Gamerant - Not Enough Time to Play Fallout 4

At Gamerant, Rob Gordon has written an editorial about how he does not seem to have time play games like Fallout 4 now that's he's older and has a family:

This is the situation I found myself in over Christmas, with an extended break from work. Apart from some excellent time with the family, I found plenty of spare hours to play video games, much like when I was a kid. My game of choice was Fallout 4, where I had plenty of unfinished business (and side quests) to take care of. Exploring the dangerous wasteland of post-nuclear war Boston has been one of the highlights of video gaming this year, and having such a large portion of time proved incredibly satisfying. There was time to work through the ruins of the city, hunting for valuable items and new weaponry, completing missions for some of the other denizens of the Commonwealth. For once, there was time to get immersed in the game.

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More information.

I'm weird but I find I can only play games in the evening even when I have the day available.

I'm thinking the authors 'game time' is more about the time he is used to settling down for a game not being available anymore due to work & kids rather than having x hours available. Its a rhythm thing.

The cure is simple.
Just as with TV, you won't have enough time to watch everything so you need to weed out the junk. Back then if you didn't have time, you'd just stop watching Santa Barbara (a TV show with more than 2000 episodes).

1. Stop playing overhyped worthless garbage like Destiny

2. Avoid grinders like a plague, uninstall all MMOs

This won't create time for just about everything (too many releases lately), but at least it'll be quality gaming.

It's often not enough even then. At a 50+ hr/week clip, then picturing family responsibilities, I don't think I'd be able to manage significant game time. Joxer's on the right track, but I'd probably have to drop games per year to something like 2 and then maybe sneak in some phone gaming in bits.

Even then I might reconsider hobbies. Maybe movies or back to books if my S/O has a significant problem with gaming time-requirements. I also used to do landscaping professionally and doing that kind of construction could be better for my health.

People change. It's ok and I still respect gamers and don't act like a jerk who thinks American football (insert normal football for everyone else) is the only appropriate pasttime for adults. Sadly such people do exist.

I know what you mean, some believe golf is the only proper *thing* for adults (not talking about watching matches on TV).
Well, I'm a kind of an adult who gets more fun with videogames. If that makes me less adult, so be it.

Ironically I had that extended span of time off from work and tried to spend it playing Fallout 4, but the game has so far largely failed to pull me in. People say it gets better, but I'm just not getting traction the way I did with, say, Fallout: New Vegas.

I honestly think I wound up spending more time on TV Tropes during my vacation than I did playing Fallout 4. I can't decide whether that speaks more poorly of Fallout 4, or of me.

I have 2 kids and I barely play anything anymore, even if I do have a few hours here and there.
I get annoyed super easily by game choices I do not like and quit games after a few hours.
I shamefully have to admit I prefer when sometimes I don't have a huge number of choices creating a character or making an ingame decision.

To my defense some games i was a fervent follower of, turned into shit. Gothic4/Risen2 etc. and i was slow to get into other franchises.

Only game I played last year was Witcher 3 and it replaced Gothic 2 as my all time favorite.

I seem to remember a similar topic just earlier this year or late last year, "traditional RPGs are too long, I don't have time what with work, kids, etc". Not sure what should be done about it, if anything.

The problem is the games that I am drawn to are really too long for the time I have to play. Something like the Witcher 3, Pillars of Eternity, or Divinity Original Sin can easily run over 50, 75, even 100 hours. After family and work responsibilities, I probably get a couple hours a night that I can read, watch a movie/tv, or play a game. That means that even if all I do is gaming in my free time then I am pretty much looking at a minimum of a month to play one of the aforementioned games, maybe closer to two.

I wonder, is there something bad about taking a month or two to finish a large game? Should a big game be done quickly? Not saying one way or the other but Xian's post made me wonder if other people also feel that if they can't finish a game in X amount of time if they consider that a problem. Maybe because of immersion and wanting to sink into it?

I tend to only have a couple hours at night to play and a little more on weekends. More because I have a variety of interests versus family, which I don't have except for my dog.

It often can take me a couple of months to finish a big game if I can only get 10-12 hours in a week. But 2, even 1 hour, at night I find relaxing and if I only play an hour a night but do so most nights it is enough to keep me connected. Also helps if on the weekend I can get a bigger play session in. One reason I like open-world games. I can either focus on exploring and crafting or something simple or dig into a quest line when I have more time.

Course if you don't enjoy the game that much then being big is just a massive handicap to finishing - especially if you are somewhat on the fence about the enjoyment. But in general I am talking about a game you enjoy.

I lucked out with FO4 as it came out during my biggest break period at work with a week off in November and two weeks off in December plus a few random days thrown in. I played it a lot but even then it took me till late December to finish a single play through following core quest lines. Now I am playing again for the long version of doing more.

As a parent, I find time to play on my days off when the kids (young toddlers) take their afternoon nap (2 hours max). Then I get even more time pretty much any night of the week after they go to bed (they sleep at least 11 hours straight). Wife has always "let me game" and likes to binge watch Netflix, Hulu and will also play her Sims 4 but she is a much more casual gamer than I am. Even a busy parent with a full time job needs a hobby or pastime to unwind.

Like Joxer said, it's about prioritizing what you play (I did uninstall all MMOs recently lol) and also taking a look at your daily routine to see where your gaming best fits. I usually juggle 2 to 3 games at one time and will rotate back and forth between them each week. My main rule is I don't play when my kids are awake.... of course that may change when they become my gaming buddies down the road!

I find that as I get older I get more "attention deficit disorder" in gaming.

Nowadays, with the little time I have, games like D:OS where I have to do a lot of walking and talking about town with long periods of no action in between (which I would otherwise love), can't get my time anymore. In the same period of doing that, I could get in 2 or 3 games of Heroes of the Storm with a lot of action and very little downtime.

I start and rarely finish games now...

I always say I will only play this until I beat it then something else gets my attention...

I've had to limit my game playing lately so it seems it will take forever to clear the Fallout 4 map. Will I have the patience for it this time?

And ESO is a huge time sync. Didn't play it over the weekend since there were too many other players wrecking the immersion.

This is why I don't have a family

With the heighetend load of domestic chores and kid raising which would likely be delegated to me exclusively, I do not want it. Family life for women means you have to give up all your hobbies and have no time to yourself. I prefer to live how I like.

Still not enough time to play everything, though.

These days I'm more critical to games than I used to be. If the game does something badly, I can only tolerate it if it's exceptional overall. This results in most games I ever tried out being dropped or backlogged (likely to never be finished), with only those I consider gems being played. Which means that the problem of not enough time kinda solves itself this way.

As for long games, yeah sometimes it feels like there's not enough time, but it feels like that only if you think the game isn't good enough and you secretly pity the time you have to waste for it instead of playing other games. If the game is real good, you can play it for months little by little, instead of saying you have no time to play such a long game.

Not sure I understand the point of the article. The writer willingly creates a bunch of responsibilities/obligations for himself (he even admits he wouldn't want to give any of them up) and now no longer has as much time for his hobby? "Hey, I decided to do a bunch of non-gaming stuff with my time, now I don't have time for gaming? Weird." Anyway, it doesn't really have anything to do with "getting old" though as he makes it sound - age isn't what creates all the extra responsibilities and obligations. No, it's other choices that bring those on - both intentional and accidental.

The first paragraph asks the question "What can be done to try and get this extra time to play?", but the rest of the article doesn't really address the original question, in fact the writer says he isn't willing to do what would be required to make that happen.

Kids are one heck of a time burden! They wreck terrible havoc on all hobbies, really. Luckily, they do wander off after a couple of decades.

Work is the real killer, IMHO. 50… 60… 90 hour work weeks!? That's not "growing up" - that's exploitation. Then you've got your hour commute, each way (telecommuting might help there - even if your job doesn't allow it, it could clear up the highways). Then people do all this into their 70s!?

But what do you expect when the… <ahem> The reasons for which can be explored in another forum.

wolfgrimdark said:

I wonder, is there something bad about taking a month or two to finish a large game? Should a big game be done quickly? Not saying one way or the other but Xian's post made me wonder if other people also feel that if they can't finish a game in X amount of time if they consider that a problem. Maybe because of immersion and wanting to sink into it?

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Maybe problem was the wrong term to use, but even with games that I enjoy such as the three I mentioned, the length of time it takes me to complete has a couple drawbacks for me:

The longer I play a game, the less likely I am to actually complete it in a timely manner. After so long I want a change of pace. To combat that, I generally play a couple games at the same time, switching between them, or some games when I get to that point I just concentrate on the main quests, foregoing the side quests and optional tasks. I generally do come back to my unfinished games and complete them eventually, but it might be months later.

The longer it takes me to complete a game, the greater chance that something else will catch my eye and I will jump ship for the new shiny.

Elel said:

This is why I don't have a family

With the heighetend load of domestic chores and kid raising which would likely be delegated to me exclusively, I do not want it. Family life for women means you have to give up all your hobbies and have no time to yourself. I prefer to live how I like.
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Where do you live Elel, the 50's?

My wife has no less than 7 hours a day to do whatever she wants. She doesn't work and the kids are both in school all day. Kids have their chores to do when they get home.

The only thing she does exclusively is laundry and that's because she doesn't want me to touch it. She's a bit ocd with the laundry and needs it done her way.

We've been married for 19 years now, she worked the first 4 until I started making plenty of money so she no longer need to. So for the past 15 yrs she's had more than enough free time and has never had to do anything exclusively unless she wanted too.

As far child raising I've changed countless diapers, feed and burbed, dressed, bathed, sat up all night with sick children etc. just as she has, we've raised are children together as have all my friends and family that I know.

Sorry everyone for the mini rant but I'm tired of hearing how men are awful human beings because while some are there are also many, many exceptional men who love, provide for and support (emotionally) their families.

I'm sorry Elel if you haven't meet any good men but that doesn't mean that none exist. Maybe your looking in the wrong places or not looking at all.

As for gaming time I only beat 2 games last year so I don't game as much as I used too. My biggest barrier I think is if I have an hour or 2 to game I feel like it's not enough time to make any progress in a big RPG and if I get interrupted for an extended amount of time ( couple weeks to a month) I won't remember what's going on and will usually start over and the process repeats.

That's one of the reasons I really enjoy souls type games no story or npc's I need to remember just hop in and start killing stuff again.

I think the spousal thing is different depending on your background and country you live in....north America is generally equal billing now for male or female for instance.