How do you guys play casually without freaking out you're out of the loop?

[epigramx]

I'm trying for the first time to - on purpose - play casually so I don't feel any kind of addiction to optimization so I can have some casual fun for a change and: I find it hard to not obsess about being optimal with levelling every subsystem very fast in a fast way like someone is chasing me; it's ruining the fun totally since it reminds me of being in a guild/job I don't like but it's myself.

How do you guys do it; do you have a special mantra about it; or does it come naturally to you?

[potis]

Playing casually has nothing to do with your mentality, which is what most people dont get.

You just have a mentality thats above the average player at least you strive to learn 5 things, but if you dont have the knowledge to min/max and control your play time/style, then no one can help you, but yourself.

For me, its natural by now, i know whats important, and i only do those things and Alt+F4 asap and i will log on when i want to.

Which is why i like SL, i dont have to farm pointless AP, its why i hated Legion and BFA, despite playing them, wasting 2 hours doing things i hate, compared to now that i dont have such a thing, the dailies are barely 10mins, the assaults are barely 15mins every 3 days, Choreghast is the same, which is the most annoying part of the game for me, cause 2 wings requires averagely 1 hour.

That way i can dedicate when i play and do M+ and my raids, instead of terrible Legion where i had to farm AP for 2 hours daily with World Quests for a few months, because my mentality for my character to be up to par, even without raiding Mythic is there.

[Progenitor Aquarius]

I just do mythic + occasionally, dailies. Sometimes I enter some pug to raid for a bit. I pretty much catch up with gear even without raiding mythic.

[epLe]

Playing casually is very simple, just do whatever you find fun in the game, without caring about what you don't do.

No need to try to compare yourself with the kind of people who only log in once a week for their self-imposed mandatory todo-list.

[Saltysquidoon]

I've never played wow casually but when I test out other mmos I:
~Don't join a guild;
~Don't level professions;
~Make characters on both factions; and
~Stop playing a character if or when I cap.

Basically, I avoid things that might sucker me in, will that work when I already know what I have to do to be good like in wow? Maybe not.

[Malkiah]

How do you guys do it; do you have a special mantra about it; or does it come naturally to you?

this isn't my blog so i'll keep this short, i only type this out as an anecdote to relate to your situation, and how i approached a similar conundrum:
i spent about a decade being a higher end player in everquest investing a ton of time and energy into being ranked among the best of the best, and then stuff happened and blah blah and i walked away from EQ and started playing WoW, and for 3 years now i've WoW in a way i guess you could call uber casual - i still play a lot, but i never joined a guild.
i still run M+ and raid but i only pug it.

i think the secret is this: pick a strata of the game to compare yourself to, and then only compare yourself to that.
when i first started playing WoW i was in a high end player mentality and i compared myself to the top 10 leaderboards and felt that panic of being undergeared and underskilled.
then i just sort of consciously switched my perspective in two important ways:
1. compare myself to other pugs in mid level keys or pugs in raids weeks or months after they've launched
2. realize that i have 6-8 months before there's more content, and what am i in such a rush for exactly?

now by the time the end of a patch cycle rolls around i'm at or near fully decked out in the highest ilevel gear you can get in 4 or 5 different alts, and the entire patch cycle i was contentedly chugging away with stuff to do but none of it ever stressed me out.

[mysticx]

It's actually quite easy: Stop comparing yourself to other people.

I'm semi-casual, i play a bit most days, but skip a day if i don't feel like playing, i look up how to optimize myself, but if getting the best is annoying to me (Forced to raid or PvP, that sort of thing), i'll settle for second-best, if something takes a lot of grinding, remember: I don't need to have it *now*, later will be fine too, but above all: Do what you enjoy.

[MoanaLisa]

Comes naturally I guess. I only need for things to be good enough that I can do the stuff I want to do. That doesn't include high-key M+ or organized raids. Essentially I don't really give a damn about being optimal and never much think about it. I never play with people that obsess about it. I play with friends.

No criticism implied of those who want to be optimal. It's just not my game.

[Bloomer]

How do you guys play casually without freaking out you're out of the loop?

It's simple, stop obsessing. The game's dying, might as well play casually and see for yourself if the casual playstyle suits you better.

[Temp name]

By not caring.

Oooh, someone is doing +22 keys? Cool, I'm doing 17-18s, that's fine for me.
People have killed more raid bosses than me? Eh, what I kill is fine.
People care about pvp at all? Good on them, I don't.

[epigramx]

I asked them for 3 days sub to see if I want to continue and I think I'll pass. I just can't play this casually for a lot of reasons; on one hand I constantly want to play at a relatively optimal level of difficulty so anything below mythic raiding/extremely hard 5mans is boring me; on the other in ORDER to do that I have to go through a SPAM of micro-subsystems/dailies/grinds that I just don't find fun at all anymore (in fact if I wanted just grinding: I may want to play a new game to begin with: since most games are in part a grind).

Anyway; I wish you luck in your future in the game if that's what you like; for me it's just not possible to play casually/with a little/limited time/without feeling I waste my time.

[LordVargK]

get a guild, do stuff with them. Be active on discord/TS from time to time.

[Jjmackey]

I'm trying for the first time to - on purpose - play casually so I don't feel any kind of addiction to optimization so I can have some casual fun for a change and: I find it hard to not obsess about being optimal with levelling every subsystem very fast in a fast way like someone is chasing me; it's ruining the fun totally since it reminds me of being in a guild/job I don't like but it's myself.

TL;DR of my post - casual vs hardcore is a mentality; decreasing your commitment to the game may be aided by actively reaffirming to yourself that you shouldn't feel stressed out by a game that you love.

How do you guys do it; do you have a special mantra about it; or does it come naturally to you?

It may sound a bit dramatic, but the word "forgiveness" comes to mind.

To elaborate, I used to raid on a set schedule, 20 hours per week in a 5 night guild (at the time, they have since dropped to 16 and 4). In Legion and BFA, the prep time outside of raid to keep 6 tanks raid-ready was usually around 20 hours per week. This was not tenable for someone with a full time, corporate job, so I had to step down.

That said, the mentality never went away. I still play the game a lot, probably almost as much as I did before. But the difference is that it's on my schedule, not a group's. I've had to get to a place where I actively tell myself that it's okay to skip ABC content or XYZ activities for the day, week, tier, etc. and that I shouldn't feel stressed playing a game that I love.

Play the game how you want to play the game. You're paying to be there, afterall - get out of what you wish, you don't owe it anything.

[Lathspell]

I asked them for 3 days sub to see if I want to continue and I think I'll pass. I just can't play this casually for a lot of reasons; on one hand I constantly want to play at a relatively optimal level of difficulty so anything below mythic raiding/extremely hard 5mans is boring me; on the other in ORDER to do that I have to go through a SPAM of micro-subsystems/dailies/grinds that I just don't find fun at all anymore (in fact if I wanted just grinding: I may want to play a new game to begin with: since most games are in part a grind).

Anyway; I wish you luck in your future in the game if that's what you like; for me it's just not possible to play casually/with a little/limited time/without feeling I waste my time.

If you want to do mythic raiding and high m+ then playing casually is probably not for you.

[melodramocracy]

It's all about what your goals are. My only goal each season is getting AOTC, and anything else is way down the list or nonexistent, and my play reflects that. My guild raids 2x / week, i don't pug raid at all, and I generally try to limit M+ to 1 dungeon per week, though sometimes I'll do more than that.

Skipping any serious alt gearing is another way to limit play time. Yeah, the playstyle is different on different toons, but it's all going through the same motions overall.

[Doffen]

Its all natural baby. And thats how it is with any game for me. Sure its nice to win in games, but the days were I wanted to be "the best" is over, or I would have raided mythic in wow, played competetive in OW etc, but I dont, because fun, is most important.

[Coldkil]

How do you guys do it; do you have a special mantra about it; or does it come naturally to you?

Just stop caring about reaching something first or to absolutely do everything. Set your goals accordingly to what you really care about and most important - find people with the same mindset. Playing alone in WoW just means to submit to the rush/gottagofast mentality spread around.

If you have people to play with at your pace, suddendly what other players are doing is not important anymore. There is no competition in WoW - or better, there is, but 99% of the players are not partecipating. The worse ones are those that start creating their own small circle where they're competitive because once they're out of it, they're basically no-one. Seems strange but it has a lot to do with this.

[Crimson Spears]

If you want to be casual and do mythic or high pvp you more or less need a daily check list of things you have to hyper focus on doing then rushing your preferred activity. WoW has become a hardcore game this isn't the pre legion era where you could just focus down key content.

[MrKnubbles]

It's easy when you play for fun and don't care about min/maxing.

[Cyi]

It's all about what your goals are. My only goal each season is getting AOTC, and anything else is way down the list or nonexistent, and my play reflects that. My guild raids 2x / week, i don't pug raid at all, and I generally try to limit M+ to 1 dungeon per week, though sometimes I'll do more than that.

Skipping any serious alt gearing is another way to limit play time. Yeah, the playstyle is different on different toons, but it's all going through the same motions overall.

The bolded part is key for me. I used to agonize over playing the best class for the content I was playing, always wondering if the other alt was better. Finally it dawned on me, I only really enjoyed playing on two of them, with one being able to do any content/role required. I transferred all the gold and bank items over and deleted the alts. I know, I have a lot of time in them, but I can always undelete down the road if my feelings changed.

In the end though, it saved me a TON of time. Only having to do things once is an amazing freedom and lowered both the time and stress level tremendously.