The Gametime Stopwatch is a little program would track the amount of time you spent playing certain games and after a set limit of time, you get a warning. Two or so minutes later it would kick you out of the game and not allow you to play any more games for a specified length of time. The time limits allowed and the games the program will monitor could be set only by the administrator of the program.

This concept was originally designed for adults who need a way to limit their game playing when other duties need attending to. Obviously it has implications for the parent also.
-- seawana, Jan 28 2003

Terry Tate, Office Linebacker http://www.terrytate.reebok.com/
"Game time is pain time!" [krelnik, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

The original versions of Adventure/Advent in the late 1970s included similar (but not identical) features to stop people playing it constantly. If you saved your game, you couldn't reload for 45 minutes, and playing was restricted to certain hours of the day.

I've heard that the Nintendo Satellaview system which ran games downloaded via satellite TV connections only let you play for one hour at a time.

But both of these are externally imposed, rather than being user-configurable. So probably irrelevant. Oh.
-- kropotkin, Jan 29 2003


booyah! I was hoping to find a use for that terrytate link at some point. Hilarious 3.5 commercial, eh, 'nik?
-- thumbwax, Jan 29 2003


Everquest now incorporates this feature - players can set an alarm when they log on. Just as well.
-- Ludwig, Jan 29 2003


I love that Terry Tate thing, I think it was by far the best Superbowl ad this year. The actor was on a chat show the other day, he says they are doing a whole series of them.
-- krelnik, Jan 30 2003


Maybe I'm stupid, but why would you want to limit your gameplaying?
-- notme, Jan 30 2003



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