WOW Time Investment Question

I probably fall in to the middle range of people who post in this site in terms of propensity for addiction to video games. If I bought WOW, what do you estimate is the amount of time I would find myself playing it per week? No real obligations in life other than work.

5-8 hours a day.

No obligations?

If you find it fun and join up with other GWJ peoples then you could easily play 3 to 4 hours a night.

I have played it every night since release and I don''t see me stopping until Xmas break when I visit the in-laws.

Figure out how many hours you play video games now. Unless there''s one of them that you really love, you''ll probably wind up enjoying all that time in WoW, at least for the first month or so or the Next Big Game (for you) comes out.

I don''t spend any more time than I did before (well I am right now because I''m on vacation until Jan 4) but, for instance, I got an Xbox w/ Halo 2 for my birthday from my lovely wife. It is sitting in the entertainment center but not yet connected to the TV

Ayup, at least 5 hours.

I work primarily weekends and have most Sun-Wed off so my gaming on WoW has been about 10-12 hours on those days, but my excuse is that I am only on the 10 day pass and am trying to bleed out as much of it as I can so I don''t have to play so much catch up (with my friends here and the GWJ''ers Blackhand groups, which I have a character for both the Alliance and the Horde.) when I do get signed on in January.

I have a family and a busy work schedule, so I play at most 2 hours on any given day (excepting for special occasions, like doing Ragefire last night). And I don''t play every day by any means. I think it is a game that you can get a lot out of whether you play it a lot or very little. I logged on before work the other day and did a quest in about 20 minutes. The hard part is getting yourself to STOP playing

Honestly, Alien, I''ve never played an MMORPG before WoW. I enjoy pen and paper RPG''s and a select few video game RPG''s. (Fallout, NWN, KotOR) and I classified myself as mildly interested in WoW but that''s because of the Warcraft Universe and less so the online RPG.

I''m hopelessly addicted (though not as I define additiction. I still shower.) to this game. I often play till 2 or 3 in the morning even though I have class/work at 8am. I think my total sleep in a week has dropped to about forty hours from around seventy.
Why am I addicted? Because it''s fun for me. I like the artistic style, the gameplay, and the general feeling of community. There''s nothing like being embroiled in a bitter fight which you may or may not win only to have a passing priest or paladin simply throw a buff on you which helps turn the tide decisively in your favor, even though they literally gain nothing by doing so.

Since launch, I have played (total time online): 3 days, 3 hours, and 27 minutes.

Damn Thanksgiving with the family - I could have easily been at 4-5 days but for that.

I would really like to play but I don''t think I want to commit that much time to it. Bummer.

I think you would play as much or as little as you wanted. One of the best things about WoW is that it''s easy to find a stopping point. The only time I find it difficult to log out is during an Elite quest. Come play with us!

I fish for 20 minutes every morning before I leave for work. During the week I''ll put in an hour or so a night during the week except for my ''gaming night'' that the wife and I have agreed on.

I want to play more but I''m not sad that the wife is good in making sure I spend time in the real world too.

You''re making the right call Alien13z! Be strong!

Probably about 7 hours a night. I get home from work at 8:30pm, on from 9-3 or 4, depending on what''s going on. Ok, sometimes less, but that''s only if I''m dead tired.

And then there WAS that night last week I was up till 5am, thank you Scarlet Monestary and your uber drops!!!

This is my first MMORPG as well, and I find myself spending at least a few hours each night playing. I didn''t understand the allure of these games before, but now I find it difficult to play all the other games I have stacked up. Just as I feared would happen.

I''m sure it will wear off soon enough, and I''ll be able to get back to Halo 2, Half Life 2, Rachet and Clank 3, and Metroid Prime, but in the mean time I''m having a lot of fun killing fake monsters, picking herbs, and buying new clothes for a little fake person.

I guess the whole appeal is that the character will always be there. It doesn''t seem like wasting time, as theoretically there is no end to the game. In single player experiences eventually, no matter how powerful and cool the character may become, you run out of things to do and it is retired.

Blizzard does an incredible job of stringing you along, and making you play longer than you intend just to get one more level or this or that important accessory. It seems to work though.

"Alien13z" wrote:

I would really like to play but I don''t think I want to commit that much time to it. Bummer.

Then play and don''t commit that much time. It''s certainly not a necessity for enjoyment of the game. Your question was about how much time you would likely find yourself playing, assuming no other commitments, but I think the high numbers people have thrown out reflect more on their enjoyment of the game rather than how much time they feel forced to spend to do well.

Personally, if I had no commitments I would likely play a couple of hours a night, with the occasional binge and the occasional week off. As it is, I have a bunch of other stuff on the go and a wife, so I get somewhere between 8-16 hours a week (I think). Normally in hour or hour-and-a-half chunks here and there.

Truthfully, it''s a game that you could spend 20 minutes a week on or 10 hours a day - there really is a lot to see and do. It''s definitely worth trying out, to see how it impacts the rest of your life.

I played for a half hour this morning and actually felt like I accomplished something.
(Finished a lower level kill quest).
So you don''t need a massive time commitment to play.
Those people up above are just addicted.

You will become addicted but you can control it. Im going to tahoe this weekend. I feel no sadness at missing the game. However, you''d better believe that I spend 99% of my waking hours playing it.

Im wagering you''ll settle in on 4-5 hours a night during the week and 8-10 hours on the weekend if not more. That 20-25 hours during the week and 16-20 on the weekends. How do you feel about moonlighting in the fabulous world of Azeroth?

Yeah, like Chumpy said you can put in any amount of time and still enjoy WoW. If I had all the free time in the world I would probably play more than is healthy, but luckily I have a wife and friends that keep me in check.

I''ve actually been able to stay off all week because we are painting and getting the house ready for my folks visiting over the holidays. IMHO WoW has achieved the best balance of casual play, while maintaining depth to keep you interested for a long time. CoH was great for casual play, but had very little depth to keep you playing for the long haul. EQ or EQ2, on the other hand, has the depth but is not casual friendly. WoW is the perfect blend.

You can''t put any amount of time in that you want because its addicting. You should see that by the posts in this thread. Typical drug pushers.. ""You can stop whenever you want.""

Zed, you''re just mad because we''re having this conversation about WoW instead of EQ2.

I was lucky to go through my first MMO experience when I was unemployed, so addiction didn''t effect my regular life. I still looked for a job 4-6 hours a day and had all the time in the world to play.

If you are not a first time MMO player than disregard this message. You know yourself better than anybody here.

However, if you are a first time MMO player ask yourself the following questions:

1. Have I ever been addicted to any form of gambling?

2. Am I the kind of person who has to play through a game in it''s entirety before I can take a break and put it down?

3. Do I ever become extremely competitive with my friends in trying to succeed in a game, such as the following statement. ""I need to get to 1000 kills in Halo 2 before my friend does and I will do this at any cost.""

4. Do I have a history of abusing substances when I''m depressed.

If you answered Yes to any of these be warned that MMOs can be just as much ""gamer crack"" as people make them out to be. However, from somebody who spent 4 months being completely addicted to MMOs, if you have your priorites in life straight then it never has to be a problem. These are the rules I follow:

1. If I''m with a group that levels so much faster than me that I would have to sacrifice something in real life to keep up with them then I will either request that they make alts to play with me, or I will find other players in game that are at my level to group with and continue to chat with my friends through Guild chat. This is also an excellent way to make friends. Soloing is very viable in WoW also, so no friends are ABSOLUTELY required.

2. If a real life friend starts playing I will immediatly do everything I can to make sure that it is well established that I am not in competition with them. They WILL out level me.

3. I plan my allowed game time in advance. If I know that I''m going to need to do something like laundry or paying bills I do it before I start playing and I set a hard time as to when I will stop.

4. I actually keep an egg timer next to me that doesn''t go past 90 minutes. When it goes off I have to reevalute how long I''m going to be playing and it brings me enough out of the game to allow me to make rational decisions about how much time I have left to offer.

5. I don''t allow myself to buy $50 X-Box or PC titles when I''m deep into an MMO. You may think your going to make time to play them, but MMOs have this weird way of making all other games seem ""unnessacry"" and ""not moving me towards a goal"". For me I have to have a goal and a reason to play now. Just finishing games doesn''t compute. I miss that aspect of gaming, but I just can''t get myself to go back.

/Long Winded Preaching Off

Otherwise, WoW is a blast and well worth your money and (planned) time.

I play 2-4 hours a night about 3-5 times a week.

Thank you for all the well thought-out feedback. As much as I would like to play WoW, and that is really quite a bit, I don''t think it would be a good decision for me. I''m too compulsive.