How long does everyone normally play? I can remember back in the day, when I had less responsibility, that on the weekends we could make DnD a day-long event. But, I've noticed now people seem to have been set on about 3 hours of gameplay. Personally, our most recent DnD games (which has been awhile. Yay, bad DMs.......) would go for about 4-5hrs. 

What is your normal gaming sesh like? Breaks, side talk, all of it.

My group managed 3-5 nights of six hour sessions a few years back because our schedules just happened to be in sync and everyone had few obligations besides work or school and sleep.

Since professional success of a few players in the group, and another player's marriage, things have scaled back. We have two nights of the week that we try to get together those of us that are still in town, and we have about 3 to 4 hours for a session when we do manage to have one.

With the smaller group (a few years ago I had 8 players at my table, and now I usually have 4), I find the short sessions to still be very productive and rewarding, as we get a lot done, and each player gets a larger piece of the play-time pie.

My longest running group would start around 5-6 on fridays after work, we play and eat together, the game would last till about midnight or later. It would only be stopped when all of our wives would text us to stop and come home

5pm to Midnight is typical for me right now.  A few years back the sessions would from 2pm to 2am though, sometimes longer.  A few players would even stay in the guest room because they would drive about 3 1/2 hours to get to the game.  That's some dedication.

I've found in my mid-thirties life, gaming with other mid-thirties players, that we manage about 3 hours a session. People have spouses (that don't play) or children at home, and everyone's jobs are demanding in their own ways in regards to work hours. That's how it is, in my experience, at my age. Now, when I was younger (early twenties) I had much less responsibility and my job performance was low on my priority scale. In those days, all-day sessions were common on days off and we would happily game for 6 hours or more on days we did have to work. Here's the important take-away from this, in my opinion: it's about life balance and the ability to keep everyone entertained for the duration of your session. If you, as a DM are scrambling for material or spending every ounce of your non-work and non-gaming time producing adventures for your long sessions, it may be time to dial it back. On the other hand, as has been brought up by one of my groups this week, a couple members feel like 3 hours on a week night is too much of a commitment and want to shorten our bi-weekly sessions to 2 hours. I'm making this work by ensuring that we start on time and that the players are focused for the duration of the session (limiting side conversation and allowing only limited time for their characters to debate a course of action before settling on a plan). The more experienced you are at mediating the easier it will be to determine your optimal session length. The important thing is to ensure that everyone is having a good time.

At the moment my group does Friday and Saturday nights US time, so stupid o'clock early for me on Saturday and Sunday (I'm writing this as I set my alarm for 4.45am). We play for about 6 hours both days and if schedules work out the occasional session mid week. 

Yeah unfortunately these days most people I know can't play that long. Like once a week (If we are lucky) for 3-5 hours.

I miss the long sessions where stuff seems like it actually gets accomplished lol.

It's interesting to me that three hours has become the average, lol. Even with responsibilities, it seems to have naturally fallen in that time frame. It just goes to show that it's easy to lose track of time in DnD, because no time that I've been playing has it ever felt like I'd been playing that long.

Ive been DMing for about two years now since ive started college, almost every weekend we had a session, sometimes we get lucky and do a double and sometimes nothing at all. Usually its about a five to six hour session.  

I would love to find a group at my school! It would be nice to play with a new group of strangers *_*