How much gaming is too much?

[ForceUser]

Just curious. I'm 29, single, and I spend all of my free time gaming. I play in a weekly campaign, two monthly campaigns, and I run my own monthly campaign. I also spend 20 or more hours per week playing online roleplaying games.

You can see that I enjoy gaming. Lately I've begun to wonder if I should cut back, though. Too much of a good thing and all that. I just don't know what, if anything, I should give up. I'm considering freeing up my weekends a bit by bowing out of the two monthlys I play in, and I'm sure it couldn't hurt to sit in front of the computer less. I mean, that's pretty much all I do these days.

But like a smoker without a cigarette, I'm not sure what I'd do with the extra time. Anyone else in a similar situation? What do you do with the time you used to spend gaming?

 

[Mr Fidgit]

What do you do with the time you used to spend gaming?

i'd probably end up spending more time in front of my computer! i game 2 times a week, and recently had a short (5 week) game. it works for me!

 

[Mobius]

Too much, for me, was 12 hours at a time. The one biweekly I play in takes up that much time in a session and I would gladly separate this time into a couple of sessions rather than one. I come out resenting my friends for monopolizing my time, hating gaming for getting in the way of writing, etc.

 

[Hygric]

At the moment I only game every fortnight. But in my hey-day... wake up, play, sleep, wake up, play, sleep... Those were the days...

As for how much is to much? When it 'aint fun no more it's to much. When you think that you could have more fun elsewhere it's to much. When you haven't seen the outside world all weekend, it's to much.

 

[S'mon]

Too much D&D is playing every moment of free time, like I did when I was 12-13 at boarding school (not much else to do!). You (like most of us) would be better advised to cut back on the time you spend at your PC, rather than your RPGing, IMO.

 

[Mistwell]

Just curious. I'm 29, single, and I spend all of my free time gaming... Lately I've begun to wonder if I should cut back, though.

That all depends on whether you want to remain single

 

[Fenes 2]

As long as you are having fun and are happy you do not play too much. I myself play three times a week, but I gave up online gaming, since it had become more work than fun for me (EQ high level grinding).

 

[Jürgen Hubert]

Any large amounts of free time I have that I don't spend gaming will likely be spent on playing Civilization III - which is a nice game, but nothing that will create happy memories that you will be glad to look back to later on.

In other words, you have nothing but my envy, you lucky bastard!

 

[Fevil]

Being married with a young child tends to limit my gaming time, whith that and the fact that my gaming friends also have busy social lives, im lucky to be able to get them all together for my weekly game.
I have recently cut back on my online and single player RPGs aswell (That will change come the Shadowbane Beta however).

 

[Umbran]

Like any other hobby, it becomes too much when it begins to limit your life. You should still be able to maintain a relatively normal life with non-gamers.

If you find, for example, that you spend so much time gaming that you wouldn't be able to hold up your end of a conversation at a cocktail party because you don't have any topics other than gaming to discuss, you're probably overdoing it.