WoW and RL in adulthood

[Omedon]

As an "adult" WoW player who took a WoW hiatus from late Cataclysm to late WoD (to try pretty much every major competitor), I've returned with a very pronounced "good enough is good enough" attitude spurred on by the fact that Blizzard is competing for and intelligently winning my time by creating a minimalist and accessible main thoroughfare to their PVE game and storytelling. World quests are a masterstroke and a condition for my further patronage (a condition I predict will be emphatically met), raiding above LFR and 5-mans above heroic are certainly not worth my time, and I can't summon a single f*** to give about them.

Power is inevitable and fleeting, access is all that matters, and that comes with the subscription. WoW remains "apply time, wait for catch up mechanics and win," thus I am a happy and continued customer.

[Zig Zug]

I started back in Vanilla at about 19-20 years old. I loved spending every waking moment engaged with the game. 12-15 hour sessions were common place and it was something I look back at fondly.

Today, I play a lot more laid back with a focus on daily and weekly milestones - raiding, keystone and pvp WQs.

I set aside one day per week to raid with friends, and maybe 30-45 minutes in the evening to do some WQs or a daily heroic.

Granted this is a lame duck expansion footing, typically during a new raid tier or expansion, I put it some more hours to get my characters where they need to be.

[Akami74]

I still have plenty of time to play outside my 9-5 job, but my outlook has changed.

I do not do anything in the game that requires serious scheduling. I just don’t have the motivation to block my time for a game anymore, so no serious progression for me. I don’t want to turn down a movie with friends, helping my family, going on a hike, etc., for a stupid raid. It’s more about how I feel now that I’m self-sufficient and have responsibilities than how much time I have, because I have a lot of time. I have other obligations and scheduled events, so I’d rather my free time not be ‘forced’ into doing something in the game I may not be in the mood for.

[Onikaroshi]

Bout the same, get paid well to work when I want and my fiance also plays so it works out.

[Milamber]

I used to raid 2 nights a week. Now that I have a son I play about 1 hour a day when he sleeps. Therefore I’m a big fan of Mythic Dungeons.

[Erous]

I still am able to raid top US 100 as a father and husband with a full time job. The "in between" content pushers, meaning those not trying for world x, actually raid and play less than most believe. When the focus is gearing and raiding, 3 nights a week, or a couple hours here and there a night minus raid nights is all you need to be successful.

[Ifeanychukwu]

I've grown to enjoy gaming less over the years and my gaming sessions get shorter every year it seems. When I was a kid I could play games from the moment I woke up on a weekend until I passed out from exhaustion, 10-15 hours probably. These days I lose interest in whatever I'm playing after an hour and do other things instead, like Netflix or Reddit or whatever else so long as I don't have adult responsibilities to take care of.

It kind of sucks really, I still love gaming I just can't become absorbed into games like I used to and play for hours on end. I suppose it's a good thing but it sucks to sort of lose interest in the hobby that I've grown up loving.

[azshanna]

I cant play as much as i used to play and right now i cant fix my time to get online from x-y 3 days per week to raid.
right now i only play 6-7 months each expansion and just do the story and have some fun in wow and try other games.

[Relapses]

Legion forced me to quit.

I was perfectly content with the game's design in WoD because all I've ever done in WoW is raid. And in WoD, you could progression raid and have a life outside of WoW fairly easily. (And in pretty much every expansion prior [minus TBC] as well.) Legion's litany of stupid fucking chores burnt me out: The AP grind; the Legendary grind; the fact that I stupidly decided a Shadow Priest was going to be my main and I'd already wasted too much fucking time on my character to try rerolling. Legion requires far more time investment than I can possibly provide as an adult working 40-60 hours a week.

And I know why these changes were implemented in Legion. These grinds are amazing for players who never have any intention of progression raiding. I was angry at first and I was one of the most vocal people on this forum speaking out against it. But after finally coming to terms with the fact that I am no longer part of WoW's target demographic I've moved on. I still participate in discussions here because it's hard to completely walk away from something which was a major fixture in my life for more than a decade but I realize that the game went another direction than one which would have allowed me to keep enjoying it.

So to answer the question in the OP: I didn't. I just moved on with my life.

[Tojara]

I started when the game launched when I was just barely 18, and have maintained raiding with a 4 day and 4 hour schedule for 12 years (with a very short one month break in the middle of university). After 12 years I changed the schedule and dropped a single day so that some of the older members in the guild could manage a bit easier, myself included. I don't have a wife, nor kids, but I have a job that allows me to mostly get away with this schedule for this long.

I don't mind "suffering" with 4-5 hours of sleep 3 days if the week on the days that I do raid. Don't know if I could manage it if I wasn't blessed with the ability to sleep anytime of the day to help catch up. Occasionally it does bite me in the ass though, as outside of the winter months my schedule can be very erratic and I might only get 2-3 hours of sleep max for a couple of those days.

Our guild has never been super top tier, but normally content cycles are around every 6 months, and our guild clears the content in 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 month in. Meaning we get a 2-3 months off from every tier, and obviously much longer at the end of an expansion. That helps a lot. Emerald Nightmare to ToV to Nighthold was incredibly rough though, and was the reason we dropped a raid day.

Raiding is still pretty important to me, at least for now. I could give it up easily if life circumstances dictated that I'd have to, and I'd likely still play the game too. Prior to this expansion, if I couldn't raid somewhat competitively (i.e just Mythic raid at a decent high level) I would for sure just quit the game. Mythic + is the best addition to this game honestly, and if there came a time where I couldn't raid anymore, I think I'd be perfectly okay doing M+ with the few hours I could scrounge up throughout the week.

[ablib]

My daughter was born. She would come up to me and tug on my arm in the middle of whatever I was doing -- sometimes even raiding. I told mom to keep her out, I'm trying to raid.

Then she would cry, because she wanted her daddy. It was then I realized that, it is absolutely beyond stupid to put a video game before anything in real life.

That was 10 years ago. She's old enough today to understand now what I'm doing and why I can't be disturbed, but she still has immediate needs and I refuse to put a video game before her, or anything else in real life.

So I haven't raided, or really played with anyone in real life, in 10 years.

I have seen a lot of people with kids justify their WoW play habits, however, I've yet to see a valid excuse for a parent that raids.

[Moggie]

I still am able to raid top US 100 as a father and husband with a full time job. The "in between" content pushers, meaning those not trying for world x, actually raid and play less than most believe. When the focus is gearing and raiding, 3 nights a week, or a couple hours here and there a night minus raid nights is all you need to be successful.

Pretty much this for me, minus kids thankfully. I did, however quit briefly for the only time ever since beginning of WoW for about 6 months in WoD. When EQ was the main MMO, I played a ton more but WoW is fairly easy to work around. Maybe my last xpac since the next one really doesn't entice me but, we'll see how it shapes up. Most of my play time has shifted to after the SO goes to bed so I'll spend a few hours raiding or catching up on different things and still stay on top of content.

[kraid]

I started playing when I was 18 I think, had college and stuff but still played a ton, specially on vacation, now I mostly play 1 or 2 hours if not dead tired from work ,guitar training and the gym.
I mostly recollect gold from the class hall missions and farm some resources for missions.

[Orby]

Jokes on you I started when I was as 22, I already had a job and responsibilities, only difference between now and then is now I have a more active more hour demanding job and a partner (working on family) :P

[Deleted]

Love the openness and honesty in your stories, a lot of recognizable elements!

[Wishblade]

I definitely play much less than I used to in every aspect.

Sure I still have my moments of long play sessions, like when WoW gets a patch or expansion, but overall in the every day life, I don't feel for it as much as I did when I was younger.

On the other hand, I've made gaming into a regular hobby through Youtube Let's Plays.
Gets me to play some games without feeling like I could spend my time elsewhere, the feeling of having a job to do by keeping videos rolling, and other various reasons that help me improve myself here and there.

If I didn't do Youtube that way I probably wouldn't be playing games all that much these days and would've filled my time with some other time killer. But WoW would likely still be a thing, no matter what. Always been a good way to escape life.

[Deleted]

My daughter was born. She would come up to me and tug on my arm in the middle of whatever I was doing -- sometimes even raiding. I told mom to keep her out, I'm trying to raid.

Then she would cry, because she wanted her daddy. It was then I realized that, it is absolutely beyond stupid to put a video game before anything in real life.

That was 10 years ago. She's old enough today to understand now what I'm doing and why I can't be disturbed, but she still has immediate needs and I refuse to put a video game before her, or anything else in real life.

So I haven't raided, or really played with anyone in real life, in 10 years.

I have seen a lot of people with kids justify their WoW play habits, however, I've yet to see a valid excuse for a parent that raids.

Best post in this thread Sir. Kids make you realize how trivial and selfish it is to put videogaming before them.

For myself (2 little kids), i have the iron rule to just play when the kids are in bed. And when they wake up I leave whatever Im doing, and if this means I afk in a raid or in a dungeon and get kicked, then that's the price you gotta pay. I don't really do much group content because of this. No M+, no raids beside LFR. Mainly gearing and leveling alts, farming achievements, pet battles, still having a good time. It was hard first, but that's just normal if you had 12 hour playsessions each day for a long time. Never looked back, still love the game. I'm a happy casual now

[Spotnick]

I like it when people start blaming that it's because they get older that their desire to play the game has changed, blaming work, family and all other reasons for it.

I call BS.

WoW is a hobby. If you were going to play in a beer league sport team 3 days a week, that would not be any different than raiding 3 nights a week, or any other activities. If you play less, it's because you found things that you enjoy MORE to do, otherwise you'd make time for it.

Personally I still have no clue how you kids manage to mix school and WoW, I know that would have been a very bad thing. I have a lot more free time now than I used to have when I was in school that's for sure.

[M1r4g3]

I like it when people start blaming that it's because they get older that their desire to play the game has changed, blaming work, family and all other reasons for it.

I call BS.

WoW is a hobby. If you were going to play in a beer league sport team 3 days a week, that would not be any different than raiding 3 nights a week, or any other activities. If you play less, it's because you found things that you enjoy MORE to do, otherwise you'd make time for it.

Personally I still have no clue how you kids manage to mix school and WoW, I know that would have been a very bad thing. I have a lot more free time now than I used to have when I was in school that's for sure.

Yeah its so easy to pin it all down to ''being older'' than it is to say the game is way less engaging and fun overall than it used to be.

[kamuimac]

I like it when people start blaming that it's because they get older that their desire to play the game has changed, blaming work, family and all other reasons for it.

I call BS.

WoW is a hobby. If you were going to play in a beer league sport team 3 days a week, that would not be any different than raiding 3 nights a week, or any other activities. If you play less, it's because you found things that you enjoy MORE to do, otherwise you'd make time for it.

Personally I still have no clue how you kids manage to mix school and WoW, I know that would have been a very bad thing. I have a lot more free time now than I used to have when I was in school that's for sure.

and yet most of people in this thread who still play a lot of hours somewhere in their story put stuff like "im divorced " , " im after break up " . "when i was in college i had time to play " " most of raiders in my guild are either in colledge or unemployed"

oh gee i wonder why you have so little of " im succesfull in work i have wife/kids and still play wow each evening" - tell me why it isnt the case if it is so "easy"