The Casual Gamer and WoW: Real, or just a myth?

[Zyphria]

So can someone pick up the game and play an hour or so a night, and feel fulfilled, or left in the dust?

[Etadanik]

Originally Posted by Zyphria

So can someone pick up the game and play an hour or so a night, and feel fulfilled, or left in the dust?

What do you define as being left in the dust? Not having the best gear in the game? Even WoW isn't so casual that it'd let someone who play 1 hour every night get the best gear in the game, but it certainly isn't going to leave you behind and gimped and unable to progress, since you can always spend that 1 hour farming gold and buying good gear in AH.

And yes, playing 1 hour / night sounds exactly like what WoW promotes. No, you won't be running most of the instances and raids, or be dominating the ladder in PvP, but you absolutely have no need to group in WoW and can happily grind your way to 60.

The question, though, is what to do once you get there. And even casual gamers, I think, are looking for answers to that question atm.

[Stanos]

There's a broad type of casual gamer.

Take my brother.

He enjoys playing 2-3 hours a day, and he's played since open beta. But he doesn't have a character over level 40 yet.

Is it because he can't level? Nope. It's because he'll play a class for a while, get bored, and play another type of class. He's played a priest, a rogue, and a warlock on both sides, on different servers.

He's enjoying the game still, even though he's not a high level. His challenges still lie in getting his warrior his Fire-Hardened Mail.

God, almost makes me lament for that experience again ;/

[Ossoi]

The Casual Gamer is definitely real, where do you think all those subscriptions come from?

If the implementation of high-end content doesn't improve [CTF and AV can definitely be considered failures, whilst BWL had a shaky start] then Blizzard won't even notice the cancellations that start to pour in, because they'll be kept handsomely afloat by the legions of players that are still Lvl 32.

Every review of WoW that I read in the UK gaming press features comments from people that come home and play for 1-2 hours a night, its their first MMO, they take their time and have no complaints.

[Jait]

It's relative.

WoW is the easiest MMOG out there to reach the highest *level*. Like others have mentioned if you also want the highest *loot* you need to devote a lot more time. And even more time if you want the highest *PVP stuff*. But there is such a thing as too casual for any MMO. And with an hour a day I'd say you fall into that catagory. Sure you can reach 60 in 3 months with an hour a day, but after that you'll either have to start a new toon or be VERY limited in what you can do. I'd suggest grabbing a console instead. Because honestly you'll be hard pressed to even complete the low level instances with just an hour.

[fuvi513]

Originally Posted by Jait

It's relative.

Exactly, everything having to do with people's opinion's in this genre is perception.

[Frax]

Originally Posted by Zyphria

So can someone pick up the game and play an hour or so a night, and feel fulfilled, or left in the dust?

There are plenty of people that play that way..some of them are still level 45 in Everquest

[oknedark]

Originally Posted by Zyphria

So can someone pick up the game and play an hour or so a night, and feel fulfilled, or left in the dust?

If its their first MMORPG and they are interested cause they have had fun with [generic single player rpg] then sure.

If its not their first mmorpg... well it does vary, but I would say the vast majority would have fun for 2-3 months, then put the game down. Even playing casually, if you know what you are doing, you have to take steps out of the way to create fun by providing new content or novel things to do.

Playing 1 hour a night will leave you left cold once you hit 55+ and want to do brd and the other instances, and without those instances / quests / loot, even with the ability to farm gold and AH it, the game gets pretty dry.

Won't even discuss pvp, cause on some servers you need at least 30 mins to wait in a BG line for meaningful pvp.

[Ukerric]

Originally Posted by Jait

Sure you can reach 60 in 3 months with an hour a day

No you can't.

My guild is only mildly casual, but from the look of it, it takes about 18 days of /played to get to 60 (assume you're not grinding and gunning straight to the top). That's about 430 hours. If you really play 1 hour a day on the average, it will take you over a year to get 60.

The average player plays a bit less than 15 hours a week in WoW, apparently. That means over 6 months to get to 60. Assuming no rerolls, just one character.

[Drajakur]

I had to convert to casual-player status with my wife's pregnancy and I can tell you, yes, WoW is the most casual-player friendly MMORPG out there. I can also tell you that I quit WoW after 3 months and went back to playing EQ2 - so make what you want of that.

For me, the issue with WoW was that it pretty much eliminated grouping outside of specific points and specific interests. Kinda boring for a MMORPG. Instead of making it easier to find, form and adventure in groups, they made it pointless - which is ideally not how a MMORPG should cater to the casual in my opinion.

Don't know about the heavily PvP side of things since it seems you'd be gimped now in PvP without specific loot...

D

[Cybsled]

For me, the issue with WoW was that it pretty much eliminated grouping outside of specific points and specific interests

That's also one reason I loved it. When I got home from work, I didnt want to spend an hour looking for a group, end up only finding asshats r us, then making little to no progress as a result.

So you could easily make some progress alone. On days where you wanted to group, you'd try to hit an instance. All dungeons are pretty much group required. I'm not sure why people lament that WoW is a totally solo game. Technically EQ1 was as well post Kunark if you had the right class.

Dungeons have loot. Dungeons have quests. Dungeons cannot be done solo.

IMO it's a perfect mix. You have group required targets, and you have outside targets that can be tackled via group or solo.

[Zurren]

If the fact that you cant raid MC, do BWL and cant get the 'best gear in the game' annoys you - then you are not a casual gamer. You are a wanna-bpower-gamer who lacks the time, and/or resources to be power-gamer.

I am a 'casual gamer' now, I logon onc eevery few days for an hour or so. Some times, I may play for 1-2 hours, other days I may play for 4 hours. I logon, I kill for a bit, quest for a bit or just chat - and I enjoy those one or two hours.

I dont care if I'll see MC, or raid BWL or kill a dragon, I dont care if I'll ever hit level 60 or not, I logon and enjoy the hour or two that I'm able to play.

[Zurren]

Originally Posted by Ukerric

No you can't.

My guild is only mildly casual, but from the look of it, it takes about 18 days of /played to get to 60 (assume you're not grinding and gunning straight to the top). That's about 430 hours. If you really play 1 hour a day on the average, it will take you over a year to get 60.

The average player plays a bit less than 15 hours a week in WoW, apparently. That means over 6 months to get to 60. Assuming no rerolls, just one character.

and your point is? You dont need to hit level 60 to enjoy the game, its not like you spend 1-year slugging though a boring game to get to level 60 to 'suddenly start having fun'

If you do think that - thats a problem with your mindset and not the game.

again, if all your concern about is getting level 60 and the best items - then you are NOT a casual gamer.

[ArkturusMaximus]

Originally Posted by Ukerric

No you can't.

My guild is only mildly casual, but from the look of it, it takes about 18 days of /played to get to 60 (assume you're not grinding and gunning straight to the top). That's about 430 hours. If you really play 1 hour a day on the average, it will take you over a year to get 60.

The average player plays a bit less than 15 hours a week in WoW, apparently. That means over 6 months to get to 60. Assuming no rerolls, just one character.

It shouldn't take anywhere near 18 days played time to get to 60. I've been playing casually for the last several months while studying for the bar and have a shorter /played time at this point (lvl 36) than my lvl 60 paladin I was first to 60 with on Gurubashi (total time 8.5 days). Rest xp really helps leveling go much faster if you are offline for long stretches.

[philogurk]

Go pickup Morrowind or a good single player RPG. WoW isn't worth 1 hour a night imo. The best part about MMORPGs is the social aspect and with one hour a night you wont have as much fun with the social aspect as you would playing hardcore.