Putting in the Time

[derelictojama]

One of the benefits of the academic life is that it leaves plenty of "discretionary" time... One of the problems of the academic life is that it leaves plenty of "discretionary" time...

In other words, thanks to field I work in, I have the opportunity to play a lot. Not all the time, stuff comes up, and I do actually watch a lot of real sports (and do stupid stuff like read books and grade papers), but generally: March-mid July: at least 2-3 hours per day during the week, from none (if I'm busy) all the way up to all day on the weekend (really just 6 hours or so). And I'm not above sticking the game in and playing all night long if I get to the playoffs or something and don't have any real obligations the next day. If I guessed, I'd probably say average 20ish hours per week? Man, that's a part-time job; don't tell anyone, certainly not the people who are waiting on my actual work to get done...

Sometime in June/early July I'll pull out last year's NCAA, play a few games just to remember what it's like, then when it comes out in mid July, I have a choice to make: keep playing the Show all the time, or get NCAA... varies on economics, how my franchises/RTTS players are going, am I still excited about baseball (usually!), etc. Last year I kept playing the Show until after the world series, even while playing NCAA; I rarely switch back to NCAA once the Show comes out.

Seems much more rewarding to play in Jan/Feb with last year's the Show than to play in May/June with last year's NCAA... at that point, I really just don't care about football for a while (except the Georgia spring game, of course...).

Those 2 games are basically all I play now; I try other games, but whenever I'm playing Red Dead Redemption or Call of Duty or whatever, I'm usually thinking, "I'd really rather be playing the Show..."

[Armor and Sword]

Weekdays one game per day on average.

Friday and Saturday nights 2 games per evening. Sometimes I get in a game on Sundays.

I play year round. I will take a break every now and then. But then I have to get my swing back. This game demands consistent playing to be successful.

[Blzer]

Having the Vita helps. I'm just starting September in my franchise, and I have played every single game in it so far.

[cable guy]

I get in at least 1 game a day sometimes 2 if lucky. During the week.

Weekends are all different. Sometimes busy and cant play at all. But yesterday was great. Got in 3 games.

[chrishthomas]

Quote: Originally Posted by derelictojama

One of the benefits of the academic life is that it leaves plenty of "discretionary" time... One of the problems of the academic life is that it leaves plenty of "discretionary" time... Seems much more rewarding to play in Jan/Feb with last year's the Show than to play in May/June with last year's NCAA... at that point, I really just don't care about football for a while (except the Georgia spring game, of course...).

Couple of things...fellow academic here. I take it you already have tenure somewhere? I am up against the gun trying to churn out research before my tenure clock is up. I'm at my second school now, and I had easily met the requirements at my first school, but I had a chance to move from there (a balanced school) to a "University of ...." situation, and took it. They reset my clock and put some pretty heavy demands on my productivity level. For the time being, I can only dream of having 20 discretionary hours a week after taking care of my teaching load, grading, advising doctoral students, and spending time each night trying to write or crunch data. Some day perhaps.

As to the part of your post I bolded...I feel the same way. In fact, that's why I'm not even playing my copy of '12 yet. I got restless back in February and started a fresh season of '11. By the time '12 was released I was well into my new season, and have committed to finishing it prior to starting up anything on '12.

Finally, you mention Georgia. Is that where you currently are, or are you an alum. My Ph.D. is from UGA, and Athens is one of my favorite places. I moved to a fellow SEC school in a town that I thought might be somewhat like Athens, but I was dead wrong. It's been a good career move, but I have got to get my family out of here soon. This place is like Stepford.

[nusie]

I play when I get the chance, which is sometimes hard when you have a 1 year old, and your wife works till 8pm, four nights a week. But I do play year round, and always finish at least 1 full season. I recently changed my strategy up when playing though, and I can get through 3 games in about 1hr 30min, because I switched to doing only the Batting, mostly, because I wasn't having any fun with pitching, and I always loved batting. So I just Fast Forward through till I get to bat again. Plus, it makes the game a little bit more challenging, because of those 3-4 run innings that get thrown up there sometimes.

[Cavicchi]

I've played enough to kill one The Show disc and send both my PS3s in for repair. I just ordered another MLB The Show 12 game, always like to have 2 on hand, and expecting my other PS3 back in a week. Fortunately, my other MLB 12 disc and PS3 are still good.

[derelictojama]

Quote: Originally Posted by chrishthomas

Couple of things...fellow academic here. I take it you already have tenure somewhere? I am up against the gun trying to churn out research ... .... Finally, you mention Georgia. Is that where you currently are, or are you an alum. My Ph.D. is from UGA, and Athens is one of my favorite places. I moved to a fellow SEC school in a town that I thought might be somewhat like Athens, but I was dead wrong. It's been a good career move, but I have got to get my family out of here soon. This place is like Stepford.

Without getting into too much detail, here anyway, let's just say my academic/professional journey has been... unconventional. Might even say I might be in a different situation if I didn't play, oh, 20 hours a week of a video game...but let's not worry too much about that! Good luck to you, I know it's a grind (if you're tenure-track at an SEC school, I'd say your career is going pretty well, at least from my perspective!).

I did undergrad at UGA; grad school at several places, ending at Iowa. LOVE Athens, but I dig a lot of the other SEC towns too; nowhere is as cool as Athens (in my very biased opinion), but I've had some fun in Oxford, Baton Rouge, Tuscaloosa, etc. I can say, in my experience, that Athens is a little more than JUST a college town, with its proximity to Atlanta and its musical heritage, where some of the others are different, but... far be it from me to criticize anybody else's town, especially in the SEC--them can be fightin' words!

As for this OP, I'm really looking to hear from the guys like I was when I was actually in college & grad school, when I would go periods where I played, I swear, like 50+ hours a week of... whatever games were out then, it's been a while.

Come on, 50+ hour a weekers, college students, grad students, the unemployed... let's hear from you! We all, in our way, wish we could be you! (but I guess yall are too busy playing the game to post...)