Up For Debate – What’s your gaming routine each week?

Gaming’s a hobby we presumably all love, but it can also be a very time consuming one. Tons of games these days are dozens of hours long, invite us to check in on weekly events and updates, or give us our multiplayer gaming fix. We’re probably all a little different in how much gaming we do a week, and how we fit it in, but depending on your lifestyle, some games are clearly more suited than others.

Got weeks on end to sit in your underwear and drink whiskey? MMORPGs are the perfect fodder to while entire days away at a time. Trying to sneak in a quick gaming session before work? Fire up something like Rocket League for a five-minute burst of adrenaline-fuelled action. Then you’ve got the curveballs; the games which have no defined playtime. Something like Fortnite, or any battle royale for that matter, can last anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes or more, meaning they’re only really suitable when you’re sure you’ve got no other responsibilities to worry about. I mean, nobody wants to reach the final circle and then take a phone call before they can clutch victory.

For me, as I’ve gotten older, my gaming routine has had to change to fit around it. 10 years ago I was up at 5am any day of the week, in a haze playing Worms with my flatmates. Now I’m obviously working full-time so 3am Borderlands co-op sessions are out the window. Instead, I can usually squeeze an hour or two into a few evenings a week, plus I’ve got room for some longer sessions if I’m having a lazy weekend. The absolute peak for this being home alone of course, although I usually turn into a dribbling mess surrounded by pizza boxes by around hour six. Day two, well, the less said about day two of a home alone weekend, the better.

I definitely find the mammoth sessions harder as I get older. I max out at about three hours before fatigue starts to get in. It takes a truly fantastic game these days to coax an all-day session, with recent nominees being The Witcher 3 and Zelda: Breath of the Wild. 

On the weekends is when I tend to do my multiplayer sessions, Sunday in particular. Most of my mates are out doing stuff on the Friday and Saturday but Sunday is the peak lazy hangover today, smudging together football with shooting some fools in Siege, preferably at the same time.

So how do you settle into a gaming session during a typical week, have you got a gaming routine going on? Do you have regular bouts with your mates, like a co-op gaming session each week? Does gaming take priority over other stuff, or do you just snatch the time when you can? Let us know below!