it's like to grow up? Someday, when I'm married with a job and leave my kids with a babysitter to go on a week-long vacation, will I be unable to enjoy my time off because I'll miss changing diapers?
Well, not quite that but probably. My brother in law went through medical school and he spends his time doing work (yard work, working on his fish pond, wood working, etc...). When you work hard at something for a long time, you feel like something's wrong if you just spend a day doing nothing.
And I agree with the sentiment of games being too hard for their own good. It's not a big deal on short games, but with games getting longer and longer I really don't want to waste all of that time. I just want to see the damned game. So, I can still tolerate arcade-like or simple titles with a challenge, but when you get more complex the difficulty just becomes frustrating because of the level of time investment required.
Actually that's one reason Mario Galaxy is fairly satisfying. Its difficulty doesn't seem artificial, and for the most part it's an easy-going game unless you specifically play the challenging stars. And on top of that it's set up so you can play a few stars and then quit and play a few more later.