For how long do you play (continuously) a computer game?

[Kyriakos]

Prompted by a brief discussion at the games thread here.

Personally, I avoid playing for more than 1 hour without a break. It does take a toll - which sucks
Ah, gone are the teen days when I would play (something like) 10 hours of Civ without stop.

(to avoid clogging the poll options, it is inferred that <x is still larger than the previous < choices)

 

[amadeus]

Good thing this poll stops at two hours+ or it might get out look like I’m not doing something more productive with my time!

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

I pulled a few all nighters saying "just one more turn"

That was a long time ago.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

i voted 2+, but this isn't every session. it depends on the game being played, to some extent where i am in that game (late game eu 4 can be grueling, and i often run that < 2h so that i don't lose play quality to fatigue), whether i have somewhere else to bee soonish etc.

this while many sessions are > 2h, there are also sessions that are 30-90min. but since i do routinely handle multi-hour sessions (occasionally getting up to go to the bathroom or stretch, but not long enough to distinguish of "new session"), i vote that bracket.

i have numerous runs of dungeon crawl stone soup where i straight up blitzed a game start to finish in 2-4h for example.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Looks like I'm normal.

It actually depends on the game and my mood. It also depends on the music. There are some games I'll keep playing just because the music puts me in a good mood.

 

[Synobun]

Long ago, as a teen, I could go for hours at a time. Now I lose steam between 30-60 minutes easily. When I play with others, I get up and take a break between matches so that I can go for longer. But I only play battle royales with people now, not games like Civ and EU4/CK2. If I tried the latter, I'm really not sure what I would do to make it tolerable.

 

[bene_legionary]

Still a teen, still lose track of time playing FTL; so over two hours, I guess. When I was 10 I would come home from school by 5pm and play Minecraft until 11pm; a couple years ago I ran a Terraria server with my friends and I lost a few afternoons and nights over that.

However, the number of times I play games appears to have decreased lately, probably because I have tried to focus more on reading books and other things.

 

[Moriarte]

I recently lost myself in Morrowind for, like, 6 hours. Bliss. With kids around my gaming hobby came to a grinding halt. But, once in a while, I can come back. I do appreciate gaming more than before, that's for sure.

 

[Kyriakos]

With the gaming market by now having to cater also to people who are a bit older, you even see Paradox try to market some of its games as being playable (from a meaningful start to finish) within a couple of hours (obviously not the Eu types).
It wasn't like that, of course. Gaming traditionally was a field directed to kids/teens. But the enthusiasts grew with it.

Maybe nowadays it is rarer to have games which typically reach an end by the one hour mark or thereabouts. RTS are less popular (AOEII is around that mark), and most strategy games have mammoth in-game timelines.
I guess those that fit the scale would be the most streamable ones, ie fps and such, but they are multiplayer so restrained internally (unless MMO).

 

[amadeus]

I guess I play a lot of slow games, I mean ones where I can take my time and not be focused like a laser-beam on what’s going on. It makes spending a few hours a lot easier, not like some intense action game that requires constant vigilance.

 

[Tee Kay]

If you let me, I can do 48 straight hours of something like Cities Skylines. After that I get too sleepy to continue.

 

[Kyriakos]

Some people had died from playing for many hours (iirc 20 something) a few years back :S

 

[Bamspeedy]

Some people had died from playing for many hours (iirc 20 something) a few years back :S

This study found 24 people (1 from 1982, the rest from 2002-2021).

Sudden gamer death: non-violent death cases linked to playing video games - BMC Psychiatry

Background and aims Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is an emerging problem. Rarely, media reports about people, who have died during playing video games, but thus far no systematic, scientific study is available about the topic. We investigated such cases, looking for common characteristics...

bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com

(Table 1 has list and basic facts of all the cases):

Sudden gamer death: non-violent death cases linked to playing video games - BMC Psychiatry

Background and aims Internet gaming disorder (IGD) is an emerging problem. Rarely, media reports about people, who have died during playing video games, but thus far no systematic, scientific study is available about the topic. We investigated such cases, looking for common characteristics...

bmcpsychiatry.biomedcentral.com

Though, I have to say, obviously some of those had nothing to do with video games, they were bound to happen at some point (health condltions).

Die after playing for 30 minutes, I find it hard to blame the video game playing. Die after playing 86 hours straight, yeah, the blame is on the binge video game playing.

 

[PhroX]

I don't tend to play for more than a couple of hours at a time, I find I need to take a break and do other things for a bit after that. But I can still spend like 10-12 hours of a lazy Sunday gaming, even if it's not in one sitting.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Used to be able to do 12-hour marathons. Unfortunately as my disease has progressed in the last five years I can now maybe do around 2 or 3 hours at maximum, and I have to be really into the game for that. Usually less than an hour now.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

With the gaming market by now having to cater also to people who are a bit older, you even see Paradox try to market some of its games as being playable (from a meaningful start to finish) within a couple of hours (obviously not the Eu types).
It wasn't like that, of course. Gaming traditionally was a field directed to kids/teens. But the enthusiasts grew with it.

Maybe nowadays it is rarer to have games which typically reach an end by the one hour mark or thereabouts. RTS are less popular (AOEII is around that mark), and most strategy games have mammoth in-game timelines.
I guess those that fit the scale would be the most streamable ones, ie fps and such, but they are multiplayer so restrained internally (unless MMO).

I just started a replay of Christmas Wonderland 14 (CE, in Extreme Mode). That means it's timed and you have to find ALL the hidden objects, all the angels, all the snowmen, and all the lost and found stuff. My first try at this was in Relaxed mode. It used to be that there would be a trophy for finishing the game in less than 3 hours, but I daresay enough people complained that the CE version isn't actually doable in under 3 hours, at least not if you want to really enjoy it.

Some of the games I have are the "hidden cat" games in which 100 cats are hidden in a black and white picture. I can zip through that in under 10 minutes. Granted, it's not a significant amount of lifespan spent on it. But it's also not really worth the money to me if it's over that fast.

I've been trying out a couple of new games; one of them is definitely a different sort of hidden object puzzle than I'm used to. It's a fun challenge.

I belong to a group of players on another gaming forum called the Grumpy Old Ladies. You don't need to be grumpy, old, or even female to be part of that, but most of us are at least one of them, usually two. The Casual Arts games and Jewel Match games I've mentioned here are popular with the people I hang out with on that forum and one of the breakaway forums. Sometimes I can lose myself in a game and not even notice until I get an achievement of some sort telling me I've spent X number of continuous hours playing (I think the record was 5, for one of the Hidden Object games, or maybe it was one of the Jewel Match games. They're absorbing and addictive, and it's so easy to say "one more level" or "one more quest".

My attention span isn't great anymore. I've got so many different websites and forums and FB groups on the go now; at the moment I'm taking a break from a FB argument over the professionalism of Amazon drivers soliciting tips. I'll probably do another chapter of Christmas Wonderland soon, and just wrote a couple lines of a Merlin limerick (I made a New Year's resolution over on TrekBBS - this is the year I post something on the actual fanfic sites, and not only on forums).

So, how long a stretch for gaming... it depends, really, on where my mind is at when I start the session. If I've got a couple of minutes to kill, that's good for a very quick level, or maybe a fast game of solitaire. I've got Cluedo, though, and am chasing some of the achievements there - which will require copious games playing as certain characters. If I want all the achievements for Jewel Match Solitaire, that means doing all 120 Supersize solitaires, all 120 Mahjongg games, all 120 challenge levels... honestly, those supersize games are large to the point that I have a hard time staying awake. I will say one thing: With the CE of those Jewel Match games, you get your money's worth.

 

[Remorseless1]

Ninety-nine percent of my video gaming is CivII. Usually 2-3 hours once week, occasionally twice a week. Sometimes a bit longer but not very often.. There was one weekend when my wife went for a three-day spa trip with her best friend. I played almost 12 hours in one stretch. Not my best idea.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I'd play Civ II if I could figure out how, on a Win 11 computer. I haven't played it since my XP was still working.

 

[GoodEnoughForMe]

Depends on the game, but I definitely had some 4-5 hour sessions of BG3 and Cities Skylines 2 this year.

 

[Smellincoffee]

Is it a weeknight? Most would be two hours, and that's a stretch. A weekend, though? I just spent the last four hours being a mean drunk with a penchant for punching people in RDR2.