Azeroth Interrupted: Reader Mail -- WoW for an hour a day
by Robin Torres 
Jul 1st 2007 at 8:00PM
Each week, Robin Torres contributes Azeroth Interrupted, a column about balancing real life with WoW.
Today I'm going to answer some Reader Mail from Berzurk:
Hello Robin,
I played the original EQ for about a year, and I took a break for a long time. I just last week got into WoW, and I am loving it. I have been scared, however, that it may end up ruining my life. My g/f doesn't like video games much, and I'm about to get a new job to help pay bills. I can't, however, give up my passion for MMO's. It's just my nature.
I did have one idea though. In your opinion, do you believe it would be beneficial to just play for a set amount a day on WoW, instead of hours at a time? I know that life comes first, but I almost always have about 2 spare hours to myself everyday. Do you believe that maybe an hour a day would be a decent amount of playtime?
Thanks.
Berzurk, Human Warrior, Lvl 8, Stormwind City
Hello Berzurk,
Because you are aware enough of the addiction risks in playing WoW and have already proposed a solution, you are definitely on the right track to playing WoW without it hurting Real Life. You can play WoW for an hour a day and have fun, but there are limitations to what you can do in WoW with that schedule of which you should be aware.
The original Everquest was a lot of fun for a while, but it wasn't so great for casual gaming. Traveling, grinding, camping, mana/health regen, experience loss, corpse retrieval, hell levels, difficult soloing all added up to a lot of time spent doing not so fun stuff. I played EQ for two years and I know I wasn't able to play it for just an hour a day. I think you have already found that WoW is very casual gamer friendly, in comparison. There are many alternatives to trekking it across open land and the boats are infinitely faster. (Don't even get me started on the boats in EQ.) There is certainly grinding to be done in WoW, but on a much smaller scale and often with a nice quest experience bonus at the end of it. In fact, for a game with the word Quest in it, EQ didn't have too many working ones in it while WoW provides quite a few in each zone for some pretty fast leveling accompanied by some nice lore. WoW quest bosses are either triggered or are on fast spawn cycles and the fact that groups can share the quest loot makes spontaneous cooperation with strangers a much better alternative than racing to a kill -- and no killstealing makes this even more enjoyable and less of a timesuck. All classes in WoW are viable for soloing, though some are better than others, which makes time-limited gaming easier since you don't have to find a group.
The way WoW handles death and rest are a great improvement for the casual player over EQ. Your corpse can't expire. You have an option to get a res from a Spirit Healer so you don't have to go resurrect in dangerous territory. And there is no having to regain lost experience (or levels). Death takes up much less of your valuable playtime and Rest makes it even easier. Staying in an Inn or a capital city when you log out means twice as much experience for all kills for a while when you come back -- which means less time spent getting to the next level of content.
There are things you have to give up playing just one hour a day, however, such as instances and, depending on your goals, you may not be getting the most fun for your 60 minutes. Here are some questions and suggestions for maximizing your casual gametime:
Do you like lore? If you do, like I do, there is lots of interesting lore to be had. Taking the time to read the quests and watch the scripted results will really enhance your enjoyment of WoW. And there are even books you can read while you explore. Don't take the time to read those, however. All of the lore contained in the books lying around Inns and libraries are actually online and can be read at your leisure when not in the game. If you don't care about the storylines, (or you read fast) make sure you turn on the Instant Quest Text option in the Interface Options of the Main Menu.
Do you like exploring? You get experience from exploring the map, so go off-trail in level appropriate zones to discover new areas. Of course, going off the road will get you more aggro, but more aggro equals more kills equals more experience, so go for it.
Do you like roleplaying? One thing I miss about playing EQ and City of Heroes is the likelihood of the general populace to do at least a minimum amount of roleplaying. The unforeseen (by me at least) drawback of servers dedicated to roleplaying is the disdain for roleplaying encountered on non RP servers. If you are into back-stories, typing in-accent and staying in-character, join a RP server for a more immersive experience. Just ignore the bored griefers who make noobs on RP servers to mock your fun. Instead, silently pity their lack of girlfriends and exit general chat until your next session.
Is getting there more important than the journey? If you don't mind "spoilers" and not discovering things on your own, then try a leveling guide. A good guide will include maps and step by step instructions to maximize your time in each part of a zone. Since many quests can be completed at the same time, using those guides can really reduce the time you would otherwise spend going back to the same place to get similar stuff done.
Do you like dungeon crawls? You are out of luck on this one. Instances take longer than an hour unless you are being run through by a high-level. You will encounter some mini-caves throughout your questing, but instances take a couple hours at least to complete and that doesn't include the time required to get a group together.
Do you like PvP? If you don't or like it just a little, then stay off the PvP servers. From about level 20 on, you spend your questing time in contested zones and getting ganked takes up a lot of extra time. You can always do battlegrounds when you are in the mood for some player vs player action. If you do like PvP, at an hour a day, I would still recommend staying off a PvP server. But do bring up characters that you keep at level 19 and 29 so that you can always have someone to shine in the battlegrounds for your alloted hour.
Overall, you can have fun in WoW on just an hour a day and it sounds like that would be the best schedule for you. Regardless of the way you enjoy your gaming time, make sure you maximize your rest. Make at least 2 characters, always park them in inns and big cities and juggle their play time. You can keep their experience bar blue and almost halve your leveling time. But I also recommend setting aside a 3 to 5 hour session every week to two weeks to enjoy the extremely fun instances WoW has to offer. If you are having trouble getting your non-gamer girlfriend to let you have that extra time, try some of the techniques I have described previously or at least encourage her to find a hobby to enjoy while you enjoy yours.
Welcome to WoW!
Robin Torres juggles one level 70 Tauren Druid, multiple alts across multiple servers, two cats, one toddler, one loot-addicted husband and a yarn dependency. After years of attempting to balance MMOs with real life, Robin lightheartedly shares the wisdom gleaned from her experiences. If you would like to ask Robin's advice, please email Robin.Torres@weblogsinc.com for a possible future column.
Today I'm going to answer some Reader Mail from Berzurk:
Hello Robin,
I played the original EQ for about a year, and I took a break for a long time. I just last week got into WoW, and I am loving it. I have been scared, however, that it may end up ruining my life. My g/f doesn't like video games much, and I'm about to get a new job to help pay bills. I can't, however, give up my passion for MMO's. It's just my nature.
I did have one idea though. In your opinion, do you believe it would be beneficial to just play for a set amount a day on WoW, instead of hours at a time? I know that life comes first, but I almost always have about 2 spare hours to myself everyday. Do you believe that maybe an hour a day would be a decent amount of playtime?
Thanks.
Berzurk, Human Warrior, Lvl 8, Stormwind City
Hello Berzurk,
Because you are aware enough of the addiction risks in playing WoW and have already proposed a solution, you are definitely on the right track to playing WoW without it hurting Real Life. You can play WoW for an hour a day and have fun, but there are limitations to what you can do in WoW with that schedule of which you should be aware.
The original Everquest was a lot of fun for a while, but it wasn't so great for casual gaming. Traveling, grinding, camping, mana/health regen, experience loss, corpse retrieval, hell levels, difficult soloing all added up to a lot of time spent doing not so fun stuff. I played EQ for two years and I know I wasn't able to play it for just an hour a day. I think you have already found that WoW is very casual gamer friendly, in comparison. There are many alternatives to trekking it across open land and the boats are infinitely faster. (Don't even get me started on the boats in EQ.) There is certainly grinding to be done in WoW, but on a much smaller scale and often with a nice quest experience bonus at the end of it. In fact, for a game with the word Quest in it, EQ didn't have too many working ones in it while WoW provides quite a few in each zone for some pretty fast leveling accompanied by some nice lore. WoW quest bosses are either triggered or are on fast spawn cycles and the fact that groups can share the quest loot makes spontaneous cooperation with strangers a much better alternative than racing to a kill -- and no killstealing makes this even more enjoyable and less of a timesuck. All classes in WoW are viable for soloing, though some are better than others, which makes time-limited gaming easier since you don't have to find a group.
The way WoW handles death and rest are a great improvement for the casual player over EQ. Your corpse can't expire. You have an option to get a res from a Spirit Healer so you don't have to go resurrect in dangerous territory. And there is no having to regain lost experience (or levels). Death takes up much less of your valuable playtime and Rest makes it even easier. Staying in an Inn or a capital city when you log out means twice as much experience for all kills for a while when you come back -- which means less time spent getting to the next level of content.
There are things you have to give up playing just one hour a day, however, such as instances and, depending on your goals, you may not be getting the most fun for your 60 minutes. Here are some questions and suggestions for maximizing your casual gametime:
Do you like lore? If you do, like I do, there is lots of interesting lore to be had. Taking the time to read the quests and watch the scripted results will really enhance your enjoyment of WoW. And there are even books you can read while you explore. Don't take the time to read those, however. All of the lore contained in the books lying around Inns and libraries are actually online and can be read at your leisure when not in the game. If you don't care about the storylines, (or you read fast) make sure you turn on the Instant Quest Text option in the Interface Options of the Main Menu.
Do you like exploring? You get experience from exploring the map, so go off-trail in level appropriate zones to discover new areas. Of course, going off the road will get you more aggro, but more aggro equals more kills equals more experience, so go for it.
Do you like roleplaying? One thing I miss about playing EQ and City of Heroes is the likelihood of the general populace to do at least a minimum amount of roleplaying. The unforeseen (by me at least) drawback of servers dedicated to roleplaying is the disdain for roleplaying encountered on non RP servers. If you are into back-stories, typing in-accent and staying in-character, join a RP server for a more immersive experience. Just ignore the bored griefers who make noobs on RP servers to mock your fun. Instead, silently pity their lack of girlfriends and exit general chat until your next session.
Is getting there more important than the journey? If you don't mind "spoilers" and not discovering things on your own, then try a leveling guide. A good guide will include maps and step by step instructions to maximize your time in each part of a zone. Since many quests can be completed at the same time, using those guides can really reduce the time you would otherwise spend going back to the same place to get similar stuff done.
Do you like dungeon crawls? You are out of luck on this one. Instances take longer than an hour unless you are being run through by a high-level. You will encounter some mini-caves throughout your questing, but instances take a couple hours at least to complete and that doesn't include the time required to get a group together.
Do you like PvP? If you don't or like it just a little, then stay off the PvP servers. From about level 20 on, you spend your questing time in contested zones and getting ganked takes up a lot of extra time. You can always do battlegrounds when you are in the mood for some player vs player action. If you do like PvP, at an hour a day, I would still recommend staying off a PvP server. But do bring up characters that you keep at level 19 and 29 so that you can always have someone to shine in the battlegrounds for your alloted hour.
Overall, you can have fun in WoW on just an hour a day and it sounds like that would be the best schedule for you. Regardless of the way you enjoy your gaming time, make sure you maximize your rest. Make at least 2 characters, always park them in inns and big cities and juggle their play time. You can keep their experience bar blue and almost halve your leveling time. But I also recommend setting aside a 3 to 5 hour session every week to two weeks to enjoy the extremely fun instances WoW has to offer. If you are having trouble getting your non-gamer girlfriend to let you have that extra time, try some of the techniques I have described previously or at least encourage her to find a hobby to enjoy while you enjoy yours.
Welcome to WoW!
Robin Torres juggles one level 70 Tauren Druid, multiple alts across multiple servers, two cats, one toddler, one loot-addicted husband and a yarn dependency. After years of attempting to balance MMOs with real life, Robin lightheartedly shares the wisdom gleaned from her experiences. If you would like to ask Robin's advice, please email Robin.Torres@weblogsinc.com for a possible future column.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Azeroth Interrupted
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
someone Jul 1st 2007 8:36PM
"Because you are aware enough of the addiction risks in playing WoW"
If you get "addicted" to wow(or any mmo for that matter) you are a pathetic life form. Period no ifs, ans, or buts.
The idiots who get addicted/think you can get addicted are the same idiots who would blame McDonald for making the coffee too hot when they burn their tongue.
There is nothing in your blood physically making you play wow, stfu and get a life.
Poxus Jul 1st 2007 8:40PM
#1 subtle answers seem to go better than the typical 'STFU" routine. Try real advise followed by reason and you get better responses.
As for the article, playing Warcraft in increments works fine, as long as you are having FUN and never pick the game over real life.
I recently decided to play the game for the small 5 man element instead of the raiding element. This gives me plenty of time to get online and do what I want to do, instead of following the demands of a raiding mentality.
Just play to have fun and realize that Real Life ALWAYS comes before the game.
Lisa Poisso Jul 1st 2007 8:52PM
With limited time for gaming, I would recommend larger blocks of gaming fewer times a week. Give yourself a couple of nights a week. That gives you enough time on gaming nights to actually get some real instance runs and levelling in, and it gives you enough time on non-gaming nights to spend some time with your girlfriend and enjoy some other types of R&R. And it's *much* less frustrating to not log in at all than it is to log in and be so constrained and interrupted by such a short time limit.
Ninkasi Jul 1st 2007 8:54PM
Sounds like Someone's in denial.
Robin Torres Jul 1st 2007 9:12PM
Lisa, Berzurk said in his email that he has only a couple hours a night to himself. So I respected his assessment of his own schedule and worked with that information. For someone who has more time, however, your advice is great.:)
Geoff Jul 1st 2007 10:24PM
> Berzurk, Human Warrior
> All classes in WoW are viable for soloing,
> though some are better than others
Berzurk. You need to reroll. That warrior is going to get harder and harder to solo as you get to higher levels.
Binrah@gmail.com Jul 1st 2007 10:38PM
It's totally possible to play WoW and have a life - you just have to limit yourself, and like everybody's said, put the real life first.
I'm leveling up a Tauren Hunter on 1.5 - 2 hours a night; just started using a guide to catch up with my higher-level friends, and BRK articles to fill my head with Hunting knowledge.
I figure, I'm only playing so much a night; might as well make the most out of it, and since instances usually take too long, I save those for a slow weekend. With a little luck, I'll be running Kara by September. ;)
Merus Jul 1st 2007 10:42PM
Can we lay off Stella for suing McDonald's for serving her coffee at a temperature she couldn't even drink already? The case is a lot more nuanced than the Internet believes. (As implied, the coffee would have caused third-degree burns if drunk, and it was McDonald's policy at the time to serve drivethru coffee that hot so the coffee would still be hot when eventually drunk. McDonald's been paying other burn victims who'd parked in the parking lot and drunk their coffee to keep silent, and it's that behaviour that did them in. The proper take-away from the Stella case is not 'how can someone sue McDonald's for providing hot coffee' but more 'why couldn't they just turn the coffee pot down to the same temperature everyone else uses'.)
Ernesto Jul 2nd 2007 12:29AM
although #1 was a complete ass about it, he is 100% correct and i agree with him lol.
Walkin Jul 2nd 2007 1:56AM
Berzurk, STOP playing it RIGHT NOW!
STOP while you're not addicted, STOP while you still have a girlfriend.
Otherwise you'll love your life to the game. And let's face it: that's only really worth it if you're over 40 and unhappy with your marriage. Otherwise, your LIFE COMES FIRST!
Get a videogame console or some other non-MMORPG game to play in your spare time. Wow is not worth losing a girlfriend!
Jordan Jul 2nd 2007 10:47AM
There's no way in hell you can play for one hour a day and get anywhere unless you want to do it alone, all the way up to 60.
Has anyone here ever tried actually getting a group together in an hour? Let alone getting a group together and completing an instance? Yeah right.
enkafiles Jul 2nd 2007 2:36AM
"If you get "addicted" to wow(or any mmo for that matter) you are a pathetic life form. Period no ifs, ans, or buts.
The idiots who get addicted/think you can get addicted are the same idiots who would blame McDonald for making the coffee too hot when they burn their tongue."
The equivalent to blaming McDonald's would be blaming Blizzard. It is entirely possible to spend more time in-game than is healthy. If it starts affecting your life/relationships and you are unable to dial back your game time, that would be the behaviour of an addict. It does not mean you are a pathetic life form. How judgmental can you get?
loutr Jul 2nd 2007 4:25AM
@10 : I have a lvl 70 priest AND a girlfriend. It's totally possible to enjoy wow and have a great social life.
Of course, it took me some time to get to 70, and after a week of intensive playing once I got there, I've cut down my playtime, so I expect to make my way through HL content more slowly than my guildmates. I'll try securing a night or two per week to do dungeons (at HL PVE, it's not worth it if you can't play for 4 hours in a row).
The point is, always keep in mind what's important in your life (Google for a couple of horror stories about mmorpg addiction gone bad to help you do that :). Don't turn down your friends when they call you to hang out, don't be afraid to leave a group if your GF wants to go out for the night ; politely excuse yourself and just leave... Granted, it's harder to do that when you're midway through an instance... If people start cursing at you for giving priority to real life, just stop playing with them, they're not worth it. Find in-game friends, or a guild, that see the game the same way you do, and have fun with them :)
Don't let the game eat up your social and professional life, and you'll still be able to enjoy it.
PS : I hope my english do not suck too much :) (being french and all...)
Bea Jul 2nd 2007 5:11AM
I have tried playing only for an hour at a time, but it does not work for _me_. Now, of course people are different, and what works for you might not work for me and vice versa. But here is why it does not work for me:
Quests. Some quests are long, or a chain. For me it is very hard, near impossible, to walk away from a quest when it is almost finished. "Only one drop of item x" might end up taking half an hour if I get extremely unlucky.
Instances. Well, unless you come with a set of friends who are always ready willing and able to stand by your side, you will have no chance whatsoever to experience the instace content if your playing time is an hour a day. In my experience, even teaming up fro something usually takes an hour or more, unless I get invited to an otherwise ready group (yeah, that happens when you have a lvl 70 healer).
People. Now you are going to say I am out of my mind, but this is a big issue. I am going to log off and half my friends list starts talking to me. Someone is asking for advise, another is offering crafted items (a by-product of his tradeskill leveling), third is asking if I have a group quest he has, fourth is asking for a quick favor or help with something, and fifth is telling me he just flew over an item I would like to gather. And if this isn't enough, people who aren't on my friends list ask my help in things I would like to get done for myself as well.
Now, at the moment, my playing is hurting my real life badly. But having tried limiting daily time, I know it isn't my thing. Next I try setting one or two evenings a week for playing. Cold pizza to eat and I play as late as I stay awake (knowing I will be going to work the next morning). That is my night off. It remains to be seen how that works out. I think it will go on the rocks the minute someone says something innocent like "see you tomorrow" when I log out.
Bea, holy paladin.
Chalmers Jul 2nd 2007 5:34AM
Am I the only one who can see playing WoW as being similar to playing a sport? Aren't they both games? Don't you train for each of them to become better? Is your guild not your team? Is a raid not game day? Sure, there are differences between the two. But, if all you are getting out of playing team sports is technical skill and physical conditioning, you're missing out. Same goes for WoW.
The point I'm trying to get at is that I don't think it's such a bad thing to have at least some level of dedication to playing. If you skip out on a run without finding a replacement for yourself, then yes, you are an ass. You just screwed over four REAL people. I also think there's nothing wrong with dedicating 1-2 nights a week to raiding if you have the time. You don't need to be going out with your friends every night to prove that you have a life.
Berzurk, I also agree with #3.
Evil Forum Troll Jul 2nd 2007 7:02AM
Real life sucks!!! play WoW its more fun...
Luis D. Jul 2nd 2007 7:07AM
Looks like 'someone' escaped from the WoW general forums again. Get back in the cage you!
The Crowing One Jul 2nd 2007 8:05AM
I'm going to have to weigh in with #3 here.
If you're limited (and I don't know the specifics of your day to day schedule) try to find larger blocks once or twice a week. Even if you log on once every seven days and then go for four hours you'll have a more rewarding experience than if you were to constantly pull yourself away day after day.
Face it, this is a game where you're going to get immersed for hours at a time, and that's not a bad thing. As with any RPG half the fun is finding yourself in-character to some degree. If you can grant yourself a day or two a week to get wicked into it it'll make those days off much less stressful on everyone. It's a lot easier to go full throttle once or twice a week than to half-ass it every day. The latter sounds like a disaster plan for anyone who believes themselves "at risk" for getting hooked.
Jess Jul 2nd 2007 8:47AM
Annother bit of advice for those who want to just spend an hour a day playing WOW- spec for DPS becuase most likely that will always be the best spec for you until you get to the highest level and if you are doing damage quickly = kill things quickly = less down time and getting quests done faster.
And leveling guides are awesome.
Don Jul 2nd 2007 9:22AM
I found that you can addict others to playing WoW in you real life environment it can help lessen the effects of the addiction. My sister, bro in law and girlfriend were all "turned on to WoW" by myself. All play regularly and the only one who complains now is my mother, since my sister does not call as often.