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What are you guys/gals thoughts on World of Warcraft for the casual gamer. By casual gamer I mean 2-3 times a week for 3 or so hours, and once in awhile a 5 hour session.

Ive had a alot of discussions with friends about the way MMO's are taking people out of there previous social activities. I'm curious if anyone here has been able to successfully play WOW with a limited schedule.

The great thing about MMO's is that you always have something to achieve next. I might be interested in playing WOW if I can achieve the thrill of advancement, with lower amounts of playtime.

thanks,

Jeff

Jeff-

By your very definition I am a casual player. Now recent RL events (new baby!) has been what limited my play time thusly, but even such, I still enjoy my play times greatly. I definately think that casual players can enjoy WoW. The one big pill you have to swallow and realize is that if you are not going to put in the amount of time that many do, that you will quite likely never achieve some of the gear or experiences that more hard core gamers do. After you understand and accept that, you can enjoy your playtime without feeling like you are being cheated somehow.

New baby!

Congrats!

I'm sure it was announced on here when it happened, and you got all the congrats then, but I'm new, so I give my congrats now.

That being said. I guess you'd call me a casual gamer. I have my hard core days, but I rarely go for more than 2.5 hours at a time.

WoW is very casual friendly considering the type of game it is, if you play like you suggest and can actually schedule the 5 hour stretch there is very little in the game you can't eventually do.

If, however, you have a baby that couldn't care less about any scheduling there is still a nice game 1-60 out there but raids and PvP ranks is pretty much out of the question...

I was hard core 8+ a day, then i had a lovely activity called school happen. Plus work = 2 days off to do it - homework time - my new friend = <1 hour Thank god for weekends lol

I am a casual gamer also. I enjoy WoW alot.

Yeah, I consider myself more of a casual gamer on the weekdays. On weekends when I have nothing to do, I find myself able ot play for a little longer.. I've had the game for 4 months and my total time played is still barely over 14 days.. And yet, I've managed to almost hit 60 and keep an updated equip consisting mostly of blues, over 200 gold, and manage to PvP regularly. I can't really do AV except on the weekends, but still.. AB thankfully doesn't take so long, and you get alot more honor from those matches. So if you want to do PvP, give yourself maybe an hour a day and do as many AB matches as you can... But if you want to level, an hour a day of solid questing/grinding/farming for cash or whatever will let you keep up fairly well... It's what I do.

i play WOW too much so i made a switch just to keep things interesting for me. i tried playing MU and GW..but they pretti seem to be the same egg.right now im trying EVE which a lot more spacey in nature.its great once i got the hang of the turorial thing.

I used to be one of those people that played for hours on end, and then I reclaimed my social life and now am a casual gamer. You're right though, Rollie, as long as you can accept that you won't be "uber" like some people are, and as long as you know that you may have to find stuff to do on your own or in pick-up groups and forgo that end-game raid, it's not bad at all.

I have made more friends through pickup groups because I couldn't go at the time my friends were scheduling something and had to go when I had time. I've grabbed a few nice end-game things, but not many, but I am having fun and enjoying the game too, it's not a "job" like it is for some.

I think that as long as you remember it's just a game and there for your enjoyment and go at it with a positive attitude, you're ok and will take a lot of fun from it.

I must have no life....

60 priest 61 days of play time
60 pally 24 days of play time
60 warlock 31 days of play time (closed beta)
43 mage 8 days of play time

---------------------------
total 114 days of playing time or 2,736 hours of playing WoW the last 16 months which is around 150 hours a month or 5 hours a day.

You do have no life.

Except for the fact that you include Beta... so taking out your Lock leaves you with 93 days (2232 hours) of play time since Retail opened. That's about 200 hours a month, or a good 6.75 hours a day.

My nephew introduced me to this game 2 weeks ago & now I am ready for a 12 step program! For God's Sake- I'm a 52 year old banker & mother of 3. WHat is wrong w/ me? How can I switch to "casual" gaming?

My advice is to go to school again.

That should take up plenty of time

My advice is to SLEEP. I know it sounds crazy, but I tried it and hey, it works fairly well =D

Sleep is a fairly efficient time sink =)

And it works for someone whose at an age that going to school would be... taboo?

just for those pvp players, it is possible for casual gamer to reach Rank 11 (epic pvp mount !) , at least on Al Akir it is

Hi, I have a very busy schedule (work 07:30 to 18:00) and can only afford playing 5-10 hours per week. I really Enjoy it as it makes me forget about my stressful job. On the other hand, one bad thing I noticed is that everybody else level up faster. I constantly have to find new people to group with and I've also been ask by a previous guild to be more active. (I left the guild before being booted out of course).

I made my own guild so I don't have to put up with a stupid Guild Leader again.

I definitely fit the casual gamer description. I play for anywhere from one hour to two hours in the evenings, most evenings, and then sometimes for as much as four hours on Sunday. Every once and awhile (not as often as I might like, but it does happen) I allow myself to waste an entire Saturday playing. Big-time raids like MC are few and far between for me... something about being a wife, mom, and working professional woman that just doesn't let me dedicate my life to a game! But, I am a life-long gamer ~ I've done the migration over time from old school Pencil and Paper D&D games, console games, computer games, to MMORPGs. I've played EQ (for 4 years) and DAOC (for 3 years), and WoW (since release). WoW is far and away the most "casual gamer" friendly. You have to be okay with not having a purple item in every slot, and not being part of the "uber" crowd, but if you can do that then you can definitely have fun, accomplish things, and enjoy the world. And have a "real life" to boot! No, you won't level as fast or have all the cool toys as those folks who play five or six hours a night and twelve hours straight on weekends, but you can still have fun!



edit: Rollie, a new baby!?! As in just born or just discovered it's on the way? Either way... congrats!

Joelle just got here in August. She's been keeping me very busy, hehe

Hee hee... welcome to lack of sleep, and the delights of fatherhood =)