Hours spent playing—how accurate are yours?

[Brian Boru]

Those times are way overstated as gameplay, because I usually leave the game running minimized when I switch away from it

That's my experience, which I thought I'd mention for anyone who's not aware of that potential reason for inflated times. I remember seeing on HowLongToBeat.com that my Steam playtimes were 5-6 times longer than 'normal', and wondering if my slow playstyle and penchant for wandering off on tangents and experiments was the whole cause.

How about you, are your times accurate or inflated?

Do you know of any other gotchas in the recorded playtimes?

 

[Kaamos_Llama]

I usually close down games when I'm not playing even for 10 minutes, so I think mine are pretty accurate. Its probably a holdover from a youth of having to close everything because most of the time my computers were potatoes until 10 or so years ago.

Only other thing is when you get a 'Directors cut/Enhanced edition' for free. So I have 150 hours of Divinity Original Sin across 2 editions of the same game, same thing with Wasteland 2

 

[ZedClampet]

Depends on the game for me. I'm technically not playing anything this weekend, but I have Craftopia open in the background because I need my Wagyu cattle to...um...poop as much as possible (which is being auto-collected into chests). But most games I just shut down when I leave them. Don't want to stress my PC any more than I have to. All weekend I've been checking in on my temps since I'm running a fairly CPU intensive game non-stop (right now GPU is 45 and CPU is 66 degrees). I'm really interested to see how much BS is in those chests!

 

[Johnway]

Pretty accurate. I only start the game up when i play and i close it when i'm done. I don't leave it running for hours as honestly thats a waste of energy and resources.

However, if someone assumes that my the amount of time i've been logged onto Steam was an indication as to how much gaming i'm doing, they would be wrong. That thing is always on, signed in when i boot up.

 

[Zloth]

Mine are pretty accurate. I might alt-tab out to look in a guide or even write my own guide, but that's not going to add up to much.

 

[mainer]

I believe my hours are fairly accurate, at least games on Steam & GOG. I do what @Kaamos_Llama does, and shut the game down if I need to something that takes longer than 10 minutes rather than just pause the game.

I wish I knew the hours I've played over the years, back before the Steam era, when I installed all game data from disks. I'd like to see total life time hours played; or maybe not, it might be scary.

It would also be nice if BattleNet tracked the hours I've put into D2 Resurrected, as I imagine it must be well over 100hrs by now.

 

[Hitobat]

I think it depends on the game, and how you play.

For me I think Plants vs Zombies has an absurd playtime. Not because I was actually playing, but because I left it open on the zen garden to automatically grow/collect coins with my chocolate snail. I'm sure a lot of other idle games have overly inflated times too.

Other games I think are mostly accurate, unless I happen to pause in the middle of a game (or even just on a main menu screen) and go make/eat lunch or something.

 

[Frag Maniac]

I often check HowLongToBeat.com to compare to my run times, and I find they're pretty close to mine, with a few exceptions of course.

 

[Frindis]

Pretty accurate, If I don't fall asleep while playing

 

[Pifanjr]

Probably somewhat inflated for anything turn-based, as I'm more likely to leave those open if I do something else in between and I'm more likely to play them when I know I have to switch between the game and doing other stuff.

The rest is probably pretty accurate. I do usually close whatever I'm playing when I go do something else.

 

[Yggdrasill]

Mine are pretty accurate for most games, I'd rather boot a game again in ten minutes than letting it run for 10 minutes in the background. I'm far less critical with Sims and maybe Planet Zoo. I have sooo many hours (1000+), that it doesn't really matter anymore.

Strangely I've got quite a lot of friends in steam who do just 'farm' playtime in specific games. They don't play, just boot the game and do something different. Maybe that's also why I make sure to not run a game when I don't actively play it (small breaks for toilet/getting drinks&snacks etc. I do not count)

 

[Colif]

The Idea of leaving a game running in background while you do something else is foreign to me. If I am not using the program, its not running... I am not extreme, I know there are things running on my PC I don't know about, but they are parts of windows and it doesn't need me to give permission to do stuff. Its like sleep feature of PC, I don't get that either. If I am not using PC, its off. It only takes a few seconds to boot again.

I may leave game running while I eat, but most of the time I am actively playing it, or its off. recently Diablo 2 has been on more than off. Last few hours is longest I used PC and not had game on... but I have to sleep soon, and brain turned to mush about 4 hours ago, and you can make dumb decisions if you tired. I did play it all night.

 

[flashn00b]

Not very accurate, but biggest crimes are

TF2: Been a big-time idler before the F2P update, trying to farm achievement items
All turn-based games and some singleplayer games in my library: Because i'm the errand boy of the household, i usually just have the game paused or in a screen with talking heads waiting for me to press a button so usually, i'm in the middle of an errand while the game's running in the background in the middle of my turn or during game moments w/ talking heads

 

[mainer]

... but I have to sleep soon, and brain turned to mush about 4 hours ago, and you can make dumb decisions if you tired. I did play it all night.

I know D2 Resurrected is a great game, I've been playing myself for 6-8 hours most days since it released; but you've also got to take care of yourself. Sleep, food, hydration; we all need that. Maybe a little fresh air occasionally, talking to another living human (even if boring), just to clear the mind a bit. Don't harm yourself over a game.

 

[Colif]

My hours are just broken right now, I am sleeping all day and playing all night. It can't go on but its fun while it lasts

 

[Brian Boru]

Don't harm yourself over a game

I see I need to remind you of what the great Bill Shankly said:
“Some people believe football is a matter of life and death. I am very disappointed with that attitude, I can assure you it is much, much more important than that.”

I am sleeping all day and playing all night

What's broken about that?

 

[Zloth]

What's broken about that?

Looks like Colif posted right after getting off work (in Miami).

 

[Colif]

i played all night on Friday night, and was expecting a friend to visit around lunch so I stayed awake until then. When he didn't show then I asked him when he be over, 4.30pm he says... so I played D2 for a few more hours to keep me awake and occupied so my brain wouldn't melt. I played through almost 3 chapters yesterday and I don't feel like it yet today. Its a night section, its sunny outside... maybe later.

Games like Diablo just hold me and its only when I hear birds outside or see the sun trying to get past my curtains that I curse time for going too fast. Maybe its fortunate there are so good examples of the genre. Or I would have choice, and never have months/years where I don't play anything. I never dreamed after I spent 9 years trying to replace Diablo 2 that I would eventually be playing it again. I still don't remember all of it. Its bad enough relearning tl2 everytime I picked it up again, relearning something 20 years later is another story.

My pc when I played it then compared to now, was soo held back. So character choice was based on response time of pc, more than me. It seems too fast now. I don't think I tried half the classes out back then.

Mainer, in d2r, press F & then G and look at the pixels. If you hold F & scroll mouse wheel you can control amount of zoom