How Much is Too Much?
by Damien Barrett 
Dec 12th 2005 at 3:00PM
How much time on WoW is too much? There's a player on realm Destromath (main character is a Night Elf Druid named Stian) who's posted a screenshot proving that he's played WoW for 200 days. That's 200 days of playing time, not 200 days of having the game installed.To me, this is shocking. I've clocked a pitiful 20 days in comparison, and have yet to make it to 60 with one of my characters (though I'm close with my Dwarf Pally). I have several alts, mostly in the 30's and lately I've been spending time with the two characters I rolled for our upcoming WoW Insider guild (on realms Akama (Horde) and Chromaggus (Alliance)). As soon as we have enough gold to properly make a guild, I'll be announcing its launch here. Both C.K. and I have been saving.
Is 200 days of playing time too much? I'm of the opinion that it probably is and that while I'm sure this person is nice enough, the math tells the truth of it. He's been playing 14-16 hours a day since the game was released. I think that's an unhealthy amount of time to be spending with this game. I won't be as rude as some of the people in the forum, but I will say this to Stian--you should probably focus on something else for awhile. Were you to devote even half that time to something else, you'd probably be quite successful at it. Of course it's a free country and you can do whatever you want; I just think you might re-evaluate your priorities a bit. Good luck to you.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Ranking, WoW Social Conventions, Virtual selves
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Dustin Green Dec 12th 2005 6:47PM
Do you think that it was one person who logged all these hours? Perhaps multiple people on one account.
Damien Barrett Dec 12th 2005 6:50PM
He says in the post that he's the only one that plays the character/account. The forums were down for a bit, but are back up now.
Derek Dec 12th 2005 6:53PM
No one has any right to say how much is too much, except regarding their own play time. You may not have been as rude as some of the other people on the forum, but I think it's funny when people that have spent 20 or 30 or 60 days playing a game, suddenly tell someone that is able to devote more time than them to it that they need to get a life.
I have about 32 days played myself, and would most definitely have a lot more if I was in a situation where that was possible while still having somewhere to live and food to eat.
syco Dec 12th 2005 7:40PM
Uh, photoshop.
Yeh.
notsomuch Dec 13th 2005 12:53PM
hehe, i know this guy, play on the same server as him....yeah its a bit intense....and he plays some...interesting techniques - he is a balance druid who wears mostly cloth...items a high level mage would kill for. overall pretty nice, but 200 days is a bit much, hehe..
i have 75 on my main and 25 on my alt, however, so i guess im getting up there as well.
hoopdeedoo Dec 12th 2005 9:58PM
Gold Farmer account maybe?
Gurz Dec 13th 2005 4:31PM
mmm... gold farmers. (then again i have no idea who this person is.)
Derek Dec 13th 2005 12:18AM
His guild has also posted and says it's true. And there is a guy in my guild with 125 days played. 200 isn't completely out of reach.
A_B Dec 13th 2005 12:38AM
In contrast to Derek at #3, I believe everyone has every right to say what they think. It's their opinion and they can express it.
There's no obligation to provide Stian with exclusively positive feedback on his depressing accomplishment. He raised the issue on the board and neither he nor anyone else can tell people not to express their disapproval.
I don't know Stian and but if he were a friend of mine, I would try to explain why spending that kind of time on WoW is not only unhealthy in and of itself, but very likely part of a larger problem that should be addressed.
ryan grove Dec 13th 2005 1:31AM
It seems like most of the posts on the forum are resentful and outright mean. Even the "nice" posts are pretty condescending. Everyone acts like they know what's best for this person that they don't even know, but if all the excessive playing wasn't in some way rewarding for Stian, would he (or she) keep playing?
Dr. Woo Dec 13th 2005 2:54AM
ryan grove hit the nail right on the head.
Who are you to tell someone that what they're doing is wrong or a waste of time or whatever else you can come up with? Not even a handful of incidents of intensely hardcore gamers killing themselves or suffering health-wise is sufficient to do such a thing.
If a man spends his whole life working, gets his Ph.D, saves a hundred people's lives as a surgeon, but isn't happy in one ounce of that lifetime, is he more successful or a better person than a man who spends 200 days of his life playing a video game, having the time of his life, making friends (whether or not he ever meets them), and just generally being happy?
The point is, the tired clich? of walking a mile applies to this situation. Just because the majority of people on this Earth wouldn't do something doesn't mean it's the wrong thing to do.
Save the condescending haughtiness for a man whose heroin addiction drives him to crime and orphans his three children, not for a man who spends many of his waking hours doing something that he loves.
JeroenR Dec 13th 2005 9:23AM
"Save the condescending haughtiness for a man whose heroin addiction drives him to crime and orphans his three children, not for a man who spends many of his waking hours doing something that he loves."
Not many, all. 14-16 hours a day, he also needs to sleep. Let's just assume the average of 8 hours of sleep a day and we find that he does nothing but play WoW the entire day, each and every day. That's not something to be applauded, it is highly dysfunctional behavior. This is a problem that could not only be detrimental to his physical health, but also makes him unable to maintain a social life, and you know have a job. This is addiction. You might find it condescending, but quite frankly I think MMORPG-addiction is a very serious problem. If it's condescending to point that out, than I'm very happy I'm a condescending person.
MiniMe Dec 13th 2005 12:50PM
I LOVE when ppl says "You don't have any right to judge what another person should do" and they do not even realize that they are just doing what they want you not to do "judge someone beahaviour"
Wake up guys, everyone judge everyone and it's fine as long as you just express your opinion, the problems arise only if you want to FORCE ppl to do as you think they should.
I think the guy with 200days of played is nuts :-)
Ted Morrill-McClure Dec 13th 2005 1:16PM
How is he (and others) getting the play time? I'm curious about how much I've played.
Oh, and I also think there is something a little sad about someone spending that much of their life in a game. Hope my stats don't show the same. ;)
Barto Dec 13th 2005 3:40PM
To get the time played type "/played" in the chat window