What are games that you took time off to play?

With X-Com coming out in a few days I called in to work last night and got my supervisor to schedule one of my vacation days off to be this Tuesday as my weekend is currently Sundays/Mondays and I would have had to work on the day the game came out. XCom is the first game in more time then I can remember that I have genuinely been excited for and have been looking forward to getting into. So the idea of only getting a few hours after work to play it was not going to be enough to satiate my desires for this game. So I took the day off.

I was wondering, what are some games that other folks have taken time off work/school/avoided general life duties to invest some serious time into?

I can only remember doing that once. When I was 12 or so, I faked being sick to stay home from school and play Final Fantasy X.

I have never done this, no matter how hyped I was for a game. A) I'm not gonna take time off from work because money is awesome, and B) I need a slightly better reason to skip class/lecture.

Well, I ran out of gas just as I got home Friday so I skipped my accounting class and played Sleeping Dogs. Come to find out, there was a gas can somewhere in the garage so I didn't actually get to skip a full day, just one class. Still had to go to my other class and work.

Diablo 3...and the servers were down so...I think I just read a book that day

Right now it's Borderlands 2. I love that game, but it can get pretty repetitive after a while, so I'm taking a break.

I did it for the Burning Crusade expansion, I think I was in about grade 7. Then Halo 3 in grade 8, Wrath of the Lich King in grade 9, and Skyrim in grade 12. No regrets.

I actually made myself ill when San Andreas came out so I could take time off school

I booked off the next few days after Skyrim came out, that's it really.

I have never taken a day off of work or school for a video game. There have been times where I sure did want to, but I never went through with it.

Never took vacation time off work for video games, but skipped plenty of school and just ended up playing video games all day (what else am I going to do?)

@BisonHero said:

I have never done this, no matter how hyped I was for a game. A) I'm not gonna take time off from work because money is awesome, and B) I need a slightly better reason to skip class/lecture.

That's what vacation time is for. Where I work it's use it or lose it. It's just a paid day off and they expire at the end of every year. I don't go on vacations and holidays don't mean any thing to me, so I just sprinkle them around the year when I feel like a long weekend or to extend an already long one one more day. Usually I'm pretty good with getting my weekend to coincide with a something I'm looking forward to, like E3, but this one didn't work out.

I timed Skyrim at work so I would have the weekend to play, in high school I did so crazy stuff in scheduling my work around tv shows, game and cd releases (when I still bought them). I'm sure I've done it with a game but no particular one comes to mind. When I lived at home and my parents would go out of town for vacation or visiting my siblings I would get the weekend off and end up playing games the whole time, they of course didn't know that otherwise I would've had to go with them.

I took 2 days off for Skyrim.

I skipped 3 hours of class to play MW3 with my buddies all night the day of release, and I skipped a day to play Madden once as well when I was really young, that's about it. I'm at a point in my life where I don't get that excited about video games anymore, and I never play for more than an hour or so at the time anyway, so it won't be something I'd do in the foreseeable future.

Not so much, but all this past week I was extremely industrious and social just to free up time for XCOM this week. Anyone comes knocking, they can fuggoff!

The last one I did that for was Oblivion. Although I do remember skipping school when I was younger to play Mario Sunshine and now I have fond memories of that game despite people liking to hate on it.

Me and a couple of mates took a week off work when Gears of War 3 was released. Also when Battlefield 3 came out, took a couple of sick days.

My vacation and birthday week just happens to coincide with Halo 4. Added bonus!

I remember doing that when I picked up Persona 4, right after I marathoned the ER of it for the first time.

Skipped three days of school (in two weeks, to be fair) so I could play that shit. I've never skipped work for a game though.

I pulled a sicky for a few days to play Skyrim 

I'm going to try and skip class when Halo 4 launches. Otherwise I can't really remember any instances of doing this.

GTAIV. That was the first and last.

None. Played the hell out of video games but never felt the need to skip work, school, etc.

Never skipped any class or work when I was a student to take days off.

Since I rarely ever take any time off work for anything else, I've used PTO for the Tuesday and Wednesday to play Batman: Arkham City and Battlefield 3. I took the Friday Skyrim came out plus the following Monday and Tuesday to play it. I'm planning on using PTO for the Tuesday and Wednesday that Halo 4 comes out.

Took time off to play GT5 then they pushed it back, so i went on a trip. Took time off for WoW Cataclysm and got to level cap in a day. And now I only have school so I don't have to take off work to play any game.

I don't ever really take off time but I make sure that I play as much as I need/want to, one way or the other.

Only when I was a stupid child, I would NEVER call out from my job for a video game.

I skipped class the day Trials Evolution came out because I was up all night playing it.

I don't remember ever setting out to do that, but on the days where I didn't go to class I probably used a few of those hours for video games. Taking a vacation day is fine, but I feel that faking sickness or whatever to shun responsibilities is immature, and not something I'm proud of doing in the past.

No

Only when I was a stupid child, I would NEVER call out from my job for a video game.

@NegativeCero said:

I do remember skipping school when I was younger to play Mario Sunshine and now I have fond memories of that game despite people liking to hate on it.

I'm beginning to thing that is a myth, people hating on Sunshine. All I ever see is praise.

I probably missed most of my lectures the week Skyrim came out.

I skipped a few classes in high school and college to play video games, but that's about it.

Last Rockstar games. IE. GTA IV and RDR. Although I doubt that will happen again. Especially since I've become father few months back. Last time when I took day off to do some gaming wife left me with the baby and went shopping with her friend.

I booked a day off to play Mass Effect 3. In retrospect, I probably shouldn't have done that.

I could never justify taking time off work for any reason outside of debilitating illness. Certainly not a video game. Some things are just more important in life than playing games, and work should really be one of them.

I have pretty flexible working hours, so if there's something I really want to play I can arrange my time off to coincide with a games release.

I definitely wouldn't fake illness or anything like that though. That's stupid to do at school/university and completely irresponsible if you're working.

It's funny how some people see skipping work as a mortal sin or something. I never understand that attitude. Life is for living, not working. Anyway, I've never done this, but I remember refusing to stay and do overtime when I wanted to get home and play a game. I have zero problem saying no to overtime/working extra days.

@CaLe said:

It's funny how some people see skipping work as a mortal sin or something. I never understand that attitude. Life is for living, not working. Anyway, I've never done this, but I remember refusing to stay and do overtime when I wanted to get home and play a game. I have zero problem saying no to overtime/working extra days.

I can see calling in sick when you are not as a bad thing, but I don't see why using vacation time for a game is being viewed as such a mortal sin. I don't go on vacations and holidays don't have any special meanings for me so I don't really have much else to take them off for other then when I just feel like a long weekend.

I used to do overtime like a mad man and take every hour that I could get, until I realized that there was no point to it. The more I worked the less I got as it all went right into taxes.

@crusader8463: I'm just reminded of this video I watched when I hear people talk about work as though it's the most important thing in life. Maybe they are the lucky few who have found their true passion and have the rare opportunity to work in that field, but taking pride in simply working for money... I can't understand the motivation behind that. Maybe it's because I don't have any dependents to worry about. I agree though, calling in sick on short notice is a bit of a dick move. Absolutely no harm in taking paid/non-paid vacations any time you want, whether that be for a holiday or simply to relax and enjoy some gaming. I think I heard that Americans don't get much vacation time though... That sucks!

I feel like most people don't have salary jobs here or jobs that have time sensitive vacation days? Not really seeing the immaturity angle here. They're called paid vacation days for a reason. If you get paid hourly, then sure.

I've taken time off sleep to play video games quite a few times.

@Addfwyn said:

I could never justify taking time off work for any reason outside of debilitating illness. Certainly not a video game. Some things are just more important in life than playing games, and work should really be one of them.

I had that same attitude, and then I found out that if I didn't take my sick or vacation days, they couldn't pay out at the end of the year for all of them. I need to take sick days, or it's money going out the window. Money I'd get for doing nothing.

Starcraft II and GT5 are the ones I remember most recently. GT5 was scheduled since it was the day before thanksgiving.

I devoted a week off from work two years ago mostly to Monster Hunter Tri, had to get it out of my system.

Never, need the money to pay for that shit.

I've never skipped school for a video game...