World of Warcraft playing time
I'm just curious after talking to some people who are required by their guild to raid 6 hours a day for 6 days a week, and have to farm enough pots etc for the entire raid group when they do it. It seems to me that this is.. somewhat absurd. I cannot imagine doing this for a game without being the most lacklustre, unimaginative and uninspired person in modern times. Crack addicts probably have more drive than this, and certainly less responsibilities.
So, I ask you, WoW players young and old:
1. How long have you been playing WoW, and do you have BC?
2. How often a week do you play WoW?
3. Are you in a big guild, and what does your guild require of you?
4. What do you do with your time in WoW?
5. What level are your characters and how important is it that they be levelled up fully and have the very best gear?
6. Any further comments?
Thanks.
So, I ask you, WoW players young and old:
1. How long have you been playing WoW, and do you have BC?
2. How often a week do you play WoW?
3. Are you in a big guild, and what does your guild require of you?
4. What do you do with your time in WoW?
5. What level are your characters and how important is it that they be levelled up fully and have the very best gear?
6. Any further comments?
Thanks.
Comments
2) Friday through Sunday I'm addicted to it. During the week barely any as I'm at school and busy doing assignments. If I'm lucky maybe for an hour or two, but that's rare.
3) Eh, I just joined a guild with around 400+ members. This is the first guild I've joined that actually DOES raid and they do so once every Saturday. However, I have yet to go on a raid with them and I do believe participation is voluntary.
4) Lots of stuff, randomly lvl, sometimes do PvP battlegrounds. Maybe it's because I'm a business student but I also spend a ton of time in town at the auction house and selling enchants and finding other random ways to make money (selling water and ports since I'm a mage <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/tounge.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":p" border="0" alt="tounge.gif" />). If I get bored I'll go play an alt or start another character, I play WoW for fun and others will say it's a waste of time to have lots of characters... but I play it for fun.
5)
62 troll mage - yes he needs good gear but his stuff is about on average or maybe a little better than a standard player
31 undead priest - I just play her when I can, not too concerned about lvl or gear
33 warrior - Character I started and only play with one friend (got to 33 before I even made the mage), now I don't even touch her
17 shaman - total noob alt character, just play him for fun
6) Uhh, FOR THE HORDE!!!!!
Luckily, the officers of my guild almost all live in the same town - and my guild leader lives just downstairs. So once the ridiculous demands start coming in, I can just punch them in the face until they exempt me. Bru-ha-ha!
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Luckily, I avoid MMORPGs like the plague ;D
Been playing since Europe release, so January 2005, and yes, I have BC.
2. How often a week do you play WoW?
Too much tbh. It's not a requirement for the guild, I just enjoy it, especially if I'm playing with my brother and fellow guild members.
3. Are you in a big guild, and what does your guild require of you?
We're a big guild, but totally non hardcore. The only thing I would say that's required, is if you're gonna take a long break, inform us before doing so.
4. What do you do with your time in WoW?
Quests mainly at the moment. I will be raiding again eventually. I rarely grind or PvP.
5. What level are your characters and how important is it that they be levelled up fully and have the very best gear?
My main is 69, and it's not important to the guild that I'm full level or have the best equiptment.
6. Any further comments?
Not every guild is hardcore, like the one you mentioned. A number of them are just people who know each other IRL grouped together, and don't expect to be doing any raiding. Mine is somewhere inbetween. We like to raid, but we don't have a minimum number of raids or hours you have to put in. It would be nice if you can, but no pressure. Then there's the guilds like you mentioned, which expect a minimum amount of hours spent raiding every night, everyone must have the correct materials etc, and they must have good knowledge of end game raiding. Also, if you disappear for, say, 1 week without telling anyone, be expecting to be kicked from the guild, and no one really cares that you're gone.
2. Every day usually, though about once every 2 weeks or so I'll go a day without, playing other stuff.
3. I'm in a medium sized guild. I'm co-melee-DPS officer, so I'm required to review and try out new recruits, and otherwise prepare myself for raids(thus far, no real preparing other than "whatever I come with", which is usually a few potions I made while doing other things).
4. I both raid, and recently, have been doing quite a bit of Arena PvP. I'm on a 2v2 Arena team with a non-guildie, and a 5v5 team with the guild. Soon we will be hitting Karazhan, and soon after that, the 25 mans.
5. My first character was a Night Elf Rogue, whom is now 60. I quit playing her June of 2005(the following year of release), with her at 52. After that, I spent 3 weeks getting a Tauren Warrior to 31 to "practice" for leveling quickly on the new PvP-RP servers that were to be released in August- once I made my character on Maelstrom, I only strayed from her for a 3 month period, in which time I was getting my Rogue to 60, and also lost internet for a month.
As to them being geared, I view it as a "as it comes" thing. I consider myself of high caliber, and generally prove to be one of the best at the class I'm playing(at level 58, I was beating people who had been 60 for months on my Rogue, in Zul'Gurub, and with an Ice barbed Spear on my Warrior, I was 5-8th usually in raids, despite being one of the most undergeared Warriors, and MS spec, to boot). For me, gear is a nice thing, but not so important: I like seeing and trying the new content, then perfecting it and "time trial"-ing it, where I just speed run instances with the best players I know.
6. I still play other games pretty frequently, and lead a pretty normal life overall, I just find that for an overall timesink, WoW is a great way to have fun doing it. I'd rather(and usually do, if having to choose between) hang out with friends than play, but at the same time, I don't see whats wrong with spending dozens of hours on it per week. Your opinion of those who play it excessively is your own, but I personally think any ill-will towards them(other than if they truly are ruining their lives by it) is nothing short of ignorance and elitism.
Relax on the calls of ignorance and elitism. I've played WoW, and raided too... over a year ago, now. The question is, however: you're spending a significant portion of your waking life playing this game, and for what? How does it contribute to your life, how does it make your life significant? Entertainment is for making life bearable in the downtime, not for giving you a reason to wake up every morning. That's not elitism, and I have experienced WoW so your calls of ignorance are premature. If your life is so productive that you can afford all these hours to spend playing WoW for personal enjoyment, then you have no reason to produce such kneejerk reactions to any perceived criticism.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Its not so much that, as I view it as most gamers do non-gamers when being told to "get a life": Its your choice overall what to do with your waking hours. If you want to spend all your free time playing a video game, who are we to deem you less of a person for it? They chose it like you chose a life with people in the real world. The only reason it is easier to feel comfort with yours is merely because of social acceptability, overall. And considering our favorite hobby, social acceptability I would hope is not on our list of priorities.
2176 hours.
That's a <b>lot</b>.
--Scythe--
I added up my /played on all my characters the other day.
2176 hours.
That's a <b>lot</b>.
--Scythe--
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Wow. Maybe I am pathetic. Just my top 3 characters nets me at over 3k, and that isn't including any of my level -50s.
Its not so much that, as I view it as most gamers do non-gamers when being told to "get a life": Its your choice overall what to do with your waking hours. If you want to spend all your free time playing a video game, who are we to deem you less of a person for it? They chose it like you chose a life with people in the real world. The only reason it is easier to feel comfort with yours is merely because of social acceptability, overall. And considering our favorite hobby, social acceptability I would hope is not on our list of priorities.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Now who's stereotyping? Stop misconstruing the purpose behind my questions and take it at face value: a curiosity. You don't know a thing about me or my reasons for asking, so stop letting it affect your response.
Now who's stereotyping? Stop misconstruing the purpose behind my questions and take it at face value: a curiosity. You don't know a thing about me or my reasons for asking, so stop letting it affect your response.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--quoteo--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE</div><div class='quotemain'><!--quotec-->I cannot imagine doing this for a game without being the most lacklustre, unimaginative and uninspired person in modern times.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I'm just curious after talking to some people who are required by their guild to raid 6 hours a day for 6 days a week, and have to farm enough pots etc for the entire raid group when they do it. It seems to me that this is.. somewhat absurd. I cannot imagine doing this for a game without being the most lacklustre, unimaginative and uninspired person in modern times. Crack addicts probably have more drive than this, and certainly less responsibilities.
So, I ask you, WoW players young and old:
1. How long have you been playing WoW, and do you have BC?
2. How often a week do you play WoW?
3. Are you in a big guild, and what does your guild require of you?
4. What do you do with your time in WoW?
5. What level are your characters and how important is it that they be levelled up fully and have the very best gear?
6. Any further comments?
Thanks.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Just look at my sig..and YES im done with WoW forever sold my account for over 600 dollars..good game
1. Since June 2005. I had collectively played somewhat over 100 days.
2. Every day unless something was stopping me(like not being home).
3. I was in a decently large guild, maybe 20-30 very active players, 40ish fairly active, a lot of alts. The guild info page showed 250ish? characters.
Required stuff-My guild had a bit of an identity crisis about casual vs hardcore. There wasn't anything required to just be in the guild besides logging on every once and a while.
Getting into raids varied over time. People who played often were more likely to get added to the raid group, so if you wanted good gear you had to show up often. We used a DKP system where people got points for attending raids. The player with the highest DKP gets the item, and the item's point value is subtracted from their DKP. So if you didn't show up often, you couldn't get gear unless nobody else wanted it.
We never really required people to bring consumables(bandages and such were expected though). The guild officers tended to provide them though. The whole issue created a split about whether it should be required or not. Drama ensues. Note to guilds: Trying to be casual and hardcore at the same time doesn't work too well. Your very hardcore players will be tempted to join better guilds, and your casual players might get sick of the drama and leave.
4. I raided(40-man) most evenings(we had 3-5 a week?). We ran 20-mans most off-nights; I usually went. The rest of the time I spent either farming gold etc, doing WSG(group or otherwise, but I ran with an awesome group), or just wandering around. Unfortunately, even though I was on a PvP server, world PvP didn't really exist. Everybody who wanted to PvP was in the battlegrounds(it's the only way to get anywhere with the honor system). I left just before they added that Silithus-EPL world PvP thing, and I heard they fixed the honor system. Maybe it's improved now.
5.I had 1 60 mage and 3 30-40 alts. Non-60's are worthless for raiding of course, and bringing undergeared 60 alts to serious raids was discouraged, but there weren't any gear requirements. My mage had full epics (with the exception of a green wand that doesn't drop any more because it was massively overpowered and better then most epic one's); gear helps you get picked for raids, which allows you to get better gear. The cycle of WoW.
6.To be honest, raiding is really boring after you learn the encounter. When you have to try very hard to stay awake while playing a video game...something is a bit wrong. I did it because it was fun at times and for gear. The desire for better gear is like a crack addiction, you want more and more and it never really ends. Gear is fun for PvP, but when I played most people PvPed to..get gear. A lot of Grand Marshals(people who got the highest honor rank and were able to buy awesome weapons. Becoming a grand marshal requires an absurd amount of time.) quit after they get their gear. So, gear is really more of a collecter's item/status symbol.
Yep. What's your point? I had a stereotype of people who play at that level as being completely devoted to an unproductive and uninspired life. Hence why I asked the questions, my curiosity demanded a confirmation or contention of this stereotype. Thank you for answering earlier. Now stop screwing up my thread you idiot.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Who is to say it's unproductive or uninspired however? Just because you see it that way doesn't mean the person who lives it does as well. It's all a matter of perspective.
I suffer video-game burnout to much to be able to reach this level. The first time I played WoW (Immediatly after release) I played for ~4 months consistently, hit 60, then did the a few of the higher instances. It's funny, because I remember to the minute when I realised I didn't want to play anymore. I lost a roll on an item I had been after for 2 weeks to some guy who couldn't use it. I was pretty downtrodden for like an hour, it then dawned on me I cared to much about the game, and just never logged on again. The second time I started (~3 months ago) I played non-stop for 2 months and hit 60 with my priest. It was tons of fun, finally trying out battlegrounds and such. However, after I refused to hang out with some of my friends because I didn't want to ditch my raid; I realised AGAIN it was taking over my life. Never logged on again.
I try to be h4rdcore, I just can't manage it D:
Who is to say it's unproductive or uninspired however? Just because you see it that way doesn't mean the person who lives it does as well. It's all a matter of perspective.
I suffer video-game burnout to much to be able to reach this level. The first time I played WoW (Immediatly after release) I played for ~4 months consistently, hit 60, then did the a few of the higher instances. It's funny, because I remember to the minute when I realised I didn't want to play anymore. I lost a roll on an item I had been after for 2 weeks to some guy who couldn't use it. I was pretty downtrodden for like an hour, it then dawned on me I cared to much about the game, and just never logged on again. The second time I started (~3 months ago) I played non-stop for 2 months and hit 60 with my priest. It was tons of fun, finally trying out battlegrounds and such. However, after I refused to hang out with some of my friends because I didn't want to ditch my raid; I realised AGAIN it was taking over my life. Never logged on again.
I try to be h4rdcore, I just can't manage it D:
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I tried wow. 3 times. quit every time <25. A bit too boring for me :/
I tried wow. 3 times. quit every time <25. A bit too boring for me :/
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
qft + the carebare pvp
total time played - leik omg 1 hr looool. and i so want to sue for that 1 hr of my life back+++
My guild was middle of the road on a medium population server. We never had a huge list of people, but the consensus was that small is better(no drama ftw). The general policy was that we wanted to go as far as we possibly could as quickly as possible, but the GM knew that everyone actually had a life outside the game. As such, no attendance requirements on raids once you were in, but the trial process was pretty intensive in terms of skill.
I quit right before BC came out, but by that time I had a 60 Priest, 55 Rogue, 51 Druid, and a couple 30's. I was the #2 tank's healer, so I focused on getting my Priest as geared as possible for that job(attendance issues limited us to MC, ZG, AQ20, Ony; could never pull 40 consistently to move into BWL). The Rogue was originally intended to be a farming alt, because god knows I wasn't going to farm on my Priest. So he was pretty twinked most of the time, with whatever dungeon blues I could snatch up on the way. The other characters I really didn't care about, they were for when I got bored.
Honestly, I have no doubt that I'll play WoW again, but I'm waiting until my RL friends get back into it. I've realized that although being tight with your guild makes the game fun, playing WoW with people sitting right next to you makes it genuinely rewarding.
-I played very hard for under a year, from junior to senior year HS. Quit in 2005 (joined the military). Started up again in September 2006 and immediately quit. Don't have BC.
2. How often a week do you play WoW?
-N/A
3. Are you in a big guild, and what does your guild require of you?
-I was. They were absolutely hardcore, and at the time I left they were the 2nd ranked Horde guild on our server. Their requirements are everything you would assume the most uber guild demands of its lowly servants. Check this out.<a href="http://www.xodusguild.com/forum/index.php?topic=39.0" target="_blank">Your Responsibilities As A Guild Member</a>.
4. What do you do with your time in WoW?
-I raided and pvp'd, basically.
5. What level are your characters and how important is it that they be levelled up fully and have the very best gear?
-I had a 60 war and a bunch of other chars I started but didn't enjoy. Gearing was important but after joining the military I fell way behind (a year's progress behind).
6. Any further comments?<!--QuoteBegin-What follows is my personal opinion. Do not read if you don't like opinions.+--><div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(What follows is my personal opinion. Do not read if you don't like opinions.)</div><div class='quotemain'><!--QuoteEBegin--><!--coloro:#000000--><span style="color:#000000"><!--/coloro-->
My only responsibilities after graduating high school were babysitting, some house chores, and spending some time with my girlfriend. Other than that, I probably spent around 16 hours a day playing WoW. It was easy to quit after getting my life rearranged and seeing what else was out there (outside my room).
To anyone who's thinking of quitting or trying to quit: just fckin quit. Going to the gym is probably cheaper and if you ask me, any day of the week, whether I preferred having leet gear to getting closer and closer to one day waking up, looking in the mirror, and seeing a Greek god...
well, you can probably guess that, can't you.
What did WoW give me? Nothing. Well, almost nothing. I even had a short, clandestine relationship with one of the people I met through WoW. I would have given that up in a second, given a chance to redo that year of my life. I probably would have joined the wrestling team and started getting in shape earlier, probably would have taken night courses at a local college, probably would have partied more, made more friends. Probably would have done a lot of things to better myself as a person.<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc-->
tl;dr?
Shooters are better anyway.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<b><i><u>0 HOURS</b></i></u>
I think I've played too much WoW. D: (Never played/bought the game.)
Well I play for about a month or two of beta and then 2 to 3 months of retail before quitting the first time. When BC came out my friend who works at Blizz gave me a free year on my account so I got BC and I've been playing it since it hit back in January.
2. How often a week do you play WoW?
Too often at the moment
3. Are you in a big guild, and what does your guild require of you?
I never join guilds despite constantly getting lots of offers. When I'm asked why I usually just answer with "the world is my guild". I never have trouble getting groups together and my friends list ends up miles long :p
4. What do you do with your time in WoW?
Mostly chatting and helping other people. I hate grinding and I loathe leveling. If nobody is about that needs a hand I'll amuse myself by going on to the battlegrounds for a giggle or in some rare cases I might follow a quest chain that's actually fun, has a decent plot and is worth playing (like I say... rare. "Bring me 10 boar tusks" is not my idea of a good quest and that's what the majority of the game is).
5. What level are your characters and how important is it that they be leveled up fully and have the very best gear?
I've got a wide spread of characters but currently none are above 21. My highest ever character was my first one; my Night Elf Rogue back in the betas. She got to a whopping level 39 before I finally gave in to the fact the rogue class wasn't what I thought it would be when I first started (I expected a 'thief' concentrated on utility and support rather than an 'assassin' thats all about damage, damage and more damage with some extraneous thief skills tacked on as fluff).
I don't really care about levels and gear that much as long as I can do what I want to do. Sadly Blizzard's classes are more of a limit on my abilities than the gear or level. Each class lacks something that I want with the only exception being the Shaman which I previously couldn't play because all the Horde Females were gruesome and had horrible voices. It was this reason I quit the first time.
Now that Draenei have arrived (they look nifty and the voice is... bearable) I can finally play the one class that suits my jack-of-all-trades nature :3
6. Any further comments?
I'm really looking forward to Warhammer and Huxley right now. I'm tempted to see how Vanguard will shape up in a couple of months because right now my PC couldn't run it if it tried and it's still very much under construction despite being retail.
The only reason I'm playing WoW right now though is because there's no really decent MMOs currently available and because my friend gave me that free year :p
I sadly seem to fit into a niche that's never catered for in MMO games; I like to help people and I like being mischievous, mobile and able to fend for myself. Teleporting is a huge bonus.
As such, the closest I ever got to this was my beloved Illusion/Empathy Controller in City of Heroes. She could go invisible so I could get up to trouble and surprise people, she could render her friends invisible, heal, resurrect (absolute must... I have some kind of inbuilt NEED to be able to rez people), teleport, leap for miles and she could control enemies so she was able to easily look after herself when on her own.
Zig, to be honest, that looks fairly tame to the hardcore guilds I've seen :/
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You're probably right. I didn't even read it. I think while I was playing, they just became super elitist and refused to even talk to trial members. There was a whole separate guild, to put less-than-full members into. The guild was called Xodus, and the side guild was called Minions of Xodus.. lol
Zig, to be honest, that looks fairly tame to the hardcore guilds I've seen :/
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree. The only raid requirements I saw listed were standard mana/healing potions(though, I'l admit that major mana potion costs were ridiculous when I played; it's probably been lowered somewhat now) . I know some guilds require members to come stocked with high-level consumable buffs(mana oils, potion buffs, sharpening stones, sometimes even flasks). The cost of that stuff can get astronomical if you're using them the whole night.
@zig's new post: With that attitude, I'd expect drama levels to destroy the guild. It sounds like the guild leaders are power hungry (mean, stuck-up people, that is not a swear word). Infact, I just checked the forums and it looks like the guild did dissolve...(the shock)
Generally, the elitists I see implode after a while. Most(maybe all) of the successful, long lasting guilds I saw were filled with nice, helpful people, even if they were very hardcore.
I just started, and man its sucking my life dry. Play any chance I have with my wife haha
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
WELCOME TO THE ADDICTION <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
I play with a power guild and take frequent breaks. They're very lax for a power guild. we have the 1st boss down in gruul's lair and Kara almost cleared, but there's currently no attendance requirement. I raid with my fiance like 2 times a week, more when we feel like it. We used to feel tied down to raiding all night every night and it really drained all the fun out of it and it did feel like it was stealing our lives away... but with two or three nights of raiding a week with a good group of people, it stays fun and fresh. that's my 2 cents.
WELCOME TO THE ADDICTION <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/biggrin-fix.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":D" border="0" alt="biggrin-fix.gif" />
I play with a power guild and take frequent breaks. They're very lax for a power guild. we have the 1st boss down in gruul's lair and Kara almost cleared, but there's currently no attendance requirement. I raid with my fiance like 2 times a week, more when we feel like it. We used to feel tied down to raiding all night every night and it really drained all the fun out of it and it did feel like it was stealing our lives away... but with two or three nights of raiding a week with a good group of people, it stays fun and fresh. that's my 2 cents.
<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I think you really have to just get lucky and hit it with a good group of people.. If you spent your whole time leveling and making friends etc, in a guild that turns out to be full of buttholes, that will really put a damper on your happy fun times.
edit: When Warhammer Online comes out, I'm going to found a guild that you can only join if you're over 18.