I find that my schedule is so busy that the time I have for pleasure gaming, as opposed to the work gaming I have to do for reviews and such, is almost non-existent. I have trouble finding an hour a week, if I'm lucky, to play a game for fun.

Interesting read. I also saw this article this morning on the onion, I guess this is what could happen if you game too much....

[www.theonion.com]

I honestly think this is pretty stupid.

She went without games for a week and acts as if she has some huge emotional revelation?

Myself and many others often have periods when they can't game for a week, hell sometimes even a month, and there are no deep enlightenments to be had.

@brent_w:

That may be your emotional quota but some people really feel like that when they don't play for a certain time. Yes, I see how the comment can be construed as exaggerated.

@Brian Crecente: So...I'm a journalism/politics student with genuine interest (and ability, not to sound arrogant) with an interest in eventually entering the games journalism business. Does that mean I should avoid it if I want to continue actually playing things? Or just avoid having a family? >_>

Maggie, I have to wonder: If you don't have the time to game, nor seem to want to make time to do so, why do you write for a gaming blog?

Not trying to challenge your geek-cred or anything. I'm just wondering in terms of what brought you here and what continues to keep you here.

I know my game time is going to be getting more and more lax in the future, due to time constraints, but I also don't make it a part time weekend job to write for a gaming website.

/hopes this post isn't taken as offensive.

I can go a while without playing a game if I am not already in the middle of it. I can get a new game and let it sit there for a couple of weeks without playing it, but once I play the first chapter, I have to finish it.

Gaming teaches long term patience not causes a lack of it. After all, how long do we have to wait for a game to come out after it has been announced?

@Brian Crecente: That sucks.
@Blind_Evil: I'm in the same boat, I'm a third-year Journalism student as well, going for video game journalism.

I have many consoles that just rest for months before I turn them on. I received 6 Wii games for Christmas, and I've played 3 of them thoroughly, but I still find myself turning on my DS.

I never thought I'd be addicted to a handheld as much as I am.

@Blind_Evil: You see what I did there? Repeated a word to punctuate the humility.

I've thought a lot about putting down the stick for a while, just as an experiment, but I already know what the result will be. I'll go through hell trying to kick the habit, but eventually I'll just end up enjoying life without video games. The thing is, there's no point. I'm already happy with my gaming oriented lifestyle, so why put up with months of misery just to get back to the same happiness?

@indiemike: Between MP3:C and Zack and Wiki (which I just finished, such an amazing game), my Wii didn't get any lovin' for about a 2 month span, but my 360 has been in constant use since CoD4 came out, and because it has that new console smell that I love so much.

My focus is political science so maybe I can win a few elections and keep anti-gaming legislation off our backs. If that didn't work I was going to write for a newspaper or magazine.

Gaming is very beneficial for me. I don't use it to zone out; however, I do use it for a healthy dose of escapism. It helps me with concentration on projects (school work, drawing, etc) right after a session (about 2-4 hours). Maybe it's because the games that I play for a lengthy game that requires my attention to details.(That and I hadn't really played games for a about eight years.)

@Brian Crecente:
Man, I hear you. Between work and family there just isn't enough time to get some quality gaming time in. I have games that have been sitting on my gaming bookshelf shrink-wrapped for 2 years now.

Things were so much easier when I was a kid :P

@Brian Crecente:
But don't you love your work. I mean, if not, what's the point? Also, do you write for any review sites? I never really considered Kotaku to a review site.

Interesting article. I just felt at it's core was a shame at being a gamer. You don't really see people feeling the need not to read for a week, do you?

Considering my 360 has been lost in the dark abyss msoft calls their repair center for the better part of a month, the only enlightenment I've had is that while a life without gaming wouldn't be something I'd want, it isn't exactly untenable.
...
Also, that I hate Bill Gates. With a passion.

If I stopped gaming for a week, I'd just entertain myself by watching movies, watching TV, reading, or doing something else to pass the time. Video games are just the way I spend my free time. I enjoy them more than the other forms of entertainment, so that's what I spend most of my time on.

Could I give it up? Sure. Will I ever give it up? I hope not. I like gaming.

@Blind_Evil: Well good luck, it's a tough industry to get into, from what I'm hearing!

I'd elect anyone that stood up for video games. Even if it meant mandatory weekly government based fecal and urine testing. I'd do it.

I've tried it before, and was successful. However, as the years went by, I found myself craving less gaming because of the time factor.

Aside from the occasional good movie, gaming is my other pass time. Work is 40 hours a week, give or take some overtime with an average of 1.5 hours of travel time a day and you've got nearly 50 hours a week. So naturally, there are weeks that I'm either too tired or have other matters to take care of.

I guess it's the main reason why I lean toward games like Super Stardust or mission modes in NGB or Sigma. RPG's and most action adventure games can be too time consuming and in turn, playing them little by little over the course of weeks can kill the fun factor.

I think at this rate, I may be done with gaming once my few favorite franchises die down (MGS, NG, RE, and DMC)

I may not play 'video games' on like consoles all the time- but I know for a fact that I play web-based online games every day. Would games like 'Fantasy football' or web versions of scrabble/chess count?

I think they should.

I find I have less time for console gaming through the week, mostly late at night or on the weekends.Kinda related to the Wii though - my TV have two windows behind it and even with the blinds drawn, daytime gaming vcan be an issue with sunlight and required use of the remote.

I'm playing more handheld action in bed nowadays. I have gone weeks before without playing any games - that was a long time ago. When I was busy killing brain cells with a better living through chemistry approach to life.

I´m another one glad that gaming for me is just another hobby that I pick up when I´m bored and have nothing else to do...

"Still, I know my games are always there for the taking (if only I had time!)."

This is how I am. I have a lot on my plate right now and games don't always make the schedule. But I take solace in the fact that I have 12 video game systems hooked up in my house, ready to power up and play at a moments notice if I find time.

@rdj: See, the only problem is that he feeds on our hate. I'm beginning to think the only way to change or kill MS (because it may come to that, one day) is to love and embrace it Bill Gates.

That or lobotomize Steve Ballmer. I'm still trying to decide which would work better.

I still have a lack of time. I remember a few weeks ago that I did not play games for over a week. When I got back playing some games, it was nothing special.

1. GOD
2. Family
3. Country
4. Gaming

@PapaBear434: I actually have to agree... If you're not interested in playing the games, able to go months at a time without even blinking at your hardware, where's the desire to write about the industry coming from?

That's like an Accountant who hates math, or a literary major who refuses to pick up a book for the pleasure of reading. If you're not part of the community, you don't really have all that much of a viable view TO the community.

Really, it doesn't fall too far outside of the politicians who try to create legislation about the game industry, who haven't played a game since Pong was in the arcade. In an industry like this, it doesn't take more than missing one or two major milestone games, to lose track of exactly what is going on and where the trends are headed to.

On the other hand, I can appreciate if the goal is to include a decidedly "casual gamer" viewpoint. Casual(IE, not enthusiast) gamers have a viewpoint that's often a world apart from the core industry, even if they used to be part of the Core in the past. I've found myself falling square in the middle of that crowd, after being core for many years.

But, running a counter-comment based on the experience of someone who is a Core gamer to your own less-than-immersed lifestyle reveals one of the divides between the groups.

So the gaming equivalent of Walden? I guess with a novel like that looming overhead, it's difficult not to have an epiphany (or at least be poetic) during the whole process.

My TV just broke a couple days ago, so I haven't been able to play console games, but I miss watching TV or DVDs more than the games. I guess it may have something to do with the sameness of games that have turned me off lately. Sure, I get my fix from my DS and my laptop, but I don't miss playing games that much. Certainly not to the point where I begin to wax poetic about it.

I know I've never gone a Week without gaming in some form(a quick flash game, a few minutes on a game or something, even a board game), but I could deal with it pretty easily.

For the past few weeks, I've hardly had time for anything because I've had to work on all the stuff I let accumulate for months, and I got in way less than an hour of gaming during that time. But, if I was told I wouldn't be able to play those games, I think it would have a been an issue for me.

over the last couple years ive come to believe through a combination of personal experience, following sites like this and its commenters and observing my friends, that gaming is an interest that people grow out of. im not necessarily saying its inherently childish, though much of it is. im saying that once we move beyond college and start to grow a fine crop of responsibilities and timesinks that our lives depend on, we have less time for frivolous pursuits like gaming, and what time we do have needs to be spent with significant others like partners or children or even just good friends for the sake of our own wellbeing, and so gaming just falls by the wayside. when alls said and done its an indulgence, and nobody has much time for those in adulthood.

its a sad but true realisation ive come to. all this bullshit about games being more than entertainment? its never going to happen. because the audience is constantly renewing. its forever childish and unsophisticated. kids become gamers in childhood, play through their teens and early adulthood and drop it before theyre 30, with a generation at every stage left behind them and more kids entering into it. there arent any mature audiences to drag the brow of gaming higher and there never will be - all the teenagers reading this and getting pissed off can get back to me in a decade. so just enjoy it for the audiovisual stimulation.

i never thought, back when i showed off my nes to my olds and was dismayed at their lack of interest, that id end up turning into them. i can see the day on the horizon when my son or daughter delightedly shows the xbox 1080 i bought them for xmas off to me and i can only smile and nod, because ive got too much to do.

anyway. ive gone months without playing anything. and ive gone months playing every day. what can you say? life has its ups and downs. sometimes youve got a good book to work through. sometimes youve got a clingy SO. sometimes your jobs being a bitch. so far, i always default back to playing videogames, by choice.

I used to be a great, frequent gamer. Then something called LIFE happened and sort of screwed up any chances I had to play a video game. So it's perfectly understandable when time simply does not permit you to indulge in your hobby of choice. I have a long list of things I'd love to do, if I had the time to do them.
Another thing I'd like to bring to the table is the notion of priorities. Some people prioritize playing a video game above all other things on their list (and will thus be unable to go without gaming for quite awhile), while others will prioritize things like school, work, familial obligations, other responsibilities that have no generalized category, over video gaming. Would you call the latter half less passionate about games?

1.Hot women

2.Booze

3.Gaming

4.Not so hot women; usually comes after number 2.

I find that my 'addiction' to gaming really varies depending on how interesting my social world is at any given time. For two years I'd outright quit gaming because there were far more interesting things to do (sex, drugs, rock and roll) at university. When all that stuff got boring I went back to games. Also I find myself pretty much unable to watch movies or television anymore unless they are of an exceptionally high quality - as mediums I just don't think they can compare to games for intellectual engagement. So yeah, when I'm unable to play games for whatever reason I do find myself crawling up the the wall just a little bit, but usually I'm quick to funnel that excess energy into some creative endeavour.

I have often gone weeks or so without gaming. The worst sensation I get though is wondering if the systems still work because they've been idle so long, or worrying about having to replace all the batteries on my controllers next time I finally play them, etc.

@red:I have a few friends who have basically grown out of gaming because their responsibilities as adults have taken over, but I also have many more friends who still come to LAN parties despite being married, and having full time jobs. Some people grow out of gaming. Some don't.

There was a time when I couldn't go without gaming at least every day. Like masturbation, it was something that just had to be done, even if it meant ignoring deadlines or waking up slightly less rested the next day. As the endeavors of devs to make the unique fell to the wayside for sequelmania - which, unfortunately, is admittedly a better business model - games just started to be less interesting. I've got solid titles still in cellophane partly due to lack of time and partly due to lack of interest (and admittedly, intelligence).

I don't even think it's that I don't find games exciting or that I'm outgrowing them, but more that the saturation of the market with same-game tactics has ultimately made the industry somewhat boring. To put it into perspective, in the heyday of my e-mania (yes, it sounds as douche-y as it looks), I would go to wherever I had to be - school, work, family occasions or what have you - and my mind would endlessly be tracked on the game that was waiting for me at home. Every step outside the door was a reluctant one as there was always something I desperately wanted to play.

Today, this still happens, but it is incredibly rare. My tastes are incredibly varied in that I pick up the most obscure to the megablockbusters, but more often than not, I simply yawn through most titles. It's not that I'm over my "addiction" per se, but rather that there's so little I haven't seen. For example, as good as COD4 is, I played the same game years ago when it was just a little bit (okay, a lot) uglier. The latest Final Fantasy or whatever is never going to be the same as my first time with FFVI. I'm a massive Splinter Cell and Rainbow Six fan, but nothing compares to the first experience I had with both series. And to be a dick - I've never liked Halo.

In contrast to my years from Intellivision to PSX (PS2 is when things started getting filthy), the games that got me back in that "don't wanna leave the house" mood make up a very short list. Among them are Shadow of the Colossus, Portal, Assassin's Creed, my first Burnout (I think it was 3?), Dead Rising, Metal Gear Solid, Vagrant Story, RE:CV, RE4, DMC3, and a few others. That's not to say I don't love the other popular titles (I may be the only FFXII fan), but rather that I don't get the itch to go home. I have much more of an itch these days to do SOMETHING, but the games aren't there. So I placate that with a social life... but in all honesty, I'd rather be home gaming.

I often don't get to play games for a week because of all of my work. I know what he's saying though that if you don't have work to do and do have time to play but you don't, it would be different and feel odd.

A buddy of mine gave up video games for Lent (despite the fact that he's not religious at all) a few years back. Day one, he went out and bought the "Doom" board game. We all laughed.

Anyway, it was a good exercise for him. He rekindled his love of board games, and since then, our favourite games to play when he's around is stuff that he's found and imported from Germany or something. That being said - he just picked up Rock Band, so we're all rocking out pretty hard.

Oh, and the same buddy has as large a love for Smash Bros as I do, accumulating some 8,000 matches or so (we figure)

Meh. I know that sometime in my gaming life I have gone trough a week or more without gaming. But most of the time is because I just dont have free time to play. Yet, when I say to myself that I wont play for a period of time it becomes almost impossible =P
I dont think I'll give up on gaming anytime soon and I plan on gaming as far as I can, its just part of myself and my life.

Well, i'm really into exploration, all forms.
I mean, i'm always hiking, and i'm getting a professional qualification for guide too - exploring the virtual worlds and getting to know what's in them (and their inhabitants expecially with an MMO) fulfills someplace inside me, the same place fulfilled by my "real" world walks and experiences.
That's why i keep coming to the vgs, at least primarly i think.
It's not cause it's just fun, it's cause it's worth and changes me in someway: i am used to climb on rock, and SOTC is still great and it does not compare to it. It's something else, and is, like real climbing and in it's own way, WORTH.

If a virtual world has that "air", that let you feel like you're really inside it and you're glad, i need to walk and live in it for some time.
That's also why i can sometimes boot a game and do something at the opposite of what the game asks me.

I wish there were more real daily life locations and events too, but titles like Silent Hill, Ico and SOTC, Vampire Bloodlines, Siren, System Shock, Fallout, Deus Ex,Shin Megami Tensei stuff, Shenmue, etc...oh man.

Experiences with the capital E.

----
Btw, this is my first post here, and i really like your posts guys, nice place :)

@red: I wish I remembered where this came from, but I heard a statistic once that the average age of a video gamer was 30 or 40-something years old. Craziness.

From article: "and it makes sense out of the intense, often perplexing personalization we feel toward the games they make."
Yeah, about that feeling toward games. I find it highly amusing that almost every article on Kotaku regarding a specific console has at least a quarter of its comments devoted to "OMG CONSOLE X SUCKS" or "OMG CONSOLE Y IS BETTER."

@ABigSmall:

I'm pretty sure it's true. It might seem odd, but remember that a 30 year old today was 10 in the 8-bit era...

Interesting article.

Although I live and breathe gaming news, and it´s culture, I don´t really play that much. Sometimes because I don´t have enough time to stop and actually play, and, another reason, is that I love to play with more people and no one lives with me, so I play more often when I have friends around.

I don´t really suffer from abstinence at all. And when I feel like playing a fast game Tetris is always my ready-to-go "partner" lol.

Since I got into WoW, hardly a week has gone by that I haven't gamed. But before that, I would frequently go a week or two without. Now WoW takes up a lot of the time that I used to spend on console games. But I imagine at some point I'll give WoW a rest and return to the console fold...

@SuperMaxZero: Indeed, but going by what red said, those youngsters in the 8-bit era would've gotten out of gaming by today. So either my vague statistic is incorrect or red has only seen a small, incorrect behavior of video gamers as they (those gamers) age.