Binge Gaming or Not?

Sometimes people may secretly wonder why my rank is still low in certain games, why it is still below let’s say…..level 20 two weeks after the game is released.

Why am I only at rank 13 and not rank 50 one week later after the game’s release?

Why does it take several months for my rank to go up rather than several weeks or even less?

You say you’ve been playing for years, but why are you still not performing well in online matchmaking?

Nobody actually asks me these things but I can bet that people are thinking it when they encounter me online.
People have a tendency to binge play a video game whenever it’s released. Buy the game, play for 5 – 10 hours, maybe even pull an all-nighter, ask for the day off work, etc.

So you may look like this 6 hours into the game without taking a break:

We’ve all gone through that feeling, our eyes are so tired but we force them to pay attention to the game. Sometimes it makes us less focused during the game and we make silly mistakes.

My mind tends to wander when I’m 30 minutes or an hour into a test at school and I’m still not finished. It’s really common now with me since I choose to take my time.

I have had those moments when I buy a new game and play for 3 hours one night, go to bed, can’t sleep because I want to play some more tomorrow, and then I play tomorrow. Depending on the day of the week, the time I spend on video games varies.

While still under 18 years of age, my parents had a strict rule of gaming for a limited time. In middle school it was 30 minutes, then in high school it was 1 hour and was cast aside once I turned 18. As much as I despised having someone else decide how long I would play, I never disobeyed that rule. But, even with the freedom to play as long as I want, I still don’t do it.

Why is that? I went through an addiction phase of video games on all the consoles I had. I have a PSOne, a GameCube (replaced with a Wii on my 14th birthday, hell I remember I would play Kirby Air Ride for hours whenever I got the chance…..say I think I’ll write about that game later and Triple Deluxe since I’ve been meaning to do so for quite some time), the original Gameboy Advance, then GBA SP, Nintendo DS Lite, then DSi, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and a Nintendo 3DS. Yep, that’s a helluva lot for a console gamer. I would play every chance I got because it was new to me, and when it’s new to you, it’s all you want to do.

The addiction started to subside when I got my first laptop years later. But I am still known to play when I feel like it. I find that I’m one of those gamer chicks that begins to wear off a little on playing a lot at a certain stage in life. It doesn’t mean I’m going to stop completely, because I love video games and I’ll find the time to play them no matter how busy my life gets, even if I only play for an hour on a weeknight and 3 hours on Fridays and weekends. We’ll see what the future holds.

Some people older than me still prefer to binge play which is okay, it’s your life, not mine. But try not to end up getting this:

or this:

Look, I’m all for doing the occasional gaming longer than I should, but I would never let it come in too much in my professional life. I don’t think I can see myself taking time off work in the future just to play a video game. If you’re not careful those two things can happen. It is known.

I’m a very passionate gamer, but not a competitive pro, or addictive one. 

My level in Halo 5 is only SR15 and the game was released almost 3 weeks ago. People I know from the Halo Archive are already at SR50 because they binge play. I choose not to do that because, I can’t really binge play at this time, because college always comes first, and this blog of mine comes second. I don’t want to because I have other hobbies like writing (why else would I be writing this?), reading, music, and drawing. 

That can perhaps link why I’ve never been great at online multiplayer for years, why my rank isn’t that high at the moment, and oh yes that’s right…………my rank will eventually get higher in a game like that, but it’ll take longer than it takes most people. It took me several months to get my rank up to SR47 in the original 360 version of Halo 4. I was aiming to get it to 50 but then I stopped partway once MCC was released and moved on to that.

In short words, I have a life and I’m proud I have it. I love gaming but I still have the guts to open the door and go outside when it the sun is shining. 

I’m pretty sure all of you have a life as well so this is not meant as an attack of what you do with your personal time. I would however, offer encouragement to not binge play so much, yes it has a lot of great things but that are many cons to it as well.

So that’s why I don’t binge game anymore, and if you’re going through that phase, you’ll eventually find it weans over time, but that doesn’t mean you’ll stop playing forever. In fact, I don’t want you to stop, I want you to find balance. There’s a huge difference.

-Emily