Breakfast Topic: How do you make time for WoW?
by Andrew Ross 
Mar 12th 2011 at 8:00AM
There is such a wide variety of WoW players. Everyone from college students to 70-year-old gaming grandmothers play. Some people play for an hour or two every few days. Other people play for hours every night.
No matter what your play schedule is, you more often than not have to find time to play, and that can be hard. School, work, family, friends, other commitments ... All those things and more make a huge impact in finding time to play WoW without interruption. Making time to play can feel like planning a rocket launch sometimes. If you're a full-time college student, you spend a good portion of your day in class, you have to study almost daily, and when exams roll around, you live in your books. Someone with a full-time job and a family might as well feel like planning a rocket launch. There are so many things to do in one night that you can't even begin to list them all.
I knew a nurse who was working full time in the trauma room of the ER, going to school full time and had three kids. She was not only in one of the best raiding guilds on the server but also managed to do arena and go just over a 1,900 rating. I asked her how she made time for everything. Her answer? She took her laptop to work when she knew there would be a slow night and could do arenas. She would rotate on her nights off with the kids. Her husband was also a raider, so they would take turns getting the kids to bed for the night. Luckily, they were both gamers, so it was easier to find time to play.
How do you make time to play WoW? Are you limited to a few hours every night, or do you plan for a weekend of WoW?
Filed under: Breakfast Topics, Guest Posts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Swifteye Mar 12th 2011 8:08AM
Easy; I just have no social life. :p
Eh... as I've mentioned many times before, I work graveyard shift, so I generally play in the morning after work because that's "my" evening.
I've pretty much given up any hope of raiding because there just aren't enough people on and with the desire at that time of day. But on the other hand, I feel like I get to cram "more" WoW into my playtime, because there's so much less traffic (i.e., the exact same set of daily quests that takes 10-15 minutes on my pally in the morning can literally average more like 60-90 in the evening because there's so much more competition).
*shrug*
darthjeffrey Mar 12th 2011 8:10AM
i work 7am-7pm 5 days a week and i play 7:30pm-12am everyday i work and on my days off i play at least 16-18 hours. i have two raiding toons and 3 max lvl profession alts. i don't make time for WoW. WoW is all there is. XD
Zura Mar 12th 2011 8:41AM
Sounds like a road to burnout. How do you have time to post on websites? Tabbed out while on flight path?
I work full time, have 2 kids 1 and 3, and a wife that hates wow and always tries to find stuff to keep me away. I play when they are asleep, sometimes late night (5mans and bg), and sometimes in early morning (quests and crafting/ ah). Somehow this adds up to about 8 hrs a week. Sadly no raiding with no set playtimes.
wyredmonk Mar 12th 2011 9:04AM
@zura
I know a little of your pain. I love my wife more than anything, but she hates mmorpg's more than anything. Probably because I played Everquest when we started dating, and that was a less than popular decision. I make time here and there. I work a regular day job and go to law school at night...just like Rick Moranis in ghostbusters 2. I log in after my early morning exercise, and sometimes after class at night. I love my little wow pockets.
@darth
Sweet jesus...like the force your life needs balance young padawan. I recommend a workout schedule and joining a gym. Its social, its awesome for your body and mind, and you can treat it like leveling up your muscles and heart. Oh, and it doesn't hurt with the ladies...or guys...or whatever makes you happy.
Antigone Mar 12th 2011 6:56PM
I will never understand spouses and significant others who feel they have the right to veto their partners' hobbies, whether the hobby is WoW, fishing, or drinking beer with their buddies. My husband has his own set of interests and I've never managed to get him to play WoW for even five minutes, but he understands that my playtime is important to me. Likewise, I don't understand his affection for hashing and even find some of the antics he and his buddies get up to mildly disturbing, but that's his thing so I let him get on with it.
sprout_daddy Mar 12th 2011 8:56PM
At the risk of of sounding out of touch, what is "hashing"?
My wife supports my hobby - within reason - it wasn't always that way when I was running a guild, but now that i have no friends and am afraid of running heroics, she doesn't see wow as much of a time sink for me :-)
Antigone Mar 12th 2011 10:01PM
Hashing? As far as I've been able to figure out, it involves a lot of running, drinking, and singing obscene and profane songs. While wearing red dresses. As I said, it's mildly disturbing to watch grown men and women behave this way.
Kurtis Mar 12th 2011 8:18AM
My work schedule varies quite a bit. Sometimes - every week or two - I'm able to leave WoW open in the background and do gathering or archaeology whenever I need to clear my head.
As far as more structured activities go, sometimes I log in while the kids are doing their homework. Otherwise, I play after they're in bed. That actually puts me in the middle of prime-time on my server since I live in the midwest but play on a west-coast server.
Weekends are much more loosely structured - sometimes I can play for several hours at a time, but more usually there's other stuff going on in the real world.
Bloodfurnace Dalvengyr Mar 12th 2011 8:46AM
I don't make time for WoW, WoW makes time for me.
Sleutel Mar 12th 2011 10:06AM
This is actually a pretty insightful observation. One of the strengths of WoW is how incredibly flexible it is. Have a whole day free? You can play WoW. Have 10 minutes free? You can play WoW.
Coopaloop Mar 12th 2011 11:56AM
Can't say I agree with this statement. That 10 minutes is damn sure to turn into an hour. Its like saying I am going to eat one skittle and then the bag disappears.
Eternauta Mar 12th 2011 1:15PM
@sleuthel: Unless you're into serious raiding, where regularity becomes mandatory.
Chetti Mar 12th 2011 5:02PM
I think thats what sleuthel meant. You can approach the game however you like. If you've got the time to devote specific hours, there's stuff to do. If you've got a random hour with nothing to do, log on and you can find stuff to do. Log in for 10 mins, check mail and auctions, etc.. If you have no set schedule that you can play, there is still a ton of stuff to do. Flexibility makes the game awesome.
asdecemberfalls Mar 12th 2011 9:01AM
I feel like I NEVER have time I work 48 hours a week and I’m a 24 year old girl who still has an awesome social life and a boyfriend. The only time I really have to play is week nights 7pm through 11pm. Some times on the weekends in between hanging out with friends... who make fun of me for playing wow..... I wish I could play more though.
.... Can someone just pay me to play wow?
;D
Skrotus Mar 12th 2011 9:31AM
Yes, but the pay is pretty terrible and I would imagine gold farming kind of saps the enjoyment out of the game.
asdecemberfalls Mar 12th 2011 9:48AM
True maybe I should just play wow while at work then haha... I wish.
TFA Mar 12th 2011 9:12AM
I'm a sophomore in college, it's either have a social life or WoW, cause you can't do both with school work and work work.
Haven't played for a month or so now after I got a girlfriend, there simply isn't enough time :\
MusedMoose Mar 12th 2011 9:15AM
So long as the girlfriend isn't actually telling you to stop playing WoW. ^_^ You didn't say that she was, so no worries; but this is the voice of experience saying to never date someone who tells you to give up the things you enjoy. Trust me on this. @_@
MusedMoose Mar 12th 2011 9:13AM
I work full-time, but I get home around 4:30 so I've got plenty of time for WoW before I have to go to bed. The real trick is balancing time between WoW and whatever writing project I'm working on. Last year, when I was writing a novel, my guild master asked if I got hacked, because I was away from WoW so much. ^_^ Weekends are pretty much split between WoW, other hobbies, hanging out with friends if they're available, and working out.
So yeah, no worries about finding time, though I still don't know if I'll be able to fit in raiding when my guild starts that. Hrm.
exogenesis. Mar 12th 2011 9:25AM
I wish I could just drop WoW to write my novel. My novel is in the works, but I simply cannot find any energy to write it, so I turn to WoW instead. The last novel I wrote, I only managed to write because I used a laptop with no internet, and no CD drive.
:(