The better half and gaming

Soldato
Joined
31 Jul 2006
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10,276
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Belgium land of chocolate
Tough sometimes trying to juggle pc time and marriage especially when a new game comes out.

Usually I prefer the company of my wife to the PC of course but sometimes (like now with GW2) I'm wanting more gametime tried and tried to get the wife interested but she ain't ever gonna want to play.

We usually agree that we have 1 hour for Facebook and PC then do something together.


How you married/engaged/partnered up guys (and girls) manage the relationship between me time and pc time?
 
Me and my GF of 5years generally do whatever we want when we're at home. The PC and TV are in the living room and we usually chat while we go about our business.

I don't believe that agreements of set time work just because I would rather not be treated like a kid imho.
 
We usually have a couple of nights "off" a week, where she can invite her friends around to our house or go out to the cinema or something and I'll look after the baby (and vice versa). I usually use the time she has friends over as game time (as the baby is in bed by 7), anything else I get out of the week is a bonus. I also go to bed later then her so I can sometimes get an hour in after she goes to bed but that does depend on how knackered I am :D
 
My GF is usually happy for me to game for a couple of hours, she goes on facebook, reads etc.
As long as we can watch a dvd or something and sit on the sofa together before bed she is happy.

On the weekend we usually go out and about, spend the day together, and then just chill and I game for a bit longer in the evenings.

Set times would just create friction I think, some days I game for longer, others we spend more time together, depends on our moods.
 
I understand but it's easy to let 1 hour become 3 hours it works well for us for the most part but there are some nights where we have different plans this is when it's difficult to juggle hehe
 
Generally I play at least an 2-3 hours an evening normally starting from 9ish before that I spend some time with the wife watching what ever crap reality tv show she's in to now, by 9 she's most evenings asleep on the sofa any way, weekend I generally don't game until she goes to bed so some time don't get on till 11 then will game till 1-2 in the morning.
 
Me and my GF of 5years generally do whatever we want when we're at home. The PC and TV are in the living room and we usually chat while we go about our business.

I don't believe that agreements of set time work just because I would rather not be treated like a kid imho.

I have exactly this but it is difficult when a new i'm really in to this game comes out because all you really want to do is play it.

Really the issue I have is with young kids no matter what we plan there is now never enough adult downtime to allow me to play as much as I would like.
 
Get her to clean the house whilst you play ?









<@;) My wife of 10 years plays the sims & those stupid facebook games. So we each get 1 to 2 hours to play the games we like.
 
Girlfriend currently playing through Skyrim for the 2nd time. Her first char was level 40, her 2nd char is level 48 currently :) Before that it was Fallout 3/Dragon Age and then Witcher + Witcher 2.

I bought her a gaming laptop, otherwise I wouldn't get on the PC at all :]
 
This is one of the beauties of having a partner who is a gamerchick. My missus frankly does more gaming than I do !! Especially now that we both have Guild Wars 2. She's an animal for it !! (and for the gaming ;) )
 
Mrs plays games so not a problem. She's just about burnt out on Diablo 3 achievement hunting now, and she rolled her first GW2 character on the weekend (she was a long time GW1 player).

We just fire up Teamspeak and chat while we're playing :D
 
I'm lucky enough to have a better half that knows gaming is what I love to do so get a decent mount of time playing... plus the PC is in the living room which helps.

That being said, the 10 month old has better ideas when it comes to letting Daddy play his games!
 
Something similar tbh. I normally get like 1-2 hours in the evening and maybe 1-1.5 hrs in the morning on weekends when she has a lie in.

Not set times, just there's house work to do, food to cook and then we want to spend some time together.

It's difficult. Any more and she's going to feel I am ignoring her for computer games. Obviously this is undesirable.

I need to get her a new hobby tbh. I got more play time when she rowed.
 
This is one of the beauties of having a partner who is a gamerchick. My missus frankly does more gaming than I do !! Especially now that we both have Guild Wars 2. She's an animal for it !! (and for the gaming ;) )

Indeed...all my wicked vices seem to have be initiated by you! ;)
 
That being said, the 10 month old has better ideas when it comes to letting Daddy play his games!

Just wait till the crawling then walking starts ;) at 10 months it's good as you can just strap them into their chair or let them wiggle around on the play mat, but believe me it will get harder to get play time at around the 1 year mark!
 
I play when I want generally, she complained at first but her idea of us spending time together was me sitting next to her whilst she watched soaps & X factor, so I simply said that if she wants me to watch TV with her she better change what she watches, she disliked that idea so it's a win for gaming in my house horrah!
 
My missus enjoys gaming as much as me, so she will play on the xbox whilst I play GW2. I quite enjoy having someone there to tell me when I've played enough as my willpower when it comes to putting down games is shocking. I'd probably waste my life doing nothing but gaming without her.
 
Well at the moment my Misus is pregnant and she has a understanding that she is going out with a Geek, We have the computer in the living room so it really isnt a problem.

She is normally in bed by 9pm so I play then - I dont usualy go to bed late (1-2am) and I work 9-5 so when she is on shift I can pick up some more game time.

We also make 1 night a week where the lads get together for a gaming session too. Either over Mumble depending on comitments or round a mates house.

There are times I would like to spend more time on the computer but its all about splitting the time up.
 
My better half hates me gaming on my PC. She would like nothing more than for me to quit! :(

However, our current work regime means that I get chance every Tuesday-Friday evening to play a bit. Depending on what site I am working at, I can be home by 4:30pm and she wont be in till between 9-10pm most evenings. :cool:

Weekends are spent doing 'couple' stuff if we are not working, but if we have 2 full days off together (which is rare) I generally do some gaming for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon.

The technique I use is to use game time as a bargaining tool. For instance, on a Sunday I will say I am going to go on my computer for a few hours, but then I will cook dinner. The basis is that she lets me do something I want to do, then I will do jobs that she wants me to do and vice versa.

Its odd because if I suggest playing lego indiana jones on xbox she will play that with me all night. In fact when we first had it, we played from 10am till 2am the following morning for a good few days. The difference is that she can join in and be part of it. I think the key to her acceptance is getting her involved, but she only plays games she can do (IE simple ones). FPS games, which is what I love, are lost on her because she just cant do them. She also loves kinnect gaming, and wii but for some reason she just hates me PC gaming.

She feels that PC gaming is anti-social, and I understand that because my PC is in the spare room upstairs and I mostly play online FPS where I wear headphones and it is not something she can play with me. I am thinking that moving the PC downstairs might be an option but I doubt she would have it.

Its about compromise and being reasonable. I was a PC gamer before I met her and PC gaming is one of my main hobbies. Motorbikes is the other. She has had to accept that fact, but I have also had to accept that being in a long term relationship means I have to tone down the gaming. I'm not a single man living on my own that can spend time doing as I please anymore. Indeed the hard part in general has been adapting to that fact when I was so used to doing what I wanted when I wanted. But we have lived together for around 4 years now and we seem to be doing ok. We have a good balance.

Just on a side note, her aversion to PC gaming has been amplified by the fact that she has no hobbies of her own. So when I am gaming she has nothing to do, other than sit and watch TV or browse the internet. I think in our situation that is the main problem because she feels bored and lonely. I have tried to get her to look for hobbies to get into but she says her hobby is 'us' which I hate and feel is rather unhealthy. I feel time spent doing our own thing is just as important as time spent together, otherwise it becomes stuffy and we end up throttling each other! :D The other problem is that her passion, and her actual only hobby, is what she does for a job day in day out, so she is not interested in doing it on her days off.

Cheers

Buff
 
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