When Games Become A Job

[SovietSecrets]

Something I have noticed lately is that I am starting to treat my games like work now. I play a certain amount of time of Final Fantasy 13 and feel like I am actually working to beat it rather than enjoy it for the most part. Other stuff I have found I am starting to play huge amounts of hours practicing in one or two games while ignoring everything else. Feels like I am putting in 8 hours plus overtime with my gaming and not having as much fun. Anyone else feel like gaming is becoming a job of sorts for them?

 

[oplinger]

Nope, I enjoy all my games. If I don't enjoy a game, it doesn't get played. Unless it really really pisses me off and I can't beat it or something. Then i just have to play it and win on principle. ...So I suppose sometimes it's like work...

 

[New Vegas Samurai]

Do something really mundane and stop playing for a day, you'll stop thinking of games as a job quite fast

 

[The Cheezy One]

Having a lot of games helps. If you get bored of one, don't keep going, swap to another. This makes them feel less routine. Also, have at least one game of every genre. FPS's are my thing usually, but I also have Company of Heroes and Dawn of War II to mix things up (because I am a THQ fanboy ), as well as Apache: Air Assault, Borderlands and Fable 3 (all of which I play splitscreen with my brother. Seriously, playing with someone who know really makes things better!) for the 360. So I have a wide variety of games to keep me interested.
Also understand this, and I am talking as a gamer, not your concerned parents: There is time for gaming later. Don't play as if the world is ending, just chill, take things easy, go for a walk, see a film, lose some weight, and try to have a maximum of two hours gaming a day, unless you have a reason to do more.

 

[Simple Bluff]

There are times in games when you know you should stop playing but you can't find a save point. At those times, it feels like homework I've put off until the last minute. It's a problem I've had with KH: Coded.

 

[migo]

Achievements are kind of making it like that. It's like going for a higher score in a game. Fortunately I've got enough games right now that I can be picky about it, but every now and then I'll be taking another shot at Luxor 2 or Feeding Frenzy to clean up the points. Right now Hexic HD is a lot more fun to work with though, and I've got Mirror's Edge and Bayonetta to clean up on. Not sure what I'll be doing with Gears of War 2 though - the gameplay isn't quite good enough to really justify a second playthrough, and the story doesn't introduce anything new. I'll probably get to it eventually though.

 

[SovietSecrets]

Having a lot of games helps. If you get bored of one, don't keep going, swap to another. This makes them feel less routine. Also, have at least one game of every genre. FPS's are my thing usually, but I also have Company of Heroes and Dawn of War II to mix things up (because I am a THQ fanboy ), as well as Apache: Air Assault, Borderlands and Fable 3 (all of which I play splitscreen with my brother. Seriously, playing with someone who know really makes things better!) for the 360. So I have a wide variety of games to keep me interested.
Also understand this, and I am talking as a gamer, not your concerned parents: There is time for gaming later. Don't play as if the world is ending, just chill, take things easy, go for a walk, see a film, lose some weight, and try to have a maximum of two hours gaming a day, unless you have a reason to do more.

If I lost anymore weight, there would be nothing left of me sadly.

 

[Haz88]

Saying that I got bored of WoW is probably a cop out, but there was at some point when I was in some small guild helping out arranging small runs on non-end-game dungeons. After a couple of months it began to feel like a job, so I quit. I actually stopped playing for a long time, and I've only come back once in a while to play on a guest pass with friends.

Lately I've felt it with Prince of Persia(the reboot). The lack of linearity made it unstructured, and it made it feel like a grind both healing the fertile grounds and collecting light seeds to progress. I had to break it up into several play sessions to get through, not because it was hard, but because it felt a bit stupid going through the same fights and the same platforming again and again and again. I'm glad i finished it - I think the ending was awesome - but the game up until that point... it felt a bit like work.

My solution was to play something completely different, not just changing the disc to some other platformer. Magic: the Gathering on PC I've found to be fun. Also Alien Swarm and League of Legends with friends helped to break the monotony.

 

[Dexiro]

Also understand this, and I am talking as a gamer, not your concerned parents: There is time for gaming later. Don't play as if the world is ending, just chill, take things easy, go for a walk, see a film, lose some weight, and try to have a maximum of two hours gaming a day, unless you have a reason to do more.

Personally I say you can play as much games as you like, but if it's starting to feel like a job then don't be afraid to take a break and look for some new hobbies.
I'm finding far too many friends are hitting a point in their lives where they wish they'd tried more new things rather than sit inside all day, and it's really easily avoided :3

 

[Ruairi iliffe]

I 'Worked' as a European Diplomat For my alliance in EvE for a while there, Took up a good bit of my time, with having to do alot of external emails, VOIP calls and lots of meetings with angry Russans. Saying that, it was more external work anyway as i tended to just play EvE when i accually logged on

Edit

Accually ontop of that, there are moments after i've been doing some level layouts at work, i come home put on any game and just cant stand playing. So yeah, there are times.

 

[Frenger]

Fable games. Fable 3 anyway. Trying to save the kingdom, but still being good, just and all that jazz.

The Kingdom of Albion is henceforth known as The Kingdom of Pie. It never worked, as the ending just rushed on ahead without giving me a chance to react(okey, I should have seen it coming). So the little fuckers burned. Next time, I think I will just rush on and be a selfish asshole and have fun or work. Work so that I get the good ending. That or I won't bother with Fable ever again.

The lesson was this. Work and be good, or be a dick and have fun. That is the moral of the story, rite? There is no middleground.

Or, a king does what he does for the greater good of the kingdom, even if it means people live in poverty and have their homes turned into a toxic wastedump. Tyrants = for the greater good! That's the gist of it? We should have seen the coming of great Overlord Peter Molyneux the Great when he made Populous and Black & White!

On the opposite side we have Mass Effect. In the first game we had to ride the Mako across alien landscapes the vast majority of the game go mountain climbing to collect artifacts and resources. But in ME2 you don't have to sit hours on end and scan planets for minerals, as you will get enough of those quite easily. Provided you played the first game. I so don't envy the PS3 players now, even though the 50k headstart doesn't really matter in the end. Despite this, the game is longer than the first one.

Everyone debate the RPG status of Mass Effect all the time, but when you look at it, it's actually a racing game on par with Stunts and Mario Kart. Those Thresher Maws look like those evil Cactus things on Mario Kart. I always hit those ...