to those that are married, have girlfriends (real life), or have children...

[theorist]

i'm just curious... i'm 25, about to turn 26. i've had several relationships that all overlapped my hardcore gaming patterns.

this has gotten in the way for a a couple of these relationships... like seriously causing issues in regards to cuddling time, attention, and my overall life on pause since i did nothing else...

how did you guys cope with it... or have you guys at all?

[ChimpfaceMcgee]

Stay single. :lol: Im 25 as well :surprise:

[Khal'jur]

I tried not too play on weekends or weekend nights, which is hard, but it worked.

[Nirniath]

I like how you had to specify that the girlfriends had to be real in order to clear up any confusion. ^^

[hotlead]

28, Married with 5 kids here.

I travel a lot for work, so I try to only play when I'm on the road, or in brief spurts at home.

Otherwise it creates problems. And yes, it's hard.

[Link]

get a woman with an open mind like mine =D

actually, just find one who likes video games.. a lot

[crazylittleelf]

Guess I'm lucky. My husband and I both love games. We might not always be playing the same thing, but we understand that playing is important. :)

[Nirth]

Simply put - a real life girl is a million times better than any virtual fantasy.

Therefore, you shouldn't be ignoring your girlfriend to play games. Instead, you should wait until they show an interest in the games that you do play (and go out of your way to stop playing and pay attention to them) to introduce them to online gaming.

My gf has turned out to be a major gamer. She's awesome. One would never have guessed it at the outset of our relationship but over the past year she has taken to gaming like a fish to water.

In FPSers she's a sniper.

In RTSers she's a builder and then an "overwhelming rush" type.

In WoW she was (in the open beta test) and will be a rogue.

For Halo 2 she'll wake me up at 4am to play....

When we start in on WoW we'll be playing on side by side computers (sure, it sounds goofy but it is a lot of fun).

[Cursive]

I had a girlfriend a few back that was absolutely obsessed with the first Sims game. It's all she wanted to do when we hung out. I was not that impressed with the game, but she was so hot I let it go for about 2 months. Finally I suggested we do something else for a change and it worked for a bit. Obviously, this is the opposite case most have because I left her after about 7 months. :(

The next girlfriend I had right after that one didn't play any video games. So I was the culprit this time. She left me. :(

Through these two extremes and a few in the middle I have found that you cannot do without either.

Currently, I game while I'm at school since I can't see my girlfriend then. When I get breaks or during the summer, I go back home and hang out with her and keep gaming to an absolute minimum (ie 1 hour every 2 days at best). She likes to play consoles every now and then so that's really my 1 hour most of the time.

[Bearcub]

This is a tough one. Women get the most frustrated when they feel anything is more important than them. So the trick is to make them feel important. The second truth is if youre women feels like she is important to you they useally try to let you do things that you enjoy.

Now that you have let her know how important she is there is a couple matters of upkeep. If the woman is doing all the cooking cleaning putting the kids to bed at night while you sit and play, watch out, the women will blow up and rightly so. One needs to be proactive to get the best milage in the making them feel important part. So make special dinners, offer to help with dishes, put one of the kids to bed, Vacum the floor, but leave out the vacum so she knows you did it, do a load of laundry while playing will go a longs ways to keeping a family happy together. And lastly plan a night out for some loving time or you can kiss all the goodwill away. No woman likes playing second fiddle all the time to a game.

[CryHavok]

Find a woman who is really into computer games. Uhh-yeah thats not the easiest thing to do. Might be getting easier as more younger women play games but when you get into your 30's I don't see many of them around.

My wife likes some games and we occasionally play together but I'll have to wait until my son is older before we can do any serious gaming. The way I worked mine out is that some nights are together nights (like Friday and Saturday night. And some nights are game nights. Also she goes to bed around 10:00pm so I have 2 hours of gaming most nights before I go to bed.

Lastly use this on your lady friends (more for serious relationships and wives). At least she knows where you are, you are not cheating, boozing or hanging out all hours of the night with the guys blowing money in TT bars.

[Mark of Mayhem]

I come home from work at 3:30. I spend time with the whole family until bed time around 8:00. My wife goes to bed at 10:00. Some nights, A FEW NIGHTS, I will jump on at 8:00, the other nights I wait until 10:00 when she goes to bed. I sacrafice sleep to play, it works out for the best in the end... well, for me it does; everyone is different. :)

-]RK[Mayhem
http://red-knights.com

[Alla]

My husband and I both love gaming and we defnitely are understanding of each other's desire to play. It also helps that we play some games together - like WoW.

Although it's expensive we've decided to get two WoW accounts, since we both have our own gaming computers...that way we can play together at the same time. We're another couple that will be playing right alongside each other - literally! In fact when I'm in a group with him it's a lot easier to just say something like "watch out, creature headed your way" than to type it out!

It's great that we can share this...but if I was a gamer and my husband wasn't, there would be no contest as to which would get my time - real life and real love comes before computer entertainment anyday.

[Zi_the_Great]

Well technicaly... my cable modem is a lot like a women... it will be going fine... then BAM stop working and refuse to work for many hours... untill finaly desiding to work again... then out of no where it will stop working again...
Its like a bad relationship... your hurting me, i love you, your hurting me, I love you... hell she even has my credit card #... it is like a wife... ackK!!!!

[RavenFirecaster]

My wife and I are both gaming addicts. We started with Diablo II, moved to Dungeon Siege, came back to Diablo, and are now hooked on WoW to stay.

If you're looking for a serious relationship, then you should be looking for someone who shares your interests. Find someone who shares your love for gaming, or don't bother getting into a relationship with that person because you'll always be in a state of conflict over it.

[El3ssar]

27 here living with my gf.
Hard to overcome i had a lot of probs in the begining. Best solution ever is :.................

PUT HER PLAYING TOO :D

For WoW show her a gnome in a toxido lol that will do the trick ;)

[frauenhund]

26 and married w/2 kids....I had alot of relationships with ladies who were not into the gaming thing and at one point I said I would either have to find a hot chick into gaming(allmost non existing) or someone who loves you enough to let you do the things that you love without whining and complaining about it all the time. The catch is that you have to give some time up for them also. But just be ready not to sleep because that is the key gaming time, when they are sleeping.

[rpgrogue]

I'm 23 and married. My wife is not a game, though she does do some Yahoo! online games (card games, word games). We both work at the same time so we relax together with dinner and watch tv or a movie or whatever... but we also both have our own play time on our own computers and neither of us really minds.

If I *really* want to do some power gaming or something like that, I wait until she's in bed (she goes to sleep about 2-3 hours earlier than me... or maybe I just stay up too late). Also when she's out shopping on the weekends it's a good time for me to game.

In general though, spending time with her is more important than anything I could think of happening to me in a game, period. The game is not your life, and you shouldn't pretend that it is.

[Swayde]

My husband and I will be playing WoW side by side as well. I am 27 (although will be 28 in 2 short weeks) and my husband is 40.

We have been a couple for 7 years. Married for 2 1/2.

We met each other online about 8 1/2 years ago while playing the same MUD. A year later we got together IRL and have been together since. After MUD's we played Starcraft together, which was really fun until that tragic day when I actually kicked his butt with my Terrans *flex* Then we started playing Everquest. After 5 years we dabbled in Earth and Beyond and Anarchy Online as well as many beta games and some non-MMORPG games likes Diablo 2 and Neverwinter Nights.

We both love to play games. Mostly we have the same tastes, but there are games he likes that I hate and there are games I really love that he hates. So we allow each other alone time to play our own games, but mostly we play together. Now that my son is 9 he even plays some games with us too.

We all have our own computers and I think it would be grounds for divorce if we had to share 1 account hehe.

[rhwbullhead]

I'm 27 and have a live in girlfriend. I already warned her that I'll be playing this game nonstop. She doesn't sound too happy about it. She acts like she'll put up with it, but I know she'll get pissed if I sit here all day.

[BaddDogg]

38 here former D2 addict and soon to be wow addict. Make sure you don't ignore youre household dutys. Remind her that when you're sittin at the computer you're not at the bars, not gambling, or spending thousands of dollars on other hobbies that men tend to have. Friday and saturday nights are hers take her out have some fun and when its over you can play after she's in bed. When she trys to talk to you, talk, women need verbal attention and if you spend a half hour discussing the day it will by you a couple hours at the computer.

[instar]

I am 23 and married - my husband and I will both be playing WoW, in the same room =)

Overall, I am a much bigger gamer than he is, although he did recently build an arcade machine (MAME)!

I swore years ago when I met him that I would never play an MMORPG, because I knew that it would be at the detriment to our relationship. I tend to go way overboard when gaming - it's really hard to quit ("just ONE more level.. one more baal run, might finally get that item I've been wanting.. one more try, I'll get past those guards this time.."). We will be playing WoW together, so I will dodge that bullet to some extent, but if he ever loses interest I will be quitting also - no matter how much I enjoy WoW, our relationship is more important =)

[Ulkieab]

I had to dump my boyfriend cause he took up too much of time and I had no time for gaming. :)

[PieDragon]

I'm 24 and hate all so-called intelligent life. I'm also ugly and quiet. Facilitates gameplay time!

[ImpLin]

Well, The only problem with my most recent relationship was getting her off my laptop so I could play a game :\

[myndreach]

My wife plays MMOs with me, so once the little one is asleep we usually will log on together.

[Dravym]

Meh, I've been married for 7 years, have a 6 year old daughter. Having kids rocks, but the spouse part? Overrated, IMO. They're often more work than the kids are.

Everyone's experience is different though.

[instar]

Well, The only problem with my most recent relationship was getting her off my laptop so I could play a game :\

Best.Quote.Ever.
I'm hoping you mean getting her off your laptop COMPUTER... otherwise, where is the problem? *evil grin*

[Ujio]

Well technicaly... my cable modem is a lot like a women... it will be going fine... then BAM stop working and refuse to work for many hours... untill finaly desiding to work again... then out of no where it will stop working again...
Its like a bad relationship... your hurting me, i love you, your hurting me, I love you... hell she even has my credit card #... it is like a wife... ackK!!!!


Lol
Zi_ you need serious help man.
Just close your eyez, take a deep breath, sit back in your chair, and relax.
Get an alcoholic beverage if you think it might help............
............just don't do anything silly ok. Help is as close as the telephone.


Ujio.

[Ruarc Lionheart]

Heh...21 here and single. At least now anyway. My last g/f knew full well the extent of my gaming when we started dating, so she was cool with it for the most part. If I ever spent too much time on the PC tho, she'd just let me know and then I'd get off and go see her or something. No worries. :D

I guess I was lucky though, I'm sure not everyone is that understanding.

[Raevan]

I'm 20 and in college. Also in my first serious relationship ever. We've been together for almost a year and a half. Our first big fight was about video games, when I wanted to LAN Halo with some friends and she felt left out. We got through it by patience. I let her play Halo. She couldn't master the controls though, so I moved to something simpler and found the answer in Ricochet which is a bouncy ball game that is REALLY fun and addicting. now she loves that and understands where I come from more. I've told her WoW will consume some of my time, but she comes WAY before WoW time. realisticly, you can't play as much with a GF as you could if you were single. But it's way worth it. And if you find soemone that REALLY loves you they'll understand where you're coming from.

[modctek]

My wife loved playing Diablo 2 and Quake 2, but now she refuses to make time for playing games, especially ones that can suck away all your time like your typical MMOG will. We almost got divorced over the amount of time I spent in EQ. It wasn't that it was EQ particularly, but that I made poor choices when it came to her versus games.

If you want to be a serious, hard-core gamer, you have two choices: be in a relationship with another hard-core gamer, or stay single. Non-gamers, and former gamers will NOT understand your need to play games, so you will have to decide which is more important.

For me, my wife is more important than any stupid video game, so I adjust my schedule according to the needs of our relationship. I play late at night, after she's gone to bed (hard on the love life, but after many years of marriage, you'll be disappointed/relieved to know that it isn't sex every night forever), and whenever she goes off to do her own thing.

If your spouse/significant other doesn't game, it is EXTREMELY helpful if they have some other hobby, ie. shopping, gardening, playing cards etc. Encourage that hobby so that it takes on a similar level of time committment that your own gaming time takes, and you will have gained yourself a nice chunk of time to play, guilt-free.

[myndreach]

Meh, I've been married for 7 years, have a 6 year old daughter. Having kids rocks, but the spouse part? Overrated, IMO. They're often more work than the kids are.

Sorry you feel that way :(

Everyone's experience is different though.

Yes it is. I guess I'm fortunate to have found the woman of my dreams in high school :clap: We've been together over a decade...married 6 and dated 4 years before that. Our six year anniversary was sept of this year.

[Smite]

21 and not living with my gf yet.. but we will be moving into a new condo a year from now.

So far my best startegy has been to play mostly when she's not here and when she is here, only play when i know she has something else to keep her busy (watching boring girly TV, out shopping, etc) and i make sure to compensate for my game time by spending a greater amount of time with her :) So far this has worked... although when we move in my plans could go to hell.

I think the main thing is that you gota make sure that your gf understand that game time is like shopping time for them (or whatever they happen to enjoy doing alot). We should all be able to play since we enjoy it (for those who play obsessively you must force yourself to no go overboard or else forget having a gf) and if the girl isn't understanding at all, forget her! :D

[theorist]

you'll be disappointed/relieved to know that it isn't sex every night forever)


say it ain't so!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[DrunkenDwarf]

Im 17 and am currently single. Ive found that in my case, GF's arnt that important. Highschool is all about jsut having fun and spending your time doing what you like. A relationship be it a girlfriend or boyfriend, will always take time away from games, but other than that, stuff like school, work, and your other friends will always suffer.

Highschool relationships are always overrated, I've dated 3 girls since freshman year, but its never come close to being a serious, serious relationship, and ive always found myself cutting time with them short for games (BF1942 comes to mind) If i have the choice its definatly to side with gaming,(WoW in general) school, work, and my guy friends. there will be plenty of time later for romance, but it should never get in the way of your daily life, and i guess the smae could be siad about gaming.

If its between a WoW and a girl whom i like but definatly dont "Love" and will probably never talk to after i leave for college, im gonna side with WoW everytime. Too much info, but hey i needed to vent :rant:

[milkyfresh]

I am 22.....my girlfriend is well aware of my gaming habits. She is not a hardcore gamer (but frequently plays MSN games). I am trying to convince her to play WoW...the play mechanics should not take too long to get a hold of and the game is damn fun.

It is one of my dreams that we'll eventually play together. I just find that so cool. Maybe she'll finally understand what all the fuss is about!

However, the problem with my GF is that she easily gives up...he has low tolerance for any sort of learning curve. I tried to get her into Warcraft III...and she went through some of the tutorial. But the curve was still too steep for her.

You guys think WoW would be better for her? I think so..it is not as frantic and nerve racking as Warcraft III imo. WoW moves at a more leisurely pace..u can just walk around and look at crap...

[blindcside]

my gf used to always complain i loved games more than her. she doesn't any more. i just spend all the time i can with her. i think i miss out on sleep for the most part while playing wow. between her work/school i don't have much time for it.

[Hopfrog]

Simply put - a real life girl is a million times better than any virtual fantasy.

Therefore, you shouldn't be ignoring your girlfriend to play games. Instead, you should wait until they show an interest in the games that you do play (and go out of your way to stop playing and pay attention to them) to introduce them to online gaming.

My gf has turned out to be a major gamer. She's awesome. One would never have guessed it at the outset of our relationship but over the past year she has taken to gaming like a fish to water.

When we start in on WoW we'll be playing on side by side computers (sure, it sounds goofy but it is a lot of fun).
I got my girlfriend into Diablo........ a long time ago. We tried the side by side comp thing, but its too noisy for us so now Im set up in the side room. Wecan talk that way, w/o all the distraction. But yeah , shes taken to it very well, we've been waiting for WoW for 2+ years now........ < 24 Hrs. left !!! :winner:

[Jarlo]

Been married almost 11 years and I cannot get my poor wife to play at all! Of course she can't get me to scrapbook or sew so I guess we are even. She is really good about not getting pissy about my playing unless I really put off household duties or let her go without sex for a few nights. Just like others have already said-- do some extra work around the house, bring home flowers before a new game comes out, work on that wife faction, and have nights where you don't play AT ALL and devote attention to her. I often play late into the night when she is asleep. Oh I also use the "I'm not gone hunting, playing golf, barring, etc" and it works.

Luckily my daughter is now 10 and loves WoW so I can use the excuse of playing with her to play earlier in the day 8)

[theorist]

Been married almost 11 years and I cannot get my poor wife to play at all! Of course she can't get me to scrapbook or sew so I guess we are even. She is really good about not getting pissy about my playing unless I really put off household duties or let her go without sex for a few nights. Just like others have already said-- do some extra work around the house, bring home flowers before a new game comes out, work on that wife faction, and have nights where you don't play AT ALL and devote attention to her. I often play late into the night when she is asleep. Oh I also use the "I'm not gone hunting, playing golf, barring, etc" and it works.

Luckily my daughter is now 10 and loves WoW so I can use the excuse of playing with her to play earlier in the day 8)


lol. look what you started. now i bet we'll see all these players having kids to use them as an excuse to play WoW:P

hehe.

[theorist]

I am 22.....my girlfriend is well aware of my gaming habits. She is not a hardcore gamer (but frequently plays MSN games). I am trying to convince her to play WoW...the play mechanics should not take too long to get a hold of and the game is damn fun.

It is one of my dreams that we'll eventually play together. I just find that so cool. Maybe she'll finally understand what all the fuss is about!

However, the problem with my GF is that she easily gives up...he has low tolerance for any sort of learning curve. I tried to get her into Warcraft III...and she went through some of the tutorial. But the curve was still too steep for her.

You guys think WoW would be better for her? I think so..it is not as frantic and nerve racking as Warcraft III imo. WoW moves at a more leisurely pace..u can just walk around and look at crap...

wow. i had a girl with that exact same problem! the games did pique her interest though she just couldn't really get passed the learning curve and she'd just give up on it entirely.

[Pietoro]

Married, and we both love the game. What we do is allow a decent #of hours for each other to play, and even it out with other activities. Its all about balance, and being concientious about it.

[Rider]

as they said in my EQ guild..

only excuse for missing a raid is to get laid.

relationship first, then game away. if you can find someone that games, its really great. my friend from EQ is engaged and they both raided together. worked out pretty well.

[msde]

I wasn't even going to play WoW until I couldn't hold a conversation with my fiancee due to OB :P Then I got to play her paladin for a couple of hours over the weekend and I decided that I'd play another MMO.

[Shuklar]

Men over 40 die more often from loneliness than from second hand smoke -- keep the girlfriend

[Lorrigan]

I'm 23, have a girlfriend (of two years) but we have separate homes, so when I am at mine, I can play what I want and since for the moment I am "self-employed" (read: hunting for lit. agent), I have lots of free time while she's at work. I don't play games around her unless she is playing something too, like Spider Solitaire or Snood or one of those games she likes. Aside from them, she doesn't do the whole comupter game thing.

You see, she's a normal girl. ;)

Aah, she just doesn't like computer games that much, though if she watches me enough, who knows? She likes to read a variety of genres, including fantasy.

[PieDragon]

Number of deaths for leading causes of death

Heart Disease: 696,947

Okay, all us sitting at the computer are gonna have to watch out for this one!

Cancer: 557,271

Ah you can get skin cancer from going out to buy your girlfriend flowers, darn you evil sunlight!

Stroke: 162,672

And we all know a leading cause of strokes is having your girlfriend tell you she is leaving you/seeing someone else/interested in you meeting her parents/interested in playing video games/wants to get married.

Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 124,816

This is from when you get pneumonia, sitting out in line waiting to get tickets for something your girlfriend really wants to see...

Accidents (unintentional injuries): 106,742

Driving to get your girlfriend flowers when you have pneumonia, skin cancer, and are suffering from a stroke isn't easy, now is it???

Diabetes: 73,249

Being a sugar daddy isn't cake...

Influenza: 65,681

See where that pneumonia got you?

Alzheimer's disease: 58,866

You forgot your anniversary? You're dead...




CLEARLY, having a girlfriend is far more dangerous than World of Warcraft.

[Cursive]

Holy god! LOL! My gf is as good as gone now!

[alaxias]

Well when I started dating her I made VERY clear that I'm addicted to video games. I don't live with her (I'm 23) so it makes things easier but still, sometimes I have to remind her I need my video games time :clap:

[Tremblay]

While I can only talk about my situation, my girlfriend got into MMO games with Lineage 2 Open Beta, then I got her in City of Heroes, and now WoW. I think she liked CoH the best because she can make a character that looks like she wants, and change the costume and stuff. I guess it's like playing with dolls (to a certain extent), except that you kick butt.

Basically she told me that if her character is ugly, she will find the game (CoH or WoW) boring. :D

So, tell her she can be a Night Elf hunter with a pet! Girls like pets! ( I like pets too!)

[Drakul]

ok so i am currently single so no problem there.
i usually go into a vicious circle
1- i don't have a gf so i have time to play but i want one
2-since i want one i go out more and play less
3-i get one so i go out less and suddenly want to play more
4-but i love her so i play less
5- i get tired of not being able to play i end it
6- i have time to play i need a girl.........

sucks doesn't it?
i have yet to find a cute and smart girl who likes to play

so any WoW fan girl from paris please do contact me :)

[Fangly]

hmmm.... make love with gf or wow.. make love with gf or wow.. its one of those little dilemmas in life.

[StygianApothegm]

well i got it easy, no girls like me so i don't have to worry about that at all!

still it would be nice to have one. oh well.

[GAK]

I'll be 40 in a couple of months, I'm married with a 16 year old (emo girl) & a 2 year old son. I work a rotating shift, so I have to play when ever the opportunity presents itself. I also have a track car that is in pieces in my garage & eats a lot of time.

My wife is pretty tolerant, but does require interaction. My 16 year old is constantly whinning about not getting enough time for her blog, & my 2 year old will completely destroy the house if I don't watch him like a hawk. When my wife gets home from work I turn him over to her, tell the teenager to go look for a job & can usually get 3 or 4 hours of gaming in.

I had never used a PC until 2 years ago, then got hook on PC gaming with WC III & MOHAA, WoW will be my first step into MMORPG, but my wife will let me know if I'm getting unbalanced. A buddy at work tried to get me into EQ, but I resisted, he calls it cyber crack, got my first hit with the OB & now I'm hooked.

[Bofus]

46, married, two kids. Fortunately my wife has to go to bed early since her job involves getting up at 5am every morning.
Several people have hit the nail on the head: I primarily game after hours (but, again, after hours for me starts reasonably early). I pull my weight around the house. Generally there's little friction. But that wasn't always the case (periods of DII were, uh, less than optimal). Balancing RL with gaming is a challenge that we all have to learn on our own.

This group should form a guild...

[Pogo]

I'm 24 and hate all so-called intelligent life. I'm also ugly and quiet. Facilitates gameplay time!

Living the dream...

but hating everyone and being ugly and quiet still doesn't get you off the hook. There's a lot of women that don't care, or are exactly the same way. Out there, looking for some PieDragon action.

[Dyntheos]

I'll add my voice to the late night crowd.

32 Married with 3 kids, 6 year old 13 month old and a 1 month old. I still get up 4am to do feeds, and am usually up late to do feeds for the baby at 1am.

I do all the cooking and shopping, and help with dishes, laundry and kids in the morning. My wife goes to bed early usually before 8:30 so my game time is from 8:30 till late usually around 1am.

The idea is to put as much effort into your wife and family as you put into the game, make sure game time is on your time and doesn't encroach on your family time and you'll be fine.

Youmay lack a little sleep, but hey that's the sacrifice you have to make for something you enjoy doing.

[Pogo]

I'll be 40 in a couple of months, I'm married with a 16 year old (emo girl) & a 2 year old son. I work a rotating shift, so I have to play when ever the opportunity presents itself. I also have a track car that is in pieces in my garage & eats a lot of time.

My wife is pretty tolerant, but does require interaction. My 16 year old is constantly whinning about not getting enough time for her blog, & my 2 year old will completely destroy the house if I don't watch him like a hawk. When my wife gets home from work I turn him over to her, tell the teenager to go look for a job & can usually get 3 or 4 hours of gaming in.

I had never used a PC until 2 years ago, then got hook on PC gaming with WC III & MOHAA, WoW will be my first step into MMORPG, but my wife will let me know if I'm getting unbalanced. A buddy at work tried to get me into EQ, but I resisted, he calls it cyber crack, got my first hit with the OB & now I'm hooked.

lol you're like a giant telescope into my future. irt daughter blog, personally I'd go buy a low cost, or even used system that's internet-worthy to shake the heat... probably be $300 well spent.

[Lewisham]

I'm 20 and in my first real relationship. I've had to learn how to work games around college or school work for most of my life, but now I have to work them around her as well. The way to do this I've found is to either find continuous chunks of time (say she goes shopping with a friend), or limit yourself to an hour a night. At least for me. I've found she can quite handle me having 'me' time for an hour, as long I spend the rest with her. I have to keep remembering she loves me in spite of games :) We all grow up and accept the responsibilities and dependencies that are created because of it. I can't play games 4 hours a day like I could do just 4 years ago.

Basically the thing is this: Would you rather spend time with her than you would on the game? I'm not talking about thinking "Man, I could really do with a game of Halo right now" when you're with her, I mean do you find yourself wishing she doesn't call or come home so you can continue on your 8 hour session? Everyone is entitled to hobbies and time alone, but not at the expense of the responsibilities you have. If it's the case, it's decision making time: her or the game. If you really love/need her, you won't have to make the decision. She always comes first.

Games will always be waiting for me. She may not, and I fully intend to spend as much time with her as I can. There is plenty of the rest of my life to play games whilst I'm lonely. Or :drink: my arse off anyway :)

(Playing games whilst she sleeps is also a fantastic way of doing it too.)

Chris

[Llorac]

Yeah, I am MSDE's guilty fiancee. However; I blame my little brother. My little brother signed up for Open Beta and got an account. He told me to try it... a day or so later I took over his account. :P My fiance didn't have any plans to play until he tried my paladin a little. He figured that will be a good way to spend time with me on weekdays since we only see each other on weekends.

I doubt I will have alot of playtime on weekends because he likes to go out on weekends. :) We went through DAOC Albion, Midgard, Diablo II, Final Fantasy Online together. Our next game will be WoW.

It's pretty difficult to find a gal who likes gaming. The best most guys can do is to remember, REAL LIFE > GAMES. Treat the woman like she's the most important factor, she will in turn try to like what you like if she thinks the right way.

[a_pax]

i have an ex...so i "deprest"...not realy, but more game time for me...once i get a gf i will get her into wow...then we can play togther

[StygianApothegm]

Yeah, I am MSDE's guilty fiancee. However; I blame my little brother. My little brother signed up for Open Beta and got an account. He told me to try it... a day or so later I took over his account. :P My fiance didn't have any plans to play until he tried my paladin a little. He figured that will be a good way to spend time with me on weekdays since we only see each other on weekends.

I doubt I will have alot of playtime on weekends because he likes to go out on weekends. :) We went through DAOC Albion, Midgard, Diablo II, Final Fantasy Online together. Our next game will be WoW.

It's pretty difficult to find a gal who likes gaming. The best most guys can do is to remember, REAL LIFE > GAMES. Treat the woman like she's the most important factor, she will in turn try to like what you like if she thinks the right way.

games > real life

[Pietoro]

Amazing how easily you can tell the general age-range of people based on the depth of their value system. Or else some people here are -seriously- stunted.

[PieDragon]

Amazing how easily you can tell the general age-range of people based on the depth of their value system. Or else some people here are -seriously- stunted.

Or c) message board posts are a stupid facile way to examine someone's personality? hmmm.

[Squi]

I am married with 2 kids. I have over the years let my wife understand that gaming always has and always will be a part of my life. I make sure to take care of my responsibilities (take care of the kids,go to work, take out the trash, mow the lawn, etc.) and also spend time with her at night to watch her shows. I then find a a couple of hours of "me time" to play my games. I stay up till 2 in the morning to do it sometimes, but I am used to it. It's definatly not easy to balance out but it works. She has become more and more understanding over time and has accepted it.

[Toasteryy]

This has been a great thread to read so far. I'm married and over 30, and my wife's right next to me now doing her IM'ing to her friends. I've been telling her the funnier posts on this thread, and we've both been laughing hysterically. I agree with most of the folks so far. Keep your attention on your relationship, and everything will be smoother sailing in the end.

One thing to recommend to you single folk is if you can't find a gamer to date, find someone who has some time consuming interested that you are not interested in. For example, my wife loves reading. When the Da Vince Code book came out, she was out of it for a couple of days straight! Of course, I wasn't so happy when I had to stop playing the OB and make dinner otherwise both of would starve to death. So point is if you find someone who has their own interests that don't necessary need to involve you, you'll be able to sneak in your gaming time.

Once last thing, we went out today shopping, and she bought a really nice BCBG blouse. Now she's very happy. So tonight I'm dragging her to Fry's in Fountain Valley, CA so I'll have another raffle ticket for that extra shot at that Alienware Area-51 machine! :thumbsup:

[The.Jolly.Roger]

I'm married with one child. I think it takes moderation in whatever you do. My wife and I watch a show together here and there, and I always set aside at least an hour a night with my son to read, play with toys, etc. We take turns giving him a bath, as well as putting him to bed..(which can sometimes be a difficult task)
One thing my wife and I do that is very important, is that we share responsibilities...literally. We wash clothes together, we fold clothes together, we make the bed together, we clean the ceiling fans together, we wash the cars together, we go grocery shopping together, etc etc. Through these things we get to talk quite a bit about random things in our lives or whatever.

But I say, after 10pm, I'm on the computer. I usually stay up until 12:30-1, so 2-3 hours a night is good enough for me. The rest of time goes to work, wife, child, and house...and sometimes beer, but not very often these days.

I don't know, we just love each other and respect each other's interests. Even though she is a big leftist radical Liberal and I'm a extremist radical right-wing conservative, we still get along great!! I mean, if she can call me a Fascist, then I can turn around and call her a Communist.....and we can look at each other and laugh, then it's all good. Love is a strannggee thing, but a very good thing.

[redeemer]

30, single. the main problem is that which girl is preferable for which game i think. ive met some girls who made me ever forget i've got a pc. some others encourge me to play solitare. (unfortunately WoW has a high lvl girl requirement). no, im not an antisocial animal, the most basic explanation is generally right explanation.
if u're married, u have already made ur choice. but if u're single. stay single, stay single, stay single...

[bbr]

We simply play the games together :)

[myndreach]

I'll add my voice to the late night crowd.

32 Married with 3 kids, 6 year old 13 month old and a 1 month old. I still get up 4am to do feeds, and am usually up late to do feeds for the baby at 1am.

I do all the cooking and shopping, and help with dishes, laundry and kids in the morning. My wife goes to bed early usually before 8:30 so my game time is from 8:30 till late usually around 1am.

The idea is to put as much effort into your wife and family as you put into the game, make sure game time is on your time and doesn't encroach on your family time and you'll be fine.

Youmay lack a little sleep, but hey that's the sacrifice you have to make for something you enjoy doing.

Great post. I agree wholeheartedly. Being the father of a 17 mo old hordling, and married, I understadn what you are saying. I'm just happy that my wife is interested in gaming also. We usually put our son to bed around 7pm, and then have from 7pm until 10 or 11pm to play. :thumbsup: We don't have WoW yet, and are bored of CoH, so we find "other" things to do lol.. :flip:

[bobda]

This is my first post for www.worldofwar.net and couldn't think of a better topic to start on.

... But that wasn't always the case (periods of DII were, uh, less than optimal).

It is fair to say that this was also true for me but is probably an understatement (I was addicted: eating, breathing and sleeping DII).
Only after getting every elite set, having accounts full of elite items and level 99 characters I got bored with it.

I haven't been interested in a single computer game since I stopped playing DII but now I am faced with the prospect of another excellent Blizzard game, I can hope for moderation, this time I will be different, I will not get addicted, I promise.

Maybe I need to start a group called BAA (Blizzard Addicts Anonomous)

Good Luck

[Saragos]

Wow. It's interesting to hear the large variety of people that play this game. I figured it would be filled largely with young 20s nerdy computer guys that live with their parents and do nothing but eat and play video games. Come to find out, people with real lives game too! :)
I'm 27 years old, married with 3 girls. There's nothing in the world more important to me than my family, but truth be told, sometimes I have to remind myself of that. I've been a hardcore gamer for most of my life, and a few years ago, it almost ruined my marriage. Fortunately for me, my wife is a very forgiving person, and now my gaming habits are much more reasonable. Like the rest of you married guys, I play usually late at night, which works out well, because I don't even get home from work until 1 in the morning, so I don't even feel guilty about not going to bed with my wife since she's usually already asleep by then. ;) The other thing I've found to ease the tension is to get my wife involved in the games. She's totally hooked on the Sims 2, and I got her playing WOW during the Beta. I might even get an account for her.
Ah, I can hear by the spinning of the cd that WOW is almost finished installing. See you in the game!

[ZaxGreia]

Have to post here, since I started a very similar thread yesterday (for me). I got my wife into games (again) not long before we were married. She was into SuperNES as a kid, but got out of it because she felt she was wasting time. I got her back into it with Starcraft (because she wanted to beat me - she did, and always does now...), and she played through all the SC/BW campaigns along with WCIII. We didn't get FT because we didn't like the gameplay enough in WCIII to keep it up. We both had characters in the Open Beta, and decided that there were more reasons not to play than to get into it together. Maybe in a few months, but probably not - with grad school coming up next fall (Conservation Biology), my 1.5-year-old-girl to keep up with, a regular teaching job, etc, there's just too much to do. Like I basically said in the other thread, I'll be a proxy WoW enthusiast - loved the game, but can't afford the extra time (didn't say it there - my focus was more on dry humor than all the issues... time:expense ratio just stays too low for two accounts, two copies of the game, and another machine to run it on).

Love the topic - close to home ;)

[Changer_of_ways]

Been with the GF for 3.5 years now and all my time is stretched to the max

Monday work from 8.00 – 4.30 home at 5.00 game till 7.30 see GF till 11/12 play another hour or so

Tuesday work from 8.00 – 4.30 home at 5.00 game till 6.00 play squash come home play comp till 12 (gf day off)

Wednesday work from 8.00 – 4.30 home at 5.00 game till 7.30 see GF till 11/12 play another hour or so

Thursday work from 8.00 – 4.30 home at 5.00 game till 7.30 see GF till 11/12 play another hour or so

Friday work from 8.00 – 4.30 home at 5.00 game till 6.00 get ready go out down town get totalled come home play games (not always good lol )

Saturday up at 8.00 game till fingers or eyes bleed as Gf working, plkay football (English football, soccer) see Gf at 5.00 and see her all night as she stops

Sunday see gf all day till see goes home and then back on comp till 12 and repeat

And look at forums all day at work

Works for me anyway, cant get much extra in there, but I guess 6 hours sleep and but cut down so always room to add extra hehehe

Changer

[myndreach]

This is my first post for www.worldofwar.net and couldn't think of a better topic to start on.


Welcome to the boards, have a :drink: on me!

[ZaxGreia]

Welcome to the boards, have a on me!

But wait until after hours so your wife doesn't know you're gaming AND drinking ;)

[neverborn]

Well, I surely want to keep my girlfriend. But I'll be damned if World of Warcraft isn't going to be my life for a while...

She's coming over later tonight...hopefully not for very long, because it's ****in release day :P

[Macu]

one word ! sleeping pills

Married for oh so many years

[Kosmo]

huh, I'm 29 and I'm married, I have a very possesive wife and a long hours job. I'm not planing on playing WOW soon, becouse I'll be in a lot of trouble. First i'll lose my job because of this forum and then, maybe I'm lucky and she divorces me :)
Then I'll go and make a big hunt for tauren. (Who likes a predatory cow?)

[Chopke]

Oooh, great, a similar thread like the age one, where I can share personal stuff with loads of unknown fellow gamers ;)

I'm 29, and I met my husband while playing Diablo online. Now we have 2 pc's side by side and during the weekend we do all nighters. (Yes, told my work why I had bags under my eye's on monday's, but they weren't very understanding realy..)
We sometimes play 2 different games, or we both play the same one. The different games are nice, cause then you can do your own thing without him breathing in your neck "c'mon, take that mob on, you can do it!!" <2 second pause> [You have died, your deeds of valor will be remembered].
On the other hand, playing 1 game is awesome when we are on a roll, we know how the other plays, what they are going to do, and when we don't feel it, we tell each other, or just watch the other one's screen.

Sometimes we do go over the top a bit, when our family tries to reach us and ask if we are alright ( you'd think they would have learned by now), or when we have to call in sick because we couldn't stop and we went to bed, like, 30 mins before we had to get up..

But all in all, I'm an computer game addict, I smoke, work as an accountant in between, all in all, your average geek :)

[Domhnull]

My wife and I have been together for 15 years and we've always played video games together. Right when we first started dating we bought a NES. She's just as excited about the start of WoW as I am. Now we're just waiting for the FedEx to get here with our copies!

[SachaelX]

Married, and we both love the game. What we do is allow a decent #of hours for each other to play, and even it out with other activities. Its all about balance, and being concientious about it.

This is exactly how the little lady and I do it, we allot 3 hours each turn on weekends, and about 2 hours each on weeknights. She got into WoW from the Character creation screen (she loves paper dolls ;)).

We have never fought about anything let alone a video game, and with our system, so long as I do some household stuff, will work fine for us.

[Tondatha]

Only 47 with three kids - three, eight, and twenty-one. Lots of planning and storing up browny points. Two computers helps too.

[Srawd]

Hi, I am Rob and I am a gameaholic. **crowd unenthusiastically replies, "Hi Rob" **

I am 20 years old and I game a lot. I have never had a serious relationship yet because I never found a girl that remotely enjoys gaming. Every single girl I ever met is the 'party girl'. I just got tired of rolling the same type of women. However there was one that I met in college that was love at first sight for me. We dated for a while and during that time I actually forgot about gaming. As usual after a while the spell begins to wear off. She worked from 7 to 7 mon-fri and sometimes on saturday. This was cool for me but what really bugged me is that everynight she was tired and would just head home and go to bed like 10pm. I was like when do we get to spend time together?
With all that time apart I started to game again and that was the end of that. BTW she wasn't into gaming and was 6 years my senior. Back to being single and on 'my' terms. I doubt i will ever find a girl interested in games, they are just too rare. Bye bye girl of dreams and looking forward to meeting my gaming chick who is down with me.

[Metaryu]

i'm just curious... i'm 25, about to turn 26. i've had several relationships that all overlapped my hardcore gaming patterns.

this has gotten in the way for a a couple of these relationships... like seriously causing issues in regards to cuddling time, attention, and my overall life on pause since i did nothing else...

how did you guys cope with it... or have you guys at all?

get a girlfriend that plays games too! or one that atleast likes to watch you play! my girllfriend beat halo, which is actually amazing compared to how many girls haven't even played it! =)

[Colonial_Red]

You don't need a girlfriend who is into games to make it work. With every girl I have ever dated I don't expect them to share the same hobbies as me (it helps but it isn't necessary) and in return they don't expect me to share their hobbies. What if her friends were all telling the love of your life that she should forget about you and try and find a guy who was into figure skating?

My simple solution to the problem: unless you are playing a game she might be interested in then don't play games when you are supposed to be hanging out with her. How many hours do you really need to play WoW a week? It can't be that hard.

[Cursive]

get a girlfriend that plays games too! or one that atleast likes to watch you play! my girllfriend beat halo, which is actually amazing compared to how many girls haven't even played it! =)
Not to mention it takes a strong will to friggin stick with single-player that long. I beat Half-Life 1 and Opposing Force in the time it took me roommate to beat Halo 1.

[eXo]

Don`t worry guys looking for ladies. I see more and more girls play video games around me :)

My gf and i share some hobbies but gaming is not (yet) one of them. After almost three years i have not yet convinced her to play along. Maybe she will get interested when WoW goes retail in europe and i won`t be doing much else ;)

[Ladin]

While waiting for the 10:00 opening of my EB games here in South Bend, IN there are about 15 fellow geeks ahead of me. Any what did I see next, yes, 3 girls were in the crowd waiting for thier copys. 2 were married, and I think the 3rd was single, atleast she wasn't wearing a ring. So contrary to popular opinion, these female gamers that they speak about actually do exist.

[sandmanfvr]

Well I am 27 and engaged. You have to find somebody that likes/loves you for you, including your gaming. If you don't, nothing will work. But when you find that one, don't just ignore them. I mean if you just go gaming and ignore them, no offense theorist, but that is dumb. A game is just a game, but a woman (the right one) is a great thing that no game can compare to. So here it what you do:

1) Find a woman that likes/loves you for who you are and your gaming
2) Realize (might need to mature for this, no offense intended) that she is more important than a game
3) Divide your time up accordingly.

Do that, and you should be set.

[Cursive]

While waiting for the 10:00 opening of my EB games here in South Bend, IN there are about 15 fellow geeks ahead of me. Any what did I see next, yes, 3 girls were in the crowd waiting for thier copys. 2 were married, and I think the 3rd was single, atleast she wasn't wearing a ring. So contrary to popular opinion, these female gamers that they speak about actually do exist.
We know they exist, and I like to believe that they are all as hot as the ones in magazines and on that FFXI players site.

[AncientSpear]

i've been lucky in that I'm 27 and my 1 year senior gf puts up with my paintball team AND WoW. Well, in the case of WoW it was only when I was studying for school.

The key is to make sure they know from the get go what you're hobbies are. The first few hours of the stress test was spent teaching my gf how to play... I even wrote a journal about it hehe :D

My 1st journal (http://www.worldofwar.net/journals/index.php?id=958)

EDIT: Oh I forgot to mention she bought me WoW CE for christmas. heck she knew i wanted it last year and boy was that tough explainaing how i'm waiting for a game and know so much over a year before it comes out! (she doesn't play videogames and only uses email for school)

[Komori]

I would say conversion is probably the only way to go, haha... It took my boyfriend several months to bring me over to the dark side and now I'm itching to play. We drove around for quite awhile today looking for the Collector's Edition, but no luck so far...

I was worried for the longest time that gaming would take up my boyfriend's life once WoW came out, but now that I've played the beta and stayed up until 4 am playing with him I'm not so concerned. Much better that both of us play than one of us plays and the other grumbles. I always had the Sims 2 as a backup, but it's much better to play together. :)

I'm surprised to find how much I like it, and I've never been a gamer, ever. I've always basically hated video games because I'm so bad at them. See, guys - there's even hope for girls like me to change! I mean, granted, I'm a total newb and definitely not talented at WoW quite yet, but at least I'm not yelling at him to get off the computer.

[red.13]

Tell me where in Poland I can find a woman who likes/loves MMORPGs and for sure I will have one g/f.

Atm i do not have a g/f because of:

1. I usally can't have a girl for longer than a week (I mean dates etc.) but i for example like talking with girls and it's no prob for me

2. Im preparing to pass my A-level exam next year (at the beginning) so i do not have time

[elwoodb647]

Or c) message board posts are a stupid facile way to examine someone's personality? hmmm.

PieDragon is my new hero - as Shakespeare said in Hamlet, "Brevity is the
soul of wit" :thumbsup:

Fascinating thread. I'm 30, married for 7 years to a woman who loves me
but sees no value in computer games other than Spider Solitaire and Snood.
She generally tolerates a low level of game time, and our work schedules
afford me a few hours each week where I'm home alone so that's fine.

I'm struggling with the time + monthly fee of WoW, quite frankly. I know that
I'll push the boundaries of our current arrangement, based both on the fact
that during OB I got totally hooked to WoW, and the fact that since I know
I'm paying for the game, I'll feel compelled to play to "get my money's worth".
What can I say, I'm cheap...

So for now I'm holding off of buying WoW, but it has been hard. I actually
went to Best Buy tonight and had a box in my hand, but ultimately put it
back. Maybe I'll talk to my wife about it this weekend and see if she cares
about the cost - I don't think she will (its a trivial amount of money), but
we'll see.

Thanks to all for sharing; its been great to hear that others struggle and have
come to terms with similar concerns. At the moment, I'm trying to protect
my marriage, which is unquestionably the top priority, from my inclination to
get consumed by things that entertain me.

[itet]

OK, how about this one.

My wife (IRL) left me a month ago for a guy she married in SWG.(obviously not RL)

But guess he was sooo wonderful in-game that she just had to be with him IRL.

So I do a little snooping, little email cracking (shh) and found out that this guy is a big tub of lard that lives with mommy. She won't meet him IRL for the first time until this weekend, also, she has no idea that I know about this yet.

So if you have a signifigant other that is also a hardcore gamer, especially online, I would keep a very close eye and not let them get carried away.


Off-topic: I forgot that WoW released today and went bowling instead of picking up my pre-order. :scratch: