With my daughter just six weeks away, I’m gushing in excitement. My wife and I have spent hours preparing baby Ariana’s room as well as baby-proofing the house. A common theme from friends is that nothing can prepare me adequately for having a baby. And they all tell me I will be losing precious quality gaming hours in lieu of rocking and holding my baby. My response to them is this: bring it. With every life change I’ve been told I won’t have as much time for gaming. Going to college, starting my career, and getting married are life changes that made my gaming better. In fact – I started Geeks With Wives after I got married! I truly believe the arrival of Ariana will make gaming that much better for me.
Before starting college, I was a PC-gaming junky. I would build and mod my PC, overclock my video card, RAM, and monitor to kill screen tearing and squeeze every possible FPS out of my games. This level of dedication requires considerable time not only for the research and execution of the mods but also the time spent testing and gaming. It’s a true PC-gamer’s delight. When I started my education in Computer Science at The University of Portland, I was immediately exposed to people who had access to games I couldn’t afford. We would pool our libraries and share CD keys. Nearly every night we would play multiplayer games. Eventually I got a job at Gamestop and could finally afford a Nintendo GameCube. That’s when I finally understood the quality of Nintendo’s games. Combine that with less time for modding and suddenly console games became more appealing.
Starting my career wasn’t a setback at all. Effectively, structure was introduced into my life. Most days I worked from 8 am to 5 pm, ran errands and exercised until 7 pm and then played video games until 9 pm or so. While this was less gaming time, it forced me to be decisive in which games I wanted to dedicate my time toward. Maturity really kicked in here.
When I married my wife I started this little website and it’s sister podcast. My wife knew that I needed to play games to effectively write/discuss games. Communication was really all we needed to make this all work out. I have family time and gaming time when work isn’t a priority. But again, at this stage in my life I need to be very careful with my game time. I wouldn’t say I have it all organized like I did before I got married. In truth, I game when I can. Fortunately I have an understanding wife.
When the baby arrives I won’t be able to drop anything from my typical day; I will absolutely lose gaming time. And when I consider where I have to “trim the fat”, I have to get creative. But importantly, I finally have a reason to game less and game more intelligently. Gone will be the days “is this finally the game that makes me like JPRGs?” Or my absolute favorite, “I’m going to platinum this one!” And I am absolutely content with that. I enjoy gaming most when I’m not putting too many expectations on the game. I want gaming to be fun and I’ve learned over the years that with the less time I have, the more I enjoy my choices. So yes folks, bring it!