Time, Time, Time

Yesterday I made the startling revelation that my main, Sayas, a level 80 discipline priest on Farstriders (US) was better qualified for raiding than I had thought. Today I begin to explore what that means.

First of course is the time commitment. Now we’re not talking quantity of time primarily. I spend plenty of that. I’d guess 10-20 hours a week typically. It seems like most raiders devote at least two nights a week to raiding and then many guilds seem to spend one night a week beyond that on “progression.” So, we’re talking three nights, three hours a night… so nine hours. Luckily, my guild really only expects two nights reducing that number to six hours.

But my deal is more about the expectation of nights of the week set aside for raiding. While I spend plenty of time in game, almost all of my time is on an ad hoc basis. I fit my time in between other commitments. Raiding turns that upside down to an extent and says you must to some extent fit those other commitments in around raiding. Still, I want to raid and anything you want doing takes a degree of prioritizing. So what if I committed just one night a week? Would that be good enough? I’m not sure because I know sometimes each raid is a progression in itself. In other words, night two is a continuation of night one. Obviously its an inconvenience at the very least to the others if I participate on night one and not on night two. Then again, what if the day of designated were to fall on day two of our raiding schedules? The chance that I’d be called upon to fill in for someone that started on day one would certainly be diminished from having started the raid in the first place.

I could look at pugging raids instead. I actually do a fair amount of that with 5 mans. But part of my motivation here is guild participation, not just raiding for raiding’s sake so that doesn’t seem to be a satisfactory solution. Also, I could look at raiding with a guild that consistently raids at a more convenient time for me. If I could raid mornings instead, that would far easier for me to commit to. But that would involve me changing guilds and perhaps servers as well. So that kind of would defeat the purpose as well. I don’t even know, is it possibly to transfer to servers in other areas of the world so that my morning might be their evening? Hmm…

So, there you have my thinking on the time issue. Next time, I’ll look at another concern.

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October 14, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , | 6 Comments »

Weekly World of Warcraft Addiction – 3/20/09

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Performance Anxiety | I Sheep Things…

I’ve had some really good questing buddies in the last few days. I usually play solo, I think you’re probably all familiar with my unfortunate guild situation at the moment, so the time I spend it groups is limited at best. It’s rare for me to want to quest with a random stranger, especially for quests that don’t involve an instance or elites or other group-requiring details. In my experience most of the people who group randomly are either sort of irritating, complete newbies who can’t find the party chat, or loot ninjas who don’t bother to /roll before grabbing. So I’ve typically steered clear of random groupings.

Progressive WoW: Leave of absence

I know it’s been a while since my last update, and that’s because I always update from work. That being said, I got laid off last week and as such I haven’t been at work to update. You’d think that means I would have more time to blog, but I guess I like to do other things online when I have full internet access.

What Happens When You Are “Done?” – Project Lore: World of Warcraft Videos and Guides

I’ve touched on this before, when talking about a lack of end game in the current content. But once again I personally have reached an interesting point in the life of my Paladin. When Wrath first came out, and I first got a look at all of the loot tables I spent a great deal of time planning my gear. I found every piece I wanted, determined what was the best in each slot, debated what set bonus were worth while, and finally came up with my “gear plan.” More or less I decided exactly
what I wanted my character to look like when I had everything I wanted.

Coming to terms with sex as an addiction

William Cope Moyers says: “Addiction is a disease of the mind, body, and spirit. Addiction is not caused by a person’s character, or willpower; it is caused by the way an addict’s brain is wired.” I would add that especially with sex addiction, it is caused by the way early life experiences shaped the brain.

What are the social consequences of video game addiction? | addictionblog.org

Does playing video games negatively effect the time adolescents should be spending in more developmentally appropriate activities like sports and hanging out with friends? I’ve got a personal bone to pick with gaming. Although I intellectually understand the appeal, I emotionally resent
the pull of games. Specifically, I wish that sports would once again replace video games. Not to mention that it’s now the chosen method for how my husband unwinds at the end of the day.

20 Questions with Nassira | The Hunting Lodge

I don’t know about you, but one of the fun things and maybe one of the more fun and misunderstood aspects of WoW is how social this game is. True, chat within the game itself can rapidly become mundane with LFG, WTB, WTS, and Chuck Norris jokes. But if you look beyond that, you can’t help but see the proliferation of WoW related blogs, sites, and other sources like Twitter.

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March 20, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , | No Comments »

World of Warcraft Burn Out

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You all know I haven’t been playing hardly at all the last few weeks. I’ve been far too busy getting this and a couple other websites going to play World of Warcraft. To be honest with you, once I got over the lost of routine and the guilt factor for abandoning my friends, I haven’t really missed playing that much. Could it be the addiction is receding? I don’t really think so. More that it was time for one of my periodic breaks from World of Warcraft.

Which leads me into today’s topic. Today I want to talk a little about the flip side of World of Warcraft addiction. In my mind, that would be World of Warcraft burn out. Yes, World of Warcraft burn out happens just as much as World of Warcraft addiction.

Playing with the next Expansion in mind. « Kinless Chronicles

I’ve got tons left to keep me busy without being 80, and the Expansion will only open up another grand playground for me and the wife. I don’t plan to, or need to, fast track to the end-game and burn out.

Kinless really has it spot on in the above quote. Why do we flog ourselves if its only just a game? We burn out because we’re addicted and playing too much. We vacillate, going back and forth between addiction and burn out, addiction and burn out sometimes barely noticing the brief stopover at enjoyment in between the two.

Instead, why not relax and enjoy the game for what it is… a game! One of the beauties of this particular game is that its open ended. So do what you want in game, when you want. Right now I’m doing one of the very few “mandatory” tasks which is checking the mail every thirty days so you don’t lose items in transit. That’s all you have to do: Check in once a month to make sure you aren’t losing mail. How easy is that?

If you play, you’ve recognized it in some of your friends, guild mates and other acquaintances. Frequent complaints of being bored, general surliness, inability to focus on any one task, these are all signs of burnout. Maybe you’ve seen it in the form of erratic behavior; suddenly quitting a long time guild relationship, dropping out in the middle of an instance run, not being around when they said they would be.

Perhaps one of the tricks to beating both World of Warcraft addiction and World of Warcraft burnout is one and the same. Maybe we just need to slow down. You know, actually read the quests instead of just rushing through the objectives. Following the story lines rather than running about willy nilly to level in the fastest manner possible. I know what I’m saying here is heresy for my leveling guide friends, but so be it!

I don’t know what it is for you, but whatever it is, take time away from task orientation and do what you enjoy with friends. If that means fishing while chatting with guild mates, do that. If it means crafting, do that. If it means shopping for risque outfits or beautiful robes, do that!

If you do what you want, you derail the compulsion aspect of the game. Also, you will enjoy your time more and thus avoid the World of Warcraft burn out factor.

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March 8, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments »

Moderation and Advocacy

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So I’ve been reading a little around the internet on the topic of World of Warcraft addiction and I’m amazed at how harsh and drastic most of it is. It makes me think I need to backtrack and repurpose before I’ve barely started.

myworldofwarcraftaddiction.com will NOT be an extremist, ban warcraft, twelve steps to freedom kind of thing as long as I have anything to do with it or until I have a major change of heart. I now currently play World of Warcraft and I have been addicted. I have made it through the addiction to the point where I can now play in moderation. That’s not to say I don’t struggle with the urge to play rather than typing this blog. Sure I do! But I am able function within the parameters I set for myself. I am in control of my play time (most of the time) rather than it being in control of me.

Do you know what I think it is? I think that World of Warcraft is not yet recognized as a legitimate hobby. Maybe I could broaden that statement to be true of the whole video game scene. We and what for some of us is our passion are somehow looked down upon as  some sort of ill adjusted segment of society. But what about the guy that is gone all summer long with his softball team or again, the guy that watches umpteen football games every week all season long? My wife is a “theater addict.” When she is involved in a play, we hardly see her for weeks at a time. How about the golfer that spends hours a week playing or practicing? What about the expensive green fees, often the travel on exotic golf vacations, the money spent on sport specific equipment and attire?

See? All these other things are seen as legitimate hobbies while our hobby is looked at as this huge waste of time… dangerous addiction. I think in part what needs to happen is that we need to start advocating for what some refer to as our hobby. I’m reminded of the bumper sticker that says, “Skateboarding is not a crime.” Well neither is playing World of Warcraft gosh darn it!

So now that being said, let me swing back the other way. World of Warcraft is most definitely addictive and for those who simply can not come to terms with its addictive nature the best course of action very well might be complete and total abstinence. But for many of us, finding that place of balance is the key. For instance, I’ve had to come to grips with the fact that I may never again be a raid worthy equipped player and therefore I might not ever see some of the end game content. Can I still have fun playing given that? Absolutely!

As I read those extreme, anti World of Warcraft sites, I was tempted to challenge them here. But that would be following a rabbit trail. I’ll leave it to others to take that on. Here we’ll talk about how to have fun in World of Warcraft without it completely taking over your life.

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February 17, 2009 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , | No Comments »