Losing Yourself (and Time) in the Game

[WarVet]

Well it's not like I followed the natural path (but I get what you are saying), I didn't stop playing them when I was 18, I thing I played harder around that age, and still studied, went out with my friends, and had a job. Your brother is going to be fine, if you see that he is a little bit too addicted then you can help him to not put video games before life, or just let him have some life lessons by himself. Spending too much time by playing video games is going to have a cost that he will learn later (Something that I learned not long ago).

Yeah well, you still managed to keep your priorities in check aye? And indeed he will. The thing with older brothers is that we care about our sibling just a little less than our father haha. Still, i agree with you the best lessons are those we learn by ourselves. I tried to warn him many times but my claims come across as nagging. All I want is that he doesn't the same mistakes I did. But we'll see about that.

 

[ZXD22]

I can see how people can spend so much time on games and stuff especially on online games where you play with friends and what not. You don't focus and pay attention to time and it just seems like seconds are going by faster than they should. I've been guilty of this plenty of times unfortunately.

 

[Eggy216]

Yeah but the choices were kinda obvious though. It's not like it's all grey choices; most are black and white and unless you really intentionally make the wrong choice. it's pretty obvious what the right decision is. Be nice to people, don't make fun of them since it might come back to bite you in the ass later. How people get it wrong baffles me a lot. It wasn't that hard.

Yeah that's fair. I made a few wrong choices along the way concerning decisions where I had to decide where to step in or not because I wasn't always sure that I could really do all that much to help - and that it might actually cause more trouble if I did try to help out. But overall the decisions definitely weren't that difficult to see.

 

[Wolfparttimer]

Yeah well, you still managed to keep your priorities in check aye? And indeed he will. The thing with older brothers is that we care about our sibling just a little less than our father haha. Still, i agree with you the best lessons are those we learn by ourselves. I tried to warn him many times but my claims come across as nagging. All I want is that he doesn't the same mistakes I did. But we'll see about that.

Yeah that's the older brothers job hahahaha
I have 3 siblings that are older than me, and they tried to make me stop playing games many times, so I understand what you are trying to do, let him go with the flow, he'll learn by himself because words aren't that powerful as actions.
And Yes, I have kept my priorities on all of the things I have done so, playing hasn't stopped me on fulfilling my duties

 

[WarVet]

Yeah that's the older brothers job hahahaha
I have 3 siblings that are older than me, and they tried to make me stop playing games many times, so I understand what you are trying to do, let him go with the flow, he'll learn by himself because words aren't that powerful as actions.
And Yes, I have kept my priorities on all of the things I have done so, playing hasn't stopped me on fulfilling my duties

That's the important thing, buddy. I have tried and tried to take my brother out of the PC on many occasions without much success. As much as I love a good gaming session real life can't be lived in front of a computer yes? Still, i hope he doesn't have to learn from his mistakes like I did.

 

[peachpurple]

Yes, sometimes when you are addicted to a game, you can't stop playing even though you had set a specific time to stop playing. You will play until your eyes become watery and sting. So, I set an alarm on my smartphone that repeats the bugging sound after 5 minutes.

 

[OursIsTheFury]

Well it's not like I followed the natural path (but I get what you are saying), I didn't stop playing them when I was 18, I thing I played harder around that age, and still studied, went out with my friends, and had a job. Your brother is going to be fine, if you see that he is a little bit too addicted then you can help him to not put video games before life, or just let him have some life lessons by himself. Spending too much time by playing video games is going to have a cost that he will learn later (Something that I learned not long ago).

Yeah, most gamers just play unhealthy hours because there's nothing better in the real world. Once something happens like having friends or a job, gamers tend to choose real world of the gaming world since they can always go back to where they stopped if they ever want to. I don't mind long hours of games as long as players don't forget to eat or stretch their legs out after a marathon gaming run. It's a lot more healthy that way and it would help if you got enough sleep, but then again addiction in games can really mess that up.

 

[fireball916]

Civilization is the game that comes to mind for me. Always playing one last turn until its 4am and I realize I have to wake up in a few hours. Sometimes I wish we didn't have to sleep...

 

[Eggy216]

Civilization is the game that comes to mind for me. Always playing one last turn until its 4am and I realize I have to wake up in a few hours. Sometimes I wish we didn't have to sleep...

Oh man. That right there is why I can't play Civilization if I have anything to do haha. I still haven't beaten the AI in Civ, either. . .I can only ever beat my friends. It's probably a sign that we're all terrible at the game, but I like to think the AI is just overpowered haha.

 

[JoeMilford]

I totally get lost in the game...I will go in on a Friday, clean-shaven, un-ruffled, and emerge, after having finished the game, with a full beard, pizza sauce on my shirt, a disheveled look, and red eyes from the screen. I am mainly kidding, of course, but yes, I most definitely lose time in the game and find myself wondering how many hours actually went by versus my perception of the actual flow of time while playing.

 

[PenguinManiac]

I find this happening way more frequently with mobile games. 5 minutes easily turn into 30, add them up for each time it happens and you've got yourself quite an impressive burden on wasted time.
However, if we're only talking about single sessions, I'd go with any metroidvania game. Finding new paths as you go, backtracking every time you get an upgrade and exploration in all of its nuances make you lose track of time easily.

 

[OursIsTheFury]

Civilization is the game that comes to mind for me. Always playing one last turn until its 4am and I realize I have to wake up in a few hours. Sometimes I wish we didn't have to sleep...

Yup, starting a game of Civ 5 at around 9 in the evening, then you reach modern age, check the time, and it's already 2 in the morning. You can easily get lost building your own empire that time isn't even important. I got to that phase of playing Civ where I rage quit when someone else built a Wonder when I was one turn away from completing it. That always annoys me to no end, and it's like you wasted the past 30 minutes or so building something and ending up with absolutely nothing.

 

[Eggy216]

I find this happening way more frequently with mobile games. 5 minutes easily turn into 30, add them up for each time it happens and you've got yourself quite an impressive burden on wasted time.
However, if we're only talking about single sessions, I'd go with any metroidvania game. Finding new paths as you go, backtracking every time you get an upgrade and exploration in all of its nuances make you lose track of time easily.

Oooh that's a good point, I didn't think about how often I lose time playing mobile games (although I guess that's what they're designed to do, isn't it?) I've got a few games on my iPhone right now that I start playing thinking I'll just pass 10-15 minutes of time between things I'm working on, and suddenly an hour or so has passed me by.

 

[Soulwatcher]

I get lost in time every time I play a MMORPG. And I believe it is because I am super focused on the game and I am always trying to complete something. So I never look at the clock and I totally lose concept of time. But I can play any other game and that never happens. I always get board and I never focus on the game and I am always checking the clock.

 

[PenguinManiac]

Oooh that's a good point, I didn't think about how often I lose time playing mobile games (although I guess that's what they're designed to do, isn't it?) I've got a few games on my iPhone right now that I start playing thinking I'll just pass 10-15 minutes of time between things I'm working on, and suddenly an hour or so has passed me by.

Exactly. You'll feel less guilty if you spend two hours gaming by spreading them out throughout the entire day rather than gulping them down at a single time, won't you? Plus, I think they're designed to make you play several times a day for ads and stuff. They're deceitful, but let me tell you, it seems mobile developers are pretty good in tricking us.

 

[airfightermax]

This happens to me ALL THE TIME. Especially when I play Guild wars 2. Because in Guild wars 2 there are world bosses which spawns only in a specific time so, I downloaded an application the tells me which bosses spawn at a certain time. There are points where I would check the timer and say to myself, "I already spent 5 hours?!" Can't really blame me though as they made a game that is so fun.

 

[Zyni]

I've lost track of time while gaming, but only one time that I can recall where it really mattered. Mostly, I try to play when I know I have free time. That way, it doesn't become too big of an issue. I've done all nighters too in the past, but on those nights, I really didn't have anything else to do. I would have sat up watching TV or messing around online anyway, and the game was much more fun than those other choices would have been.

 

[CBL28]

Civilization V's iconic "one more turn" is the best example for me. I get so immersed in the game that I forget to save the game and time passes very quickly. By the time I realize, it's already been 2 hours since I started playing. The amount of thinking that strategy games like Civilization need is very demanding, so I concentrate on the game and the game alone. That is, unless I hear people talking nearby.

 

[giovanniiiii]

The only games that I get absorbed to because of playing are sandbox and freeroam games especially the Grand Theft Auto franchise. I used to play a lot of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in my PS2 with my younger brother through the 2-player mode for the console. Most times we try to go as far as we can while driving our car and try to fight the police force. Sometimes when we are just bored we try a lot of stuff like using cheats and experimenting. An example would be when we tried bubble car cheat to make a car float up and we tried to jump above the floating car just to see how high the car will take us. We spend like 4 hours a day or more while playing GTA. It is just so fun to play even now.

 

[yunken]

I have lost so much time on gaming accidentally on so many occasions, which I later regretted.
One of the occasions was when I was supposed to study for an exam. Having gone through that, I've tried to minimize the rate at which I play game during exams by uninstalling some games from my PC