World of Warcraft is an addicting game. Too often wives, husbands, mothers, fathers, friends, fiancées, college students, or employees find themselves devoting a disproportionate amount of time to the virtual world. As a result, marriages have been broken, families split, and jobs lost. Many argue the only solution is to give up World of Warcraft completely. For some this maybe the only option, but for others there is a much more viable compromise: playing World of Warcraft casually.
Hardcore World of Warcraft fans roll their eyes at this idea. To them no one can play WoW sporadically for only an hour or two a day — maximum. If someone does that they miss out on all the high tier content. They don’t get to experience the thrill of a twenty five man raid, or soar across Outland on top of a Netherdrake. This is all true, and is the first obstacle casual players must deal with. Realize this: no one who plays World of Warcraft casually will ever own a Netherdrake, ever fight Illiadin, or strut around Shattrath city with their impressive armor and weapons. If you can accept this, you’ve taken the hardest and most important step towards being a casual WoW gamer.
Here are some suggestions for casual World of Warcraft playing that can help make the game fun, exciting, and fulfilling even only when devoting an hour or so a day to Blizzard’s masterpiece.
Use a leveling guide
While scoffed at by the hardcore crowd who say it makes the game too easy, there are several leveling guides on the internet which make progressing through WoW a breeze. Some require money, while others come completely free of charge. Leveling guides remove the terrible time waster of confusing quests by giving a step by step guide on how to accomplish them. These guides create the most time efficient questing patterns through areas, minimal backtracking, and maximum rewards. Those who don’t have a lot of time on their hands will find leveling guides to be essential.
Don’t do more than one instance a week
Instances take an immense amount of time to overcome. If finding a party isn’t hard enough, progressing through the treacherous dungeons, relying on four other people, hoping for a specific set of gear drops, and winning the roll for the loot all makes instances a time waster. So only do an instance once a week or none at all. Preferably run instances with friends who will be considerate when real life unexpectedly intervenes.
Realize other people will progress a lot faster
It is important to restate the biggest hurdle to playing World of Warcraft casually. There will always be someone who has better gear, a cooler mount, or has taken down some of the toughest bosses in the game. Realize that in order to pull off feats of this magnitude, gamers have put in enormous commitment, and this isn’t feasible for someone who is playing casually. Overcome gear envy.
Use the WoW Timer
There is the risk of getting sucked into a certain quest, or hanging out with WoW friends which ultimately steals too much time out of the day. Download and install the WoW Timer add-on to prevent this. Wow Timer informs the gamer when a certain amount of time has elapsed, making it easier to manage how much play time World of Warcraft gets each day.
Join a casual guild
There are raiding guilds and there are casual guilds. Casual gamers should avoid raiding guilds since these require a gigantic amount of commitment. Instead, look for a casual or non-raiding guild. The people in these guilds are generally more laid back, don’t require much of their guild members, and will usually help out if a quest or enemy becomes too difficult. Heck, they might even have some time management tips of their own for you.
Take up two gathering professions
All professions make money, but some take too much time and effort to reach their maximum skill level. The best bet for the casual WoW player is to take up two gathering professions. These professions don’t take a lot time to advance and the income payoffs start quickly. All the gathering professions make about the same amount of money per server, but usually there is one that outshines the others. This varies from server to server, so be sure to check the Auction House, see what materials are in most demand, and then plan accordingly.
Play Arena for Epic Gear
Epic Gear is not easy to come by for the casual gamer. The only way to acquire Epic Gear before was through raids. Raids are not only time consuming, thinking instances on steroids, but the probability at which Epic Gear drops is low, and acquiring it is even lower. It takes too much time and commitment to obtain the best loot from dungeons. Luckily, Blizzard introduced The Arena in Burning Crusade. The Arena is the easiest way to get Epic Gear. All it requires is ten matches per week, earning around 300-400 Arena points depending on how one does. These points can then be spent for Epic Arena Sets which, while not as powerful as their Tier 4 and higher counterparts, still look just as impressive and are a perfect alternative.
Follow these suggestions and casual gamers will find World of Warcraft to be an enjoying experience, and realize it’s entirely possible to play without getting sucked in. Just remember to manage the time spent in the virtual world, don’t envy other people’s progress, and have fun with the players you meet. Do this and anyone will be prepared to take the journey to Northrend once the next expansion pack for World of Warcraft hits stores, sometime in 2008.
