How Much Of Your Day Is Dedicated Video Games?
Displaying poll results.34173 total votes.
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- When will AGI be achieved? Posted on April 24th, 2025 | 49 comments
Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Marketing (Score:5, Funny)
This still feels like a marketing exercise...
Ech! Well, thanks for reminding me that I have some common interest with one of those detestable marketing flacks.
I feel dirty now. I would go take a shower, but then I'd probably have more in common with one of those marketing people. So I won't! Ha!
Re:Marketing (Score:4, Insightful)
I play older video games, like Carmageddon II, Flatout II, and others that I can play on older hardware and don't require being connected to just play. I also buy 'em at Half-price Books for $5-$10 each, long after they're not the hot game anymore.
I used to host lan parties, in the days of Doom and Quake and Rise of the Triad, but I don't have time for that anymore.
Re:Marketing (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Marketing (Score:4, Funny)
I play solitaire, but only on the toilet.
Suddenly it all makes sense. [technewsdaily.com]
Re:Marketing (Score:4, Funny)
being solitaire on the toilet is considered best practice
Re:Marketing (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh yeah...it played games too.
Well, I've enjoyed it for streaming netflix...and now Amazon prime movies too. I did buy a few video games, to piddle with.
Wow, I had NO idea how badly I have been moving into the "get off my lawn" segment of society. I mean, I grew up playing video games, and was quite decent at it....arcade games (robotron, asteroids, etc)...then to the various Nintendos....etc. I'd played computer games, Descent, Doom...etc.
Well, I read about and got Red Dead Redemption...looked very cool, and fun. It still looks fun, but for the life of me...I can't get the controller down at all!! I'm not used to the 3rd person perspective...every time I start to get shot...I somehow end up looking either at the sky, or the ground, with the camera spinning around me...the joy sticks are new to me....and they are just so sensitive...one touch and wham...way further than I wanted to go...whew.
I wanna give it more time, when I have time...but man, such a steep learning curve for these new controllers...and switching so many things at once...different targeting things, swapping weapons...and so many buttons. And my time is quite limited for video games...hard to find the time to put in the hours I'm guessing it takes to master this new system.
Yep...I certainly feel like shouting 'get off my lawn' soon...but I hope to go down with a fight.
I did get the Rocksmith game...which I can seem to play a bit better...since the control is a REAL guitar....so far, that is fun to me. but wow...I was shocked how bad I was at the 'new' types of game. Thankfully, I have a nice arcade MAME machine (built out of an original Tempest cabinet), and an old 1967 EM Pinball machine..to tide me over to futz with while having cocktails with friends...till I can find the time to grind out the skills to master the PS3 type controller....
Re:Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
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I almost checked I do not play any video games, until I realized that I do enjoy playing a few games on my iPhone (Angry Birds and Bejeweled) and my computer (Freecell and Chess).
Are they RPG or FPS games? Nope. But they're certainly video games, and I at least spend a few minutes a day playing them when bored.
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gamify life (Score:3, Insightful)
I gamify life and play it all day long.
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Can you elaborate on "gamify life"?
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Re:gamify life (Score:5, Funny)
I tried this strategy, and it's awesome fun.
Alas, though, my favorite genre is first-person shooter. If my lawyer can't come up with a viable defense strategy, I'm looking at the electric chair.
Re:gamify life (Score:5, Funny)
you should have tried third person shooter...then you'd be off the hook :)
Re:gamify life (Score:4, Insightful)
Exactly. My life has become too interesting. Games are now boring.
Re:Marketing (Score:4, Insightful)
Ya, but it does show there is a lot of boring stiffs here that don't play video games.
I am shocked, too.
I wonder if those 33% have thought about solitair, bejeweled and many other time wasting games you can play on a smart phone (Angry birds, etc).
Or did the responders assume that the question refers to the useful part of the day, not spent waiting in line/on the bus/etc?
Re:Marketing (Score:5, Interesting)
Non-gamer here: Yes, really, zero gaming unless you count slashdot. I've found other hobbies to be more rewarding lately and there's only so many hours in the day.
I used to game a lot. It was a blast when it involved getting all my friends together for a caffeine-fueled weekend of cobbling together a makeshift network and playing for 36 hours straight (with random events like the all-chainsaws hour). It's a geek social thing, and it was great when we had games that supported squad-size collaboration (Q2 LMCTF was the pinncacle IMO).
These days FPSes and RTSes have lost the appeal. There are just so many that fail at basic multiplayer balance and teamwork issues. Maybe once every other year I'll find one that looks OK and put in a couple months, but once people aren't interested in LANing it, I'm done. The last one was Left 4 Dead... I'm sure there will be more.
There's also an occasional single player gem like Portal that's completely satisfying.
I tried to get into MMORPGs to rekindle that spark of social fun, but it didn't work out; they just bore me to hell.
So yeah, no gaming at all for now. I haven't played anything for at least a year. I'm not saying "never", but it's rare lately.
Re:Marketing (Score:4, Interesting)
I used to game a lot. It was a blast when it involved getting all my friends together for a caffeine-fueled weekend of cobbling together a makeshift network and playing for 36 hours straight (with random events like the all-chainsaws hour). It's a geek social thing, and it was great when we had games that supported squad-size collaboration (Q2 LMCTF was the pinncacle IMO).
I have some fond memories of dragging my full-sized P3 Tower all over hell and creation to build a BNC network in a friend's basement. I sure am glad that I don't have that heavy sucker any more.
But as you say, my hobbies have drifted farther and farther from gaming. I'd much rather build something or create something. Though I do enjoy a few hours of BLOWIN' STUFF UP in Ratchet and Clank (probably the funniest FPS ever made). I enjoyed playing Portal 2 in single player mode, but I don't have the patience to spend hours playing on line so I can keep up with the caffeine fueled thirteen-year-olds on line.
I would much rather spend a lazy Sunday afternoon modeling and 3D printing a toy these days. I also find myself spending less and less time in front of the screen and more time reading or spending time outside as I get older. Maybe I'm making up for a mis-spent youth.
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I don't play video games because is just know I'd spend to much time. Solitaire and the like, yes, some.
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That's why I voted "don't play".
Otherwise, still less than one hour, although I occasionally play Angry Birds for a few minutes, usually after my daughter asks me if she can play and I acquiesce and then she gets bored with it and I take over.
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In 2009 or so my gaming machine died, and I never really replaced it. I still have a Windows machine I keep around to run Windows-only programs,
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I have a great game on an old laptop. "The World of Goo." Very engaging, a lot of fun. That's the most recent game I've played.
I last played it, mmm, sometime in 2009. Or was it 2008? Can't remember. I don't have time enough to play, and many other things that I'd rather be doing (that I probably don't have time for either.)
If I'm at home, I have lots of little projects around, like convert my old LPs to digital music, or scan some old photos in for the mother of a friend. And a queue of 30 or
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For me, less than an hour would be too much, because none of my time is "dedicated" to video games. At least not on a daily basis. I play video games, but I'll sometimes go weeks without playing them. Some days I'll play for 3 hours straight if I find the time. Overall, I would have to say the median number of minutes I spend playing video games in a day, is probably ZERO. Because 9 days out of 10 I don't play them at all.
Re:Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
It just shows that the Slashdot readership has grown up, gotten jobs, families and financial commitments. This site doesn't seem to attract young geeks anymore (Guess that niche is fulfilled by Stack Overflow, Reddit, Facebook, etc) while existing members are aging and don't have the time to spend on such hobbies.
It would be very interesting to do a poll on the age brackets.
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It just shows that the Slashdot readership has grown up, gotten jobs, families and financial commitments. This site doesn't seem to attract young geeks anymore (Guess that niche is fulfilled by Stack Overflow, Reddit, Facebook, etc) while existing members are aging and don't have the time to spend on such hobbies.
It would be very interesting to do a poll on the age brackets.
It's kind of a shame. I'm yelling get off my lawn but there's nobody here on my lawn anymore.
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Actually, there are lots of us who really like what iPad and phone gaming has brought. Short, simple games that have depth similar to the coin-op games we grew up with. These games are usually pretty good from the replayability perspective as well. For me, nothing beats Tetris for replayability (maybe chess does, but I don't call it a video game even when it takes place on a screen).
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You're presuming that Slashdotters used to play more games than they do now.
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I don't play video games because my life is already plenty interesting and fun, without needing video games to distract me. I used to play a few video games regularly, but got bored with them (and most of what the gaming industry puts out). Kinda got bored with hardcore gamers too (sorry). I do play the occasional game on my phone (No, Human was good fun for a while, Trism serves on the rare occasions when I'm stuck on the toilet and I've already finished reading my mail and skimming the NY Times app and
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Don't worry, there's still plenty of boring stiffs who spend their free time sitting on couches and playing with electronic toys created by others, racking up completely meaningless virtual achievements. The rest of us are busy creating real things in the real world and doing things that people who have lives that don't revolve around toys would be interested in.
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Now, now, the "games are a waste of time" attitude is getting a little thick. I once had a graphics class in which the professor took that attitude. Didn't make for a good class on graphics! Professional sports people and game programmers make their living from games. You may be inclined to think sports are a waste of time too, but no. They produce useful information on health and the limits of our bodies. Some games are valuable tools for aiding in decisions and in training. Chess is thought to be a
Re:Marketing (Score:5, Insightful)
This "boring stiff" realized a decade ago that all the FPS games I was playing were just more of the same with higher and higher demands of the hardware.
This "boring stiff" realized that newer games took less time to play, often under 20 hours compared to a couple or three weeks mere years earlier.
This "boring stiff" realized that it wasn't my fault I was bored playing games, but a flood of never-ending sameness from the game companies as they consolidated and released a bazillion "me too" titles.
I didn't "grow up." I didn't get "distracted" by work. I didn't shift my focus to "family".
I just got sick of being a rat on the treadmill slaughtering one virtual foe with a mouse click after another.
I quit consuming a diet of mass-media television for much the same reason: the mundane scripted laugh tracks became boring as the writers stopped being creative and taking anything even vaguely resembling a risk.
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Nope, you were done growing up, now you're growing old. Notice how the music gets louder and all new stuff sounds the same every year too?
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Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
This is why you should click zero/none/never on every such survey. I don't play games, I don't have a phone, I don't use aliases, I don't file a tax return, I don't listen to music, I don't watch films, I don't own shoes... (To pick a few from the last 3 months.)
Then let /. try to sell that audience to their advertisers.
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I hope you're aware that your behavior falls within the expected poll "noise". In other words, what you're doing doesn't affect the whole picture, unless you replace the whole answer table with random stuff server-side.
Weird options (Score:2)
I'm always logged in, but play an average of 2-3 hours a day. So, what should I choose?
And how about someone I know who plays games for 8+ hours a day while not logged in?
And does Cowboyneal even play games anymore?
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Day? (Score:2, Funny)
slashdot (Score:3)
Does slashdot count as a video game? How bout facebook with its friend count as a "score"?
You can have a lot of fun with definitions.... there's a strange subculture that declares videogames to be the only form of electronic entertainment that exists and they're only FPS from major developers on low res TV with connected console and no mice. Those guys are hilarious in their narrowmindedness and inward focus. By their hyperfine definition I've never actually played a video game.
On the other extreme theres my kids who think angry birds is the greatest game ever. Seriously addictive game to anyone still in grade school.
Does the old def of "any game displayed on a TV" is a video game, and "any game displayed by a computer is a computer game"?
How about the encompassing def where a video game is a computer assisted game of chance, which also includes my td-ameritrade brokerage account?
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Since it has achievements [slashdot.org], I'm going to have to go with "yes, in the worst possible way".
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Re:slashdot (Score:5, Funny)
How do you win?
A strange game. The only winning move is not to play.
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I think we all knew this was a one-way trip.
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I have seen more than one comment in the past informing the parent "You win slashdot".
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Cleveland Brown: "You don't win. You just do a little better each time. "
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Good point. By that standard, I play video games at least 8 hours a day before I get home and play video games to unwind.
"Business is a good game - lots of competition and a minimum of rules. You keep score with money"
- Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari [chicagotribune.com]
Fortunately, I appear to be in good company.
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Does slashdot count as a video game?
No. Definitely not. But I just checked our scores and I'm winning.
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If you consider your td-ameritrade brokerage account a game, then yes, it is a video game. I was under the impression that games were played for entertainment purposes though...
Also, "a computer assisted game of chance" is problematic because of the "of chance" part. Chess doesn't have any chance built into the game, but a chess program is clearly a video game.
Focusing on computer assistance is also problematic, as a computer could assist a normal game. For instance, you could be playing Dungeons and Dragon
Lack of Great Games (Score:2, Insightful)
There hasn't been a great game in years.
To be honest, I use to play SWG for 8+ hours a day.
Newer games kinda end or loose progression after about 24 hours. I am not up to mindless grinding.
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Re:Lack of Great Games (Score:5, Insightful)
There have been plenty of great games. You've just lost interest in gaming. That tends to happen with any hobby over an extended period of time.
Next week, a lot more... (Score:5, Interesting)
2-3 hours lately, but on May 15 that figure will go up considerably.
Re:Next week, a lot more... (Score:4, Informative)
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I'm currently carrying a shoulder injury that limits how much time I can manage in front of a computer at at time (I truncated the guild raid last night because I wouldn't manage 4 hours in a sitting). I'm hoping it's cleared up before the 15th...
Beyond that on a normal day, if you include various little apps like Pocket frogs, Draw Something, Tiny Tower, etc... that I check in on multiple times a day, especially while commuting, on top of WoW and any other games on my desktop at home, I probably actually p
Hard to average (Score:2)
Most days I don't play at all, but when I do I play a lot. I guess on average it's about 1h/day.
I dont dedicate any of my time to video games (Score:3)
I might sit down and play an hour or 2, then not again for a week, but its not like I sit down and make it mandatory that X hours A DAY be worked into my schedule or someones head will roll!
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Exactly. As a grad student, I've had week-long stretches of nothing to do (usually when the instrument in the lab blows itself up and the tech has to fix it) so I end up playing video games, watching hockey, going out with the wife, etc. Other times I've had months-long dry spells where I've either been way too hectic to do anything other than school-related stuff and barely get to see my wife.
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Also, the poll leaves me with no answer if I dedicate 1.5/day hour to gaming. I can choose a) Less than 1, b) 1 and c) 2-3.
Ah well - I never saw a perfect slashdot poll.
Does it have to be Playing? (Score:3)
Competitive games are like sport now days. They have competitions broadcasted to millions of spectators and to players are paid salaries. They even have TV shows that talk about competitive gaming just like ESPN news.
Varies wildly (Score:2)
When I'm in gaming mode, I'll often spend at least four hours every day. When I'm not, I can go for days without touching a game. I'm not sure how much time I spend in each mode, though. For about the last month, the only games I've played have been old desktop standbys like minesweeper. The month before, I was deep into a game, and spent a substantial part of my free time with a controller in my hand.
I haven't got the faintest idea how to answer this poll.
I voted, 'I don't play games'. (Score:3, Insightful)
And it's not through some sense of superiority or anything; I wish I could play way more games than I do, just ENOTIME.
So many games are sitting on my shelf awaiting some attention.
Video cards (Score:2)
No wonder every article about processors or video cards degenerates into "herp news for nerds" or "derp slashvertisement."
With 35% abstaining entirely from video games, gentlemen, I think we can safely assume that NVIDIA's astroturf dollars are spent elsewhere.
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well even if its 99% whats the point? just about every game is a 360 port and will run fine on a old dual core and a 8600GT
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Don't remind me; I'll cry.
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Better yet, they could not spend the dollars at all and lower the cost of their boards.
making (Score:2)
Less than 1 hour per day on average (Score:5, Informative)
Once you have a job your giant video game collection gathers a lot of dust.
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For me it was the kids. It's really hard to get a headshot with a toddler sitting on your lap hitting random keys.
Perhaps you should switch to Soul Calibur.
Im a game developer (Score:2)
Life of a Videogame Critic (Score:3)
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Those people are also "gaming critics", but don't have enough time to publish their analysis.
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Dammit Gabe! Forget the ponies, close your browser and get back to work on HL3.
All 24 hours are. (Score:2)
All 24 hours of my day are dedicated to video games, but on a regular (daily) basis I have to reallocate some of that time for other things such as work, sleep eating etc etc.
Hardest one yet! (Score:2)
Seriously, like what I suspect is the same for most people, I only spend a couple of hours a year on games. On average that is obviously less than an hour a day, but wouldn't voting that option imply I spend some portion of every day to video games?
Old burned-out gamer chiming in (Score:4, Interesting)
Current situation: professional software engineer. Spend ~10 hrs. a day in front of a computer. Have absolutely no desire to sit in front of one when I get home. Frat bro is in the same situation, we actually worked at the same company right out of school. We both stopped playing the same week. A year later, we played some Q3 for giggles during lunch break and got depressed about how bad we sucked.
Conclusion: (this only applies to FPS, which is where >90% of my gaming experience lies) if you don't use it, you lose it. Online play has gotten sufficiently competitive that unless you have the resources and inclination to keep your skills up, signing on to a random server once a week for a few rounds is a completely demoralizing experience.
Solitaire (Score:2)
Well, and trolling for right-wingers, that's always fun.
[XBox360] Rocksmith (Score:2)
I play my guitar on Rocksmith probably an hour to two hours each day and play up to 6 hours on the weekend.
Rocksmith lets me plug my Strat into the console and recognizes my playing against the songs scrolling on the screen. I actually bought an Xbox just so I could get this game.
I also added in the time I spend playing Risk, Ticket to Ride, Dead Space, RealRacingHD, Plants Vs Zombies, and Doom on my iPad :)
[John]
It varies for me! (Score:2)
I rarely play video games (computer -- haven't had a console since my Atari 2600!). When I do play, it is mostly random quick free Flash games. I don't have time to play anymore since I commute, work, eat, sleep/hibernate, Internet (more fun than gaming to me), watch TV and videos (rarely movies), etc. :( I used to be a hardcore big computer game! However, I did play Diablo 3 stress test for about 3.75 hours [aqfl.net], but I had to sacrifice my beauty sleep during my work crunch time! :(
Wish we could correlate this data by age .... (Score:2)
I hear a lot of statistics claiming there's an older demographic buying video and computer games now, which makes sense from the perspective that many of us (like myself) who are now in the "40 something" age group were the first generation to really grow up on video games.
Yet, I'm finding that in my own circle of friends and acquaintances, I'm one of only a *few* who still doing any gaming, to speak of. Oh, plenty of us play Words with Friends on our cellphones occasionally -- but that doesn't really count
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Well, I do think things have changed a lot but it's hard to tell exactly how.
First of all, as recently as 10-15 years ago a gamer was also a geek (generally speaking), these days there are plenty of hardcore gamers who have no need or interest in geeky pursuits beyond what is required to keep their gaming rig up-to-date (it's actually kind of interesting talking to some guy who can quote graphics card benchmarks from memory but who also thinks Microsoft invented email and that IE was the first web browser,
Playing or Developing (Score:2)
I wish I could get an hour a day (Score:2)
I used to play 3-4 hours a day. But then I got married, bought a house (which requires some work apart from the usual), had a kid (now 2) with another one on the way. Although I greatly enjoy video games (mostly of the MMO/RPG kind), if I can play 2-3 hours in a week I count myself very lucky. I think it's been over a week and a half since I last played. Once my kids are a little older, I'm hoping it's something that we can do together.
it was 20th century last time I played (Score:2)
That was 1983 or so when I last played a video game (these just don't interest me). A friend gave me "Mist" saying it's great and I can play it for weeks (but I don't have the time).
About paying games at work, I like this as example at http://www.thewebsiteisdown.com/ [thewebsiteisdown.com] of Episode #1 "Sales Guy vs. Web Dude" showing screen view of sys admin "tries desperately to get his important work [ gaming ] done while assaulted on all sides by rampant incompetence."
Hard to say (Score:2)
On most days.... no time at all....
On other days, anywhere from around 3 to 14 hours.
I have been known to pack on 120 hours of gameplay in a week or two.... but then I may not pick up any games at all for a month or more.
Most recently, I was playing Nethack, but, Nethack sessions tend to not last more than an hour or two before I put it down. More normally, I tend to play more modern games with RPG elements like the Fallout series or similar.
Of course, the nethack is an abberation caused by chatting with my
how many /. people fit this role? (Score:2)
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To play EXACTLY one hour a day, thats very precise.
LOL thats only one sig fig. There's numerous scientific and engineering rounding standards each violently defended as the One True Method, about all thats certain about a claim of 1 hour is its more than zero and less than 2:00:00.0000000000.
2 ^ 24-1 milliseconds, now thats very precise... (about 4 1/2 hours)
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It would be generally accepted that 1h means "between exactly 30 minutes and exactly 90 minutes", whereas 2^24-1 milliseconds would mean "between exactly 2^24-1.5 milliseconds and exactly 2^24-0.5 milliseconds".
In science and engineering, you take all the digits given and assume that the rest have been rounded off unless the accuracy is specifically stated. (So 1000g does not mean the same thing as 1kg.)
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Oh boy here we go with the rounding standards. Wait until the > vs >= wars begin and the .5 wars begin. For a good laugh ask what .5 gets rounded to, up or down. All kinds of rules based on if the previous digit is even or odd, or always round .5 down, or always round .5 up.
My old fashioned vernier micrometer is inherently monotonic so the old fashioned rounding rules work on it, my mystery magic Chinese digital caliper, who the heck knows, and how does that influence rounding rules? Personally I
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Are you a professional gamer, developer, or debugger? Or have you found some genius way to monazite putting a dent in a couch in a basement somewhere? If you have, can you please elaborate?
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Same here - and the question is badly worded:
"How Much Of Your Day Is Dedicated Video Games?"
Dedicated to playing video games, or what exactly?
I spend more then 6-7 hours a day dedicated to video games, as I'm a game engine developer, yet, I almost never actually play games. So I'd have to pick between the "always logged in" and "I don't play video games" options.
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Watching my wife play Katamari is almost as much fun as playing myself. Sometimes it makes me want to hurl, but it's fun to watch all the subtle and hilarious entities get rolled up when you don't have to focus too much on where to go next.
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