Finding the Balance  

I remember how much easier it was to manage time between school, friends and gaming when I was going to college. In those times I could stay up very late on weekdays and play my favorite games, and I had no other responsibilities besides going to school and helping with household chores. But that was about some four years ago when I was single and living at home with my parents. Now it's a whole different story. I have a full time job, am married, go to school part time and still find time to play my favorite games. During these 4 years I've discovered that finding the time to play the games I enjoy has become much harder, not mention the learning process that was involved about life through relationships and MMOs. There are many others who are like me, who love gaming but do not have the time to engage for as long as they wish. This column will center on those who handle full schedules -- I will be concentrating on the difficulties of managing a balance between work, school and relationships, with gaming. Tips on relations in guilds, handling drama, surviving through teamwork and others will be discussed.

So to start, allow me to introduce myself. I am a life long resident of Los Angeles, California, born in 1985. I was introduced to the gaming world by my older brother who taught me how to throw a Hadouken in Street Fighter II at age 7. I grew up playing Nintendo and fighting games. Some games that were memorable are Ducktales and the Samurai Showdown series. I loved games with great stories and loved being competitive, and of course games that are just fun to play. I believe I have remained true to this statement with every game I played and still play to this day. I played RPGs like Chrono Trigger and Seiken Densetsu, dance-battled in Dance Dance Revolution, and was a competitive challenger in Guilty Gear, Puzzle Bobble and even Magic the Gathering. Nowadays, my main game is an MMO that is all three things in one plus more to me. That game is Final Fantasy XI.

My husband (Let me call him Gem) and I got married in late 2006 after being long time college friends. We actually met at the college arcade when I broke his winning streak with my random styled fighting on a popular fighting game, Capcom vs SNK 2. We became fast friends and shared lots of time at school talking about different anime, classes and what new stories we had to tell each other. From what I recall, we've been like best of friends for the longest time. To clear things a bit, I won that match on the fighting game that day because I played unpredictably, like a newbie, and because he let his guard down against a girl. He was actually one of the top players for Marvel vs Capcom 2 back in the days and even showed up in Tips & Tricks magazine. So I am pretty lucky to say that as a gamer, I have met my match.

I play Final Fantasy XI with Gem together whenever we are at home and do not have school or homework or any other errands to run. We are always trying to squeeze time to the last second to play before we retire for the night. We have a great understanding of each other and I think it's just that much easier to communicate when we share as big a common ground as gaming. Struggling with time and trying to use time efficiently has always been our constant battle in setting more to gaming without neglecting other responsibilities. The basic idea of "balancing" came when we were ditching our classes and ignoring our studies. We were so engrossed in the game that we were just going to work and play the game everyday. It was fun times because I have leveled my Dragoon and Dancer jobs to the maximum level of 75. I was also in a leadership position in Gem's new Linkshell guild in the game, called Vana'diel Vikings, and we were starting to prepare ourselves for some end-game events and recruiting new people into the Linkshell. But this did not feel right because we still wanted to complete our schooling and move on to higher levels in real life as well. Yet, stubbornly, at the same time, we did not want to give up Final Fantasy XI. We wanted to play this game as fully as we could until the day it ended. So we sat down many times to discuss how we were going to manage school, work, and still have time to play actively.

For the lifestyle that we have, the main concern was always making the time for classes and studying and, most importantly, keeping them consistent. After trials and failures, the only method that actually proved worthwhile was Designated Days, which means what it says, "Designate each day to a single purpose." The great thing about college classes is that they are only held once or twice or maybe three times in a week and not every day. Ideally, classes are carefully chosen to be on the days that are typically slower in the game. Also on School Days, you want to come home after class and sit again to study and complete any assignments. This is so that on the days that are typically busy in the game (Game Days), you can be on playing without having to worry about anything but playing. The weekends can also be Game Marathon Day, or Study Day, or Free Day. This simple idea of Designated Days may sound silly, but it works great because you know already what days you are going to do what, and what days you will not be home. This makes it easier for planning guild events and creating a solid pattern in actually sitting to study what is needed because guild events do not just take a couple of hours, most of the time you are looking at 4+ hours. And because the time is actually taken to study for classes, you will know the class material and be motivated to continue the class and not drop out.

As there is more to life than just video games, there is also a life in video games. This is proven by all the people who play video games. And by those billions of people who play video games, just proves that playing video games are not a waste of time. There is, however, a boundary that must be respected and that is playing to enjoy your time and the game, and playing the game to waste your day. So in conclusion, Do play to enjoy the game, and Do enjoy the game when time allows.

Coming up next: "Getting the Most Out of Your Time". Find out how you can use the time you have to accomplish more things. Stay tuned till next time! Until then always remember the motto: Work hard and Play hard.