Time Playing Poll

[Weasel]

Watching the news tonight, I saw a interesting tidbit. A research article found the average 25 year old game player has played over 10,000 hours.

Where would you fall?

[Zombie_king]

answer

I had answered the question before reading the thread and i answered 10,000 hours. Then i went down and read it was the same # in the poll. Very interesting. Sad, but interesting.

[Xandax]

I have absolutely no idea what so ever
I don't play much anymore on weekdays - but weekends I do pull some hours
And before I got work I could easily game most of the day away

So I'd proberly be in execcess of 10.000, although I didn't start gaming untill I bought my first computer at age 14
so: (10.000h / 11years) / 365days per year = 2.4h/day since I was 14....(you mention 25, so I use that and not my actual age, which makes me seem younger )
oh definately way waaaay past 10.000 hours then.

[Paranitis]

Hrm..all those years playing MUDs probably didn't help me any, heh..that and when Diablo 2 (and expansion) came out I stayed on it hour after hour..and there was a point where every night for atleast 5 hours a night me and my friend would play Age of Empires..then it's expansion..then Age of Empires 2..then it's expansion.

So wow..I have wasted my life.

[dragon wench]

I just guessed at 10,000 plus hours. In truth, I really don't want to spend too much time making the calculations...the results would be just too mortifying

[Floyd_theBarber]

Probably 10,000+... high school was a lonely time...

[Weasel]

I'm in the 10,000 plus area as well. (LMAO @DW, I thought about putting another option for 20,000 or more, but I don't want anyone going off the deep end over a thread about wasted hours.

[Xandax]

Well - I wouldn't agree that the hours are wasted per se.
It is entertainment (most of the time).

If I hadn't been gaming - I would have been doing other pass-time activities most likely.
I would likely not have used (all) the time effective on improving my skills in some aspect of life.

For the time to have been a waste, you shouldn't have had any enjoyment from them in my view - and I've had loads of fun gaming - thus I don't view them as a waste

[C Elegans]

I voted 5000 hours, although this is far too much - but it is probably closer than 1000 hours. I would guess maybe 2500-3000 hours.

Like Xan, I don't view this as wasted time at all. On the contrary, playing computer games and watching football is the best easily accessible relaxation I know of.

[Brynn]

How on earth am I supposed to know that?
I could only give an average per week or sg, but there are periods when I don't play at all, and periods (like last week, when I was at home, ill) when I spend days with playing...

[arno_v]

I guess 5000 hours, it's so long ago that I was playing wacky wheels

[fable]

I took the 5000 hours option, but it's probably closer to 2500 or so. It's pleasant, escapist fun after the tension of the day, and no more wasted than watching a movie or listening to music.

[CM]

Most definitely more than 10,000 hours and when Wow comes out more than 20,000

[werebeargoddess]

I'm not sure, but I've probably played for more than 1000, seeing as I first started playing on the computer when I was 7 or 8, when I was first allowed to play Warcraft.

[frogus23]

I voted 100...BG2 is the only game I've played compulsively from start to finish, (what's that, 300 hours?) and then I've played some Diablo 2 and some AOE2, probably adding up to another 100 or hours together. I never play any computer games anymore (dunno why )...

I am probably about halfway between 100 and 1000 hours, so I put 100 just to make you all feel bad

[Moonbiter]

I'm surprised at some of the replies here, but then.... I'm quite a bit older than the projected 25, but I had to put about 5000, though it's probably less, and over a short period of years when I was obsessed. (Ultima Underworld springs readily to mind... ) Today I play maybe a couple of hours every 14 days, and I'm getting increasingly more choosy when it comes to games.

[Xandax]

[QUOTE=Moonbiter]I'm surprised at some of the replies here, but then.... I'm <snip>[/QUOTE]

Well - as I wrote in my post, I "only" needed to play 2.4h a day since I was 14 (when I bought my first PC) to I was 25 to reach 10.000 hours of gaming.
And knowing that I can easily pick up 5-10hours a day in a weekend, it leaves quite an small number on average for the remainder days in the week.
And then add the time I've been unemployed, studying, studying an education that I didn't really follow (read: being home all day ) etc - then it isn't really a surprising number.

Many people watch television for as much time as I (and others) use on gaming, so personally - I think gaming is the better choice
If somebody said he was gaming on average 2½ hours a day - as is the case with anything - I doubt anybody would raise an eyebrow. It is only when taking the aggregated number of a long periode of time (11 years in my case, much longer in others) it seems more massive.

2½ hours a day dosen't sound as much. 10.000h over a periode of time sounds as much.

[Vicsun]

I voted 'I don't play games' because I'm a compulsive liar. Ha!

[Luis Antonio]

Weasel, can you add a 100000 hours option? Perhaps a 50000... that would be more fitting...

[C Elegans]

[QUOTE=frogus23]I voted 100...BG2 is the only game I've played compulsively from start to finish, (what's that, 300 hours?) and then I've played some Diablo 2 and some AOE2, probably adding up to another 100 or hours together. I never play any computer games anymore (dunno why )...
[/QUOTE]

I played some games, like the old SSI Gold Box series and some other games I don't remember many years ago (late 1980's, early 1990's). At that time, I played maybe a few hours a week, with very long pauses, sometimes months. The last game I played during that period was Warcraft II, after that I didn't play any games for 6 years or so. Then by the end of 2000 I got an ulcer and started playing BG and BG2 and then I found Diablo II and that's the only game I've really played extensively. Now I don't play any games again...I simply don't think it's fun always. I need different types of entertainment during different periods, much depending of the characteristics of my work, and right now I want art as entertainment, not computer games.