Free time for gaming? How do you fit it in?

[Bluenote1]

I'm almost 40, married with 2 kids.  I'm finding less and less time for gaming, and I'm wondering how do you folks fit it in with your lifestyles?

Generally my kids are in bed by 8:00pm, so after 8:30pm or so I have time to game.  However, I still need to spend time with my wife, and I have other interests like playing tennis once a week in summer and playing hockey in the winter (along with watching hockey). 

I just find that it takes me so long to beat a game (Lego Marvel on the Wii U literally took me 2 months to beat.  I would love to play Skyward Sword, but I think that would take me half a year to complete.

How do you guys do it?  How many hours are you putting in gaming per week? 

[Vexer1]

I don't have kids(not even in a relationship right now, so i'm a long way off from even considering it) and i'm not married, so I have a pretty good amount of free time to play games and whatnot, though my next semester of college is coming up soon, so that will limit my free time somewhat(I also might get a new job, which would also cut down my time).

[velcrozombie1]

While I have no kids and am currently not in a relationship, the work schedule for my new job demands that I wake up at 4am. My grandmother (who I am living with at the moment) typically watches TV until at least 8:30pm, so I only play or watch anything during the night on Friday, Saturday or Sunday. I could play computer games, but I've been spending the rest of my free time drawing, reading, searching the Internet (which I has dialed way down) or (as of very recently) working out, so there hasn't any other time. I'm currently playing about 3-4 hours a week.

[Bluenote1]

[QUOTE=scotland17]Family man here too. Gaming time limited, and other hobbies, relationships, workouts, etc. Oddly, while the culture at large does not see portables as very adult, its got major advantages over consoles. Game for short intervals, or in room while others watch tv, etc. Mobile gaming fills the same niche. It is a reason I also enjoy retro consoles with easy pick up and play with family members.[/QUOTE]

Very good point about portable gaming.  I do enjoy portable gaming, (I have a GBA SP, PSP and 3DS), but I haven't played as much, as I've been trying to play more console games.  However, I have to play in the basement as that is where my set up is. 

I think more and more my life is moving to portable gaming. 

[Rev1]

I probably spend twice as much of my time playing on handhelds compared to consoles. As others have said, I have a busy life, working 45-50 hours a week plus lots of outside work activities; portable gaming really gives me the time to do a lot of console playing on the go (having emulators on your handheld is always awesome). Still, I do love sitting on my recliner and busting out console games, I just don't always have the time to sit down and play for long periods of time.

[JustLikeHeaven1]

In the summer time my actual gaming time plummets down to zero.  I just got married in June, we have a new house...it's beach season, cookout season etc...  I literally haven't turned on a console in close to 4 months.  

I'm fine with that actually.  I have just as much fun discussing games and looking stuff online in my spare time.  

When the weather cools down and I don't have as much yard work and whatnot I'll dig into my games again.  I don't have any kids and my wife doesn't care when I play.  However, if I just came home from work and played videogames until I went to sleep I'd be in deep crap lol.  So I just balance it out with a night here and a night there.  When she wants to go out with friends i'm like, "fine, please do!" LOL.  Basically I just pick and choose.  

I don't get nearly as much time to game as I did back when was a teenager, but I still get plenty of time.

[JWK1]

Like Rev said, handhelds are the way to go.

I'm a family man, too.  Why?  Because in 1992, Guile beat me and told me to "Go home and be a family man" and I took it to heart.  I've been married almost 12 years, I have 2 kids and I'm 34 years old.  I'm also a Sports Medicine doctor and I work a LOT.  My home has a furnished attic and I keep most of my stuff up there; an HD TV with 360 and PS3 hooked up, an excellent Sony standard def Trinitron/Wega with PS2 and Wii hooked up, a recently purchased table-top arcade cabinet running MAME, and a closet filled with PS2, PS1, GameCube, Wii, PS3 and 360 games. I don't have many retro games here (I keep my NES and SNES collection at my brother's house), so I play most of my retro games through Homebrew on the Wii when I want those games on a big screen.  It's a great collection... and a complete shame.  I barely have time to go up to the attic, let alone play any of those systems.  Such a shame.

But I've found a great work around.  Since I mostly enjoy playing retro games, I bought a GCW Zero handheld emulator a couple of months ago and now I don't play anything else.  It runs everything from NES to SNES to Genesis to Sega CD games perfectly and the screen resolution is really low, so there's no blurring and it even has little scan lines--retro games look perfect.  Most importantly, the games run flawlessly (even better than they do on the Wii, surprisingly) and it has great controls-- like a SNES controller with a screen.  The GBA emulator is even more convenient than playing the games on my DSLite, so I mostly play emulated versions of the 70 or so GBA games I own.  I steal time to game when I'm sitting with the kids on the couch, watching them play, even sitting on the toilet (don't knock it.  I just leveled up my characters in Secret of Mana a minute ago while "doing my business").  For PSOne games and a select few PS2 classics (God of War, Sly Cooper, Final Fantasy X, Metal Gear 2 and 3), I just download them for my Vita and play there.  It's perfect.  I also have a pretty big library of 3DS, DS, PSP and the aforementioned GBA games.  Honestly, I prefer the convenience of handhelds anyway, but it's a must for me with the family.

Oh and anyone looking for a good handheld emulator should look into the GCW Zero.  It makes the dingoo a320 I was rocking before look like crap.

[Atarifever1]

[QUOTE=JWK]It makes the dingoo a320 I was rocking before look like crap.[/QUOTE]

Well, considering where you play it, you better not flush it by mistake.

Hey, I'm 33 and have 2 kids, so we're basically in a similar boat. Know a good console for people in our situation? Put the Wii U under the bed or on top of a wardrobe or something in your room. Then, only buy games with a 100% off TV play option (like Mario Kart). The eshop, Nintendo Network, Netflix, Youtube, browser, and many games work just fine that way. It's a great solution to playing console games for people with little time for heading to a separate part of the house.

[txsizzler1]

My son and I will play on the weekends (when I am off). Currently, we are going through the Halo series.. have beaten Halo 1-3, and are currently on Halo Reach. Its the only time he is allowed to play during the school year. With my weird schedule, it actually facilitates time for me to play (I work rotating 12s).

Great discussion. I haven't really considered the handheld systems, as most of my interests lie in the big name titles for the 360/PS3. Perhaps I need to look into the Vita/3DS more (kids own their 3DS systems.. may have to "borrow" them!). I rarely game on my phone. Too many control issues, and the quality of games is largely bad (yes, I do know there are some good titles), plus I refuse to support games that require in-app purchases. I would rather pay 1-5 bucks for a game, without needing to buy extra crap just to beat it.