Having played since January 2005, 17 years ago, I decided to add up the playtime of my toons (twelve total, one of each class) to see exactly how much of my life I have put into this game.
Well, the total surprised me. 864 days in all. Days. 24 hours in a day, so 20,736 total hours. These numbers startled me. There’s been 149,000 hours since I started playing, therefor just under 14% of my life has been playing WoW in the last 17 years. About 3 hours and 20 minutes a day, every day. Now I have taken breaks and such, some up to a year. I’ve played other games like Portal 2, Skyrim and BotW. But still, those are some crazy numbers.
To give you an idea, in order to reach 864 days from January 1st, 2022, I’d have to play nonstop, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week until May 14th, 2024. That means all of 2022, all of 2023, and almost half of 2024.
Haha, thanks. Yeah no drugs or gambling for me. I have no kids or pets. But I do have a very healthy Christmas cactus! Work a fully time career and just bought a house a couple years back. I’m no leech on anyone, but sometimes I wonder what else I could have done? Maybe it’s an escape? A time to unwind and disappear into another world? Who knows.
If you had fun and had good experiences along the way, then I wouldn’t consider it a waste at all. Only you can decide whether it was time well spent or not. Don’t give that power to others.
I mean, have you spent that time having fun? If so, then no. Stigmatizing spending a lot of time doing something you actually enjoy is silly. You rarely see people saying “I’ve spent 20% of my entire adult life working! Have I wasted my life?” and tons of people dont even enjoy their jobs.
I don’t consider most of the time wasted. I met new life long friends that I treasure. I had a lot of fun and learned a lot. I’m just sad that the game has gone downhill like it did. But I don’t regret all the time I spent in the game.
Everybody meets at the same finish line. Everything in life is meaningless in the end. “But I made it easier for my family.” Nah, the whole point is to experience the fruits of your labor. All you did was put more money into the pocket of the man who replaces you. Cheers.
WoW is one of your relaxation, social, and entertainment venues right?
It costs $15 a month at most + expansions every few years.
Movies cost what per visit?
Cable TV costs what per month?
How many hours would you have spent watching TV/movies instead of gaming?
If you think how many hours people used to spend watching TV it adds up to way more than what you spent gaming…and gaming is at least interactive and requires more thought than watching TV.
All in all, it is cheaper than a LOT of entertainment and social options.
You can just put a number on your hobby. Guaranteed people that plop down in front of the tv every night are the same. Might want to take a walk every now and then though.
No, I don’t think so. I think if you have a hobby you enjoy a lot do it as much as you can just don’t forget about RL responsibilities or give up other hobbies you enjoy as well.
20,736 Hours, at a $15 an hour job is over $311,000.
That’s a house.
I’m well aware you can’t quantify leisure time that way, but it’s fun to think about like that.
I’m probably in the same boat, more even if you count all the games I play and my other gaming hobbies.
But as others wrote above… other people who watch 5 hours of TV every day are in the exact same boat.
