Levels of Game Time Tracker and Obsession

Not every console game has an in-game clock that times exactly how long you have been playing a game. Nintendo consoles have an Activity Log app so you can check your particular states for game times, and Steam logs every second you are in a game. But when it comes to PlayStation games, if there’s an in-game clock at all, it’s attached to your save file. Your save file will either have long you have played, or the date and time of your last save.

If you don’t care about how long you’ve played a game, or don’t care how long a game takes, whether your save file has the in-game time log or the saving timestamp means next to nothing to you. If someone asked you how long it took you to complete a game like Uncharted 4, you might say, “I dunno, somewhere around 10 hours I guess.” But then there are those, like me, who want to know how long it takes to play a game, especially when it comes to those long RPGs. Thanks to the in-game clock, I can tell you I spent exactly 75 hours and 12 minutes to complete Lost Odyssey. Is that important? Of course not! It simply feeds into my own personal OCD I have with video games. It personally drives me bonkers when PlayStation games don’t include an in-game clock. I’m supposed to keep track of this in my head? Or I need to estimate? But…but…HOW WILL I KNOW HOW LONG I’VE BEEN PLAYING THIS GAME?

It’s a problem, I know.

Of course, we don’t all just vary from one extreme to the other. Not everyone is as crazy as me, and not everyone cares as little as the other side of spectrum. In fact, I’m not even the most extreme type on this side of the wall. These are the ranges of gamer feelings on the existence of an in-game clock tracking every minute spent on a particular title.

So where do you fall in this spread? Share ’em in the comments.

Essential Reading:

Game Clock Feature

Levels of Game Time Tracking Obsession
There's an in-game clock? That tracks time played? Really?

These gamers not only do not care how long it takes them to play the game, they have no idea some games have an in-game timer to track the time played. These are the people who respond in a number of weeks or months if you ask them how long it took them to play a game.
Don't Care if There Is aClock

They know the clock is there, tracking how much time it takes them to do one thing or another. They simply just don't care. These are the monsters who will leave their systems on while they run errands or do laundry and therefore have wildly inaccurate game times. I once heard a tale of someone who let their clock go to the point that they finished a shooter's campaign in "120 hours." Monsters. Absolute monsters.
It's Cool

Is there a game clock? Cool. There isn't a game clock? Cool. It's all good over here, bro. They play for the fun of it and really don't care how many hours they've logged into a particular title. It's about the journey, and not the destination as well as other hippie dippie baloney.
The Super Fastidious

If there's not a game clock, these players are okay. Not great, but they're okay. They'll keep track of their time through estimation, but they won't know the exact count. It may or may not bother them too much, depending on the particular title.

But if there is a clock, they will watch that like a hawk. There will be no pausing in the game just in case that counts as time spent. The game will never be left running in the background (It's part of why we love the PS4 suspend feature so much!), and tabs will be kept on exactly how long it takes to complete a game. They will claim it's for science, but that's total BS. It's that control tick coming in. Although when I do it, it really is for science. Really, it is.
No Clock? Time to Get MacGuyver.

If there is an in-game timer, these ultra obsessors behave like the Fastidious. But if there's not such a clock? You better believe they will make one and keep track of the time themselves. They'll use a phone app, a timer, or they'll create a manual time log with pen and paper. If you see these gamers in the wild, don't schedule an intervention. Just hug them and let them know it will all be okay.