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All of the latest Mists of Pandaria newsContemporary raiding and real-life obligations
by Amanda Dean 
May 9th 2009 at 6:00PM
An unidentified reader wrote to WoW Insider explaning that while he is in a raiding guild, his life schedule does not allow him to raid. He feels he's being left behind as groups ask for higher DPS.What practical advice is there for progressing in the game while being a player with RL obligations?
First off, I'd like to tell you that you're not an outlier, there are many of players in similar situations. Nearly all WoW players have real life obligations including work, school, and families. The two most important things to work on are balance and realistic expectations.
It's easy to get suckered into playing too much WoW. To balance WoW with life, you need to determine how much time you can spend in game, while leaving plenty to meet your other responsibilities. If you can, try to schedule WoW at regular times, that way you build relationships with folks you play with often.
You should also try to match your expectations to your availability. Some folks have more time for raiding, and will progress faster. Once you've established the amount time you can/should play, you can tailor your personal goals to meet them. You can spend some of your time researching specs, strategies, and gear. That way you can maximize your in-game experience.
If you simply can't fit in time with your raiding guild, or they don't have space for a part timer, you may be in the wrong guild. There are a number of guilds, like mine, that cater toward working adults. While we do some kind of raid nearly every evening, our crew changes. Weekends work better for some folks, and weekdays work better for others. We're pretty flexible about who goes when. We mostly do 10 man content, and we won't be downing Ulduar any time soon, but we do enjoy ourselves and make progress.
Check your realm forums for a guild that suits your style. If you're willing to make a transfer, you can look around at other servers or in the guild recruitment forum. Take some time to get to know a potential guild before you make a commitment.
Will Blizz do anything to help those wanting to LFG with other players?
Blizzard has done quite a bit t to help make raiding accessible to all kinds of players. Where raids once required 40 hardcore players who nearly always worked together as a team. I have no idea how they managed WoW and life back then. Times have changed: raids are now legitimately PUGgable and even casual players have a shot at them. The "Looking for Group" tool has been widely embraced on alot of servers. If you prove yourself to be competent and socially acceptable in raiding PUGs you will often get find yourself getting tells asking you to fill a spot in a raid. You can also join a guild of similar folks, and PUG out spots that your guild can't fill.
It is now possible for players of all commitment levels to experience most of the content. Just plan ahead and expect to be flexible.
Good luck, and good hunting.
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Tips, Guilds, Instances, Raiding
Reader Comments (Page 3 of 3)
Bossy May 10th 2009 3:27AM
I think Blizzard did a remarkable job on Wow.
Wow these days is a game you simply like to play because of its endless gaming options.
Period.
Raiding is but one of them. And as a game it keeps your attention for years.
From different classes to play, to go for serious title achievements, to fight massive battles, do gladiator sports, go for supporting professions; twinks in BG's, hardcore raiding and killing those bosses .... just until you reach your limits in time spend and capabilities (I will NEVER achieve a 1900 rating :)) ).
And ALL this with complete control of your RL time schedule.
A pity some of us don't have ANY control over their proper RL !!!
jfofla May 10th 2009 3:57AM
See if you can tell if I am a Hardcore..
I have a job. DOH gave it away didn't I?
megalomaniac May 10th 2009 5:54AM
what would be nice is if instead of logging into a server with some clever wow-themed name, blizz would organize all the servers so that when you make a character, you chose a timeslot like 10:30 that would just let all of the people who play around 10:30ish to play together. Sure, it could be abused by farmers but with a little tweaking im sure anything dishonest could be weeded out. The plus-side to doing it like that is that all of the various wow games (solo / world pvp / battlegrounds / raiding / achievements /etc) would be available to you when youre most likely to play. Then issues like this wouldn't pop up.
Grimortam May 10th 2009 5:56AM
I was in hardcore raiding guilds for a long time, even in preTBC we did 5 to 7 raids a week with an expactation that you would come to atleast 5 or 6 of them but with studies and all I really don't want to spend that much time on wow, I'd much rather go to bars with friends in the evening.
so what I did was, on my server there is a guild that used to be the most hardcore guild on the server but now they have gone layedback raiding style, there are 3 or 4 raids a week if you want to raid you can show up and raid, but still raid with skilled players who have a hardcore mentalety in the sence that they don't mind wiping 100x if thats what it takes.
you can only raid till 10? sure then you go at 10. you can't raid for 2 months? sure take your time. I'm seriusly happy I went to this guild.
Grimortam
Valhall, Azjol-Nerub (eu)
Netsy May 10th 2009 12:01PM
This is moronic. How can you expect to contribute less than everyone else in your guild, and still expect a raid slot come raid time?
We can compare WoW to any other hobby that requires a team. Let's say you joined a baseball team. The other 9-12 guys on the team are relying on each other to attend practice and games, otherwise they forefeit. If you can't make it to the games on a regular basis, you really have no business being on the team in the first place. It's rude to the other people that need you to be there.
You can make the "it's just a game" argument all you want. It doesn't justify your rude behavior.
netsy May 10th 2009 12:29PM
If you don't care enough about your team to perform at your peak, then you shouldn't be on that team. They have a dual-spec system now. You can be frost for farming and fire or arcane for raiding.
If life hands them a frost mage who refuses to use his dual spec, they "adapt and overcome" by taking someone who cares about their dps output.
Modajo May 10th 2009 12:43PM
Make friends in other guilds; I often defer to one guild on server to fill empty slots for nonprogression raids.
Also, all worthwhile guilds will have a website and post their raid schedule and expectations (like making 50%). If you have time off peak American hours, look into European or oceanic realms/guilds that might be better suited to your schedule.
Arkanius May 26th 2009 3:40PM
Been there, done that. Read some of the many thousand submissions at WOWDETOX.com.
I was a former hardcore raider. During The Burning Crusade, I regularly put in 5-7 nights per week. (*My choice*). More recently, I rejoined the original guild/crew during my TBC days and was doing about 4 nights/week at 4 hours per night (16 hours of raiding) through WOTLK. Fantastic game mind you, but whether you are a high school student, college student or full-time worker, you really can't play this game unless you're a shut-in. I mean that wholeheartedly.
Unless you're of the most casual nature and don't care about enjoying the content, Blizzard has much of it on a timetable to be pulled out via patches or nerfed to the point of unattainable. I wouldn't mind WOW if I could sign on and over time with a group of people beat it, much like Diablo II+. However, you can't. Blizzard "times" all content. You can no longer obtain certain mounts, titles, or even experience certain content because it's changed. The game *you* buy is vastly different than those who linger on the bleeding edge downing bosses.
Now, if you raid as minimally as I did at 16hours/week, you still were in-game for a large amount of time doing other things, such as dailies, heroies, naxx, old content, holiday events, pvp, or simply goofing off. Raid schedules DO NOT include the other bs time which most raiders do put in to min/maxing their toon.
Breaking out the typical DAY, it's nigh impossible to be a reponsible and balanced member of society and truly play this game as some of you have described. Those who try to slip them past me are merely deluding themselves that "it's ok."
*HS school student. Whether you like video games or not, most students are up around 6am and done school by 2-3pm. From there, most will work a job or play sports. If you aren't, you are missing out on valuable life-building moments that will transfer to college eventually. Keep in mind, other kids are doing this and your slinking further down the Darwinian social totem pole.
*College student. Given the cost of college education and how the job market has contracted, is an online MMO REALLY the thing you ought to be doing with your 3-4 years? If you went to a prestigious school, I do hope you're maximizing your time there. If you did not go to a prestigious school, then you must work doubly hard to be on par with those who did.
*Full-time worker (18+). Most workers in the modern economy are up around 6am and doing work-based things until 5pm+. To even get up by 6am, you'd have to be in bed between 10pm-12am. This does not include cleaning your place, eating a dinner, doing something reasonably social after work or perhaps taking extra courses. Mind you, no SO has been included.
Simply put, if you are raiding in WOW, there's absolutely better things to be done with your life, whether you want to accept that or not. Those who are raiding full-time as I once foolishly did, are living very small lives below their potential. There's very few subsections of our society that can handle an online video game at the level required to raid, be it hardcore or casual.
And please do not compare wow to a hobby. NO person on this planet has a hobby which consumes 15+hours/week, or 2hours/day. If you play a console game, you have no pre-defined time to be on the console and will pick it up as you like. If you play music that much, you probably perform for a living or earn money doing it. Very *few* people work out even 1 hour/day, as evidenced by obesity factors in our country. The only sad thing most people do is watch TV too much and we already know how that affects the population, so if you're comparing it to anything, compare it to TV, but worse.
It's sad how people seem to think that without WOW they lead a boring, meaningless existent, as most people say "well what would I do with that time, watch TV?" ANYTHING YOU WANT. This is life, we live but one existence. Making your toon the best won't deliver happiness and when the servers switch over to a new WOW iteration, you don't own your toon. Nothing you devote on such a regimented basis will make you a better, happier, or healthier person. None of that time contributes to any personal, mental, or emotional growth. God fordbid your account is hacked! All those many /played hours are down the tubes and nothing you've done over the years amount to diddly squat.
Flame me. I don't really care. I've yet to meet ONE person I can respect who's honest with themselves and their life about this game. I was on the brink of a meltdown myself and losing various parts of my life, but I realized the sleep I was in over this. Having a full-time job, having real life hobbies, friends, taking care of myself, my place, and being on top of real life issues affords me of zero chance to raid.
Those whom I left behind were workers who zoomed home to play, forelorn lovers who couldn't hack a relationship because of the game, high school or college students who did nothing but play WOW, and busted marriages that had their real connection in-game and then had to often confront their partner's infidelity when they began cybering with their Guild leader or main tank. Unplugged, many of those people could be fantastic and highly potent people. I have no empathy.
If you're a college student, the memory of you getting drunk and being at parties is far better than downing some pixels of which you can't add to a resume, can't tell a friend or future partner about, and can't be etched onto your grave tablet.