What's more interesting than gaming to you right now?

Ever since starting my multi-year hacking project (first personal one I've ever had), I sometimes go into multi-month hack mode, where the time I used to use for gaming suddenly gets spent on purely-for-fun programming. I'm in one of those binges now.

And it's spooky. I've played Diablo III for 50+ hours and Borderlands 2 for at least 40, but right now I think about playing those games and all I can mentally see is a blur of pixelated blood and numbers that all adds up to precisely nothing actually achieved.

It's got to be down to my substantial dearth of discretionary time. I probably get three evenings a week when I can hack/game/whatever in my man-cave for two to four hours at a stretch. That's not a lot of time. So to get anything done on my hacking project, I have to focus pretty substantially. And this has evidently soaked into my subconscious to the point where all games seem like big wastes of scarce time.

In the past I've posted similar threads in the games forum, but let's face it, this isn't really about games, it's about what I'm currently doing instead of games.

So: if you are also on a low-game ebb, this thread is for you. What are you doing instead and what makes it more interesting?

(And if you're in Seattle and want to play with my Kinect music hacking thing (named Holofunk), come by Jigsaw Renaissance next Tuesday night, 12/11, 6:30 pm! Just got two-player support in!)

The kids. One is one month old, the other nearly 3 years.

Also, Warhammer 40k. Building and painting a new Necron army and updating some of my old Eldar to be Eldar Corsairs. Does that count as gaming? It's nearly all modeling and painting right now.

I game a little here and there, some video, some board.

Yeah, don't get me wrong, I'm still playing some games -- gave my daughter Boggle for her 8th birthday yesterday, sometimes playing Lego Batman 2 with my five-year-old son, etc. But that's more family time than gaming time, as I classify it.

I guess I'm talking mainly about solo, discretionary time, that previously would have gone to blissful gamelock, but no longer.

And yeah, modeling and painting doesn't really count as gaming, in my book. I mean, my hacking project is basically a musical toy, so my hacking is gaming-related (as is your modeling)... but they feel different, creatively speaking.

Sitting at the computer, drinking coffee, smoking, reading forums and chatting on IRC.

It doesn't make it more interesting. I just like the social contact.

I've been spending more time outside, hiking, and doing a lot more reading.

Before my dreams were crushed by my parental units, it was drawing. I was pretty convinced for a while that I could be a successful comic book artist. In retrospect, I don't have the drive to do it. I could never force my way through creative blocks.

Otherwise, I pretty much occupied myself with school and work. Being currently neither a student nor employed, I have a big void that really needs to get filled with something a bit more involving than my two cats and job hunting. It would have been gardening if we didn't have these subterranean rodent creatures (not sure if they're groundhogs or ground squirrels or moles) that rip up everything and anything living in the ground (indoor options also limited due to cats that like to eat plants).

I'm at kind of a similar point right now, RepoMan. Sadly I'm not doing anything more constructive than listening to a lot more music, reading more often, and catching up on Doctor Who. I haven't stopped gaming altogether (still playing Sleeping Dogs and BL2 sporadically) but I'm not doing much lately.

Getting mad at the world and sleeping.

This, minus the smoking and IRC, pretty accurately sums up my daily life these days.

I haven't played any games for the last couple of weeks.

My usual daily routine involves going into the workshop and working out what I need to work on that day. By the second coffee, I've started and will continue (less school/shops run) until the late afternoon, at which point I'll head inside and check emails/phone/facebook etc. After dinner we'll watch some telly, which usually means I fall asleep on the lounge for an hour or so (the more interesting the show or movie, the more likely that is). After that is when I would get some gaming time, play the guitar or draw, but lately I prefer to just pick up a guitar and record.

I think part of it is due to feeling like I'm just wasting time if I just sit and play games. I've been working on a solo album for the last couple of years and I've been spending less time on that lately. I already have less time to devote to it due to the woodwork, so gaming just means more time wasted. I also have a personal need to leave something behind when I'm gone, and passive activities just feel like a waste of time at the moment.

If we could add about 2-3 hours to the day, I could get some gaming in and finally make a dent in my Steam catalogue.

I don't have time for gaming anymore and it makes me sad. :(

The last game I played was Portal 2. Before that, Far Cry 2.

And just as I say what I'm doing instead of games, I end up spending two hours playing the latest Jonah Lomu Rugby. And making plans with a friend to set up a Mumble server and play Borderlands and Guild Wars.

Yeah, funny how the worm turns. After next Tuesday I may or may not still be on this roll, we'll see....

Forum has two mumbles -- mcknight has one, reldan the other -- add me on steam and I'll pass em over.

Don't worry, I don't murder people at random via steam.

Cheers. It's ok though. I don't like people hearing my horrible man voice unless they know me in real life. Mumble servers at the level we need are dirt cheap.

Thanks. :)

New job means I actually have to get to bed at a decent time.

That, plus, y'know, social obligations...

When I have been doing any gaming lately, it's been in quick (say, an hour or so, here or there), sporadic bursts, usually involving something a bit more pick-up-and-play friendly, like Madden 12 or Saints Row 3.

Maybe one of these weekends I'll stay up until dawn playing Civ V, but I doubt it.

I wish I had 2-4 hours 3 evenings a week to do whatever I wanted. That's relatively a lot of time for someone with a family.

Family goes to bed around 8:30-9pm. So that's around 2-3 hours of gaming time 4-5 nights a week. Wife likes to watch "her shows" in bed and go to bed early, so we don't really do much together during week nights.

I'd like to find other, more productive hobbies, but by 9pm I'm too brain dead to do anything except watch TV or play a game. So that's what it is.

Pretty much my evenings as well - we do watch the occasional show or movie, or other activities, but when it comes to entertainment our taste doesn't really overlap that much.

Writing my novel, and farting around here instead of writing my novel. This week that's even taken a backseat to Christmas shopping online.