Video Games ruining my productivity.

Bletzkarn

Please tell someone else has this problem. I've gone through periods in my life where I've completely quit video games. 18 months being the longest, with a combined 2.5 years of no video games over the last 5 years. During these times my productivity sky rockets but obviously I find life pretty hard and boring.

On the flip side when I'm playing video games I turn into a kid again and just find them so darn fun! However forget about doing any work. Right now I'm binge playing FortNite Battle Royale. While I found the art very inspiring, I can't stop playing.

I don't really know how to manage my play time other than just uninstalling and quitting entirely.

I think part of it is just accepting it. If I can't stop myself from gaming I allow myself to binge play it for a week or two until it gets boring. That sometimes work... Working full time helps as well, I'm more focused on my career. Taking Holidays right now, planned on going hard on a personal project. 4 days in still playing games. Not personal accountability. 

Part of me feels I deserve the break, other part of me knows I'm going to regret it.

/rant

Needed to vent and gather others thoughts.

JordanN

I was addicted to Smite around 2013-2014. The MOBA genre was still this hot new thing and I found myself playing more rounds than I should.

But I beat this addiction by ironically, playing games till I got sick of them. Especially because this was when PS4/XBO had launched and I had developed an interest in what those systems could do whereas Smite was running on the much older Unreal Engine 3. With all those next gen games being pushed back, I started playing around with new engines until I settled on making new art that followed the latest technology.

Bletzkarn

Yea that's pretty much plan. At some point you realise they're a waste of time. Rather than playing 2 hours in the afternoons I just play till a max the meta and rage quit.

pior

90*52

Bletzkarn

I wish that shit worked on me haha

Zack Maxwell

I have that problem. I find I can control myself a lot better if I focus on playing games that lend themselves more to brief, isolated sessions of play. Mostly competitive games, such as FPS' or MOBAs.

MMOs and RPGs are the bane of my existence.

NoRank

You're tottally not alone in this haha. It's sad to think that most of the time I spend playing rather than studying. My problem is that I always have someone to play with, so it is kinda tempting, if it was only me I wouldn't play because I normally don't even like the games I play '-'.

DallanP

Yea for RPG games I just have to binge them straight for a few days or a week. I'll just focus straight on story and nothing else. Then I'll start feeling guilty and go back to work once I finish it. Or with games like PUBG, I have a natural break in my day where I go from work to my personal projects. So I play a quick game as a nice refresher/break.

ArNavart

Yeah, for me, too, it's a serious issue, there's always this subconscious feeling of guilt, that I waste the precious time on the games. So often I find myself convincing my  own self as I would convince a kid, like hey, no one tells you not to play games, but first, open the project you're working on just for five minutes, no more, after that you can do whatever you want. I'll add that in my case, internet and music hit  the productivity, as well.

Allllllllright... I need to have a look at my project again....

sacboi

"Video Games ruining my productivity."

Go with the flow bro...when you feel the need...

But just garner a bit of self discipline that'll balance everything out.

Obscura

Poor guy...

Brian "Panda" Choi

I get hurt by games too.

ExcessiveZero

Bletzkarn said:

Yea that's pretty much plan. At some point you realise they're a waste of time. Rather than playing 2 hours in the afternoons I just play till a max the meta and rage quit.

yeah they largely are a waste of time towards your productivity, you can learn a few things if you actively study the right games (like modular design in something like skyrim) but largely its a leisure activity and what annoys me about game companies in interviews is the inevitable bad line of questioning "Have you played our games before?"

Most of the time No, No I haven't, because I like studying and making game art/games, not necessarily playing games, I can appreciate what you have done and if I knew nothing about your products I clearly haven't done my research, but is it a requirement that a chef has eaten at your restaurant to get a job?.

it is just a stupid line of questioning 

Prime8

Once you just want to play out of habit or feel that you have to play, even though you don't enjoy it, you most probably have an addiction issue. Same can happen with other things like sports or alcohol of course.

Playing games should always be fun and give you a good feeling, distract you from work and other troubles, just help you relax and refresh.
From my point of view if you consider it as waste of time you shouldn't do it.

Many years ago I started being addicted by MMORPGs and didn't feel good, felt as well that I waste my time, I just stopped playing that kind of games.
I drank way too much hard liqueur and that wasn't good for me either, I stopped drinking that stuff.  

Now I play games as well, but I have a good time, how can that be wasted time?
Though I only play single player games for several reasons, in multiplayer games I often had the feeling that the game dictates the time I have to play, single player I can start and stop any time I want.

I recommend to find a balance, you don't need to stop it completely, takes a bit of discipline though.
Sometimes I wonder why some people feel like they have to be "productive" 28hrs/day.

Burpee

pior said:

90*52

What do mean by that ? We have plenty of time to do everything or we don't have that much time and we should not waste it ?

pior

For what it's worth ... I personally don't really see the point of weekly limits, since they address the symptom rather than the cause. If one has a clear objective to accomplish (talking about mid to long term here, like achieving a well defined set of goals over a period of, say, 5 years) then a clear battle plan can be established.

That's not necessarily exclusive to playing games for hours end, if that's what one wants to do !

@Burpee :

Justo

I try nitpicking the ones I'm really dying to play, then make a schedule or something. I love it if one game can last me for a long time. I'm still playing friggin Divinity:OS1 with a friend, because we've told ourselves to only play it like 3-4 hours a week. After that comes XCOM2, which I think will probably last me a year at the very least.

Justin Meisse

Over the years I've recognized what my weaknesses are: base building/city building type sim games, I spent 14 hours on a Saturday playing sim city. My solution has been to simply avoid those games. I love them but I've realized I can't handle myself around them. Other games I'm able to limit my play time so they keep me entertained.

Bletzkarn

ExcessiveZero said:

Bletzkarn said:

Yea that's pretty much plan. At some point you realise they're a waste of time. Rather than playing 2 hours in the afternoons I just play till a max the meta and rage quit.

yeah they largely are a waste of time towards your productivity, you can learn a few things if you actively study the right games (like modular design in something like skyrim) but largely its a leisure activity and what annoys me about game companies in interviews is the inevitable bad line of questioning "Have you played our games before?"

Most of the time No, No I haven't, because I like studying and making game art/games, not necessarily playing games, I can appreciate what you have done and if I knew nothing about your products I clearly haven't done my research, but is it a requirement that a chef has eaten at your restaurant to get a job?.

it is just a stupid line of questioning 

I'm sure you wouldn't lose the job for not playing. Game companies should know how unproductive hardcore gamers can be haha. If someone is that passionate about game art and doesn't play any - that would be impressive.

Bletzkarn

pior said:

For what it's worth ... I personally don't really see the point of weekly limits, since they address the symptom rather than the cause. If one has a clear objective to accomplish (talking about mid to long term here, like achieving a well defined set of goals over a period of, say, 5 years) then a clear battle plan can be established.

That's not necessarily exclusive to playing games for hours end, if that's what one wants to do !

@Burpee :

That is an excellent point. When I'm confident in myself and my progress I don't play games. When I "give up hope" (mainly due to everyone on this forum being too damn good) I go into a gaming relapse. It happens less and less as skills improve.

garcellano

Yeah.. it gets to me too, depending on the game.

RustySpannerz

I find I only have this problem with Strategy games, RPGs, Online shooters, and sports games. So I mostly just play story games that I can finish in less than 20 hours. Play for a couple of days in my spare time, then play the next one I've been looking forward to a few weeks or months later. Honestly, my biggest problem is I have too big a backlog of games I want to play and I hardly ever finish playing a game before the next one comes out, so it helps to play shorter games. 

Prime8

RustySpannerz said:

...Honestly, my biggest problem is I have too big a backlog of games I want to play and I hardly ever finish playing a game before the next one comes out, so it helps to play shorter games. 

Yeah they pile up, but it has some positive effects too, you can play GOTY editions, get discounts, DLCs are already released, most bugs are fixed and you are more likely to meet the hardware requirements.
My current "new" game is Witcher 3.

teaandcigarettes

Personally I have the opposite problem, I'm prone to workaholism and I don't play enough. Being productive is one thing, but given how time consuming game art is, keeping your passion alive is very important. If playing games and making art is making you happy then try to find the right balance. 
But I don't really agree with the idea of video games being a waste of time or with playing them purely for learning gamedev techniques. 
I've sort of been there. I lost my passion for games for a while and it made me feel pretty miserable. When you make games, but lose your interest in them, you do begin to question if what you're doing has any purpose. 
Nowadays, I make it my goal to cultivate my inner child and remember why I got into making games in the first place. Nothing really makes me as inspired and motivated as finding a new title that blow me away.
There are some people who love making art in itself, so this doesn't really apply to them, but what got me into this industry was the love of games first and art second.

hackedarcadegames

Thank God. I am not the only one 

Completely addicted to btd5 unblocked as of now. Playing it since 5 hours and its totally affecting my target.

Bletzkarn

teaandcigarettes said:

Personally I have the opposite problem, I'm prone to workaholism and I don't play enough. Being productive is one thing, but given how time consuming game art is, keeping your passion alive is very important. If playing games and making art is making you happy then try to find the right balance. 
But I don't really agree with the idea of video games being a waste of time or with playing them purely for learning gamedev techniques. 
I've sort of been there. I lost my passion for games for a while and it made me feel pretty miserable. When you make games, but lose your interest in them, you do begin to question if what you're doing has any purpose. 
Nowadays, I make it my goal to cultivate my inner child and remember why I got into making games in the first place. Nothing really makes me as inspired and motivated as finding a new title that blow me away.
There are some people who love making art in itself, so this doesn't really apply to them, but what got me into this industry was the love of games first and art second.

Unfortunately I've used that "Checking out the game art" excuse before, but you don't need 200 hours, the best armor set and level 60 to check out the game art! That being said I've always been extremely interested in creating experience for players. The idea of making an asset floating in space is boring, but the idea of creating an environment is really fun.

aryarie

ExcessiveZero said:

Bletzkarn said:

Yea that's pretty much plan. At some point you realise they're a waste of time. Rather than playing 2 hours in the afternoons I just play till a max the meta and rage quit.

yeah they largely are a waste of time towards your productivity, you can learn a few things if you actively study the right games (like modular design in something like skyrim) but largely its a leisure activity and what annoys me about game companies in interviews is the inevitable bad line of questioning "Have you played our games before?"

Most of the time No, No I haven't, because I like studying and making game art/games, not necessarily playing games, I can appreciate what you have done and if I knew nothing about your products I clearly haven't done my research, but is it a requirement that a chef has eaten at your restaurant to get a job?.

it is just a stupid line of questioning 

Yeah this is something that I've been a little bit worried about as learning art whilst working full time leaves me with very little time to play games. :S I hope it's not going to be a problem.

I did have more of a problem with putting games aside for art at the beginning because there's a lot to learn and it's very overwhelming. Plus I had to change the habit that I had of coming home from work and playing games every evening. I found that as I've started to make progress that it's easier to work on art more and play games less. Unfortunately, all of my favourite games tend to be the most time consuming (RPGs, open world games...), although the plus side is that the games last me a lot longer now as I play through them much more slowly.

FourtyNights

For me it depends on a game. I can have a couple of days in a week with more playing than working (personal projects), and sometimes I go crazy, and I work non-stop a full week. But I still don't have an "addiction" to play games. I have enough self-discipline to stop in time.

Anyway, open world games are something I'll try to avoid in future (300+ hours in Fallout 4 and more to come, Horizon: Zero Dawn is closing in to 100 hours soon). In general I love visually beautiful and emotional story-driven single player games with inspiring characters, and they are shorter to play through. More time for working.

Lazy gaming days aka unproductive days make me feel miserable at the end of the day, so soon enough I'll usually fix my artistic needs with personal work nevertheless.

In contrast to "accidental" gaming days, I may plan to have one or two gaming days/evenings, but before that I make sure that I'll work hard and progress with my projects to earn that. ;D

ambelamba

I think many of us have similar/relatable problems. 

I do have a social media addiction and I just decided to cut off myself from Facebook altogether, at least for two weeks. I bet I would gain a lot and lose very little. And I decided not to spend my time on needless stuff on the web. I am really pushing myself to limit my web usage to informative, CG and art-related stuff.

And I guess I should delete 7TB worth of pr0n and see how long I can survive without any of them.

DeathstrokeFTW

I play games because it gives me ideas. Right now I can work on 3d because my life's problems have gotten worse and I use games as means of downtime. Technically borth 3d and games keep me sane.

Alchemical

I used to play A LOT of video games, even when I resolved to learn this shindig of work I still did for quite some time. The games I played varied from week to week, I loved story games or where I could make my own and one of those came out almost all the time.

When I became 20 y/o I wanted to lose weight, and the techniques I applied to that generally helped with me cutting video games too. I wrote down sort of a heaven & hell-paper for my life, like a pros and cons-list but with what I would get if I succeeded, what I would get if I failed and gradually made changes towards the heaven-part. I also made a schedule, not in the traditional-sense with deadlines. Just saying to myself before I went to sleep what was gonna happen tomorrow. It took time before this sunk in, but now Im more productive than I've ever been and the progress and plans I have, keeps working fresh and videogames relegated to an hour or two, or on weekends.

Sometimes I cheat and I don't see why you can't too, just make sure that when you do, you acknowledge it and plan ahead on when to catch up.

Ironically this new mindset of mine affected more my productivity than my weight, still an overweight slob haha.