General Thought: War-games and Balance.

Hello people of the Internet, Duke here with a question that I have had going on for a while.  Let me start by saying that I have a family and they are the center of my galaxy (with our own Eye of Terror and Black Crusades from time to time).  But today I wanted to talk about the balance that is family time and hobby time.

Lets talk about time.  Even quick 2000 point games last about 2 hours.  Slow ones where you have the peanut gallery making comments every roll and stopping to record video for a battle report at the end of a turn can end up being more like 4 hours, if there aren’t any hard drinks involved.  That is quite a lot of time invested in one sitting.  Not to mention the hours and hours spent modeling, converting, painting, et al.  I would venture to think (And correct me if I am completely off base) that an average active gamer could easily spend anywhere around 10 hours a week in gaming related activities.

For example: In a week in which there is a tournament it is not uncommon for gamers to spend every night painting up their models for 3-4 hours per sitting.  Not to mention the “test games,” that seem to get more and more common before particularly big events (Wargamescon/Adepticon).

But even in common circumstances this is the kind of hobby that get hours and hours attached to it without even thinking about it.  I.e. Awesome blog posts Shameless Self Promotion and forum topics that keep us glued to them hour after hour BoLS lounge (Female Space Marines anyone?).

All of this begs a question… What is the balance?

Seriously though, what is the solution? Do you peel back when you “settle down,” or do you forge ahead cause “thats who I am?”  I know what I personally feel is a decent balance but that is what works for me.  Maybe, though, that is the answer… Maybe it is a balance that each individual has to find for themselves.  If so, what have you found to work in your own life? I know people who gave up video games to continue wargaming… Or limited their hours, or even more off the wall things that I shouldn’t go into detail over.

Duke