Who Plays Too Much?

[Bolty]

I was thinking of some weird esoteric scoring system today, after seeing how many of us have a sickening number of characters in WoW. I myself have around 13, but that's nothing compared to some others I've seen.

But merely having 20 characters all around level 10 means little. Sure, it's 200 levels of characters, but that's no comparison to having 3 level 60's. 180 < 200, so that doesn't show the true level of play.

So, how could one have a scoring system to determine which of us is in dire need of WoW A (Wowcolics Anonymous)?

(disclaimer: this is all in good fun. This is not meant to be an "I'm-more-uber-than-you" contest, and anyone treating it as such needs help. Seriously.

I was thinking of scoring things like so:
Levels 02-09: 1 point per level. Level 1 doesn't count!
Levels 10-19: 2 points per level.
Levels 20-29: 3 points per level.
Levels 30-39: 4 points per level.
Levels 40-49: 5 points per level.
Levels 50-59: 6 points per level.
Level 60 : 10 points.

It's difficult to score because level 60 throws things out of whack. You could have a level 60 that JUST got there vs a level 60 that's spent ages playing the game, running raids, etc. I'm not sure how you could fairly score time played at 60, since some people get more out of their playing time than others. Maybe point rewards for the time investment to kill Onyxia or run Molten Core would be in order, I don't know. A flat reward for level 60 does not accurately define time spent at 60, so suggestions welcome!

So, a character that is level 20 will score 8 points for levels 2-9, 20 points for levels 10-19, and 3 points for level 20, for a total of 31 points.

A character that is level 30 will score 8 points for levels 2-9, 20 points for levels 10-19, 30 points for levels 20-29, and 4 points for level 30, for a total of 62 points.

A character that is level 40 will have a total of 103 points.
A character that is level 50 will have a total of 154 points.
A character that is level 60 will have a total of 218 points.

By this system, a level 60 is worth far more than three level 20's (218 vs 92 points), as it should be.

What would be your overall point total under this system?

I currently have the following characters around, not counting ones I've deleted:
60, 38, 26, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 20, 18, 10, 6, 6.

This would give me a total of 218 + 98 + 49 + 31 + 31 + 31 + 31 + 31 + 31 + 31 + 31 + 26 + 10 + 5 + 5 = 659 points. If I factor in characters I've deleted, I'd have another level 35 and another 20 at least, giving me another 86 + 31 points for a total of 776. By this system, that would mean that I could have three level 60's by now if I had concentrated only on three characters. Is that true?

I have 8 level 20's. I know for my first character, not taking advantage of rest state and untwinked but for some bags, it took 20 hours to get to 20 and 241 to get to 60. Now, with rest state advantages and small cash twinkages, it takes me just 13-14 hours to get to 20. It's hard to tell by pure time investment if I could have a full three 60's, but I could most certainly have 2 and be well on my way to the third, if that. Having a level 20 character isn't much, but having eight of them is a significant time chunk which needs to be reflected point-wise.

Anyway, this is all for fun, remember, but who scores the highest with this system? Or, if you have ideas on a better scoring system, how would you work it? This system highly punishes one-character players due to its lack of scores for achievements post-60, and rewards alt play. How would you structure points for post-60 achievements that accurately reflect time investment compared to, say, going from level 1 to 59 (which is 208 points)? Compare the time investment to do these activities compared to time investment when leveling up to assign fair point values.

Third disclaimer: this is all for fun! If you feel inferior/superior to someone else based on these point values, seek medical attention!

-Bolty

[lemekim]

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*

[Darian]

The easiest way to do something like this is always (a^2)+(b^2)+...(z^2).

Three 60s? 10800.
Twenty 20s? 8000.

A 60 and a 30? 4500.
Two 45s? 4050.

(I'd be at 6052.)

By your method, I'd be at 403 points... meaning I'd have Darian and another character about halfway through level 59 if I was focused. My method is more like Darian and another character halfway through level 49. If we ignore all the time I've spent playing Darian as capped -- i.e., taking into account the time I have spent on alts -- I think the 49 is probably more accurate than the 59, although I could be misjudging both how much time I've spent on alts and how long it takes to get from 29-59. I'd have to check Darian's (days played) - (days played at 60) to be sure.

Honestly, I think that both methods fall well short of reality for 60s, though; just based on how long it took to get Darian to 60, I'm sure I'd have three, maybe even four 60s if I'd quit playing Darian altogether when I capped.

Of course... the most accurate thing would probably be days played for all your characters, regardless of level. ;)

[Bolty]

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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OH YES! I AM ANGRY! *smites lemekim* :)

No, the reason I'm not going that route is that people play at different rates of speed. This is somewhat a measure of time played and somewhat a measure of accomplishment.

Pure accomplishment is that two 20's equals one 40, which isn't true.
Pure /played time could have someone with 1000 hours to get to 60 equal to someone with 180 hours to get to 60.

The system I'm proposing is a mixture of the two, in a sense. Does a level 60 and a level 30 equal two level 45's? Under my proposal, the level 60 and level 30 would be 218 + 62 = 280 points while two level 45's would be 128 + 128 = 256 points, a little less.

And lemekim, when have you ever NOT been fun? :)

-Bolty

[lemekim]

And lemekim, when have you ever NOT been fun?&nbsp; :)
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I am available for Birthday Parties and Weddings as well (no Funerals though, they tend to get out of control).

But let me understand your second example - do you mean that if someone took 1000 hours to get to 60, and another person took only 180 hours to get to 60 (but spent 820 hours at 60 since then), the system would not be able to distinguish those? I am not sure what could distinguish them =( One would have to keep accurate track of how long it took to get to 60.

Another example against /played could be that someone with 500 hours played and a level 60 should be valued better then a person with 500 hours played and a level 50, but /played won't account for it.

[Tal]

485 played regularly :)

[savaughn]

Pure accomplishment is that two 20's equals one 40, which isn't true.
Pure /played time could have someone with 1000 hours to get to 60 equal to someone with 180 hours to get to 60.
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I like the concept. For example, if you play to level 20 with a rest state the whole way and do nothing but level (no farming, no fishing, etc.) you can get there in about 12 hours of played time. I tend to do it in about 18 hours and I think most people tend to do it closer to 26 hours.

FWIW, the fastest I've seen anyone get to level 60 is 7 and a half days /played.

Besides... while I don't mind adding up my levels when I get home, I truly don't want to know what my total /played time is.

[oldmandennis]

Well, post 60 it would have to be loot. What's the lowest level piece of legitmate end game loot? 52 maybe? Then say, three points for each blue over that level and 15 points for each purple? One item per slot, 2 wildcards for situational equipment, and one bonus wildcard for classes without a ranged slot. 5 bonus points for Oxy key, and maybe a few other bonues, like epic mounts maybe? Maybe some score for PvP rank? Maybe bonuses for super rare crafting recepies?

And I recall hearing that someone dinged 60 in 3 days in Europe.

[mjdoom]

Besides... while I don't mind adding up my levels when I get home, I truly don't want to know what my total /played time is.
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This is the same kind of thought I've had. I haven't checked my /played recently but I can estimate that across all of my characters I'm pretty sure it is in the neighborhood of 2 months. I will leave it as an exercise to the reader to figure out how sick that is :shuriken:

Also, based on Bolty's system specifically I will guess that current guilded Lurkers who will have the scariest scores on Stormrage are (in rough order):

Lissa
Skan
Treesh
GG
myself (hides)
Lochnar
Edit: Ruvanal is probably up here too; someone could fire through the guild chart and do these additions if they want but I'm not so inclined to do so (this is ignoring chars on other servers though which "hurts" some people)

Also; Sword_of_Doom is just about done with his 3rd 60 :blink:

Edit 2: Being at work I just added my top 4 SR chars (the only ones I have over level 10 I think so it's relatively close to my actual score) and came to a total of 480 by Bolty's score and 7730 by Darian's score. Of course one of these chars is level 13 now and was only at level 1 three days ago, so...

- mjdoom

[Quark]

It's difficult to score because level 60 throws things out of whack.&nbsp; You could have a level 60 that JUST got there vs a level 60 that's spent ages playing the game, running raids, etc.
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Not enough time to check my score, but would like to emphasize this, since the scoring system rewards people who get to 60 then immediately switch to an alt, over someone who's been playing the same char practically all the time (Are you there, NSD? :P)

[Treesh]

Besides... while I don't mind adding up my levels when I get home, I truly don't want to know what my total /played time is.
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I should just hide my sig forever. It doesn't even count all the ones I've deleted over the months. But I am awfully glad that Flyn's list puts me a ways down towards the bottom. :D Or was that list only for Stormrage characters? :blush: I do genuinely miss my horde characters though. They don't get half the playtime I want them to anymore. :(

[Kevin]

So (my sig doesn't have all mine). I have

53, 60, 11, 37, 23, 2, 16, 9, 43, 20, 22, 15, 8, 8, 16, 16, 2, 18, 19 so that would be...

By Darian's method 13,065. So an average level of 26.2 over the 19 characters.

By Bolty's method 886. So an average 46.63 per char or about L25.


That means I could have 4 L60's by now. :) Umm ouch. :)

Edit:
Sorted levels (instead of by creation and server order of Stormrage, Terenas, Cenarion Circle, Tichondrius) is for those who are curious (and want to check my math):
60, 53, 43, 37, 23, 22, 20, 19, 18, 16, 16, 16, 15, 11, 9, 8, 8, 2, 2

[lemekim]

To accurately judge level 60s, you could implement a formula that transforms /played time at level 60 into points (on either system). Simply put, considering that it takes on average 14 days (336 hours) /played to get to 60 and is valued as X points, we can compare that to time spent at 60 and get the points for playing at 60 from that.

By Bolty's system this will be roughly 2 points for every 3 hours (218 points for 336 hours to get to 60) that you have /played at 60 =)

By Darian's system, it would be roughly 10 points per each hour (3600 points for 336 hours to get to 60).

So to fully judge a level 60 character value, you would add the points from getting to 60 and the however many points it comes out to playing at 60. More interestingly, the above conversion also gives us a ballpark of total /played on all chars if we know their score by Bolty's or Darian's system, but that's an excercise for the reader! :ph34r:

[NotSoDarklord]

Not enough time to check my score, but would like to emphasize this, since the scoring system rewards people who get to 60 then immediately switch to an alt, over someone who's been playing the same char practically all the time (Are you there, NSD? :P)
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Sommli's played is approaching 60 days (Yes, two months). Twice/Three times a week he spends 4-6 hours in molten core... the rest of the time he does BG or anything people want him for. Though I recently started an alt :)

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.

Time spent at 60 is hard to compare to other time. I don't spend all my time questing like non60's do, and infact you could say I waste a lot of time. I guess that doesn't make me hardcore... but what is there left to do when you have all the drops you need from 5-10 man instances? :), but do not fear! When BWL becomes old and tier 2/3 set items are old news I shudder to think of what Sommli's played will be.

[Darian]

By Darian's method 13,065.&nbsp; So an average level of 26.2 over the 19 characters.

By Bolty's method 886.&nbsp; So an average 46.63 per char or about L25.
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Note that average isn't mathematically "meaningful" here; since both x^2 and Bolty's method apply more credit to higher levels, all the average does is spit out a higher number than the straight total levels/characters average (which will always be lower because both methods grant a premium to higher levels). Unless you have n 60s and nothing else, that is, in which case naturally your average is 60 regardless.

[Bun-Bun]

I was thinking of some weird esoteric scoring system today, after seeing how many of us have a sickening number of characters in WoW.&nbsp; I myself have around 13, but that's nothing compared to some others I've seen.[right][snapback]81505[/snapback][/right]

I score a 610 on the Boltometer and 9675 on the Darian Squares. Assuming I've done my sums correctly ...

[LochnarITB]

I was thinking about scale names as I was reading through the posts and there, in Bun-Bun's post, was the answer.

My score (not including a couple that have been deleted):
Boltometer 564
Darian Squares 8319

This will probably be significantly lower than many of our players. However, I would bet large sums of money that a sum of /played on all characters (at least for Stormrage Lurkers) would put me most in need of an intervention. :P As I have said before, I am a casual player who logs lots of hours. Once I fire up WoW for the evening, it is rarely shut down before I am off to bed. I leave the toons in play when I'm doing other things such as making food, checking the web, reading chat, watching tv, etc. I have gone as far as to read the paper or watch a movie, while periodically hitting movement keys to remove AFK, so that I can keep half an eye on chat. Can't stand to miss anything, don'tcha know! :lol:

[Kevin]

Note that average isn't mathematically "meaningful" here; since both x^2 and Bolty's method apply more credit to higher levels, all the average does is spit out a higher number than the straight total levels/characters average (which will always be lower because both methods grant a premium to higher levels).&nbsp; Unless you have n 60s and nothing else, that is, in which case naturally your average is 60 regardless.
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Oh I know. It was just another fun meaningless measure. I have been through differential equation and several advanced statistic courses. :)

Basically in this case the "average" level is the average "achievement" level. That's what the weighted scales both are trying to do. So it's another way to look at the metric. Does it make sense that if I split my time evenly between all 19 chars that they would all be 26 or so? Same thing as breaking it down into how many L60's I could have if I could play focused. My time on my 19 would be 4 L60's.

Of course Taranna just dinged 54 and Flitz just hit 17, so my numbers both got bigger today. :)

[Skandranon]

My Bolty score is 580. By Darian's method, I am a 9052.

I think these scores underrepresent how much I play, though. I have a month and a half /played - 46 days - on Rylea.

[Selby]

Yikes. You guys scare me. My highest level is level 25 or so (the wife and I play together only on that one). Everything else is a collection of about 7 characters between 14 and 19. Only having played since April does kind of take the bite out. I've gotten to the point where I can solo all of Elwynn forest with a new character in an afternoon and get to 16-17 in another day of good playing. By then I tend to run into the "OMG where do I go from here?!?!?!?" and end up running around doing nothing and getting bored after a play session of that and don't touch the character again. I have no idea why I get that way and wonder if anyone else has that problem and can recommend a cure ;-)