I've had a few lost weekends and a few late nights lately playing EQ2. Luckily, I live with my Girlfriend and we have no children and she's accepting of my desire to play games as a hobby. So I really only have to make sure that I do it with no impact to my 9-5 job. Anyway, sometimes I need to force myself away from the game - I usually tell myself to go lay down for 30 minutes and then come back at night, which is enough time to make me realize that I'm tired. I think the scary thing is that when you're in front of a glowing monitor, it's hard to tell when you're truly tired because you're being stimulated so much. Kinda like trying to take a nap while somebody is electrocuting you (not exactly but you get my point) - so that 30 minutes for me is my tip. What do you do (or don't do) to moderate your playing time?
I set timers or restrictions. Frequently I alt-tab and work on side projects (and schoolwork). I have reached the point that I am unsure if it is a bad thing but I can fall asleep exceptionally fast when I get over-tired (16+ hours without sleep) usually averaging sleep states in 10-20 minutes (I am guessing I can't very well time myself). Gaming is something that must be managed or it can ruin your life.
Guffy I'm in a similar living situation and understand where you're coming from. I go park myself in front of a crafting station, never fails I eventually start to fall asleep from being bored. Unrelated maybe you can get her to start playing with you. Mine plays for short periods of time on the weekends now and enjoys it. At least thats what she tells me! LOL
My wife doesn't enjoy playing everquest. She enjoys playing a game with me, it just happens to be everquest.
I'm currently unemployed and not taking any classes this semester, so EQ2 eats up most of my time. In the past, there were days I wouldn't shower unless the servers went down. The trick is to find something that brings you back to reality. For me, I made a habit of checking the (RL) time whenever I zone, since that's a few seconds of not playing anyway, and ask myself "Have I been playing for a really long time?" If the answer is yes, I go take a break and do something else for a half hour or so. That half hour is usually enough time to realize if you're tired, hungry, or if something needs to be done. Then, if I'm still awake and what needs doing has been done, I allow myself to come back to EQ2. Also, It'd be really nice if the session timer from EQ would make an appearance in EQ2. (For those of you who don't remember that or weren't around for/never played EQ, you'd get a prompt each time you logged in to set a timer in hours and minutes, and it'd notify you when that much time had passed.)
Well funny enough she plays world of warcraft (which I started with her) but she isn't a gamer, she just plays that - she won't come near any other games, I've tried countless times. I'd play with her but I find it too boring. @ Arlorielle - I'm jealous .. I wish I had all the time in the world to play - at least for a while
I can never get groups so I pretty much just log in to raid now... which cuts down play time a whole lot.
I used to play more when I had a fiancee who also played. Now that I'm single again, I find I usually log in to raid (3 hours of playing 4 days a week) and not terribly much else. Although I'm guilty of playing Skyrim for overly long stretches of time... probably because with EQ2 I'm windowed and can actually pay attention to my clock.
My wife thinks computer games are for children and so I only play when she is out!! That restricts my playtime and also means I can't raid I was single when I used to play EQ1 and played at least 4 hours a night most nights raiding. It was/is very addictive to me. However now, because I have these limitations, I find myself yearning to play more and think about it more, which is why I read about it on here on my phone while at work I found when I had less restrictions on when I played (in eq1), you burn out quicker and start to play less and less. When you can't play as much as you like, you end up craving more. A bit like being on a diet and craving food!
Short version: experience, maturity and willpower. You have to know what's important and what's not. (Hint: EQ2 is NOT important compared to family and job. This should be obvious, but it isn't to too many people.) Long version: I have a job which requires I have a sharp mind at work. After going to work a few times on five or fewer hours of sleep I quickly realized that if I didn't want my career to go down the toilet fast, I better plan on getting a good night's sleep. It took a layoff to drive that point home. But it has. Nowadays I try to start winding things up 30-60 minutes before my "bed time". Bed time is calculated to give me 8 hours of sleep. Ideally I'll log in time to read (or do something else quiet) for a few minutes before hitting the sack as it does no good to get to bed on time and then lie awake for a couple hours. I had to be firm with my guild. This did not endear me to some but it's important. If they force me to choose between EQ2 and job, job is going to win. Sorry but that's the way it is. They call themselves a casual guild and to me that means casual. If they don't like people like me logging that early they should drop all pretense of being casual and I'll find another guild. On weekends I'll stay up much later. P.S. It helps to maintain a little distance from the game.
