Who Plays Too Much?

[Sir_Die_alot]

I know I am no fun, but wouldn't it be easier to just do /played on every character and add them up? =) *runs away from Bolty's anger*
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Your way is flawed because it includes time spent afk. Bolty's is much better. *runs away from lemekim's anger* B)

[mjdoom]

This has been kicking around in my head tonight and I have one little bit to say...

The thread title poses a different question than these metrics try to describe. The reality is that different people are in different life situations (as far as I know people I have played with are over at least a 30 year age spread) and the question of "Who plays too much" can not be answered simply by hours logged or levels attained. I will personally say that I believe that I play too much and that is taking into account how WoW fits into my life. Regardless of the actual number of hours logged or levels gained this game has sucked me in and taken a larger role in my life than maybe it should. That is how I would answer the question posed as the thread topic.

When looking at these metrics you could design all kinds of metrics to measure all kinds of things. Simple hours /played (recognizing things like afks), levels gained, average level, capped players, levelling efficiency, etc. These can always be fun to look at but can also be a bit scary if you are in a position like me and realize that you've probably played too much of this game. Heck, if there was a way to add /played and time spent scanning forums I would probably pass out when seeing the numbers for my own time spent.

Just a few thoughts.

- mjdoom

[Mavfin]

You all have too much time on your hands...go build another 60!!!! :shuriken: :shuriken: :shuriken:

[Bolty]

Loot is a bad way to track this.  I've had horrid luck recently with showing up when rogue stuff drops.  But I do have 5 purples 6 if you count same slotters.
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Right - loot can't really be used as a measurement. But the time accomplishment of raiding or doing X number of high-end instances has to be taken into account. Your 60 days /played on Sommli represents a gigantic point value that doesn't show on either system.

Epic mount can't be a judge either, since a player could have their gold twinked by someone else. So items are no determinant.

Ultimately it would come down to runs made of instances and runs made of raid instances. Each Molten Core run needs to take into consideration the time it takes to do the run and the time it takes to complete its prerequisites and suffer the organizational efforts. Then there are point values for complete versus partial runs. Same with Onyxia, LBRS, UBRS, Stratholme, Kazzak, etc etc. NSD, you have a tremendous amount of experience running these and would have an idea of an appropriate point value to assign them - if only you'd have counted your number of runs. :)

-Bolty

[Drasca]

Could always just total time /played for fun. NSD's got 2-3 months on one char alone, and so do I now. For those with dozens of chars... I'm sure they can guess time played. 20 hrs for level 20 isn't unreasonable. For simplicity's sake I'd rather see time played in days, or highest order unit available.

I recall one friend leveling 1-20 in 4 hours (with help). Not sure how he did it, but that kind of early power leveling is sick.

So what's your /played time for your chars?

[JapJaan]

Can I nominate myself as someone who does not play enough? I would bet that I am also in the running for MCP (most casual player) award, if there is such a thing. Here are my qualifications:

On Stormrage, I have exactly one character at level 45. This would amount to 128 points or 2025 points depending on which of the two metrics is used.

Now, bear in mind that I've been on Stormrage with all of you since December of last year, almost right after launch. In fact, I was able to donate one-tenth of the 10 gold piece price for the lovely tabard that all of us proudly display today. That's right, I had a character with gold in the bank before we even had tabards!

Maybe the reward that I deserve is the LEP (least efficient player) award? At my pace, I won't see 60 until maybe Christmas!

Ok, on a more serious note, here are some of my thoughts based on my experience as a player with very limited time:

My time is generally ridiculously scarce. I have a job where during the week I will work from 9 a.m. to 1 a.m. on average. On weekends, I will usually spend some time in the office as well (as I am doing now on a Saturday night). I will also periodically travel heavily and live out of a suitcase. (Tris knows what I do and can tell you that I work in what people in our profession literally call a "sweatshop".) On top of all of this, I have a 4-month old baby boy that I don't see enough of and earlier this year I moved my family to a new continent where we don't speak the local language.

I knew all of this coming into WoW and rolled Hunter specifically to maximize my ability to solo. The thinking at the outset was that my chances of participating in groups will be low due to my unpredictable schedule and inability to commit meaningful blocks of time to playing. This thinking, I believe, has been confirmed in my personal experience. However, I believe now that it was nonetheless a mistake to roll Hunter. Instead, I should have rolled Priest. My reasons:

1. Hunter effectiveness relies heavily on equipment. Relatively speaking, a hunter is a much easier class to develop as a second character, assuming that one has a high level first character passing down equipment. Guns/bows that are level appropriate for a hunter are often almost impossible to get at that level. While it is true that item levels usually lag character levels in the game, other classes are less affected by this because they either have spells that bypass this problem or have more variety in weapon choice.

2. Scarcity and utlity favor priest over hunter. Not having played a priest, I am only guessing when I assert based on observed facts that it is easier to solo as a hunter than as a priest. On the other hand, I am getting to the point in my play where a lot of content requires some kind of group, even if it is the short pick-up-on-the-spot kind. I spent about 45 minutes tonight before coming into the office crawling past the front part of Uldaman. The dark dwarves and trogs in the first sections are all 35-37 elites, easy enough for me at level 45, but not automatic. I still had to proceed slowly and watch my pulls. Two is ok. Three gets tough, especially if I mismanage my traps and mana. The point is that it kinda sucks going through Uldaman slowly by myself at this level. I suspect that if I had a priest, I would have done at least the front parts of Uldaman 5 levels ago with up random group.

Blech, wish I could be online more. Back to work! Those donuts won't make themselves!

[Treesh]

So what's your /played time for your chars?
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You made me curious Drasca so I added it all up. 62 days, 4 hours, 19 minutes and 8 seconds (of course, the seconds is off now, but who really cares? It's close enough).

[Kevin]

Well my updated (with the scary /played) numbers

Bolt-o-meter: 894
Darian-squares: 13196
/played: 60.52708 days

To continue with the silly averages that is 3.1856 days per char. That would be around L32 I think looking at my /played with other characters. With Gnolack being around 6 days played post 60 right now that feels right that I could have most of my 19 alts up to around L32 if I had stopped playing him at 60 and played the others more (and taken time away from my 54, 43, and 37). The other weighted averages are around L26, which feels right since it doesn't have any of Gnolack's post 60 time. Regardless I could have gotten a single char to 40 for sure (probably higher I'm basing this on my other chars time /played) in the time I have played Gnolack after he capped.

So that is 103 points on the Bolt-o-meter and 1600 on Darian squares. That puts those weighted averages around L28 for the whole group of 19 which is getting closer to the 32 guestimate of the average /played. So who knows how good the metrics are. :)

[Arethor]

Boltometer = 778
Darian Squares = 11008
Played (does not include Taarnal as he is on Flyn's account and Flyn is playing. Played also not updated for Tarduun's 12 level gain) = 53d 9h 15m 55s
List of characters can be seen below but here's a listing in level order.

Arethor (60)
Galgamesh (46)
Zanewindborn (32)
Taarnal (25)
Lazarum (20)
Sylathor (20)
Lithrial (20)
Elreth (18)
Tarduun (18)
Lithrial (16)
Greezar (16)
Morthal (15)
Yuriel (14)
Urkthar (14)
Bordann (12)
Archmagus (12)
Bordann (12)
Tarduun (12)
Jubar (09)
Yurek (03)

Edit: ACK! I'm a lot higher than I thought I'd be. I'm only a lil behind GG and Treesh (for the toons they still have) :o

[Roane]

Finally got around to adding mine up!

Boltometer: 615
Darian-squares: 8910

I didn't bother looking at my play time as I have a bad habit of going afk and then driving somewhere to get food. I'm sure it's all skewed.

[Raven Vale]

Messed this up completely :P

Nothing to see here move on

OK sorted 649 the Bolty way with 2 x lvl 60's in the pot

[Zoid]

I'm impressed, Bolty. After reading your "WoW isn't ready" article back on release, I never expected you to invest that much time into the game.

I have two level 60s Zoid a level 60 male undead priest and Zoltana a level 60 troll female warrior. I really don't have any other character to speak off.

I'm in a huge guild, Elitist Jerks. We're a heavy raiding guild so I spent a lot of my time increasing my stats on my two characters. Zoid is my primary raiding character who's spec'd for healing in raids and has tons of molten core epic loot (five of eight prophecy, some transcendance too). Zoltana is my farming character who's built for solo money gaining as well as PvP.

Overall, I've been really happy with the WoW experience. I really love raiding with my guild a couple times a week. Everyone gets more powerful and I'm looking forward to taking on the next raid zone, Blackwing Lair.

The only let down is that I'm terribly disappointed in battlegrounds for one reason: the horrible queuing implementation. Waiting three hours to play a game of BG that last ten minutes is not fun. Not too mention a lot of time I miss my chance since I'm afk when the "You're ready for AV1" pops up. I just gave up on even playing. Just give us a game/signup list like a Quake server and stop hiding the numbers of who's queued from us.

I'll be playing this game for a long time however. I played Diablo2 solid for three years. I'm around 18 months into WoW now (including beta).

[lemekim]

The only let down is that I'm terribly disappointed in battlegrounds for one reason:  the horrible queuing implementation.  Waiting three hours to play a game of BG that last ten minutes is not fun.  Not too mention a lot of time I miss my chance since I'm afk when the "You're ready for AV1" pops up.  I just gave up on even playing.  Just give us a game/signup list like a Quake server and stop hiding the numbers of who's queued from us.
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While the queue system is admittedly bad, your particular situation is worse because you happen to be one on one of the few servers where Horde outnumbers Alliance. So even with a perfect queue system your wait times will still be quite large, simply because of the lack of Alliance.

Your only hope is for cross-realm BG system to come out, which should help to even out queues, at least on pvp servers.

[NotSoDarklord]

if only you'd have counted your number of runs. :)

gogo raidtracker
8 magmadar
8 gehennas
8 garr
8 baron geddon
8 sulfuron
8 shazzrah
8 golemagg
8 sulfuron
8 golemagg
8 domo not counting domo kills just done to spawn rag... counting those 14 or so
11 rag spawns (2 hours each typically unless he was killed on that run)
3 azuregos
3 kazzak
10 onyxia
Roughly 20 lbrs/ubrs/strath/scholo/various DM runs.

[oldmandennis]

And there is a mod out that autoclicks yes for you.

[LochnarITB]

62 days, 4 hours, 19 minutes and 8 seconds
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Oh my! I stopped checking after my top two characters. The total was already 70+. :whistling: :blush: Of course, as I've said before, there is idle time in there, but I certainly spend a lot of time in non-leveling activities like exploring. Does anyone have the address for the WoW Anonymous website? :P

[Treesh]

Oh my!  I stopped checking after my top two characters.  The total was already 70+.  :whistling:  :blush:  [right][snapback]81817[/snapback][/right]

\o/ :w00t: See? I'm not as bad as everyone thinks. :) I just have a thing for making new characters. ;)

[Darian]

I am dredging this post out of the ancient gloom of history, just for fun, because I was revisiting my numbers and figured it would be neat to see other peoples'. ;)

SOLELY on my highest-level character of any given class (which is mostly valid, as with the exception of Synik on Terenas, all my lower alts are retired):

Boltometer: 812
Darian Squares: 12335

Of course, the concerns Bolty originally noted are just as true now as ever; I note that my 8 Stormrage toons have 107 days played... but 92 days of that is Darian and Caerdwyn, my two 60s.

[Warlock]

Horde
Hunter Wespe L33 2d9h intended main, though not sure I'll stick with the class.
Warrior Fabius L60 19d2h borderline abandoned (at raid-or-die but still play with my regulars once a week).
Druid Kayvee L31 3d7h abandoned (had intended to be my new main to play with my regular group but our tank abandoned his character and I rerolled Fabius to tank while getting plate drops.)
Bank L5 2d4h

Alliance
Warlock Named L60 31d11h abandoned malt. thought of as my main briefly, but went back to Unity as my main with the 1.8 patch.
Druid Unity L60 55d8h abandoned main. My first 60.
Bank L5 4d20h

That's 794 on the Boltometer or 12850 Darian squares.

I deleted my sub 60's when first quitting the game which did for a character of each class in the 20's or 30's. All up I'll easily pass 120 days /played with this game. Quite scary really.

[Lissa]

Let's see...

Tahapenes, lv 60
Lizzyborden, lv 60
Lissanna, lv 60
Orisella, lv 60
Aileena, lv 46
Angelique, lv 36 (holding name for BC, otherwise a mule)
Delindra, lv 32 (haven't done a lot of play with)
Selencia, lv 26 (deleted with new name for BC Shaman)
Omiasesouga, lv 18
Lissa, lv 18

Ummm....
218 + 218 + 218 + 218 + 134 + 87 + 67 + 50 + 27 + 27

1264 :whistling:

Darian Squares: 20160 :o