It's a given that there are obvious time restraints on how much we can game for because of work and general life commitments. But how long could you play an engrossing game before you feel tired or your brain can't take any more and you need to shut it down for the day? 2 hours maybe? More?

I started perry rhodan at the weekend and have now finished it. Because currently I have lots of free time until next week, I've been playing it pretty much non stop, starting in the day and playing right through to 5 in the morning, well, with a few hours breaks here and there of course. I still found time to go and shop, cook, eat, watch some tv and polish some musical instruments .

MOSTLY, I would say after about an hour and a half to 2 hours, I get tired and need a break from it, maybe for the rest of the day, or maybe for a few hours before resuming. Today though, I played in the afternoon for a while, then resumed from about 1am right through to about 5.30am, I had to finish the game and didn't feel tired. I did the same with dracula origin recently, with the olympics on in the background. It was awesome fun. Adventure game loaded, michael phelps on the box, and tucking into a box of cadburys roses, all at once and right through the night. Total decadence .

[misslilo]

Well, back in the old days, where walkthroughs were hard to come by, I remember once playing straight through a game for more than 20 hours.
With the occasional trips to bathroom and kitchen.
Now that was fun!

[tsa]

For me, two hours. That is a rule I imposed on myself to prevent me from getting addicted to a game, getting cramp in my hand, and neglecting my body and my other responsibilities.

Yes, I get very addicted. Still, I had about a 6 month break from gaming, had no interest in getting into a game, and only restarted in july having played and completed three. So I've gone from nothing to full on. I still have 5 games to be continued, one of which is keepsake which I started about 2 years ago.

[tastebud]

Singleplayer games (like Bioshock or Syberia) I usually want to enjoy and take my time and drag em out as long as possible... so i usually play at most two sessions of 90 minutes max a day.

If it's something that you can't really win, usually multiplayer games like Team Fortress 2 or MMOs or Oblivion, I can play for hours and hours on end... sometimes all day with short breaks in between.

[Davies]

I've started playing at ten-or-eleven-ish at night and not stopped until I noticed the dawn coming up at about five in the morning. That doesn't happen very often, but it has done and probably will again.

[MoriartyL]

An adventure game specifically? I dunno, maybe three or four hours if it's really good.

Edit: Wait, that's too much. Phoenix Wright is really good, and I don't want to play it for more than two hours at a time. Two hours, then.

[AndreaDraco83]

Usually a play one hour, one hour and a half in the afternoon. And then, after a night out with friends or so, when I return home, I usually play, say from the 2:00 to... well, actually the "to" depends on how much the game intrigues me. For some games (a few, I've to say) I couldn't stop until my father woke up to go to work and started to yell

But, nowadays, it's rare that a game addict me so much: it happened recently with Dreamfall and with and old classic, Conquests of the Longbow.

[colpet]

When I'm in the mood to play a game, I'll often spend a whole day at it (10 hours or so). The limiting factor is usually getting sloppy with my observations, and I find myself getting stuck more often. That's when I need a break.

[Elena]

If i like the game i'm playing,i'd say about 2-4 hours for start.Then,it depends if i get stuck at certain points and have to think my way through.If i get mad,i'm leave the game and play jigsaw puzzles.
You should try it too. www.jigzone.com

[LadyLinda]

It depends on the game. If the story really grabs me then I play until I get tired or sleepy. Otherwise I'll probably only play for an hour or two.

Originally Posted by Elena

If i like the game i'm playing,i'd say about 2-4 hours for start.Then,it depends if i get stuck at certain points and have to think my way through.If i get mad,i'm leave the game and play jigsaw puzzles.
You should try it too. www.jigzone.com

Nice. Some of my favourite adventure game puzzles are jigsaws; there were one or two in dracula origin which I loved.

[Jelena]

Originally Posted by tastebud

I usually want to enjoy and take my time and drag em out as long as possible... so i usually play at most two sessions of 90 minutes max a day.

This is how I currently feel. I play every other day an hour or so and just enjoy Obsidian slowly and to every bit. No walkthrough, just me and the game.

[bleaksand]

I still (er, mostly) limit my gaming to just the weekends -- but 15-10 years ago I could have easily invest 8+ hours at a stretch playing with a new, shiny game.

Nowadays, I'd say 2 hours average before the old eyes, wrist/shoulder and butt form an alliance and demand unionize breaks.

More tellingly, I quickly lost any/all interest in "high scores/best times" records and instead, invest my best efforts towards exploration! … Yeah, I'm the one guilty of playing *tourist* during Unreal Tournament 3 firefights.

[colpet]

Originally Posted by Elena

If i like the game i'm playing,i'd say about 2-4 hours for start.Then,it depends if i get stuck at certain points and have to think my way through.If i get mad,i'm leave the game and play jigsaw puzzles.
You should try it too. www.jigzone.com

If you like jigsaws, check out Mulawa Dreaming. There are some jigsaws available for demos. They are much more like the real thing, and the subcription fee is minimal.
http://www.mulawa.net/

[DustyShinigami]

For me, and it usually applies to ANY game, probably about 2-4 hours. I'd say i take more breaks now, to do other things, more than i used to. There are times where i'll reach my limit with how far into the game i want to go. Either because it's annoying me, i get bored (usually down to my mood or attention-span more than anything else), i want to play something else, or i'm tired/sleepy. I guess it's all down to the game as well.

Should be getting XBL soon, so i'll be able to find out how long i'll spend playing online. Should be interesting.

[cwapitm]

It depends on the game. If it's really good, I can play it any chance I get until I finish it. If it's not so good, or particularly difficult it can be a struggle to get through.

I'm taking a while with The Experiment right now, but not because it's bad. The interface is hard to handle.

[inm8#2]

my patience has run thin from younger days. i can't play something for more than 1.5 hours or so. when i was 13 or 14 i could play for up to 3 hours, which isn't even that extreme

[FlightlessWings]

I used to be able to quite happily sit and play a game for around 12-14 hours in one go, if I'm utterly pulled into the game of course. Silent Hill did that to me, I became a complete cabbage! But nowadays I find myself needing a break more often to come back to reality hehe.

[OutlawJim]

If the plot is good enough in an adventure game, I can play em for hours and hours. I finally got my hands on all the Gabriel Knight games earlier in the year, and did the first two of them in about two sittings each. I haven't actually finished the third one yet, but thats because I don't want there to be no more X3

On the other hand, I didn't play Tunguska for more than one or two hours at a time, and it took me weeks to finish Runaway.

With other kinds of games, it also depends. I tend to obsessively play platformers, like with the Ratchet and Clank games where I'll play for 6 or 7 hours, neglecting sleep, but I only play fpses for an hour or two before I get bored.