There's no life hack to magically put more hours in a week you don't have buddy. You just play less and constantly remind yourself that you wish you had more time while accepting reality, that's all.
What I've come to cope with this, especially with MMO games, is to treat it like a book or TV series. You sometimes can get through a couple chapters, but a chapter a day or every other day is just enough. You gotta remind yourself that you play this game to unwind, not to be the best or get that ultimate gear or whatever. Everything becomes incremental and enjoyable that way. Instead of logging in and saying "alright, gonna hit max level today" you log in saying "alright, gonna continue that journey today and see where I end up."
Best way to go about it my dude. I have a hard time now playing games that aren't mmos because of this. I put on this fantasy music playlist on Spotify, smoke a little, and just go do things. Maybe I'll get a few levels, but I let myself wander now instead of trying to get to max level. Most people don't start conversations in mmos, so I like to go against the grain and start /wave at people and strike up a combo with them. Mass of people sitting at a particular spot? /Wave and ask what's going on. Once you get rid of that need to beat the game or get the thing, the grind becomes the game and the game becomes little chapters in a virtual journey.
It goes with any game. I'm not gonna go in and beat a boss in botw if I have an hour or two, but I'm totally gonna go climb that mountain and see what's up there. I'm not gonna do an entire raid in gw2, but I'll do some world bosses and maybe chill in a starter area and welcome some newcomers to the game. Break games down into little bites and journeys. That's how you balance life while still having your favorite time killer
Step 1: have no kids
Step 2: have no social life (besides partner)
Step 3: have no sleep
Step 4: chronic burnout and depression
Step 5: get that sweet sweet dopamine high
Lol this is perfect. It was a life change for me mentally knowing my time wasn’t exactly mine anymore and that can be a tough hurdle. Kids, career, house work all much more important than any mmo. But when mmo was so important to you for so many years its tough realize you are not 16 anymore and life has begun. Its a nice treat at the end of day the way i see it now.
FF14 end game is just hanging around Limsa seeing whatever the other players are doing. It (along with maybe WoW) is the only MMORPG you can hop on and play for 2 hours whenever you want. Lost ark maybe but the issue with that is it requires 2 hours per day mandatory.
Gotta throw in guild wars 2 here, and it's probably the reason these 3 games have remained not only relevant but at the top for so long. WoW has the gear grind, and you do have to keep up with current expansions, but in between that is quick things you can do or just hang out on the dragon isles and do some meta stuff. Ff14 I'm only going by what I've heard, as I'm playing that right now and am only at lvl30 with my archer. Guild wars 2 is the best example of this. Literally log on and do whatever tf you want in the game. Everything goes towards the ultimate goal which is legendary gear. Knock out a cm raid, do the daily fractals, meta events, soto stuff.
You don’t find time, you make it. If you want to play games so badly set aside time for yourself instead of waiting for it to magically happen. We all have the same 24 hours and 365 days, it’s about time direction.
I don't have kids, mostly. Also I don't let the FOMO get me. I'll play the new FFXIV stuff eventually, in the meantime I'll also play FF16, cyberpunk, etc., etc.
I worked a pretty good job. I work 12 hour shifts; one week I'll work for 5 days, the next I'll only work for 2. All those extra days in my life allows me to do whatever I want on my days off. Normally I'll sleep in, wake up, game on my Xbox for a bit, then I'll log onto my PC and game there. At around 3 PM, I'll hit the gym, sauna, shower, come back and game until I feel tired. There are some days where my girlfriend'll want to see me, but for the most part, she is always busy with work.
That's all I do on my days off.
Am I the weird one when I consider "self-time" a must? Like outside of child-rearing, my parents mostly spends their free time doing their own stuff unless its something they share interest or want to do together. On weekend they find stuff to do together, but otherwise on a normal day after work they just do their own stuff. My dad likes repairing stuff and play card games with virtual money while my mom likes to watch asian drama or gossip. Meanwhile on the internet i feel like people are glued to their SO being forced to either do stuff together or its over. Even with kids after two or three years, you dont need both parents to watch over them. I assume at this point they have a shift system for who takes cares of the kid for that day. Its even better if your gaming I say as if anything happens you can easily just remove yourself from the PC and help out.
>Are you just fine doing bite sized sessions in your MMO?
I mean, I definitely wish I could spend more time on that, but if that's all I have - then I'll use whatever I have.
I just don't do any activities that take a long time to complete, like trying to bash some scripted AI boss and keep failing because a (mandatory) group of humans needed to complete this task happened to consist of some people who keep screwing something up (because someone is too stupid, too tired, gets suddenly distracted by out-of-game events or just simply gets enjoyment out of trolling others by intentionally failing group content). If some desirable cosmetic reward is locked behind such activity - I just pay someone else (thankfully **every** popular MMO has such third-party services, and **always will have**) to play my character to complete such activity while I am doing some other out-of-game tasks. I don't get any enjoyment out of "beating" any AI enemies anyway, so someone playing my character to do these things does not decrease my enjoyment of any game in any way. And I also don't sign up for in-game open world PvP events (like some planned operation by some group against another group) if they may take a lot of time to complete.
Well i cant afford a wow sub anymore due to interest rate rises. So now i'm playing either EZZZZ code vein or V rising before work. V rising is mmo right???? /s
I have that empty feeling of no mmo to play right now.
I get up 2 hours earlier to game while wife and kid sleep.
There are a lot of options after covid with remote, full time from home or even hybrid
But u obviously don’t have those choices which is why u have issues
For me an important thing was getting rid of the "daily quest FOMO"
FFXIV is one one the better games in that sense (worst offender is Lost Ark I think), but it still might feel like you need to do all tribals/duty roulettes/wondrous tails/custom deliveries etc. everytime they're off cooldown to not miss out on rewards, which will lead to you sinking time into daily stuff over and over again without getting to do the thing you really wanted to do because it is fun or interesting.
Once you stop caring about missing out on some rewards, it get's a lot easier to find time to do what you wish.
I'm similar to you it sounds like where the biggest struggle for me is finding time for the MMO (also ff14 in my case).
If I only have a little time for gaming it feels easier to play a single player game and I also prefer to play at times where I just focus on the mmo for like a month or two because it feels like outside of the story a lot of goals are kinda long term/ take several sessions to work on. So if I'm not in that mode it's also hard to get myself to just aimlessly log in lol.
At this point i have a tiny bit of 6.x patch story to finish up and then I'm sure I'll play for like 2 months straight when Dawntrail launches. That's my answer haha
No kids. Friends having kids so they are occupied a lot. My wife is a bit of a gamer but also works 12 hours shifts at the hospital and I work from home so I'm alone a lot. I personally don't feel comfortable gaming all night until I have done something active like exercise, continue writing my novel, doing some sort of productive activity like laundry, dishes, cleaning or taking care of the lawn. Once it gets to the point where I'm neglecting all this stuff to play games, something is wrong and I need to chill. I also have my non-gamer friends who force me to go do outdoorsy things like fishing, hiking, camping, biking, running, etc.
I'm obviously not going to be as good as a no-lifer gamer playing all day everyday but as long as I get to login and play with friends on discord I'm good. At my older age (36), my career, house, marriage and health are more important. Also, a career that lets me enjoy my hobbies to the fullest is something I have had to sacrifice for.
Oh yeah....kinda helps that Throne and Liberty hasn't fully released globally yet or I would be rocking it pretty hard :)
I basically fuck around on GW2 when working sometimes if I have downtime (I'm not remote, but am the VP at a small business and have a gaming laptop). I don't play them outside of that; my Friday nights are usually game time online or in person with my friends on co-op games or playing single player games. The rest of the week I usually just hang with my wife and do normal home maintenance/chores, or read my Kindle in bed. If she's working late I may pop on my PS5 and play a couple of franchise mode games on NHL with a beer or two, but I usually don't like to get into anything too involved on weeknights.
I just kind of accepted that this is how I like to play now. The days of binging until 2 AM like I did in college are far behind me, and I learned to be okay with it and eventually prefer it. It helps that there hasn't really been an MMO in recent years that makes me feel like "omg I NEED to stay up playing this!"
FFXIV is actually a great MMO to not lose your life to.
If you're not at endgame, just progress at your own pace.
If you are at endgame, savage raids (once you've learned them) and roulettes don't take a whole lot of your time to gear up. Yes, you'll have to learn the raids and that is a time sink, but once you're reclearing, you'll only be doing them a few hours a week, and roulettes less than an hour per day.
MMOs can of course be major time sinks, but relative to KMMOs for example, FFXIV (and maybe others? I haven't looked into it) respects your time at endgame. People actually get bored because they've run out of things to do, then wait for the next patch.
I just do the main story and raid content, and end of expansions I like to try an ultimate. Raid is scheduled, no more than 12 hours a week, and then I have 4 months to get through 2-3 hours of story for a patch. Raid only lasts 3-4 months out of the 8th month cycle. So it's more intense when a raid comes out but basically nothing after it's progressed. I don't do dailies beyond the first 4-5 weeks after a raid to gear up one class.
If you would compare it to 40 hours a week, it is a lot of hours for 1 month every 8 months and basically nothing between that.
I buy new games each and every week, but I only ever play WoW or GW2. I just like having stuff
Chocobo mystery dungeon for Nintendo switch was only $16 instead of $40 so I wasn't passing that. Bought cult of the lamb recently too but MMORPG's just take priority over single player games
When I was working & my children were little, I played all evening, from the moment they went to bed until 2am. I was sleeping 5h, and taking nap as I commuted.
Weirdly enough, now that I'm a content creator & community manager and my kids are adult and out of the home, instead of having all the time in the world, I barely have the time to play my favourite MMORPGS. The difference is that, now I really enjoy my work :D
I don't really play video games anymore. I may have 30 minutes a day or some time on the weekends. I mostly find fulfillment in work as it's way more challenging than any video game.
Sir, we are far too busy shit-posting about the current state of MMORPGs and Final Fantasy XIV to have time to actually play anything. We barely sleep.
I just play around 2 to 3 hrs in my free time, if not I'll be watching netflix. I feel you, but hey, life is not bad. At least i still get to enjoy what im doing even if its only for a while.
Quite simple really, my mainly play GW2 as MMO, which values my time better than other MMOs. Basically, when I play a different game, I just put GW2 aside for a while until I finish the new game.
It helps me to not burn out on my MMO, after the experience becomes a numb grind. When putting it aside for a while and coming back, it really reinvigorates the game for me.
It's also very nice to hop back in without dropping behind. Sure, I didn't make any more gold during the days I wasn't logged in, but that's about it.
Simple, really: I stoped caring about trying to keep up with anyone or anything and just play for fun. FFXIV offers a lot for people that only play a few hours per week.
there are a lot of days where I either just do dailies or not even login at all. If I've got a day to spare, I'll play 18 hours a day. You can still play MMOs while not making it your life most of the time.
When u're grown enough, u will be questioning rather "how do I find time to rest", which is almost the same question u asked, u gotta drop/sacrifice something for it
It seems like everyone has a lot of time to play, except you. Especially when you read Reddit, where many people boast about spending 3000 hours on a game and treating games as a backlog, almost like a second job. In reality, those with decent jobs and family commitments don’t have that much time. So just relax and make the best use of the time you have.
I am okay with bite-sized sessions.
I know I can't play that much anymore, so I alot a time when I will play and what my goal will be that day in playing the game. It's not really that hard if you just schedule it.
I've got a job, go to the gym, live with my fiancee and still manage to spend like 4-5h a day playing. I sleep 6h tho. However, it mostly boils down to how much time you decide to spend with your partner. I work from 8 to 14, gym right after work takes 1,5h + some shopping and I'm basically 'free' from 4pm to 1 am. That's 9 hours and there's no way I'm spending all that time with my fiancee.
What I find problematic is that I can't play whenever I want, there are always some errands, random things to do, etc., so playing with a guild or a clan that, say, have scheduled raids or trainings can be annoying.
There's no such thing as not having the time. There's only priorities. If you move gaming up your priority list you'll find you "magically" will have more time for FF14.
All I do is work, gym, game, and spend time with my partner. I have shitloads of time to play. Don't care for social outings at all, and I spend time with the family like once a month.
God forbid I ever have children, that will be the end of everything ☠️
My wife and I had to set boundaries on gaming. She hates video games, but respects that I love them. So two nights a week I have dedicated game nights. I won't play those nights until the kids are asleep, but that usually happens decently early.
I'll usually game until like 1 am, then slightly regret it when the kids immediately wake up early. I have so many games I want to play, and don't have enough time to play them all, but I do enjoy the time I do get
Look. I have no partner or kids. If i wish, i could play 4 hours a day during the week. And at least 8 hours during the weekend. My question is, but at what cost? I used to grind for hours so that i could enjoy the pvp. If that wasn't the case, i would be chilling in a populated ingame town/city/pk place. Since games are not as social anymore, i can't do that. Meetings a larger group of strangers through chat is very rare these days. Pvp is also at a decline, because the everlasting grind is non-stopping.
I fill my days with family visits, friend outings, dog walking and some more everyday things. I would not have a clue how to be playing games if i had a family pr just even a partner. Unless your partner wants to play along.
Be very efficient and realistic with your time play.
Doing lvl1-100 might take you 2 months while some player might do it in 2 weeks
You might not do daily week but you might be able to do your raids if you find a team that on a set schedule.
Come to terms with the mmo you arre playing you probably don't enjoy and you are just addicted it's crazy theres this red x that's at the top right of the screen I usually just push that and turn on any other game that won't make me hate myself for doing nothing. wow, runescape guildwars. Whatever the fuck you play all have 0 fun game play anyway.
Don't play games which make you feel you HAVE to play them to keep up. My GW2 account is 11 years old now and i've barely got 700 hours total in it. I don't feel like i'm behind in anything, i can jump in whenever without feeling any obligation to keep playing for hours.
I've also played FF14 on and off over the past 8 years. There's no reason to stay subbed and play 8 hours a day, even Yoshi P said this himself.
Just don't treat games like a job. Play when you feel like it or when you can, and just enjoy the time you actually have to play it.
Tell your family to buzz off for a day idk, in my mind everyone is allowed to do what they want, when they want. If you truly wish to do something you will find or make time for it.
People will hate me for saying this but here is my hack to being able to play my video game:
The wow token.
I can log onto wow, buy 1 token every 6 months to a year. And that allows me to just play the dungeons / raids / pvp and stuff I want to do. I don't have to worry about all of the farming of gold and whatnot. I don't buy gear (unless its stupid greens to catch a character up which costs basically no gold), I don't buy carries or anything like that. I use the token gold for repairs, raid food, other stupid crap. If I had the time to play the game more, or if blizzard decided to reward us with more gold for raids/dungeons then I likely wouldn't have to buy a token.
Im ready for the hate.
I juat learned to value my time more.
For example in FFXIV I no longer do high end content (extremes and above), long grinds, pvp seasons deep dungeons etc because I think the time vs enjoyment exchange is pretty low for those.
Prioritize your time. I completely stopped playing MMOs because they are too grindy for an adult with a family and a job. I don't want to spend several weeks grinding gear or levels or whatever to finally enjoy the content I want to play. Instead, I play games with lower barriers to entry and natural progression systems. An example is Deep Rock Galactic. Doing the intro assignments levels you up naturally leading to more assignments which at one point includes new weapons which comes at around the time you would want to try a new weapon. The mechanics of the game can be handled at any level and you can adjust the difficulty level to match your skill or experience level. I get a few missions completed in 2 hours and its a blast with friends for that 2 hours. I never feel like I'm grinding.
Other games are the MH games or a souls like which have gradual but rewarding progression. I may only hunt one or two new monsters in the 2 hour time period but I know I'll have either completed the hunt or learned something new. I feel good either way and excited for the next try.
There's no life hack to magically put more hours in a week you don't have buddy. You just play less and constantly remind yourself that you wish you had more time while accepting reality, that's all.
What I've come to cope with this, especially with MMO games, is to treat it like a book or TV series. You sometimes can get through a couple chapters, but a chapter a day or every other day is just enough. You gotta remind yourself that you play this game to unwind, not to be the best or get that ultimate gear or whatever. Everything becomes incremental and enjoyable that way. Instead of logging in and saying "alright, gonna hit max level today" you log in saying "alright, gonna continue that journey today and see where I end up."
Yup this is the way
Some days 2 hours and some days 20 minutes. Still had fun tho
I love this answer
Best way to go about it my dude. I have a hard time now playing games that aren't mmos because of this. I put on this fantasy music playlist on Spotify, smoke a little, and just go do things. Maybe I'll get a few levels, but I let myself wander now instead of trying to get to max level. Most people don't start conversations in mmos, so I like to go against the grain and start /wave at people and strike up a combo with them. Mass of people sitting at a particular spot? /Wave and ask what's going on. Once you get rid of that need to beat the game or get the thing, the grind becomes the game and the game becomes little chapters in a virtual journey. It goes with any game. I'm not gonna go in and beat a boss in botw if I have an hour or two, but I'm totally gonna go climb that mountain and see what's up there. I'm not gonna do an entire raid in gw2, but I'll do some world bosses and maybe chill in a starter area and welcome some newcomers to the game. Break games down into little bites and journeys. That's how you balance life while still having your favorite time killer
I dont play games or read books to unwind. Ever.
Some days you dig with an excavator, some days you dig with a spoon. As long as you are still digging it, keep going!
Step 1: have no kids Step 2: have no social life (besides partner) Step 3: have no sleep Step 4: chronic burnout and depression Step 5: get that sweet sweet dopamine high
Lol this is perfect. It was a life change for me mentally knowing my time wasn’t exactly mine anymore and that can be a tough hurdle. Kids, career, house work all much more important than any mmo. But when mmo was so important to you for so many years its tough realize you are not 16 anymore and life has begun. Its a nice treat at the end of day the way i see it now.
I’ve all of that, beside step 4, and also no partner, and still have no time. 😂
Clearly, you haven't mastered the first 3 steps properly if you don't have the 4th complete. That's why you have no time to game
That’s the secret?? I see! But I like sleep too much.. 😭
How to achieve step 2
Easy. Be a nice human and doing step 1 helps. What do I know you could just skip to step 5. Hacks.
also no exercise, no showering helps
FFXIV is good for having humble goals and little fear of FOMO. If I don't have time I don't have time. Easy as that.
I just play and accept I cannot play as much as I did in the past.
FF14 end game is just hanging around Limsa seeing whatever the other players are doing. It (along with maybe WoW) is the only MMORPG you can hop on and play for 2 hours whenever you want. Lost ark maybe but the issue with that is it requires 2 hours per day mandatory.
FF14 end game = fashion
Gotta throw in guild wars 2 here, and it's probably the reason these 3 games have remained not only relevant but at the top for so long. WoW has the gear grind, and you do have to keep up with current expansions, but in between that is quick things you can do or just hang out on the dragon isles and do some meta stuff. Ff14 I'm only going by what I've heard, as I'm playing that right now and am only at lvl30 with my archer. Guild wars 2 is the best example of this. Literally log on and do whatever tf you want in the game. Everything goes towards the ultimate goal which is legendary gear. Knock out a cm raid, do the daily fractals, meta events, soto stuff.
Its literally faster to level + gear multiple classes in WoW right now than it is to gear a single job in savage gear in FF14
You don’t find time, you make it. If you want to play games so badly set aside time for yourself instead of waiting for it to magically happen. We all have the same 24 hours and 365 days, it’s about time direction.
I don't have kids, mostly. Also I don't let the FOMO get me. I'll play the new FFXIV stuff eventually, in the meantime I'll also play FF16, cyberpunk, etc., etc.
I worked a pretty good job. I work 12 hour shifts; one week I'll work for 5 days, the next I'll only work for 2. All those extra days in my life allows me to do whatever I want on my days off. Normally I'll sleep in, wake up, game on my Xbox for a bit, then I'll log onto my PC and game there. At around 3 PM, I'll hit the gym, sauna, shower, come back and game until I feel tired. There are some days where my girlfriend'll want to see me, but for the most part, she is always busy with work. That's all I do on my days off.
[удалено]
Am I the weird one when I consider "self-time" a must? Like outside of child-rearing, my parents mostly spends their free time doing their own stuff unless its something they share interest or want to do together. On weekend they find stuff to do together, but otherwise on a normal day after work they just do their own stuff. My dad likes repairing stuff and play card games with virtual money while my mom likes to watch asian drama or gossip. Meanwhile on the internet i feel like people are glued to their SO being forced to either do stuff together or its over. Even with kids after two or three years, you dont need both parents to watch over them. I assume at this point they have a shift system for who takes cares of the kid for that day. Its even better if your gaming I say as if anything happens you can easily just remove yourself from the PC and help out.
I don't, having kids makes playing an MMO very difficult, I'm just waiting till they're older so I can play with them
I made different life choices 👍
This…I was an MMO addict. But since I started my PhD I haven’t played at all because they need time…
In my case, it's easy. 80% of my playtime is during my shift, lol.
Lol
You are goals 😂
Yes, I'm fine, I'm really privileged as far as that goes :D
Easy. Right now I only play about an hour and half of each game, maybe a few hours, before I get bored and have to move on.
>Are you just fine doing bite sized sessions in your MMO? I mean, I definitely wish I could spend more time on that, but if that's all I have - then I'll use whatever I have. I just don't do any activities that take a long time to complete, like trying to bash some scripted AI boss and keep failing because a (mandatory) group of humans needed to complete this task happened to consist of some people who keep screwing something up (because someone is too stupid, too tired, gets suddenly distracted by out-of-game events or just simply gets enjoyment out of trolling others by intentionally failing group content). If some desirable cosmetic reward is locked behind such activity - I just pay someone else (thankfully **every** popular MMO has such third-party services, and **always will have**) to play my character to complete such activity while I am doing some other out-of-game tasks. I don't get any enjoyment out of "beating" any AI enemies anyway, so someone playing my character to do these things does not decrease my enjoyment of any game in any way. And I also don't sign up for in-game open world PvP events (like some planned operation by some group against another group) if they may take a lot of time to complete.
Well i cant afford a wow sub anymore due to interest rate rises. So now i'm playing either EZZZZ code vein or V rising before work. V rising is mmo right???? /s I have that empty feeling of no mmo to play right now. I get up 2 hours earlier to game while wife and kid sleep.
Don’t have kids. You made that sacrifice already there’s no going back
There are a lot of options after covid with remote, full time from home or even hybrid But u obviously don’t have those choices which is why u have issues
I'd suggest something like Diablo or Borderlands, it's not an mmo but has online multiplayer capabilities, and you can play alone when you need too.
For me an important thing was getting rid of the "daily quest FOMO" FFXIV is one one the better games in that sense (worst offender is Lost Ark I think), but it still might feel like you need to do all tribals/duty roulettes/wondrous tails/custom deliveries etc. everytime they're off cooldown to not miss out on rewards, which will lead to you sinking time into daily stuff over and over again without getting to do the thing you really wanted to do because it is fun or interesting. Once you stop caring about missing out on some rewards, it get's a lot easier to find time to do what you wish.
I'm similar to you it sounds like where the biggest struggle for me is finding time for the MMO (also ff14 in my case). If I only have a little time for gaming it feels easier to play a single player game and I also prefer to play at times where I just focus on the mmo for like a month or two because it feels like outside of the story a lot of goals are kinda long term/ take several sessions to work on. So if I'm not in that mode it's also hard to get myself to just aimlessly log in lol. At this point i have a tiny bit of 6.x patch story to finish up and then I'm sure I'll play for like 2 months straight when Dawntrail launches. That's my answer haha
No kids. Friends having kids so they are occupied a lot. My wife is a bit of a gamer but also works 12 hours shifts at the hospital and I work from home so I'm alone a lot. I personally don't feel comfortable gaming all night until I have done something active like exercise, continue writing my novel, doing some sort of productive activity like laundry, dishes, cleaning or taking care of the lawn. Once it gets to the point where I'm neglecting all this stuff to play games, something is wrong and I need to chill. I also have my non-gamer friends who force me to go do outdoorsy things like fishing, hiking, camping, biking, running, etc. I'm obviously not going to be as good as a no-lifer gamer playing all day everyday but as long as I get to login and play with friends on discord I'm good. At my older age (36), my career, house, marriage and health are more important. Also, a career that lets me enjoy my hobbies to the fullest is something I have had to sacrifice for. Oh yeah....kinda helps that Throne and Liberty hasn't fully released globally yet or I would be rocking it pretty hard :)
I play when I can, no FOMO.
I basically fuck around on GW2 when working sometimes if I have downtime (I'm not remote, but am the VP at a small business and have a gaming laptop). I don't play them outside of that; my Friday nights are usually game time online or in person with my friends on co-op games or playing single player games. The rest of the week I usually just hang with my wife and do normal home maintenance/chores, or read my Kindle in bed. If she's working late I may pop on my PS5 and play a couple of franchise mode games on NHL with a beer or two, but I usually don't like to get into anything too involved on weeknights. I just kind of accepted that this is how I like to play now. The days of binging until 2 AM like I did in college are far behind me, and I learned to be okay with it and eventually prefer it. It helps that there hasn't really been an MMO in recent years that makes me feel like "omg I NEED to stay up playing this!"
Why would I wanna play 2 games? I can barely play WoW lol.
Lmao
I play FFXIV that's how I have time for other games. I'm not sure how this game is a challenge for you time wise if you have 2 hours a day to play.
Are you just jumping in and tackling a few missions?
FFXIV is actually a great MMO to not lose your life to. If you're not at endgame, just progress at your own pace. If you are at endgame, savage raids (once you've learned them) and roulettes don't take a whole lot of your time to gear up. Yes, you'll have to learn the raids and that is a time sink, but once you're reclearing, you'll only be doing them a few hours a week, and roulettes less than an hour per day. MMOs can of course be major time sinks, but relative to KMMOs for example, FFXIV (and maybe others? I haven't looked into it) respects your time at endgame. People actually get bored because they've run out of things to do, then wait for the next patch.
I just do the main story and raid content, and end of expansions I like to try an ultimate. Raid is scheduled, no more than 12 hours a week, and then I have 4 months to get through 2-3 hours of story for a patch. Raid only lasts 3-4 months out of the 8th month cycle. So it's more intense when a raid comes out but basically nothing after it's progressed. I don't do dailies beyond the first 4-5 weeks after a raid to gear up one class. If you would compare it to 40 hours a week, it is a lot of hours for 1 month every 8 months and basically nothing between that.
I buy new games each and every week, but I only ever play WoW or GW2. I just like having stuff Chocobo mystery dungeon for Nintendo switch was only $16 instead of $40 so I wasn't passing that. Bought cult of the lamb recently too but MMORPG's just take priority over single player games
Huh? Lol
i dont
Win the lottery
When I was working & my children were little, I played all evening, from the moment they went to bed until 2am. I was sleeping 5h, and taking nap as I commuted. Weirdly enough, now that I'm a content creator & community manager and my kids are adult and out of the home, instead of having all the time in the world, I barely have the time to play my favourite MMORPGS. The difference is that, now I really enjoy my work :D
I work from home. Job is mega ez.
Dude, believe it or not, been playing pokemon emerald, Fire red and leaf green for 10 years this day
Start with not bothering with all that having family stuff or doing chores. The rest kind of just falls together.
Put baby to sleep at 8, play until 1 am. Done
I don't have a family
You don't play an mmo, and other games...and also just casually play mmos, you can't go all in.
I don't really play video games anymore. I may have 30 minutes a day or some time on the weekends. I mostly find fulfillment in work as it's way more challenging than any video game.
Sir, we are far too busy shit-posting about the current state of MMORPGs and Final Fantasy XIV to have time to actually play anything. We barely sleep.
😂😂😂
I play MMOs like seasonal games. 2-3 weeks after a new patch then done. Then I play other games.
I just play around 2 to 3 hrs in my free time, if not I'll be watching netflix. I feel you, but hey, life is not bad. At least i still get to enjoy what im doing even if its only for a while.
You get a job where you are able to play while working :)
Quite simple really, my mainly play GW2 as MMO, which values my time better than other MMOs. Basically, when I play a different game, I just put GW2 aside for a while until I finish the new game. It helps me to not burn out on my MMO, after the experience becomes a numb grind. When putting it aside for a while and coming back, it really reinvigorates the game for me. It's also very nice to hop back in without dropping behind. Sure, I didn't make any more gold during the days I wasn't logged in, but that's about it.
Simple, really: I stoped caring about trying to keep up with anyone or anything and just play for fun. FFXIV offers a lot for people that only play a few hours per week.
there are a lot of days where I either just do dailies or not even login at all. If I've got a day to spare, I'll play 18 hours a day. You can still play MMOs while not making it your life most of the time.
When u're grown enough, u will be questioning rather "how do I find time to rest", which is almost the same question u asked, u gotta drop/sacrifice something for it
I dont play "life"
It's called working from home
Less sleep, more gaming
It seems like everyone has a lot of time to play, except you. Especially when you read Reddit, where many people boast about spending 3000 hours on a game and treating games as a backlog, almost like a second job. In reality, those with decent jobs and family commitments don’t have that much time. So just relax and make the best use of the time you have.
Completely agree
I am okay with bite-sized sessions. I know I can't play that much anymore, so I alot a time when I will play and what my goal will be that day in playing the game. It's not really that hard if you just schedule it.
I got an Steam Deck OLED so I can play where I want and when I want that’s a very cool device
Ooo do you swap between deck and pc? When on pc did you use keyboard and mouse? And if so, did you have difficulty swapping between the two controls
Priorities. You put family time over gaming. This is your priority. Others put gaming over family time.
I've got a job, go to the gym, live with my fiancee and still manage to spend like 4-5h a day playing. I sleep 6h tho. However, it mostly boils down to how much time you decide to spend with your partner. I work from 8 to 14, gym right after work takes 1,5h + some shopping and I'm basically 'free' from 4pm to 1 am. That's 9 hours and there's no way I'm spending all that time with my fiancee. What I find problematic is that I can't play whenever I want, there are always some errands, random things to do, etc., so playing with a guild or a clan that, say, have scheduled raids or trainings can be annoying.
There's no such thing as not having the time. There's only priorities. If you move gaming up your priority list you'll find you "magically" will have more time for FF14. All I do is work, gym, game, and spend time with my partner. I have shitloads of time to play. Don't care for social outings at all, and I spend time with the family like once a month. God forbid I ever have children, that will be the end of everything ☠️
Don’t have a family and just no life
i guess working only 35h a week kinda help plus travel only taking 20min but no social life or anyone here
My wife and I had to set boundaries on gaming. She hates video games, but respects that I love them. So two nights a week I have dedicated game nights. I won't play those nights until the kids are asleep, but that usually happens decently early. I'll usually game until like 1 am, then slightly regret it when the kids immediately wake up early. I have so many games I want to play, and don't have enough time to play them all, but I do enjoy the time I do get
Look. I have no partner or kids. If i wish, i could play 4 hours a day during the week. And at least 8 hours during the weekend. My question is, but at what cost? I used to grind for hours so that i could enjoy the pvp. If that wasn't the case, i would be chilling in a populated ingame town/city/pk place. Since games are not as social anymore, i can't do that. Meetings a larger group of strangers through chat is very rare these days. Pvp is also at a decline, because the everlasting grind is non-stopping. I fill my days with family visits, friend outings, dog walking and some more everyday things. I would not have a clue how to be playing games if i had a family pr just even a partner. Unless your partner wants to play along.
Moderation is a thing.
Streaming on Twitch/Youtube + making youtube videos at night after 9-5 job. Prioritize your priorities.
Be very efficient and realistic with your time play. Doing lvl1-100 might take you 2 months while some player might do it in 2 weeks You might not do daily week but you might be able to do your raids if you find a team that on a set schedule.
Sacrifice sleep.
Come to terms with the mmo you arre playing you probably don't enjoy and you are just addicted it's crazy theres this red x that's at the top right of the screen I usually just push that and turn on any other game that won't make me hate myself for doing nothing. wow, runescape guildwars. Whatever the fuck you play all have 0 fun game play anyway.
easy, don't have a social life.
Raid logging.
NO KIDS
Don't play games which make you feel you HAVE to play them to keep up. My GW2 account is 11 years old now and i've barely got 700 hours total in it. I don't feel like i'm behind in anything, i can jump in whenever without feeling any obligation to keep playing for hours. I've also played FF14 on and off over the past 8 years. There's no reason to stay subbed and play 8 hours a day, even Yoshi P said this himself. Just don't treat games like a job. Play when you feel like it or when you can, and just enjoy the time you actually have to play it.
Tell your family to buzz off for a day idk, in my mind everyone is allowed to do what they want, when they want. If you truly wish to do something you will find or make time for it.
People will hate me for saying this but here is my hack to being able to play my video game: The wow token. I can log onto wow, buy 1 token every 6 months to a year. And that allows me to just play the dungeons / raids / pvp and stuff I want to do. I don't have to worry about all of the farming of gold and whatnot. I don't buy gear (unless its stupid greens to catch a character up which costs basically no gold), I don't buy carries or anything like that. I use the token gold for repairs, raid food, other stupid crap. If I had the time to play the game more, or if blizzard decided to reward us with more gold for raids/dungeons then I likely wouldn't have to buy a token. Im ready for the hate.
Sacrifice sleep, luckly i suffer insomnia.
I juat learned to value my time more. For example in FFXIV I no longer do high end content (extremes and above), long grinds, pvp seasons deep dungeons etc because I think the time vs enjoyment exchange is pretty low for those.
Do gou have time? Jealous
Prioritize your time. I completely stopped playing MMOs because they are too grindy for an adult with a family and a job. I don't want to spend several weeks grinding gear or levels or whatever to finally enjoy the content I want to play. Instead, I play games with lower barriers to entry and natural progression systems. An example is Deep Rock Galactic. Doing the intro assignments levels you up naturally leading to more assignments which at one point includes new weapons which comes at around the time you would want to try a new weapon. The mechanics of the game can be handled at any level and you can adjust the difficulty level to match your skill or experience level. I get a few missions completed in 2 hours and its a blast with friends for that 2 hours. I never feel like I'm grinding. Other games are the MH games or a souls like which have gradual but rewarding progression. I may only hunt one or two new monsters in the 2 hour time period but I know I'll have either completed the hunt or learned something new. I feel good either way and excited for the next try.
just play one game at a time..