7 Ways To Manage Your Video Game Habit

July 26, 2007 in Tips, Video Games

I love video games and I think gaming is a great past time.  It’s fun,  it’s exciting, it trains your hand-eye coordination and reflexes, and some of the more epic and story-driven games can actually be very satisfying works of fiction.

That said, gaming can also become an all-consuming habit.  Video games can’t really be addicting, because addiction involves chemicals and such, but I think they can become a compulsion (as can anything) if you’re not careful.  And even if you don’t take gaming that far, they can still be quite time consuming.

Some people play games in their free time, and some people need to make free time to get away from their games.  Use these seven suggestions to make sure you don’t become the latter.

1. Set aside time for gaming.  The best way to manage your time is to designate certain times for certain things.  The same applies even to playing video games.  This may seem a little over the top for some people, but it would certainly be a start. Especially if your gaming is affecting other things in your life.

Even if you don’t want to set a certain time (every night at 7), it couldn’t hurt to give yourself a set amount of time (an hour or whatever you think is appropriate) and don’t let yourself go over. This way the other important things in your life (family, friends, eating) won’t suffer because you want to play “just a little longer.” This might be a bit more difficult to accomplish with games that don’t allow you to save on the fly, but just make sure to keep track of how much time you’re playing, and plan accordingly.

2. Game with others. If your wife/girlfriend/buddies/children feel neglected because of your gaming habit, try inviting them to join you. Every system has a couple of great multiplayer games. Sports games and First Person Shooters (FPS) are particularly good choices, but you might not want to play the latter with your children (if they’re quite young).

If you don’t mind shelling out a bit of cash, you might want to buy a Wii. Nintendo’s Wii was designed as the perfect party system. There are a multitude of titles out there that will have you swinging your arms around like a crazy person and enjoying a great time with your loved ones. You might even get a workout. Just make sure not to break anything.

3. Rent your games. I know, it’s fun to have a big library of games to show off, but it might not be very practical.  You may want to visit Blockbuster or try Gamefly. First of all, games are expensive, so if you’re constantly buying games it starts to take a toll on the old wallet. Second, all those cases can make your living room a mess. And third, sometimes you will buy a game and beat it in six hours, then never play it again. Are those six hours really worth the $60?

Now, renting could be a double edged sword, because you may become obsessed with beating the game before you have to return it, and (especially if its a long game) you may spend all your free time trying to complete it. Just be careful and don’t let this happen. Follow the rules I already set for you, and you’ll be all set.

4. Concentrate on one system.  I know, this contradicts with what I said earlier about buying a Wii, but that was an exception.  These days, there are so many choices out there.  Do you want a PS3, a Wii, an XBOX 360, a DS, a PSP?  It’s hard to choose what system to buy, or what games to buy, so you might just decide to buy them all.  Well, maybe not, because the prices are absurd lately.  But if you’re rich or don’t care about money, you could certainly buy a lot of stuff, especially games.

Stick to a certain system and you’ll be able to cut out a large portion of time consuming games right off the bat.

5. Finish one game at a time.  I have a friend who buys games that he wants to play, but never plays them because he has a backlog of like 20 other games that he hasn’t finished or even started yet.  And when he buys the game, it just adds to his backup.

Do not do this.  There’s no point.  It’s a waste of money, and it’s a waste of your valuable time.  You end up spending more time playing games because your time is spread out amongst a bunch of different ones.  This causes you to take longer to finish them, thins your concentration, and takes away from the enjoyment you get from each game.

6. Take a break and do something else.  This is pretty self explanatory.  Read, go outside, go to the movies, take a walk.  All the normal “stop being a nerd” cliches apply.

7. Do not ever play MMORPGs.  My experience with World of Warcraft is what inspired me to write this post.  Nothing good will ever come of a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG).  They are very fun, and they are tempting, but they will invariably take you away from your normal life.  This is due to the very nature of this type of game, they can never end.  If they ended, people would cancel their subscription, and companies would not make money.  It’s a vicious cycle.

They’re also a waste of money.  You spend $15 a week (give or take), and you don’t want to waste that money.  So you play the game whenever you have free time, on weekends and nights when you could be having fun with real life friends, and God forbid you join a raiding guild (it’s like a friggin job).  If you do play a MMORPG, do yourself a favor and cancel your subscription.

Sure, I’m a little bitter about WoW, but take my advice still the same.  As with anything, there are extremes, and MMORPGs are no exception.  EverCrack got its nickname for a reason.