Finals Season

[deathsw]

So here I am, writing a blog post when I should be studying for a chemistry and physics final for next week.

I've got a question for you all who go to school, or even those who go to work (wait, those things don't happen if you play WoW!): How do you balance WoW (or another video game of your choice) with the obligations you have in real life? Do you just go with the flow? I know that if you raid, or have a group you level with, you need to be on at a certain time. How do you fit that into the life you lead outside the game?

I personally procrastinate, though it isn't always related to gaming. I'll be on the Internet, or sleeping (actually a useful endeavor), or talking with friends... but not studying. My target is usually the weekend then do the load I didn't do during the week on the weekend. It works for me... sort of. I still somehow find myself sleepless. Do I just suck at life, or do you also not get the work done that you need to when you're handed it?

I'm hearing tales on IRC which say that I'm not the only one, but that still leaves me curious about the general state of the Wow population. How do you make video gaming work?

Edited out the gold bit, the rest is actually quite interesting - Clavina

[Aerath]

It went so well right up til the goldselling ad.

[Wiglet]

So here I am, writing a blog post when I should be studying for a chemistry and physics final for next week.

I've got a question for you all who go to school, or even those who go to work (wait, those things don't happen if you play WoW!): How do you balance WoW (or another video game of your choice) with the obligations you have in real life? Do you just go with the flow? I know that if you raid, or have a group you level with, you need to be on at a certain time. How do you fit that into the life you lead outside the game?

I personally procrastinate, though it isn't always related to gaming. I'll be on the Internet, or sleeping (actually a useful endeavor), or talking with friends... but not studying. My target is usually the weekend: Do the minimum work required, buy wow gold in xxx, then do the load I didn't do during the week on the weekend. It works for me... sort of. I still somehow find myself sleepless. Do I just suck at life, or do you also not get the work done that you need to when you're handed it?

I'm hearing tales on IRC which say that I'm not the only one, but that still leaves me curious about the general state of the Wowhead population. How do you make video gaming work?

Oooh you NEARLY made it there mate...
But not quite.

Please dont quote goldsellers, or we have to edit your quote aswell. Thanks, Twoflower

[Tikki]

it seemed so honest...*sigh*

[ptarn]

I do hope this was for real with a just a hint of dumbness mixed in, since it's an interesting question.

[Wiglet]

For the record i did actually edit the site in my quote. I doubt very much the one i wrote would have actually gone to a goldselling site. But hey ho, better safe than sorry and all that.

[Wintrow]

To go into the question that remains:

Having someone other than yourself (in my case: my wifey) means you have to learn making arrangements. Because if you just "wing it" you'll end up with two people making a whole lot of wrong assumptions and that sets you up for unnecessary arguments.

In that respect I do the following:
- Every friday night I spend a whole night playing (19h00 to 2h00). I may decide to watch tv with her instead, but it's my choice. If I do though I don't get to "reclaim" that time.
- Every night I can spend a small amount of time to log in and check stuff (AH, schedule my raid-attendance, ...).
- At work I try and squeeze a bit of time in during lunch by eating at my desk.

This sets up both parties to know what to expect and what NOT to expect (I sleep late saturdays, she gets sundays, the other one gets up when the kid wakes up).

Things go wrong when, again, people assume wrongly:
She is quite tired fridaynight and doesn't tell me (I try to notice, but hey, I AM merely a man). Next morning she expects me to get up anyway because "if you're not tired enough to sleep instead of game you're not tired enough to sleep instead of getting up in the morning".

Naturally, with a second one on the way she gets tired more often and we're looking into changing game-time to two half-nights so that I can get up every weekend-morning.

So yeah, there you have it. It works :smiley:.

[ptarn]

Completely agree with Wintrow on this! If you run a household with someone else (regardless of that someone being a friend/roommate/partner and/or kids) you have to communicate about things. If you have a hobby that consumes (a lot of) time, whether or not it's playing (pc-)games, you have to lay down some 'ground rules' to make sure that one person knows when the other's probably busy with his/her hobby.

I had the same happen with me and my hubby. At one time I raided two nights a week and a whole Sunday afternoon. He assumed I would be watching some of our favorite shows with him on those nights or maybe watch a movie after coming home from a hard day's work. Every time I told him I 'had' to raid, he was annoyed. So at one time he got fed up with it and we sat down to talk things over. Turns out he only wanted to know a few days beforehand if I would be raiding or not, so he could take that into account!

Ever since that talk I have cut back on my raiding and only raid on Sundays if hubby and me don't have any other plans. I also only raid one day per week and I tell him beforehand which day that will be. On other days it my in-game time depens on what we want to do. Sometimes my husband wants to play a game too and then I just log in to do a heroic or a bg or work on my leatherworking. And it works like a charm now! ^^