GamerDad Long Shot

For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of visiting, GamerDad is a site right up our personal alley; lots of insightful editorials, clever writers, and original points of view. Not precisely a site just about parentage, any more than we are a site about employment, their monicker is, like ours, a statement of perspective. With that in mind, it only seemed logical that we come together and introduce our respective communities to one another. To that end we have invited GamerDad's Dave Long - former Evil Avatar and Computer Games Magazine writer - to switch articles with us today. Which means my usual Maximum Verbosity can be found today on Gamerdad while we're proud to share here with you, Dave's Longshot.

If you haven't visited GamerDad before, I encourage you to add it to your daily cycle. But first, read on for Dave's thoughts.


Time is our enemy

Writing for GamerDad as well as Computer Games Magazine means I spend a lot of time playing console and computer games. On average, I probably spend three or more hours in front of a game each day. I'm a lucky man because I've been able to turn my favorite hobby into a way to make a few bucks on the side and net a few free games along the way too. The readers of sites like GamerDad and Gamers With Jobs usually don't have this luxury. Though I'm lucky enough to get some extra time to play because it's also a "job", the one thing that ties us together is the lack of time we have available to play games.

As a father of three small boys, a lot of my time between the hours of 8AM and 9PM is spent either at work or caring for my children. Before the Stork arrived, gaming time flowed like water from the faucet. I'd spend the requisite eight hours driving a desk or ringing up sales and when I got home, it was time to save the Earth from marauding aliens in X-Com or conquering it in Civilization II. I'd spend many of my weekday hours playing games, often til early morning. Being in front of the PC when 4AM rolled around was not uncommon. Life was good, or so I thought.

When the kids came along, gaming time was cut down. Especially in those first couple months after each birth and especially once there were two or three little ones, I just wasn't able to spend as much time playing as maybe I wanted to or at least had been able to before the crying began. It wasn't so bad that I left gaming behind or anything. But unless I was "working" on a game, I wasn't spending much extra time gaming. At 9PM if I was lucky I got to the PC and by 12AM I was nodding and bonking my head on the tube. Friends of mine that have been through the child rearing years often relate similar stories of toothpicks to hold open eyelids and Wile E. Coyote style tricks to keep them from falling asleep at the wheel of their 1967 Grand Prix car in Grand Prix Legends.

The thing is, work and to a lesser extend kids, are an inescapable part of life. Both things are important to me. Work because it pays the bills and keeps me from being a total waste to society and kids because they give me some hope for the future and well, I love having them around too. Games are just a diversion and losing that overlong period of daily self-indulgence was probably a good thing.

I appreciate games more today than I ever did before the kids came along. My daily game time is still usually spent between 9PM and 1AM on weekdays. Weekends I usually don't find a whole lot of time for gaming because of family obligations and the need to spend time with the little guys. But the runts are now also becoming a source for game time. As they've reached toddler and older, we spend a ton of time together in front of The Legend of Zelda or Super Smash Brothers Melee, often creating a lot of great memories along the way. Videogames have become an integral part of my family experience and I wouldn't have it any other way. Once again, that makes me appreciate the privilege of playing them even more despite the limited time available for gaming. Thankfully, the "work" reviewing and previewing games as well as writing this column continues so I can sometimes sneak in some extra time here and there as "work" requires. Heh.

One of the coolest things about gaming is the community that has sprung up around it. It forms smaller sub-groups of people that have like interests. GamerDad includes those folks that are still hardcore gamers but happen to have some kids at home. Through our reviews, we give you all the info you need as a hardcore gamer to decide if you should be running to the store to buy a game or should be burning all the copies they have on the shelf to save the uninformed. In addition to those hardcore reviews by published writers in print, we provide the bits that might be inappropriate for your kids so that gamerdads can decide if junior should be playing too. We're definitely not all about edutainment or Lego games. Far from it. We figure that maybe we can educate some of the less hardcore while at the same time reaching those folks that eat, sleep and drink games even if they don't have as much time for them as they used to.

And that's where those of us at both sites cross over. We're all strapped for time. We want to play games more often but maybe only get that couple hours or less a day to smack some bad guys around (or good guys if you're so inclined!) We also want to read words from and exchange ideas with like-minded folks. GamerDad and Gamers With Jobs provide the havens for these discussions. We're all finding a brief respite from the real world in a virtual one, however brief it might be.

--David J. Long

Comments

Very nice; thanks for the crossover; may there be more of them.

Looks like being a gamer/dad myself I need to head over there later and take a looksee

Elysium: Since there wasn't a way to reply to the Gamerdad article you wrote:
Congrats on the locomotion My son just achieved this as well and there were tears... err no NEVER I didn't tear up hell no not me! <---all man after all

And excellent article on balance! I think you were reading my brain! or a zombie bit me I'm not sure

A crossover!?! What a great idea!
I always like Dave's articles and heartily recommend a stroll through the archives, along with the GamerMom archives.

@painthappens - I teared up when mine rolled over, when he pulled himself up on the table, when he took that first tenative step, when he first said "Da-deeee!"(ok, I might have actually cried joytears at that one), etc.
No shame there.

Rather funny that I posted just today recommending someone go check out gamerdad.com regarding his little girl liking Halo, only to find a nice crossover waiting for me in bloglines. If I was only allowed to see two gaming sites ever, these are they.

GamerDad is a great site, big thanks to Dave for playing along with our evil schemes. Fun fact, I brought Elysium onto Evilavatar.com to fill Dave's shoes after he left. I dare say things worked out pretty well!

OK, I'm stumped who was GamerDad on EA?

I love GamerDad, and I've often thought of GD and GWJ in the same mental breath...Glad to see the collaboration, although I think GamerDad needs a thesaurus disclaimer at the top of Elysium's columns. Then again, any excuse to use the word 'druthers' is good by me.

I've been jumping back and forth between them since day one it seems.

I recommend GamerDad to any gamer with kids.

I find it curious that with all the discussion about how children change how gamers pattern their lives -- and they do, there's no doubt -- there's little discussion aside form Certis' rant a week ago about Hoochie's play time.

If you deal with kids from 8AM to 9PM, then game from 9PM to 1AM and assumedly sleep from 1AM to 8AM to repeat the Circle Of Life, where does time with the spouse fit in? I game perhaps a couple of times a week for a few to perhaps many hours depending on how I feel any given day, but I'd say that the majority of my evenings are not spent playing but rather doing something with my (non-game-playing-dammit) wife.

Just curious, really.

I don't have any children and I still feel that there isn't enough time to play all the games I have, so I can't imagine how difficult it is for you people with offspring to find the time. I'd still do anything to join the club, though, if only fate would cooporate.

Welcome GamerDad and keep up the great work.

Oh and damned fine article over there, Ely.

In terms of locomotion, it's definitely a total blast. My daughter is almost endlessly entertained these days by just wandering around the house, occasionally docking at either the Mom- or Dad-port for reassurance. Wild little adventurers they are.

Awesome. Soon, we will rule the world. I demand to be Minister of Pointy Things.

ColdForged wrote:

I find it curious that with all the discussion about how children change how gamers pattern their lives -- and they do, there's no doubt -- there's little discussion aside form Certis' rant a week ago about Hoochie's play time.

If you deal with kids from 8AM to 9PM, then game from 9PM to 1AM and assumedly sleep from 1AM to 8AM to repeat the Circle Of Life, where does time with the spouse fit in? I game perhaps a couple of times a week for a few to perhaps many hours depending on how I feel any given day, but I'd say that the majority of my evenings are not spent playing but rather doing something with my (non-game-playing-dammit) wife.

Just curious, really.

Have to say I agree with you, CF. In fact, the time I spend actually playing said games is directly proportional to the amount of quality time my wife and I spend, not to mention the mood she is in at the given moment (corollary to QT), as well as any chores or obligations that we need to fulfill on that day. I've always assumed that adding kids into the mix would increase the number of chores and obligations.

Sanjuro wrote:

Awesome. Soon, we will rule the world. I demand to be Minister of Pointy Things.

Sorry, sanj, the only position available is Minister of Silly Walks.

I have surfed GamerDad myself a number of times. Video games run in the blood I think and my son who is 6 loves to play games. He just watched me get mercilessly thumped by JohnnyMojo and was there to console me. As soon as we were done he wanted to play something else :). He enjoys a bit of Everquest and City of Heroes and inadvertently made a guest appearance one night on Teamspeak and Joint OPs :). Yes the little ones change your life drastically, but it gets better and better. The game time gets paired down byt it becomes more quality and something you can eventually share with "the young'uns".

I find that GamerDad has a sick focus. They appear to actually be child and family friendly, with an incisive grasp of philosophical issues that matter to mature responsible adults.

I originally came to Gamers with Jobs because I appreciated its focus on how to mash down your job and other unimportant things in life in favor of pure nearly unadulterated gaming.

How disappointed I am that GamerDad is not properly focused on mashing down wife, child, and family to allow the pursuit of pure, nearly unadulterated gaming. Here I was, expecting tips on how to have the outward appearance of being a caring father, while secretly neglecting your family for games. Yet there is nothing of that sort on the site.

I cry false advertising "GamerDad;" basely done I say.

SlyFrog wrote:

How disappointed I am that GamerDad is not properly focused on mashing down wife, child, and family to allow the pursuit of pure, nearly unadulterated gaming.

Not many gamers need much support from a web community to do this though. My wife wasn't too pleased with me last night when I blew off dinner she spent two hours making so I could participate in a task force in CoH.

We're cool now but I think by nature gamers are either just not very conscience about the time they're on the machine or just selfish.

EDIT - So is everyone whispering funny names at me since none of you told me which admin on EA Gamerdad was back in the day?

It's the author of the article, Dave Long. He was with EA back a few years ago.

I think I remember a D-Long or something. OK then.