I’ve spent quite a few hours playing games over the years. I was wondering if anyone had tallied their totals or could give an estimate of just how much you’ve been addicted to gaming.
3 Likes
Hmmmm, I am afraid to know. My first video game was that cartridge filled with Tank and various other things on the Atari. Then Q-Bert. Then I discovered the Commodre 64 and games like Echelon. Then came Nintendo and Battle of Olympus and Mario then Nintendo 64 and Mario and Turok. After that, Playstation…from that point forward, it is a blur…With 2,500 hour invested in NMS, over 100 hours in Skyrim and Oblivion each, almost 100 each in both Horizon ZD games, I can’t imagine what my tally is. OMG, let’s not forget every Final Fantasy game since the start of time. That triggered a love of RPGs and I can’t even begin to imagine the hours since I am a completionist. Add in countless hours online in the first 2 SOCOM games…have I forgotten anything? 100 hours in Fallout 4. Oh and the Guitar Hero games with both my kids. And don’t laugh but also every Nancy Drew game 
There, I laughed for you. And of course, now we have so many mobile games. Every Animal Crossing game…oh and Professor Layton on 3DS…I am sorry, but I believe it is impossible to know. And I guess I would also need all the time spent in Arcades and skating rinks and bowling alleys playing things like Pac Man and Tron…yeah, I give up. Just call me a game addict. 
I just remembered all of The Sims games…decorating, building, yeah gotta be 100’s of hours there. And the entire Mass Effect series…
Should I count board games? I collect old ones and have stacks.
I don’t play cards. What a relief! 
4 Likes
Ok I have to ask - I love fantastic realistic/this gen/ graphics in a game…
Whilst it’s not the most important criteria, I’ve always wanted to play one of the final fantasy games. Which one would you recommend (on the PC)?
1 Like
Wow! I know most people would say 7. But I also really liked 9 and 10. 9 has a really different look and I enjoyed the whole feel of the game.
For a strategy, turn-based experience, I really enjoyed FF Tactics. I recommend a guide for each, if you like to grab every little thing.
1 Like
FF has been on my bucket list for years but for some reason I never take the plunge. One day! 
I think I too might have an addiction problem. 
1 Like
Well, I don’t take cruises or long trips so I view games as my vacation time. Sounds good, at least
2 Likes
Just NMS was the equivalent of a very long vacation for you - that’s 104 days but probably double that, because you need to sleep etc). 
2 Likes
Steam keeps track a bit, but I surely spent as much time in minecraft as all other games added together…
Can we perhaps calculate an average? 
On some workday nights and weekends, I surely play for 6 hours, but that’s not every day. What would be a plausible “lifetime” average for an avid gamer, 1-4h per day…? (Lifetime in this sense starts as a teenager or whenever you first had access to games.) So for a 30- to 40-y-o that would be 2 years of their lives spent herding creepers and crashing spaceships?
(Other people spend that time making art or reading or watching soap operas or raising children or repairing cars or getting drunk or gossiping, I’m not judging. 
)
I recall in a post-lockdown survey, they said, the average game time had increased to 8h per day. But that just means that when people have no other options, gaming can fill their spare time. (This survey only included people who considered themselves gamers, it’s not relative to the whole population of a country.)
When people have other options, the hours spent gaming is probably less. And also, fewer people then consider themselves gamers? Maybe they revert back to their normal pub/cafe/concert going selves. 
3 Likes
My time in game has shifted thru the years. As a kid on the Atari, it was something me and friends did for about an hour and then we were off doing other things. Then came high school and my Commodore 64. Again, it was something used a lot when friends were over. We gathered around the keyboard for many games of Wheel of Fortune. Then I got married and my hub was in the military and someone gave me a Nintendo. I was in a strange place and knew no one so I had a lot of game time but only 2 games. Then came raising kids. But that is when the gaming kicked into full gear. Game Cube was a mainstay in the house. I played Wind Waker while my daughter manned the Gameboy watching for Tingle to indicate we were near underwater treasure. I am afraid the 3 of us have been stuck in-game ever since. Now I am alone most of the time and games are my escape. Yes, I have plenty of other things to do but I just really enjoy a good game.
A daily average would be tough…2 maybe, unless I have a new game I really enjoy. I have been known to go in for 12 hours…not healthy. I have a workout I do on those days. Ring-Fit on the Switch…which is still a game…if they ever make a game that involves feeding and bathing, I will be sunk. Do Cookin’ Momma and Mr Mosquito count? That mosquito in the bathtub scene… 
4 Likes
I have accounts with Steam, Uplay (now Ubisoft connect) and Origin - you can only see the number of hours invested in a game with Uplay if the game is currently installed. I’ve spent some serious time playing all of the Assassin’s Creed games but no idea right now just how much.
As for the steam games, my tally is stupendously high. I need another hobby 
2 Likes
I didn’t keep count throughout my life but sometime since Atlas Rises I decided that I was spending too much time playing games so I limited myself to one day a week – and I still have racked up 2000 hours in saves for this one game since then. When the kids were home we played a lot more than this.
It depends on the definition of playing games, are we only considering video based games? That covers less than half of my life. During school I was on the chess team. We met for several hours to practice the game 3 nights a week which could be called playing. How about ping-pong, foosball, air hockey, pool, logic puzzles, card games, crossword puzzles, monopoly etc? I don’t remember a time when we didn’t play something at least an hour or two every night. Most times it was much more than that. A low guess would be 40,000 hours. Probably higher.
2 Likes
Games. An integral part of life. Every gathering I have ever been to involved games. Baby showers with clothes pins on your shirt ( don’t cross your legs or the person catching you doing it gets your clothespin. Whoever has the most in the end wins a prize) Wedding showers, TupperWare parties, graduation parties even dinner for the family, all end up with people grouping up and playing games. Spoons is a card game popular with a lot of my friends. Gets too rough for me. Only once have I been to a party without games. It was as dull as mud. Actually, there was a Tiddly Winks game in the corner. I played alone but it was better than the boredom filling the rest of the room.
2 Likes
I did kind of mean video games only - although I know some people spend inordinate amounts of time playing online chess.
2 Likes
Well, I played no games today… 
1 Like
Hmm, I saw this question as strictly video games (console, PC, I’d even include mobile), simply because the question was about being addicted, and nobody is ever accused of being addicted to chess or board games
3 Likes
I originally assumed the discussion was about video games since it was unlikely that anyone would have kept track of game usage otherwise. But as I thought through it the the question became interesting in a broader game category. I remember the conflict between playing games and doing “something useful with your life” being just as acute before video games came out. Just as the conflict between single player (solitaire) games, team and multi-player has always existed. The thought of games being an addiction has always been asserted, and exploited (e-sports, 70,000 seat stadiums, gambling towns). To look back and try to determine the number of hours spent on all games was an interesting exercise.
3 Likes
I somewhat disagree. There are table top games that have been called addictive (like Dungeons and Dragons, or Warhammer.)
As for how many hours of video gaming for me… I couldn’t even come close to a guess. I have over 2K on NMS alone, along with 50-200 hours for each major console RPG and at least 1K each for Civ II, V and VI. This just touches on the biggest hitters and not the shear volume of different games I have put 0-10 hours on before deciding not to delve in deeper.
3 Likes
Chess is also extremely addictive for some. Many people have devoted their whole lives to the game, playing sometimes at least 8 hours a day.
2 Likes
Is there anything D&D hasn’t been called in the the late 80s/early 90ies? 
2 Likes