Poll: How much gaming is "a lot" of gaming?

[chukrum47]

So I've been wondering for a while, and it recently came up as a topic of discussion with a friend, hence the creation of this poll, but what exactly constitutes a "a lot" of gaming? As to what constitutes gaming, I was thinking primarily of video games but on any console you'd like, including phones if you want.

Essentially I'm just curious as to what other people consider to be a lot of gaming. Personally I'd consider "a lot" to be more than about 3 hours a day, for the majority of the week.

And I tried to cover as many options as possible, but if I left anything out I should add, I will (if I can; never made a poll on here before!).

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

If over one day of your week is spent gaming, that's a lot of gaming. So basically anything over 3.5 hours a day.

 

[klaynexas3]

Depends on your schedule if you ask me. For instance, I have summer vacation right now, and I only have two shifts at my job, I'd say if I spend maybe somewhere close to 4 hours a day gaming, then I'm playing "a lot." However, maybe during school time, 3 or even 2.5 hours can seem like quite a bit, especially with homework and all.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

Depends, really. I mean, can you really say that all people who work at Escapist play too much? No, since it's their jobs. I think, as long as your gaming habits don't interrupt your daily routine, don't make you ignore your friends or relatives or hurt your job or health, they are fine.

 

[OpticalJunction]

Depends on how much else you have going on. If you have a family and a full time job, then you don't have a lot of free time, so 1 hour a day is going to be a lot. On the other hand, if you're an unemployed student, 10 hours a week won't be much for you.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

Depends, really. I mean, can you really say that all people who work at Escapist play too much? No, since it's their jobs. I think, as long as your gaming habits don't interrupt your daily routine, don't make you ignore your friends or relatives or hurt your job or health, they are fine.

No one is talking about how much is "too much" we're just talking about how much gaming constitutes "a lot" of gaming. There's a subtle difference.

 

[Elfgore]

I'm going at this mathematical and I suck at math so bear with me. If something is wrong you can point it out just don't be cruel about it.

A week is 168 hours. Minus the suggested average of 8 hours of sleep a night you get 112 hours of being awake. For a person working a 9-5 or 8 hour job a day for 5 days or going to school full time, this included studying, homework, and anything else school related, that becomes 72 hours of free time. I would say if you spend around 24 hours of that gaming, you game alot. Note: I am not in college yet so I do not know if the 40 hours a week spend on it is to high or to low, just an estimate.

This number will increase if you are unemployed or not attending school. I would increase it to about the mid 30s to mid 40s for it to be considered alot in a week if you just stay at home all day.

 

[gmaverick019_v1legacy]

Depends on your schedule if you ask me. For instance, I have summer vacation right now, and I only have two shifts at my job, I'd say if I spend maybe somewhere close to 4 hours a day gaming, then I'm playing "a lot." However, maybe during school time, 3 or even 2.5 hours can seem like quite a bit, especially with homework and all.

very true, i think of it more as a "how much of your free time does gaming take up" scenario, where you could play 4-5 hours a day, but that is because you are on summer break/etc...

so for shits and giggles i'll say 6-8, as that adds up to about a day's worth of time in one week.

 

[tilmoph]

I voted for 8+hours a day, 4 days a week or more is a lot, since that's basically a full time job.

 

[Windcaler]

The only time I think I game a lot is when I pull an all nighter or otherwise sacrifice bodily needs (food, sleep, excersise) for the sake of a game. Otherwise Im playing games pretty much all the time in my free time. Luckily Ive got a very understanding fiance who's just as into gaming as me

 

[chukrum47]

Wow what a fairly even spread of poll responses aha!

The general answer I'm seeing is that "a lot" of gaming is based on just how much free time you have, which makes sense, although it's interesting how that same answer still gets such different amounts of time.

I'm going at this mathematical and I suck at math so bear with me. If something is wrong you can point it out just don't be cruel about it.

A week is 168 hours. Minus the suggested average of 8 hours of sleep a night you get 112 hours of being awake. For a person working a 9-5 or 8 hour job a day for 5 days or going to school full time, this included studying, homework, and anything else school related, that becomes 72 hours of free time. I would say if you spend around 24 hours of that gaming, you game alot. Note: I am not in college yet so I do not know if the 40 hours a week spend on it is to high or to low, just an estimate.

This number will increase if you are unemployed or not attending school. I would increase it to about the mid 30s to mid 40s for it to be considered alot in a week if you just stay at home all day.

And Elfgore, having just finished my first year of semester of college, I found that I had far less free time than I thought I would haha. Between classes, homework, an on-campus job, and several clubs including mainly Tae Kwon Do, it wasn't uncommon to go a solid month without playing any games at all. One or two hours on the weekends was literally all I had time for for most of the year.

Although that might just be my tendency to overextend myself

 

[immortalfrieza]

Other. It's not the amount of hours spent really, but the amount of hours compared to the free time you have. If you have 4 hours of free time each day, and spend most of those 4 playing video/computer/etc. games, then that's a lot of gaming. If you have 8 hours and barely spend 1 or 2 hours gaming, that's not a lot of gaming. On the other hand, if you only have 1 or 2 hours of free time to begin with and you spend it playing games, it just means you don't have much free time and you're spending what little you have doing what you love. It also probably means you are overdoing it.

 

[5ilver]

When you wake up and your first thought is to press F5. Obviously, this is very different from person to person. I would say between 4 and 16 hours.

 

[KeyMaster45]

Here's what, to me, constitutes lots of gaming.

I bought into the alpha for Prison Architect and three days later I had logged 44 hours on it.

 

[Bestival]

To me it's not so much about hours played, but more about if you should have been doing other things. If the weather's shit, on a Sunday, all your friends are busy with something or other, and my... erm, your, menial job doesn't require any effort of you at home whatsoever, then game away!

If you miss your mother's funeral because you have a raid that day, you're gaming too much...


Edit: Hm, I misread the title as 'too much gaming'. So here's my new answer;
If you get all defensive about your gaming habits when misreading forum titles, that's a lot of gaming.

 

[Angelous Wang]

When it causes sleep deprivation, that is the only time I view any amount of gaming as too much.

Not that I stop, but it does at least start me thinking about when is acceptable time to stop.

 

[Creator002]

Really depends on free time. I currently don't have a job and I'm not studying (except for an online course), so all my time is free time. I would say that, in my case, more than 5 hours a day is a lot. 4 hours if I have a job. I usually spend 3-4 hours a day gaming. 4-6 if I really get into it. Today though, I haven't gamed at all (2 hours left of the day, too), though I did over sleep by accident.

 

[Evonisia]

Depends on your spare time, which I'm sure has been brought up before.

If say you had 6 hours of spare time in a day, and you spent over 4 hours of it gaming I'd say it's a 'lot' of gaming.

I'd most certainly say one is doing a lot of gaming if they game instead of getting those few extra hours of sleep.

 

[FancyNick]

I think I may be playing too much, based on this poll. I voted 8 or more. It's quite a lot of your time to devote to gaming alone. As I am in summer break at the moment I play around 4-6 hours a day roughly. It's diminished quite a bit when college comes back around.

Off topic: There was someone on the escapist who said any amount is too much? That was unexpected.

 

[Generalsexbad]

If were just talking about leisure time, not like someone who reviews games for their job, I would say four hours a day is pushing it. I mean you can spend your life however you want to, but video games are a worthless medium, and if you play them all day then you're going down the road to being worthless.

My definition of what Bettering Yourself As A Person is to become more knowledgeable of what you are interested in. Whether its studying the technical side of the craft of writing because you love to read, or learning in-depth of forms of music to better understand why you like the medium in the first place. People who play video games seem to just be degenerates who don't bother to make themselves useful to society if the whole question of Is Gaming Art? responses I've read on blogs and forums are any indication. I mean I've not read one convincing post in response to Robert Ebert in defense of gaming as an art form.

Not saying I haven't played Skyrim all day on more than one occasion, but I don't pat myself on the back for it.