<p>Hi, I'm a mom. There is a thread in Parent Cafe about someone's son being addicted to WoW. That thread has mostly parents' responses. I am curious about what the students think.</p>
<p>My son is not into WoW, but he does play a lot of other video games, Guild Wars in particular, in addition to racing games and 1st person shooters. He says that gaming helps him unwind. He is not addicted like the kid in the WoW thread, because he always prefers social activities to gaming.</p>
<p>However, I am wondering how much gaming time is considered 'normal' amongst college students. How many hours per day are you able to spend gaming, and still have time to get your homework done and do other things?</p>
<p>My son's best friend flunked out of Rice. His mom insists it was because he was gaming too much, but he says the other students spent a lot of time gaming too.</p>
<p>I'd like to hear from the gamer students, just to get some perspective. Do you game every day? How many hours? Or only on the weekend? How late do you stay up gaming? Does it affect your ability to fall asleep? How big of a place should gaming have in college? How much did you reduce your gaming time upon going to college? How much effect do you think gaming has on your studying and grades?</p>
<p>Thanks for your feedback! My son makes his own decisions, of course, but I'd like to share with him your perspective.</p>
<p>I love video games, and they are a great way to unwind.</p>
<p>However, I don't usually have time to play during the week because I'm busy with class, homework, clubs, and social commitments. I might play an hour or so during the week (like Call of Duty 4 for PC, a first person shooter).</p>
<p>But on weekends (friday and saturday mostly), me and a friend play Super Smash Bros Melee for a good 4-5 hours, without fail.</p>
<p>It doesn't affect my studies or grades because I only play if and when I have time. It was a pretty big adjustment for me when I first came to college, because in high school I used to play a *lot<a href="usually%201-3%20hours%20a%20day%20on%20weekdays,%20sometimes%20more%20on%20weekends">/I</a>.</p>
<p>yes it is good to unwind to it depends for it me if its a very good game then yea i might spend from 2 to 3 hours max. it doesnt effect my grades at all</p>
<p>I used to game a lot in college.</p>
<p>Counterstrike was a big deal back in my day. I probably spent a good 3 hours a day on that game. But my study habits allowed me to put this amount of time into the game. I only studied 2-3 days before a major exam.. (I never had homework and only had tests), but when I did study, I would got all out and not play games.</p>
<p>I briefly read through the thread the OP is talking about and WOW is not the problem. If that kid was not playing WOW, then he would've found something else to distract him.</p>
<p>If the student can get his @$#@# together, then gaming is no problem.</p>
<p>I ended up graduating, got a decent job, and am already admitted to CMU Tepper B School and possiblly Yale Business school (I find out this Friday) and yes, I gamed throughout the application process.</p>
<p>I'm a high school senior, not a college student, but I take 7 AP classes. Playing games is a great way to just be focused on something else and turn your brain off. It can get out of hand but like many of my friends, I play games <em>instead</em> of watching television. I probably play 3 hours over the course of the work week and then 2 or 3 hours on the weekends. If you compare that to following 24, House, Lost and American Idol, it's about the same during the week.</p>
<p>If I end up staying up late, it's usually for movies and not games. Having a Netflix subscription has taken up more time than my video game habit ever has.</p>
<p>While it varies based on the person, among my high school senior friends, the average is probably...5-8 hours per week. Some people go overboard, especially with role-playing games like WoW, but among my classmates, more people would qualify as alcoholics than game addicts.</p>
<p>My friends in college play 9-15 hours per week.</p>