What do non-gamers do with their time?  Nearly all my free time is spent gaming.  I can’t imagine being able to fill that much time otherwise.  Read?  Well, I love to but it seems like no one really does anymore.  Watch TV?  I always found it amusing that my family had no trouble with TV watching, but time spent in front of a computer was wasted.  I’m grateful I ended up with the interests I have.

I spend the majority of my days sitting in front of a computer or console playing games.  Gaming is my life.  I tend to get fidgety a few hours into a marathon, though.  My interest wanes and my eyes begin to glass over.  My inner monologue spools up and before long I realize I’ve stopped playing to argue with myself over the merits of mochi vs. pocky.

My solution lately has been to switch games.  Not to stop playing altogether, but to switch from one to another.  If it’s a different genre, I get bonus attention points.  In this way I have managed to juggle no less than six games at the same time.  I play Morrowind and Sims 2 during the morning, Prince of Persia in the afternoon, Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow during the evening when the other Frag Dolls and my friends are on, Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles later on with my roommate, and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories in bed to wind down.

I’m picking up Warcraft III tomorrow.  I’ve intended to get it since the day it came out, and now I’m counting how long it’s been and I can’t believe I let it go for so long.  To comfort myself, I’ll get the battle chest.  Then I’m in real scheduling trouble.  I’m not complaining.

When I stop to count the games and tally up the hours I really spend playing, it’s overwhelming.  It doesn’t seem like enough while I’m playing, because it’s a little here and a little there so I don’t overdose or get bored with one particular game.  I always want more.

I’m sure it’s a phase, or a prolonged mood.  I’ve had streaks before where I play a single game 16 hours every day until it’s finished (Final Fantasy X and The Longest Journey are excellent examples), and I’ve had streaks where I binge on a specific genre.  I wouldn’t mind this mood lasting a while.  I’m getting a lot of games played, or replayed in several cases, and I’m having a lot of fun adventuring on so many different genres and platforms.

Only two of the games I’ve been playing have been on PC, but now that I have a third, and will be getting a fourth, I think my new xfire installation is going to come in handy.  I’ll be interested to see how many hours I spend on my PC games.  I wish it could track my console hours too, but that would be kind of tricky.  It could prove dangerous, too.  I already like seeing my PC gaming hours count up.  If I knew they were my total gaming hours I might become so obsessed I’d forget to do important things.  Like sleep.  Or check to see whether the sun has come up at all this week.  At least this way I can comfort my mere double digits with the knowledge that they’re only a slice of the whole.

- Jinx

thought it was a good solution, hanging with the raisin girls