I like videogames...a lot. Like, at 33 now I still enjoy videogames (especially rpgs) as much as I did at 15. I just have a ton of fun playing games and hours fly by. Sometimes I'll play bad games that feel like a job (AC Unity) and it'll burn me off games for a bit, but this year in particular has been a really good year for games. Right now I'm playing Grand Theft Auto V (probably around a 60 hour game for SP 100%) which is amazing and I can just get lost in the world for hours at a time doing missions, sidequests, activities and just exploring. I like some of the characters and the story is fine. I'm also playing Xenoblade X (probably around 100 hours for SP 100%) and it's great and totally immersive basically MMO where you can sit down for a session and play 5 hours straight and still want to play more. And I'm also playing the final Super Robot Wars game in a 9 year story franchise (probably around 140 hours for SP 100%), which has a pretty interesting story that's been built up through 4 prior games in a Song of Ice & Fire gigantic plotline with three dozen subplots and hundreds of characters all being tied together for the big finale; it's like reading a good book (it's mostly a visual novel book) and can sink hours into it and enjoy it all. And then I'm also playing Batman Origins (probably around 15 hours) for something non-rpg and because I've been on a Batman kick and I'm totally enjoying kicking villians teeth in as Batman and stealthing around while learning more about some more obscure Batman villains I don't know much about. Also on the backburner is Bloodborne (probably around 50 hours) which I have incredible fun with and love every minute but I just play it occasionally and do a section until I finish some of the rpgs I'm playing and then I'll blow through the rest of it, and a few musou games that I play a stage here and there when I feel like just beating up 1000 dudes as someone not Batman.
I've watch movies/tv here once or twice a week, read novels and I've been on a huge Marvel Unlimited 2,000 hours+ run of reading every comic published by Marvel since 1998 or so when I stopped reading comics after high school. I posted in the comics thread that although it's a massive project, I find it more like taking a college level class on the Marvel Universe and since I love learning I really enjoy learning about all the characters and lore that makes up the MCU; so it's half entertainment something to read, have a learning project.
But I also work a ton. I love my job and it's so much fun, as fun as the best games at times. After 4 years of being a lawyer, I've gotten the hang of it and do good work, am highly efficient and it's fun knocking things out on after another, staying on top of 30 con-current cases, and winning arguments and get satisfying conclusions for my clients. I probably work like 60 hours or so and usually get out of work around 6:30-7:15pm, then get home and have dinner, spend some time with the SO, do a house chore or something, and then it's like 9pm at night and I'm tired so I load up a game and play for 2-3 hours before going to sleep. And I love those 2-3 hours and have so much fun.
While I'm at work, I'm always multi-tasking so I'm reading bore or gaf for a few mins between tasks items, and reading about videogames at work gets me really excited to play videogames when I get home. There's just so many cool games out or coming out this year and I love it. Like even after I finish all the stuff I'm currently playing through, I can't wait to dive into Ys VI that just got released in English on Steam, there's the new Wolfenstein expansion that came out, Swervy's D4 is coming out on steam in a few weeks, there's the new Batman Arkham Knight in a few months and I still wanna finish playing through Witcher 1 and play Witcher 2 and play The Witcher 3. I'm also working through the Trails in the Sky Kiseki jrpg franchise which is fantastic and I love every minute of it.
On top of that I do try to make time for my SO. I text a little with her during the day and try to spend some time each night hanging out together. We usually try to eat dinner together but sometimes our time schedules are pretty off. Usually try to go out one weeknight a week to go for a walk and have a nice dinner somewhere and try for at least one day on the weekend going on and doing something for a half a day. And every 2-3 months we try to go on a short vacation for a few days. Planning on going to Oregon in the fall and Japan at the end of the year this year. I also spend time each week or two with my family as I'm pretty close with them.
Also being a grown adult with a house, there's always stuff to take care of. Bills, laundry, dishes, trash, feeding the cats, playing with the cats who need attention all the time (I love my cats but they are insanely clingy!), cleaning out of the litterboxes, going to the market, fixing things when they break, etc.. etc.... My SO helps out with some of this, but she's like the opposite of organized and I'm OCD about organization and task management so I end up doing most of this myself which takes a good amount of time. If I spend a day on the weekend going out and doing something, on Sunday I'll usually spend at least half the day doing house chores and I probably spend about an hour every other day doing life tasks after I get out of a work at 7pm.
So basically, I'm really busy, but really happy and enjoying every day and it goes by fast. I'm focused on my work and get it done, I spend time with my SO who I love and care about, I spend time with my cats, take care of my house and tasks, and spend about 20-30 hours a week+ playing videogames (2-3 hours a night on weeknights, and usually about 3-10 hours over the weekend) and really enjoy playing them. But I made this thread because sometimes I feel like if I wasn't playing all these videogames, I'd have an extra 20 hours a week to spend going out and doing things with friends and activity groups and being more social. I still hang out with friends, but usually try to do it over getting lunch, or getting dinner once every week or two and maybe once a month I'll go to a friend's party of go to the movies with a group of friends.
So yeah, I've always been a fan of everything in moderation and I always acknowledge that I don't play videogames in moderation, and even my new years resolution was to play fewer games in 2015, which like most people's resolutions hasn't happened. But I really enjoy good videogames, and so otoh I'm like life is short, do what makes you happy and I'm totally happy getting sucked into good videogames for hours at a time. But yeah, I hardly even update facebook anymore because I'm not out doing a lot of social things. So sometimes I feel a little regret that in my mid 30s I should be out "living the life" and doing more active stuff. In 2013 before I was in a relationship, I went out all the time doing tons of fun activities with meetup groups and friends and meeting lots of people. I think I added like 100+ people to my facebook and phone contacts that year. But now I rarely ever hang out with large group activities.
Plus I see that most "adults" aka people I know in their 30s/40s who play games, don't play much anymore. Maybe like a few hours a week. I guess it sort of makes me feel like people are growing up and moving on to spending time on other stuff that's more satisfying. Because at the end of the day a videogame is just a fun experience and then it's over in a month or two I've forgotten 90% of what I played. But while I'm playing it, I have a lot of fun. I think I feel a bit weird that at my age with my busy job and SO and cats and adult life I'm still gaming almost as much as I did in high school and college and enjoying it as much or even more (it's nice having a job and money so can buy a second 3d card or a new audio receiver for a better gaming experience).
So yeah, I dunno. I have the day off today, took care of some errands, had a coffee and so I'm rambling a bit on caffeine before I sit down and play 5 hours of Xenoblade X. It's just one of the things that goes through my mind occasionally, and I wonder if other people on a gaming board can relate.
PS. As an aside, I always want to be more productive and more creative; which I get to do at my work and I love it, but I really, really want to make a vidoegame and write a book, and make a short film. I've been slowly making progress designing my ideal indie videogame, but I hardly ever get around to working on it because when I do have a free day like today I'm just excited to be able to play 5 hours+ straight of a Xenoblade X session and I'll get to working on my game stuff later. At this rate I feel like I'm not going to make an indie game until I retire
PSS. Also, I don't have kids. I like kids, but me and my SO don't want them (my SO is physically incapable of having them because of medical reasons) because we both have some life-long health issues and taking care of ourselves and our cats and the house is work enough and we don't need 18 years of taking care of kids. Our cats are our kids and they're awesome and totally good enough. Plus it helps us financially not having kids especially as we both have a lot of medical costs and medical costs in America continue to get more and more expensive every year because Capitalism :\ Without kids I kind of can say to myself "well, my adult friends spend 20 hours+ a week with their kids, so I play videogames instead in that time".
