The lifecycle of an avid WoW player.

[Deleted]

I rped and casually did dungeons then. Albeit as a noob in all capacities, but through numerous guilds and friends which I've had for five years, I became better (But not neccesarily good) in all aspects of the game.

I rp now and do casual dungeons and raid finder, with the added bonus of being a transmog consultant to guildies and friends. I'm very content that I've become more confident and open with people.

And come WoD, would you believe it? I'll likely do casual content and rp!

[Aliessil]

By the time I started playing WoW in late '05 I was already in my 30s. I only started in the first place because of a busted knee, and friends at work persuading me to come join 'em. My play varies greatly - more in the Summer, less in the winter. More if I'm between contracts, less if I'm having to commute to the office, etc.

I've always been a pretty casual player - I'm known to a handful of other guilds who would pull me in to raid when they were a man short, whether it was for normal or heroic raids. I can play pretty much any class and any role, and I've done every raid when it was current in every role (except ... um, one of the first Cata ones, with Al'Akir?). I've done loads of LFR, I've been in arena teams, I've done a load of random battlegrounds (I'm about 1200 kills short of the 100k achieve atm).

I've spent the entire time in the same guild - we're all casual, generally around 30-40yo, all friends and family. Most either already were or have become RL friends. We've raided on and off as a guild over the years but never more than once a week, and hated having to leave people out. Now with the introduction of Flex we don't have to. We still raid once a week and we're now starting a casual alts run as well. We've also spread to Starcraft and Diablo and have clans for both, still on a very casual basis.

We've had a number of friends drop out over the years but we're still in touch with most of 'em, and still meet up when we can.

[Saeran]

Again, I will be a lot older than the majority of WoW players (now in my 40's (yep I'm ancient ), and embarrassingly WoW was my first game since I used to play Speedball, Lemmimgs etc in the old Amiga days

I started day one in Vanilla, and came to form a guild where I was the GM and we raided semi-hardcore until we reached AQ40 when some of the best raiders decided to jump ship to another guild. These were my best times in WoW (probably rose-tinted though).

The core of the old guild re-formed to a new guild where I had to take a complete background role due to work commitments during progression in TBC.

Had to stop playing WoW just before WOTLK due to a severe and life-threatening illness, which I managed to beat (thank God).

I came back to play in the same guild at the beginning of Cata, but could only play casual as my illness had affected how I could play the game. This guild fell apart half-way through MoP, due to the lack of raid progression and some members moved to Draenor from Sylvanas and started a 10man raiding guild. As most of my long-term friends in the game had fallen by the wayside and that I was only casual, I could not warrant the expense of the realm move.

Still played casually for a while on Sylvanas in the remains of the old guild and then tried seeing the other side of the game playing alliance on Magtheridon. Didn't really like a PvE realm, so when a free transfer opened up from Sylvanas to Tarren Mill, I moved there and am enjoying playing albeit major-casually still doing a mixture of PvP and some PvE. Can't wait for WoD for my 9 year+ love affair for the game to continue.

[chaddd]

Having started playing WoW in 2005 I can tell you there have been many many changes to my life.

1)3 failed relationships that were 2-3 years each.
2)Finished college.
3)Changed careers 2x
4)Moved to a different state.
5)Received numerous promotions and responsibility increases. @ 1 point I was managing 12 other people.
6)Move apartments 7x.
7)Bought a house.
8)Owned 5 different cars.
9)Got married.
10)Had a kid.
11)Started hobby racing (cars).

So yeah... I have had to make some adjustments to how I originally started playing this game! I still get to raid 2x a week, 6 hours total in my regular group (25 man 1/14 H). The content isn't cleared as fast as it was in the past for sure but life is good!

[Cyberbeastx]

I started in 2008 when I was a freshman in high school. I was a loner in-game for a long time. Due to school I also only manage to play a hour or two a day. I never had the gold to get epic mount or flying back then and it took me a good 6 months just to hit 80. Now I have been out of high school for about 2 years. Since then I don't work nor go to college and play a average of 10-14 hours a day except first few days of the month when I go grocery shopping and bill paying. My life honestly consist of WoW. If I am not on WoW I am Sleeping, Showering or Eating. What makes it even better now is that my girlfriend plays with me! I now have a unlimited time to play WoW and I can accomplish anything I want and not have to worry about anything.

[Deleted]

What kind of job makes you work till so late?

I work as a business analyst in a sales department of a multinational service provider. Sometimes, deadlines just have to be met. There's also a lot of ad hoc assignments that have to be finished by yesterday .

I'm extremely satisfied with all the open replies to this thread. Thank you all for sharing your experiences and keep them coming!

[Prag]

I like this thread. My story's more like your typical gamer-loser-type story.

I started off in TBC as a full-time employee. Maintained a good relationship between my then-girlfriend (now wife), WoW and work. Didn't really raid (just casually T4, moving into T5 once pre-patch dropped), so my evenings were mostly an hour or so on the game then onto the couch (or bed, haha) with my wife.

WotLK hit and I went nuts. I spent a good portion of the expansion logged in. Posting thousands of times on the forums (official mostly). The company I worked for eventually moved to a different creative department structure and I was laid off (along with a lot of others) but by that point I was still playing all night and reading up on stuff even at work. By the end of WotLK I was playing 12-16 hours a day, mostly farming BG's with my Shadowmourne (got it 8/17/10).

Cata hit, I continued to raid at the pace I had in ICC and was now unemployed. That eventually wore off in July of 2012 when I was offered a full time position and went back to work. Since then I've not participated in a single normal raid encounter. I was promoted and relocated south where I live between half a dozen fantastic wineries and breweries, own a motorcycle and have an actually engaging relationship with my wife.

I still play probably 2 hours a day, but I spend more time with my wife and working and on classwork (going back for IT certification preps).

I'm not mad at the game. I love the game and appreciate its ability to really engage me and entertain me for the last ~6-7 years.

[Coldhearth]

The people who are playing this game every waking minute have no purpose or direction in their life. The people you see online in this game all the time have no life. They literally have nothing else to do. I know because I used to be one of them. Years ago, I would sit on WoW all day and night because I literally had nothing else going on in my life at the time. Not many friends. Wasn't close to family. No social life. I worked from home so I barely even left my apartment.

One day I realized I wasn't happy in this rut. I started getting more social, moved to a new city for a fresh start, reconnected with my family, started networking with new clients to advance my career. It was at this point my time suddenly became very precious.

These days I play much, much more casually. A few hours a week doing some arena and battlegrounds.

[vizzle]

Work made me realize I wanted more out of life than just this, and realizing that meant taking on work plus my own projects, which is essentially a second job (or third job if I'm pedantic about it), meaning any time for free time is literally gone. If you've got several hours of free time everyday and you have dreams you wish to accomplish, then you're not doing enough to get it.

[Agoonga]

The life cycle of an avid WoW player is like a phoenix.

[Hotsforyou]

Started playing in '06, right before the daughter was born. I am now 35 and raid full time.

I came across this same Dilemma once i got a good job and started making good money. Having to balance the Job, wife and kid is tough. i took a 3 month Hiatus and sat with the wife and had a talk about how to make time so i can raid.

Came up with what i have been doing all Xpak. I started my own raid guild. We raid from 9 to midnight pacific time 3 nights a week. This way i have time after the kid is in bed and the wife is relaxing for the evening. We are 11/14 heroic now as a 25m. We were 5/14 heroic when we switched from 10 to 25m.

I am free to play whenever i like, but if something needs done i have to get up and do it. Only time i am "left alone" is scheduled raid time. Works out quite well.