{"id":1357,"date":"2008-10-03T23:14:19","date_gmt":"2008-10-04T05:14:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=1357"},"modified":"2008-10-03T23:14:19","modified_gmt":"2008-10-04T05:14:19","slug":"momgamer-taking-my-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2008\/10\/03\/momgamer-taking-my-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Momgamer: Taking My Time"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Take<\/a>I’m embarassed to report that I just finished Metal Gear Solid 4.<\/p>\n

It’s not like I wasn’t ready to get in there and get going. I stood in line until midnight on June 12th, got it and my PS3 in my hot little hands, and booted it up for the first time that night. After many travails, I skipped sleeping and wrapped it up at 5am on August 18th. I invested a total of 19 hours of gametime and came out with the Panther rating.<\/p>\n

Many of you are probably wondering exactly what the heck I was doing for two frickin’ months. Well, that’s what happens when you have to play a game 20 minutes at a time or only between 3 and 4 am. I run into this with a lot of games. I may get the game on Launch Day, but you can bet it won’t get finished anything like the timeframe most of the rest of the world considers standard.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Gamers grow older and real life starts impinging on the gaming time. Instead of homework for gaming you trade TV or interaction with your household\/friends. Add in a big project at work, a sick kid, or dealing with the viscitudes of kids busy school and work lives and you have to dip into sleep and other essential functions. And that means instead of playing four hours a night, you get half an hour here or there.<\/p>\n

Besides, what’s the hurry? It’s not like the game’s going to rot in the case or something, for crying out loud. It’s not going to run away.<\/p>\n

Metal Gear was one of the biggest scheduling challenges I’ve faced in a long time. Those cutscenes were killers, and some of the missions combined time investment snafus with my own weaknesses in orienteering to create a new form of plodding Purgatory. I probably chased that whistling twit up and down that city 20 times. I’d loose him, I’d get lost myself, or I’d run out of time.<\/p>\n

Playing this way has some challenges:<\/p>\n