College/University and Gaming...You learn to limit your games list

First year of college and university can be a pain for a lot of people, especially for those who have taken a year off school, and are coming into school not having the proper study habits because they spent a whole year goofing around.

I was one of these people. But once you start college and you come home with a week's worth of heavy loaded homework, it's really hard to find that gaming time that we're all so used to. I'm not saying that we have to sacrifice gaming completely, but I've found that my hours spent on my PS3 were definitely limited this year.

You kind of learn something about "time" itself once you start your first year of continuing education. You learn that its very precious and you have to utilize it with maximum effectiveness.

Unfortunately, you learn another dark reality as a gamer. It's very hard to play all those games that were on your "to play list." I have a diary/journal where I keep track of things going on in my life, and inside the 63rd page, there is a list of games that I "have to play." It turns out that, that list needed to be nerfd down. It's not that I want to get rid of a lot of games on my list, and it's not that I lost interest in a particular game. But it's simply the fact that I just don't have the opportunity and time anymore.

There were so many games on my playlist such as:
GTA4
Shadows of the Damned
Dishonored
Black Ops 2
Darkness 2
and tons and tons of more games.

But most of my time is used up of mandatory studying and homework, and that's something I obviously noticed. That's why I had to take out a lot of games off the "play list." I had to narrow my games down to the "best" ones out there, and only play the ones I was most excited for.

Its really hard to play everything good that comes out. I had to completely scrape off Skyrim and GTA4 from my list because of the amount of content in those games. Obviously they are quality and quantity games, but its just not realistic to play those types of open world and "quest populated" games when you have so much work to do. Even if I do choose to play one of these games, I would have to just stick to one game at a time, and who knows how long that'll be. With the amount of homework I'm getting, I'd probably be able to beat GTA4 by the time I graduate....

Whats worse is that I'm the kind of person that has to study as much as possible because I'm naturally a slow learner. For someone, chapter 4 of Marketing may take an hour to understand everything. For me, it might take 2 hours.

My dad got me Borderlands 2 as a gift and I've only poured 3 hours into that game. Its just hard to play the open world genres. Maybe it'll change, I don't know. But what is for sure is that I've been forced to limit my games to only ones that I REALLY want to play. And the ones that are on my list are games that are short in length.

I'm wondering if there's anyone out there that has the same sort of workload I do? How do you guys manage your gaming time? Do you feel that you have to limit yourself to the number of games that you want to actually play? Because I do, and its usually because I'm forced to.

[TheFirstClassic]

My main problem at college is a lot of the time I spend gaming is mixed with social life, I'm usually either playing smash bros, ps all stars, or bad company 2 with people. Leaves less time for the sp games.

Still though I have had plenty of time for games overall at college. I managed to get some of the easier teachers, and besides that I went to a fairly difficult college prep high school, so I was pretty prepared for the work.

How much work do you have to do though? And how devastating are the tests? I've sort of learned how to manage the amount of studying I need to do on a class by class basis, and I try to leave the unnecessary or irrelevant material the class goes over out.

[Norrison]

I would focus on my studies, I quitted gaming when I was in college.
It will improve your grades and it will be worth it in the long run, you'll have a lot of time for gaming later, I found my job a lot more easier and flexible than college.
IMO

[imtheman2013]

This makes me a little worried, as I was just accepted to my college of choice but I definitely do not want to sacrifice the time I spend playing games. I like to think that I am a pretty fast learner, and hopefully my game time will not be cut due to the amount of work I get.

I can't believe you cut GTA4 and Skyrim from your list. Really great games.

Shame.

[sjaakiejj]

Depends on the college, but if it's a prestigious school, your game time will definitely be cut down. Either that or your marks will be - so it's a choice between a degree and playing games ;)

[SilentNegotiator]

You really learn to love "humble bundles" and Steam sales when shelling out almost every dollar to your name on education.

[sjaakiejj]

I play very few games during term time, only on the occasional Friday night. I still look around for good deals, and if I do have a weekend for myself I usually play through one of the games I haven't finished yet, but generally I wait until the Holidays to actually play my single player games.

[TopDudeMan]

I tend to spend a very minimal amount of time studying. This is simply because it bores me quickly. I know, I'm an awful student, but the compulsion to play games is greater than the compulsion to have a good career.

[jimbobwahey]

When I have a lot of work or study to do, I gravitate towards pick up and play games that cater well to smaller play sessions.

Examples of these types of games are SSX (great to relax for 30 minutes by just riding down a few mountains), Need For Speed Hot Pursuit (have a few races) or playing a few rounds of a multiplayer game such as Uncharted 3 or Modern Warfare 3.

The key is just finding games that you enjoy that can be played in small bursts of 30-45 minutes to just unwind. I avoid games such as Skyrim and Borderlands like the plague :)