Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

When most people think of playtime they probably think about toys, games, and sports while also associating those things to specific age groups. Sports for any age, toys and games for kids, things like that. My perspective is looking at things with a hobby mindset. My hobbies are all investments of my money and time to bring myself entertainment and joy. So naturally, any time I get to spend on my hobbies is my playtime.

Take Magic: The Gathering (or Disney’s Lorcana now, thanks to my siblings) as an example. Playtime for this isn’t exclusively the time spent actually playing the game against someone. I could spend dozens of hours trying to build a deck or researching cards for new ideas, and there’s also the time spent discussing spoilers for upcoming set releases. There is so much to do that I could be “playing” even at work when I take a break and do that aforementioned research. Layering in the game of Lorcana now, I spend time on the daily for my “playtime” just getting lost in thought thinking about how to play this new game.

Video games and painting miniatures for my tabletop games should be a given for “playtime” but with other hobbies and responsibilities I just don’t spend time daily on these two things. Video games are kind of a weird area for me these days because I don’t have the time I used to for picking up a new game, only playing an hour or two over the course of a few days, and sticking with it. Miniature painting is a combination of space issues (the holidays really threw me off, all kinds of things shifted around and occupied my usual painting spaces) and time because I don’t want to waste paint. I use a wet palette to try and mitigate wasting paint between sessions, but I always feel like I need more than just an hour or two in one sitting to paint. So, not as much daily play in my life in those areas, but I try to fit them in when possible.

Thinking about all this reminds me that I need to not pick up new games or hobbies. I’m going to need to be more firm and assertive with people when they try to drag me into new things. I just won’t have the bandwidth for new things to “play” with.