Actual time spent playing

[heyheysg]

Heres the Journal explaining how American Football only has 11 mins of actual game time

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406.html

How does this compare to other sports? Baseball, soccer etc

Or to video games? MGS4, Final Fantasies?

Do we take out the cutscenes, what about clearing inventory (buying selling stuff) or traveling on the world map? Do those count as playing?

 

[delet]

I'll answer the videogame part of your question...

A cutscene doesn't really count as playing a game, since you're just watching it, but everything else counts methinks.

 

[AboveUp]

I'll answer the videogame part of your question...

A cutscene doesn't really count as playing a game, since you're just watching it, but everything else counts methinks.

It balances out when you look at your play time on the save file though, since it usually doesn't count the time you spent replaying bits after dying, or endlessly reloading your old file every time you die in the harder ones.

 

[oppp7]

Ya, I spend a lot of time AFK or idle.
But 11 minutes for a multihour game? This is why I don't watch sports.

 

[Aardvark]

I never did get American Football at all. Whistle blows, large, armoured men crash into eachother, another whistle blows, then there's 5 minutes worth of replays for that 5 seconds of game time. Repeat ad nauseum.

 

[GoldenCondor]

Wow, this gives me another excuse to tell my friends why I don't like OMGFOOTBALL.
In games, I would usually play, you know, all the time, except maybe for a minute long cutscene.

 

[CK76]

Heres the Journal explaining how American Football only has 11 mins of actual game time

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704281204575002852055561406.html

How does this compare to other sports? Baseball, soccer etc

Or to video games? MGS4, Final Fantasies?

Do we take out the cutscenes, what about clearing inventory (buying selling stuff) or traveling on the world map? Do those count as playing?

Soccer (or football) has 90 minutes of play (or pretty close). Any stoppages such as goals, substitutions, throw ins, corners are tacked on as stoppage time, generally adding another 6-7 minutes to the match.

The nature of what a game is, is different from sport in that there are no ad breaks or timeouts or halftimes. The closest we have are loading screens which I don't consider to be playing. Anything else is, some games are more story or cutscene driven, but all play into the game so I count it.

 

[TheEndlessGrey]

They're only counting the time between when a play starts and when it's whistled dead. A large part of that "players standing around" time is them picking themselves up after a play and setting up for the next one. It's not really the dead time it's been made out to be. Sure the ball isn't technically in play, but it's not like they're just milling about picking flowers. I hate commercials and unnecessary replays as much as anyone else, but this is making it sound much worse than it really is.

 

[RUINER ACTUAL]

Racing (not drag racing, even though they have shitloads of G's to deal with) is constant. There is no time out or whistle blown. They are at it for 3 or 4 hours straight, more so in Le Mans.

In MP games, if you take out travel time to a firefight, its much less than a 10 or 15 minute round. maybe 3 or 4 minutes.

 

[quiet_samurai]

They're only counting the time between when a play starts and when it's whistled dead. A large part of that "players standing around" time is them picking themselves up after a play and setting up for the next one. It's not really the dead time it's been made out to be. Sure the ball isn't technically in play, but it's not like they're just milling about picking flowers. I hate commercials and unnecessary replays as much as anyone else, but this is making it sound much worse than it really is.

This.

The person that wrote the article obviously never even played football. I did, and it is very exhausting and requires you to be in shape to play a whole game. If football is so easy then why is it that most NFL careers only last about 4-5 years at the most? It's because it's a very punishing sport and is very hard on you, that's why pansies don't play.

 

[CK76]

They're only counting the time between when a play starts and when it's whistled dead. A large part of that "players standing around" time is them picking themselves up after a play and setting up for the next one. It's not really the dead time it's been made out to be. Sure the ball isn't technically in play, but it's not like they're just milling about picking flowers. I hate commercials and unnecessary replays as much as anyone else, but this is making it sound much worse than it really is.

NFL is a digital sport, it's not a bad or good thing, it simply is. You switch from play to plan mode in stark contrast. In Madden part of fun (for others that tell me) is picking plays to better move down the field.

Soccer is analog in nature, flowing with tactics set at start or ordered from sideline and implemented through orders while play goes on. There are lower periods of play when set pieces occur on free kick situations, but these are generally planned in practice and decided by players on the fly.

It is subjective what you prefer in sport. I enjoy sports with less breaks, go to the stadium, stand for two hours jumping around and singing with smoke in my lungs with constant action going on reflecting mood of supporters. Just as in games, variety is fine and certain characteristics appeal to others and not others.