Are gamers gaming during their workday?

Gamers are ahead of the curve when it comes to balancing WFH with PvP. It turns out “fun o’clock” is whenever you want it to be.

Animated illustration by Rami Niemi for Activision Blizzard King

I asked a couple of dozen gamers two questions: do they work from home and do they play games during the day?

All of the gamers I talked to either work remotely full-time or part-time. The second question was trickier. Gamers are a smart but cagey bunch. Over half of the ones I contacted wouldn't elaborate more about their work/play schedules because they didn't want paranoid executives to think gamers are hunched over on their Switch during lunch.

Even though they are, and have been, since the birth of the home office. They didn't want to contribute to the stereotype. Fair enough.

The rest of the world, though, is catching up.

A recent New York Times article identified a new post-Covid trend: remote workers crowding bars, salons, and golf courses in the middle of the day. They dubbed this the "afternoon fun economy."

It's not news to anyone that millions of Americans have been working at home for the past three years, ever since the Covid-19 pandemic forced everyone to flee their offices. But it is news that one of the unintended consequences of this mass exodus would be America's laptop class renegotiating what time is fun o'clock. (Hint: it's now whenever you say it is.)

This shouldn't be surprising.

Before this seismic change, workers were chained to their desks. Those chains have been broken (or at least loosened), with nearly 50% of workers who are able to work at home are in hybrid situations with their companies.

The Times story cited a Stanford study that monitored geolocation data around golf courses, and the researchers found more people playing golf in the middle of a weekday in 2022 versus 2019. They kept an eye on Wednesdays: there was a 143% jump in weekday golfers and a 278% increase in mid-afternoon tees in 2022 than 2019.

In the olden days of three years ago, golf courses, gyms, and bars saw post-work surges in business. But now putters, bodybuilders, and tipplers are enjoying themselves in between meetings more and more too. It's a revelation—a sea change. Multiple generations of former drones are playing as hard as they work.

The gamers who did chat with me shrugged when I told them about civilians embracing the newfound freedoms of telecommuting.

They were almost all laid-back about how Covid and WFH affected their gaming lives. For many, Covid-era remote policies changed their lifestyles slightly, if at all, and didn’t impact their career trajectories.

Danny, 42, an entertainment and comedy writer in Texas, has worked at home for the past ten years, but he’s changed a little since the lockdowns. “I tend to play games most in between work and on breaks because it's so accessible now thanks to cross-platforming and remote play.”  Luckily, he had purchased a new PC before everything went down, so he also started playing more online games, even though he’d mute other players, especially the ‘screaming jerks.”

“I even pulled out some of my old consoles and started playing stuff going back to the NES," Danny added. 

When I asked Amber, a 35-year-old library administrator in Texas, whether Covid remote work policies changed how she games, her response was succinct: "Lol, no." But, like many gamers, the pandemic sent former gamers back into the virtual arms of their favorite consoles.

"When Covid started, I played a ton and got back into it after a long time away." Amber works in an office full-time, but she's still putting in 20 hours a week after work or on the weekends playing Bioware or Disco Elysium.

Not much changed for Josh, 51, a systems analyst in Brooklyn, though. His gaming life has been steady for years: he plays a quick game around 5 PM, before caring for a dog, a bird, and a family, including his 13-year-old son, who enjoys teasing his dad while he games. “It's certainly easier to pick up and play mid-day on a break, but mostly I wait until the work day is over.”

Beck J., a graphic designer in North Carolina, is a veteran World of Warcraft player whose habits also have changed slightly. She is also something rare, which is an early-morning gamer. Her routine: she is up at 7:30 and plows through a few WoW quests. Then it's work from 8:30 to 5:30. 

Her routine has a few exceptions: "Working from home has allowed me to play a little bit here and there to help reset my brain. I will also play Mahjong or Tetris during meetings where I'm just listening." 

Trevor, 29, a software developer from Utah, is a hardcore gamer with kids. His habits didn’t change much over the past three years: he tries to squeeze in three hours a night of gaming after he puts the kids to bed, around 9 PM. And then he plays until midnight. But the pandemic, and perma-WFH, has impacted his identity as a gamer. "Before COVID, I was a solo gamer. Working from home has also changed how I view gaming because now it's the only thing I do to socialize. It's become less about the games and more about hanging out with people."

A few gamers admitted to a few advantages to working from home as a gamer. John, 48, an IT director in Northern Virginia, says there's less "FOMO."  “If a new game or game expansion releases back in the day, you had to take the day off or wait until after work. Now you can take a long lunch and play for a few hours at launch to get a quick taste of what’s coming.”

Most gamers who responded to my inquiries were like J.J., a 48-year-old actor and teacher living in New Mexico, who has learned to make the most of his flexible work schedule and enjoys playing on his PS5 in the afternoon from 1 PM to 4. His work is a mix of deadlines and set schedules, so he plans when he can sit down to play unless he gets "addicted" to a game, at which point deadlines become instantly pliable. But this has been his pattern for years.

The truth is gamers have always found the time to play, whether or not they work from home, with little to no impact on their work or careers. Covid WFH policies didn't radically transform the relationship between gamer and controller. 

My main takeaway? Executives should be more suspicious of employees who golf.