Ask WoW Insider: My Girlfriend won't let me level
Welcome to today's edition of Ask WoW Insider, in which we publish your questions for dissection by the peanut gallery -- now with extra snark and commentary by one of our writers. This week "Lovelorn in Azeroth" writes in:WoW-Playing Girlfriend Drama
Or rather, "Here, don't level or do anything that'll give the character you play all the time any XP while I start to level a level one character that I hate playing all the time up to your character's level, and then make your character keep pace with mine! That way, everything will be super-special-awesome!"
Dear WoWinsider,
My name is [name omitted to protect the... something] elven fire mage of Area 52. Over three months ago, my girlfriend and I agreed (willingly, for the most part) that I should pause my leveling to allow her to roll up a new toon that would catch up to me, and allow us to adventure together across Azeroth on equal footing. Fine and dandy, non?
Fast forward a few months later, and I am still around the same level, and her character is now only barely getting into the high 40s. I have lost a lot of online friends I made while leveling, they having progressed to 70. My girlfriend admits to a strong dislike of playing her character for the sole purpose of leveling, and I have hinted, perhaps too subtly, that I want to go melt faces already.
It's sad- I have singlehandedly increased the money in the guildbank tenfold, and leveled my enchanting far beyond what any normal person of my level should have. Some may find that a impressive achievement, but I find it rather pathetic. Part of my new year's resolution was to get to 70, advance my guild, and defeat Kael before patch 2.4 came out. Sadly, though, looks like that's not happening.
It should be noted that my girlfriend wants us to "experience new content at the same time", which, to her, means that simply rerolling together is no good, since I've already "experienced all content up to my level". I have proposed rerolling some allies, but she shudders at memories of all the "mail" quests ally-side, so that's a no-go as well.
My question to you is: How do I get to level again without restraint? I've talked to her a few times, and she says that if I should go on by myself, I would not be allowed to share any achievements with her, and we'd essentially each have to pretend the other doesn't exist, which is a real fun-siphon. How can I level and be able to finally go "Woo! Seventy!" to everyone I know?
Sincerely,
Your friendly neighborhood fire mage.
P.S.: Getting a new SO is out of the question. No ifs, ands or buts.
Well, at least he's not bitter.
I can't help but think that somewhere in here is a Paul Harvey "Now you know.... the rest of the story" moment, but I'm forced to take this at face value.
If I read this right, your girlfriend isn't opposed to playing the character she has, she just don't want to play only to level (and I can't blame her on that). Probably, because while you admit to trying to be subtle, you're running around like Chester going "Hey, Spike, what are we doing to do today?" Because, lets face it, when it comes to this sort of stuff, us guys aren't known for our subtlety. So, it's decision time: do you leave your girlfriend behind to race off with your online friends, or do you work out a solution to make the person you spend cold winter nights with when the power is out happy. I'd choose the latter, or your face is going to be one getting melted.
You need to make the game fun for her. She's not opposed to playing, she just doesn't want to kill 65 million boars. The solution might be as simple as letting her drive when you play, or running some instances together -- if you're in a good guild and they have alts the same level you can run a few instances with them; they could slow the pulls down a bit so she could enjoy it. Or you could bring her over to the recently revamped Dustwallow Marsh and try out all the new quests there, and, if you've never been there you get the whole "experience new content thing."
Let's throw this out to the studio audience: what do you think "Lovelorn" should do. Let's be kind here, too.
Filed under: Virtual selves, Quests, Ask WoW Insider, Leveling






Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Milktub Mar 31st 2008 9:11AM
When I paused my leveling for a month or two to wait for a friend to catch up, I played battlegrounds. All the time. Non-stop. On the plus side, I got PVP out of my system and I have no desire to do that ever again.
Or he could do a reroll while he waits, or just roll an alt.
And isn't it Shadow Priests who melt faces?
jrb Mar 31st 2008 11:19AM
the solution is very simple... as i'm in the same situation.
start a new character, and only play that character with her. If you get extra time to play you devote the time to the original character. everyone's happy... especially your girlfriend, which of course, is the most important thing.
Finnicks Mar 31st 2008 2:49PM
jrb,
Read the letter again. The girlfriend wants them to experience the content for the first time TOGETHER. So if he just creates an alt and catches up with her and then levels his toon to 70, he's seeing all that 60-70s content without her. And she apparently doesn't want that.
This guy's in a real jam.
Tekkub Mar 31st 2008 3:58PM
My husband is the same way, he wants to play, but then when we actually do he doesn't want to. There is only one real solution, you level one toon exclusively with her and another on your own.
Now she wants EXCLUSIVE hold on your playtime but won't play? That's just being selfish, and you need to make that clear to her. Simple ultimatum, you level with me x hours a week or let me play ahead of you. You can toss in the incentive that if you play ahead, you can come back and powerlevel her thru the boring stuff. Having my hubby decimate mobs with his druid while I loot is certainly more fun than the usual level grind.
biglou Mar 31st 2008 9:24AM
Ditto- go become a BG hero and start banking marks and honor for the epics at lvl 70.....or......grow a pair and play your game =D
John Mar 31st 2008 9:25AM
ahem *whip-cracking sound* she's really got you by the shorthairs man. For some reason I assume you are/were somewhere in the 50s levelwise and if so, you could easily have soloed instances up to SM maybe even ZF, instead of sitting around idling while she leveled you should have power leveled her thru vc/stocks/sm/zf, read the forums people are claiming 1-60 levelling in 2 days /played from doing just that (and scholo, but even leaving it out she coulda got to 50 pretty fast). Spend some of the gobs of cash you've made while waiting, buy the time of a 70 to boost the two of you thru the stuff you can't solo. If she hates levelling she should have no problem accepting runs, since it will speed the leveling process.
Nick S Mar 31st 2008 1:38PM
agreed. playing with her is probably your best bet. you're a mage! respec frost and go crush quests with her! mages are the ultimate boosting class. you'll have her close to your level in no time.
Manatank Mar 31st 2008 2:59PM
Shorthairs is right. How can anyone look at themselves in the mirror when they are cowed like this? How can she even respect him for being so whipped?
Tridus Mar 31st 2008 9:28AM
Background: I play with my wife. She levels more slowly then I can, and plays less often. So I'm in a similar situation.
The solution is easy: an alt. Make an alt whose only purpose is to play with her. If you're not playing with her, you don't play that character. That way the two are always in XP synch, always have the same quests, etc.
You can then use your other character when you're not playing with her, and level at your own pace. Everybody is happy.
Mystrana Mar 31st 2008 9:34AM
He already said that she doesn't want to have him roll an alt with her, because he has already experienced the content. To me, that's the psycho part of the situation. Let the man roll an alt to be with you, lady!
I dunno what else to say though, because my BF and I both have 70's and although we both dislike the leveling bit (which seems to be her biggest dislike too), the fact that we're playing together is what matters, not who has seen the content first.
Green Armadillo Mar 31st 2008 9:39AM
Yeah, an alt was my solution to this problem, and it worked out reasonably well for the most part. The only place where it won't help is if she actually spends a lot of time online but just somehow levels very slowly (maybe she really likes to harvest low level crafting materials to earn cash, whatever). If you start spending this time together on your alt, your main may become seriously neglected. Then again, are you really going to be happy when the two of you are finally the same level but she continues to level at a slow pace while you're raring at the bit to get to 70?
P.S. Mage isn't necessarily the best class for a duo anyway. I love my class dearly, but our mission in life is to kill mobs as quickly as possible before they get through our limited defenses. That can be less fun for the person you're playing with if the mob dies before she even gets it targeted.
Driphter Mar 31st 2008 11:19AM
Mage + healer for AoE grinding?
~Driphter
Michelle Mar 31st 2008 12:33PM
That's what my husband and I do. I play way more than he does since he divides his time with BF2 and CS:Source so I keep an alt or two laying around who I only play with him. It makes things way easier when we want to play together :)
KJS Mar 31st 2008 9:32AM
"P.S.: Getting a new SO is out of the question. No ifs, ands or buts."
I might be just missing it, but what does "SO" stand for?
Fifticon Mar 31st 2008 9:40AM
SO means 'significant other', as far as I know.
It's a politically correct term that takes into
account that somebodies loved one
might be a dog, dolphin or dragon.
(ie 'girlfriend' wouldn't cover it).
Heilig Mar 31st 2008 9:37AM
Significant Other
sniped43 Mar 31st 2008 9:41AM
SO stands for significant other, if i'm not mistaken :]
Take care.
Zali Mar 31st 2008 9:34AM
Isn't there a "meet me half way" sort of solution available? OK, so she doesn't really want to play a character solely to level. She doesn't want you to level at all. You want to level. You want to help her level. What you want and what she wants are diametrically opposed to one another. Meet half way. "OK honey. I won't level even though I want to. But you have to let me speed things up for you. Lets get you caught up to me, then we will take our time and play together." That way, you win half, she wins half.... you loose half, she looses half. Not perfect, but it is at least equitable. She gets to play with you while she levels up and you get to help her level up faster.
Also, in the amount of time it has taken her to get up to where she is at, you could have leveled another toon to catch up with her. That way you could both be playing in her perfect world... leaving your main for boosting to "Woo hoo, 70" status when she's not able to play.
Remember, its not just about her. If she feels like it is just about her, then she needs to lose some of that princess status and remember that you are also part of the relationship.
Malyfactian Mar 31st 2008 9:35AM
I never cease to be amazed by whiners who gripe and moan about their SO who plays WoW. What they fail to realize is that the vast majority of wives and girlfriends out there despise WoW because it takes so much time and attention away from them. This guy should just be thankful his girlfriend is interested and wants to spend time with him in-game. And for pete's sake, like the previous poster said, roll an alt.
gundamxzero Mar 31st 2008 10:48AM
Thank you for this comment, I totally agree.