No, this is not a thread about the sequel to perhaps the greatest buddy cop movies ever made. This is about the findings of a recent study which uncovers some of America's most extreme gamers and the hours they rack up to earn their way in the exclusive 4%. These gamers have been reported to average 7 hours of playing every day in any given week.

Here are their numbers: Komputer Welt

I program my home computer
Beam myself into the future

Musique rythmique
Son electronique
L'art politique
A l'age atomique

Electric Cafe

People spend most of their time on the PC anyway. 7 hours isn't far from what people spend just surfing the net or using the PC for other stuff. Still, for me it's extreme. I think I spent like a week in Dragon Age, and I felt exhausted after it, didn't want to play anything else until the release of Mass Effect 2 a couple of months later.

The first few months I had Vice City I think I played nearly that much. So much so I can finish the story missions plus Hidden Packages in around 6.5 hours without much trouble still. But I can't imagine myself shelling out that many hours every day now. I haven't put in that many hours since before I quit EQ.

Hah, there have been vacation periods I played that much. But never outside the vacations.

Just 7 to be extreme?

8 Hours of work, 8 hours of sleep and 8 hours of entertainment... Ain't that how we "should" split our day?

*Moves slowly away from GG...*

Haha. No life alert.

Lol

What I meant was that I don't find it extreme to spend 7 hours on a activity that one like. 48 hours per week can be put into ones schedule with full time work and 8 hour of sleep.

Extreme to me, is someone who stays home to play, and focus mainly on the gaming, that can easily result in +14 hours on a weekday.

Edit, I maybe should point out that I don't classify myself as a extreme gamer, by neither definition.

This post has been edited by Laurell: May 31 2010, 21:15

Hmm. I challenge you to play a full 8 hours a day on a work/school week. Then, after that, you come tell me that wasn't extreme.

Easily done if your schedule is accommodating. I have like one class per day.
That said, working and playing that much would be extreme, which is I think what the article is about (since we're talking about adult gamers).

I Don't care if it's in Russia. I'm going to do whatever you're doing

I think what Nico is getting at is that "extreme" gamers should more regularly use some of those 8-hour periods to be with other people. Not all gaming situations are solitary in nature. Sometimes these situations can involve other people physically being in the same room. The more of these kinds of gaming situations vs solitary gaming situations are more favorable socially. If gamers insist on racking up serious hours they can at least maintain some sort of social life by gaming with people in physical proximity to them. LAN vs online in other words.

I'm in Switzerland, dude. It's a pretty normal schedule for a Master's degree program (in fact some students from the US told me they had meetings once a week in some cases). Of course, you're supposed to study the rest of the time, and people somehow manage to do that. I don't know how and why they spend so much time reading stuff that I get through in a couple of hours.

Personally I dig LAN, JR. But it can only be done with PCs - and I mean good PCs, not just some laptops - together in the same room and/or apartment. It's much more difficult than just going online.

That said... I spent 85 hours on Dragon Age. One week is 168 hours. Hmm...

Oh right, I forgot where you were. Can't wait till I'm in my masters Sure, then you have to write papers and such instead, but I prefer that over regular classes.

That is quite a lot But as long as it's not every week...

More like once in a blue moon. Hell, no other games lasted me this long.

When I'm not playing Grand Theft Auto, Call of Duty or Neverwinter Nights I am easily amused. I'm playing the hell out of Cabela's Monster Buck Hunter for Wii for Pete's Sake. Between wholesale slaughter of water fowl an majestic beasts I'm alternating between Wii Sports and Wii Sport Resort Bowling. Interspersed between that are spurts of Call of Duty: Roads to Victory, Chinatown Wars and Space Invaders Extreme for PSP as well as CoD MW2 Mobilized for DS. I game. Yes I do. Seven hours a day? Hell no. Even when I get my copy of Modern Warfare Reflex for Wii I still don't think I'll get anywhere close to that.

It's different for me nowadays. It's like... an almost physical effort to start playing a game, unless it's something I was waiting for (and there aren't many of those).
This year: Mass Effect 2, Resonance of Fate and Red Dead Redemption. That's it, three games in half a year. Well, we also had a lot of fun with Dragunov over Hamachi, but that hardly counts in terms of time spent.

I've been having that too lately. There are hardly any new games that can hold my attention. This year, I've only played some Anno 1404 (short but violent addiction), bit of Forza 3 (in all perhaps 10hrs), the GTA 4 expansions (duh), and the occasional Trials HD (great little xbox live arcade game) or Guitar Hero Metallica sessions. These last two are typical hop-in-and-play-for-30-minutes games, a couple of years ago I would never have touched that.

Uhh we almost completed Vegas 2 in one sitting.

That felt like a couple of hours. Certainly not 8