The Mythical 40-Hour Gamer

Monday, Sep. 25 2006 | Author: Dave

Wired has a post up about gamers that are basically able to play until the end of those games that promise 40 hours of gaming fun.

The 40-hour gamers are able to play in a way that I used to when I was a teenager, but can’t anymore. They devote full evenings and entire weekends to marathon play-sessions. They get into the zone — that Csikszentmihalyian state of “flow” where all distractions drop away, and you focus with lizard-brain survival intensity on solving the puzzles, leveling up, methodically remounting and remounting dread fights against the bosses until you spy the chink in their armor.

And hell, anyone can lick a game in 40 hours easily if they play like that. What you need is to have very few distractions and commitments.

Oh, how I miss endless gaming fun. The article is very well written, and really speaks to me, as I continue to transition into adulthood, being forced to put away the things that used to entertain me for hours. Any other ex-40 hour gamers out there?

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3 Responses for "The Mythical 40-Hour Gamer"

Marc

September 25th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
1

You got me…. i still try and play as much as i can, but alas, the weekends, evenings and long summer days in front of the computer/TV are long gone, but now i can teach my children (they are 10, 8, and 2) to play all the new games, and it makes a good excuse to have all the newest game equipment ;-)
Onno

September 26th, 2006 at 3:27 am
2

Yep. The problem though is not that I don’t have the time to game non-stop, but that the games do not really support incidental players.

A lot of games are very complex, with multiple storylines and huge maps, so if I haven’t played for two weeks it really takes a lot of time to get back into it. Why not provide info on storylines and let people add notes to the map for example?
Elementalist

September 26th, 2006 at 4:18 am
3

It’s easy to maintain a 40-hour gaming lifestyle.
Don’t get married. Don’t have kids. Don’t be a slave to your career. Eat simply (and so don’t spend hours cooking).
The adult gamer is the modern zen monk. A simple life of comtemplation and meditation (over WWII warfare and hacking dragons).
By the way, I still go on bike rides and play in an orchestra and go to the pub and have a girlfriend ;^D