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Full TIme Job: How Are Some People Still Playing?


ScytheEleven

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Currently, I'm a student. So I have plenty of time to waste in this game.

 

But my student life is coming to an end in a few months, and I have some employment opportunities lined up. I frequently run into people who spend a fair amount of time in-game, and claim to have full-time jobs and even families/kids. My question is: how on earth do you do it?

 

NOTE: This is NOT an insulting thread! It is not made to insult anyone! I'm just curious as to how people are able to juggle their time around much better than I am planning to!

Edited by ScytheEleven
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Good question :D

I don't believe people with full time jobs and kids have alot of time for gaming tbh. I can tell you how Im able find a few spare hours daily tho, being a mother of 2 and working from 9 to 6.

I play 30 min in the morning while Im having my coffee and after I take the kids to school, then off to work. After work I play about 30 min again to relax before I have to start preparing dinner. After this is done I can finally spend a few hours gaming until I get sleepy :D usually around midnight. So that make it about 4 - 5 hours during the working days. Of course they are way more during the weekends :D

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Same way people that don't make big bucks still keep spending money in their pockets: self-management.

 

2 jobs here (one typical in the office job & one online for Funcom), wife, 8 year old son, and all the bills & maintenance that come along with family life. I still manage a few hours a day or every other day. Days off are 'my days' assuming the family hasn't made other plans for me. Probably helps that my wife is also a gamer (we met in WoW years ago) so that's not a thing.

 

If you really like something, you'll make / find time for it.

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Well, when i worked last year, i usually found a day when i returned from work to play for the rest of the day.

Mind you, it was not much, work from usually 6AM to 4PM, and 30 mins driving each way.

Tiring work too, seafood production, sleeptime was usually from 9PM-4AM.

I didn't drive, but the driver always picked me up an hour before work actually starts, and the as i said, the ride is 30 mins each way.

 

So if you want to play, get a job close by, and drive/walk/bike there yourself.

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I work FT, but its more like I'm always working because I can always get a call from work at any time of day and need to respond. However, I find time 2-3 hours a night, or every other night and usually spend a Sat or Sun playing all day. Its time management, but also gaming is how I choose to spend my non-working time.

 

And if/when you have kids, and they get old enough, you'll find they may be playing a game as well and you can spend time with them and game at same time =)

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Wake up, take shower, go to work 6-10 hours depending on how busy it is, come home take shower, smoke bowl(s), hop on game, play till i pass out. repeat. Girlfriend games, i game, neither of us can have kids, living expenses are cheap in kansas fyi minus "sam brown@ ss's" tax's. Oh and you have to Phelps dodge from time to time, i just throw cig butts at them out my window as i drive by.
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I have a full time job, no kids and plenty of time to play. I imagine having young children would make things difficult but other than that I imagine a lot of people have free time. Gaming is my way to unwind after a stressful day.
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Well, here's the thing. As a full time student, you are at school all day, and then yo usually come home and need to do homework. You probably also want to find time to socialize. When you're older and you just work a full time job, you go to work, then you come home, in a lot of cases you have the rest of the day free. Depending on what kind of work you do, of course. A business manager or a freelancer probably would have a really difficult time managing game time, but I know people who do it.

But you'd be surprised how much time people that work a a standard 8-4 or 9-5 job with free weekends can have. :p

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I was starting to think about this, too.

I just finished university, and I think it's wrong to say that students in general have "plenty of time to waste". Personally I had classes and stuff outside of that, so I mostly played at night.

 

It's all about balance, and knowing when to play/when to cut yourself off from SWTOR. I just played a bit at a time, progressing gradually through the class story on my Agent and then a Consular a few months ago. Now, I don't have the full PvP gear yet since they switched to Partisan/Conqueror, and haven't yet leveled a character with the crew skills needed for augments and stuff, so some hardcore gamers will say "Wow, it takes you THAT long?"

 

Again, it's about balance. Balance, and coffee.

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One of the members of my raid group is a father with a full time job. Our raids are normally on the same days(and same time) every week, so he plans around them. If there's new content coming out, and we need an extra day/hour(s) to complete it, we plan what day we'll do it.

 

We normally run with the same team every week, but if someone can't make it due to family/work/whatever, people in our guild fill in for them.

 

As for me, I can make it to the raids because they're always after school or on the weekends. /shrug/

 

Like someone already said, if you like something enough you'll put time aside for it.

Edited by Radzkie
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1 job(animal rescue and rehab) 4 kids here. i tend to play after my kids go to bed.

 

Very cool :) I foster dogs for my local shelter and know a lot of people who do rescue. I'm picking up my new foster puppy tomorrow. I think she's going to be wild since one foster home has already returned her :eek:

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The Bigger Question is for some? How do you fine time for REAL LIFE, when your gaming life is keeping your guild mates safe and and farming all the time just to feed all your legacy family and keep food and armor and weapons, in their mouths and on backs and in their hands. Real Life is so Annoying. So perhaps Real Life is the game and The Game is Real Life.

 

Makes for a interesting episode of the Twilight Zone. (u hear the shows theme music in the back ground):eek:

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I have a FT job, which often makes me work too much. Fortunately, I have three things going for me: (1) No kids, (2) the most awesome wife who understands gaming is how I relax (whereas she watches TV or movies to relax), and (3) I usually don't need more than 6 hours sleep, ever. I find I can game most nights from 7-11 or so; not every night, but most nights. Weekends I usually get in a few hours each day, sporadically, when the wife and I aren't out somewhere.
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Very cool :) I foster dogs for my local shelter and know a lot of people who do rescue. I'm picking up my new foster puppy tomorrow. I think she's going to be wild since one foster home has already returned her :eek:

 

thanks. i resuce domestic dogs and cats. i am also licensed for wild canine/feline rescue and rehab,as well as raptor(birds of prey) rescue...gets crazy here sometimes :D

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I have a full time job, no kids and plenty of time to play. I imagine having young children would make things difficult but other than that I imagine a lot of people have free time. Gaming is my way to unwind after a stressful day.

 

I agree. I have more time to myself now than I ever did in college. Work stays at work, and it isn't like I have homework when I get home.

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I have one of those horrible schedules that kills time with my family but leaves me a lot of time during the day to play.

 

Mon-Wed and Fri I work evenings. Thursdays off and get all day to play but I fit in time to take my kids to the park or at least for a walk after school. And Saturdays I work days so my weekends consist of me trying to get out of the house and keep me and my wife off the game :rolleyes: But we're normally back home by 7pm to raid. We don't go out much except to catch a movie, visit friends, take the kids out to dinner or something they want to do.

 

Only other thing I do is play basketball, jog and trying to get back into my workout routine. I would say it's possible to play this game, have a full time job, a family, time for friends and family and still have fun. On average, I get about 30 hours a week or more.

 

Edit: Oh and after work...I pvp which is the best stress reliever.

Edited by VigDiath
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Unless you are pulling some crazy hours and/or live far away from job so it takes you hours to get there and back home, you will have plenty of time to play.

 

Maybe first couple of weeks you will be too tired to play, but after new lifestyle settles in (assuming it's regular 9-17), you'll see how much free time you actually have. To be honest, when I was a student, I had far less time to play, since you have to study even when you are home - to get ready to tests, exams, to write essays etc. When you are working, you get back home from work, do some chores and have the rest of the evening to yourself. Also, weekends.

 

I do not have children though, they could complicate things. But my guildies who have children, usually play after children are in bed. And older children do not really need that much attention from paretns as they most likely have their own interests to attend to.

 

Another route, you just sacrifice some sleep if you really want to grind some event, or zerg through another storyline. But this, of course, is occasional. Neglecting sleep too often is unhealthy.

Edited by PaniMauser
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The Bigger Question is for some? How do you fine time for REAL LIFE, when your gaming life is keeping your guild mates safe and and farming all the time just to feed all your legacy family and keep food and armor and weapons, in their mouths and on backs and in their hands. Real Life is so Annoying. So perhaps Real Life is the game and The Game is Real Life.

 

Makes for a interesting episode of the Twilight Zone. (u hear the shows theme music in the back ground):eek:

 

Again, time management. For me and my husband, weekends are usually the best time to socialize with our RL friends. During weekdays, it's usually too late and we're too tired to go out anyway so it works out nicely. We'll make dinner, clean, spend some time together, and then spend a few hours unwinding. When you have a set schedule, you figure out what to do when.

 

I also don't play every day of the week, either. Keeps me from getting burned out.

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