Making time to play?

[Tann]

Originally Posted by Tenlaar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah, no. If you can't play EQ for a few hours here and there during the week because your significant other doesn't like it (AKA doesn't allow it), your significant other sucks and is a bad person to be in a relationship with.

Yeah, no. Ignoring wife/gf/kids for pixels a few hours a week if they're not OK with it doesn't a good person make.

[Hinthek]

Im one of those IT guys you speak of...

Work from home. Work on one laptop, game on the other. Its good for soloing but any grouping is out, that is if youre honestly working at the same time.

Past that, i can fire it up at night after the kids go to bed, and play while the mrs and i watch tv. Its a minor faction hit, so you gotta balance it out. Any reasonable gal should be ok with ya gaming every now and again. Its much better than going out boozing it up with the fellas(in their eyes anyways, heh).

[Mycota648]

Originally Posted by Tenlaar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah, no. If you can't play EQ for a few hours here and there during the week because your significant other doesn't like it (AKA doesn't allow it), your significant other sucks and is a bad person to be in a relationship with.

My girlfriend isnt a bad person. She just gets upset when I play video games because I literally zone everything else out. She will talk to me and I wont even hear her. So essentially she feels like I am ignoring her, and in reality I am.

I think a major issue is that I work way more than her. She gets a few hours on each side of my shifts to herself. When I leave in the morning she is there and when I get home at night she is there. Not that this upsets me, i love being around her. I just dont think she realizes how much a hour or two to yourself can really help you have fun, destress, etc... She probably has never thought that I never get that. I will probably have a talk with her about this.

[loramin]

Originally Posted by Mycota648 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

My girlfriend isnt a bad person. She just gets upset when I play video games because I literally zone everything else out. She will talk to me and I wont even hear her. So essentially she feels like I am ignoring her, and in reality I am.

I think a major issue is that I work way more than her. She gets a few hours on each side of my shifts to herself. When I leave in the morning she is there and when I get home at night she is there. Not that this upsets me, i love being around her. I just dont think she realizes how much a hour or two to yourself can really help you have fun, destress, etc... She probably has never thought that I never get that. I will probably have a talk with her about this.

I don't care if you like model trains, running marathons, or playing 16-year old elf sims: your girlfriend may not be a bad person, but if she can't give you the time/space to enjoy whatever your hobby is then there's something unhealthy about the relationship.

This was a bit of an issue when my wife and I first started dating, because she (along with many women in our society) sort of thought that co-dependency = healthy relationship. Once she learned/felt secure enough in the fact that we would still spend time together, she relaxed and stopped being offended when I wanted to spend time on my hobbies.

Now it's to the point where unless Game of Thrones is on (or some other show we watch together) I just play EQ without even thinking about her. And likewise she just watches terrible terrible reality TV shows (with headphones, thank god) without worrying about me. So I think talking to your GF is an excellent idea, and hopefully it helps you two get to the kind of relationship my wife and I have.


P.S. And oh yeah, get a new job. I'm actually a programmer at a genetic screening software company, and we have several bio PhDs on staff. Of course they have doctorates, not undergraduate degrees, and a lot of them learned to program on the side, but the point is they're bio people working in a non-lab environment. It's a big world out there, and if you look I strongly suspect you have career options that don't involve crappy pay and excessive hours in a laboratory.

[Troxx]

Originally Posted by Mycota648 [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

I just dont think she realizes how much a hour or two to yourself can really help you have fun, destress, etc... She probably has never thought that I never get that. I will probably have a talk with her about this.

Ain't that the truth.

My wife is a stay at home mom now. I work long hours so that she doesn't have to work, and I know for a fact she doesn't really appreciate the above statement at times. Being a home-maker is a 24/7 job, but it's less intense at any given point in time and you have moments during the day to yourself (kids taking naps, oldest at kindergarten etc).

An hour to yourself (or more) on a regular basis is clutch.

[Sorn]

Originally Posted by Tenlaar [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

Yeah, no. If you can't play EQ for a few hours here and there during the week because your significant other doesn't like it (AKA doesn't allow it), your significant other sucks and is a bad person to be in a relationship with.

If you're in an abusive relationship where the partner is controlling every second of your time, isolating you from your friends, belittling you constantly so you don't think you can do anything, etc, then obviously you have bigger problems than getting more playtime on P99. (If you're in this situation, get help and get out!)

But that kind of goes without saying and it is definitely not the situation most people talk about around here. I just don't think telling someone to dump their partner just to play EQ is good advice. In fact, I would even go so far as to say this is terrible advice. EQ is fun, but it's not worth social isolation IRL.

Of course, the real advice is that work, relationships, and maintaining one's health takes precedence over P99 and if you have no time to play and no way to fix that, then don't play. That's reality. You can only derive extra free time in a tight schedule if you cut into sleeping time (as mentioned by other posters here). Given that lack of sleep is actually extremely dangerous and too many people are sleep-deprived while on the road already, I reeeeally don't think it's a good idea.

Just my 2cp. :P

Edit: I think loramin is right. Talk to your girlfriend, OP, and start looking for a better job! Doing nothing but working for low pay sucks, especially if you don't even like your job.

[Pinolian]

Troxx is right of course. I have wife, kids, a career, responsibilities..
I make time for my hobby by playing after the wife is settled in and ready to go to sleep around 10 pm. I lose sleep because I go to bed at 1 am and get up for work at 7.. instead of like a normal person going to bed at 11 or so and waking up at 7.

I also get up absurdly early on Saturdays and Sundays and play, while the wife and kids sleep in.
oh and I nerd out on my lunch hour at work, grabbing a slice of EQ in my company's break room on my laptop..

I make the time for my hobby.

After rereading this post, I might need help LOL

[Troxx]

Originally Posted by Ele [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

May want to check up on your state's labor laws before doing that. Some states only allow employers to confirm if the employee was actually employed there during the relevant time period. Additional comment could get you in hot water.

I'm aware [You must be logged in to view images. Log in or Register.]

In other states productivity, conduct, etc are all potential topics of conversation. If somone is paying you x number of $ an hour to do a job ... and you're accepting that hourly wage while playing video games in lieu of doing the job you're being paid to do ...

Gotta be careful ...

[sirelothar]

Pretty simple honestly. I have a 9 to 5 and when I get home I work out for an hour then log on and get 2-3 hours of play time a night. I don't have a family to worry about.

[Troy]

It is also sometimes "easier" to be unavailable for hours at a time if you actually leave the house rather than sit at your computer at home. When I was playing more I would occasionally just take my laptop to a coffee shop or something for a few hours and play that way with no interruptions. Drop by the grocery store on your way home and call her to see if she needs anything there or do some other errand that needs done.