In the professional world you’ll often hear the term Work/Life balance.  Companies will go through great efforts to help their employees achieve this balance.  This is because so many people today get their balance out of whack (usually in the too much work direction) and this can be harmful for the company and its people.  It’s easy to neglect your “life” as you pursue other things, whether it be work, school… or even WOW.  WOW is an addictive game.  It satifies all but the lowest level of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.  According to Bryan Chain, our brain gets as much playing WOW for 10 hours as we would from a well rounded life involving children, exercise and constructive hobbies.  It satisfies our need for safety, belonging, self-esteem and creativity.  To millions of people, WOW is not just a game.  However, too much WOW can damage aspects of your life and the lives of those around you.  Achieving a WOW/Life balance is essential for success in WOW.

How much WOW is too much?

How much WOW is too much is, of course, different for every person.  It depends completely on your life goals, your age, and your other responsibilities.  I’ll get the obvious out of the way first though.  If you’re failing classes in school or out of work and out of money or 45 and living in your parents basement, and you’re still playing WOW, then you’re playing too much.  For most people this isn’t the case.  A lot of people are in the realm where they have things mostly in balance but their WOW play time often disrupts and annoys the people around you.  Most people know when their WOW/Life balance is out of whack, but they choose to ignore it because they want to play more WOW.    However, there are strategies you can use to achieve a better WOW/Life balance while still playing WOW.  Some of these may seem obvious to those of you who already have a good balance, but you’d be surprised how easy it is to get caught up in things and not follow the these tips.

1.  Make good use of your time

More than likely, your significant others (whether that be your parents, wife, girlfriend, children, or friends) want to see you happy.  They don’t necessarily want to control every second of your life.  However, they also have certain expectations of you that they want to see met.  What you need to do is make sure you continue to meet their expectations despite your WOW play time.  What this might mean is that you have to use your time more wisely.  For example, if your responsiblities include taking out the trash, doing the dishes, feeding the dogs and doing your homework, make sure you get those done as quickly as possible before playing WOW.  Go above and beyond your duties and make sure everything is impeccably clean and in order.  Do what you need to without being told or asked and get it done quickly and right.  No one can deny you a little WOW time when you’re consistently doing everything you’re supposed to and doing it well and without being told.  If you find you just aren’t in the mood to get everything done, then you can expect you probably won’t be playing WOW that day either.

2.  Spend quality time with others

Make sure you take time out of the week to spend exclusively with your significant others.  This probably means you can’t play WOW every day.  You need to take some time off to show those in your life that you are well-rounded and that you care about them.  Just relax and hang out with them and talk and don’t worry about WOW for a day.  Do this of your own free will and don’t complain or try to log on.  WOW isn’t the end of the world, it will still be there when you come back.  Take some time off and you’ll find the time you actually do play is more stress-free.  You may actually be able to play more often as you convince those in your life that you can play responsibly.

3.  Make Compromises

Talk to those in your life about when it would be okay for you to play WOW.  More than likely they’ll say “never”.  But push them on it and be ready to give something up.  Tell them about tips #1 and #2.  Tell them you’ll only play during specific times and you’ll make sure to have x and y done before you play.  Then keep your promise.  Don’t play WOW outside of the times you’ve set.  Their part of the bargain is that you get to play WOW (mostly) undisturbed during those specific times.  This only works if you can keep your side of the bargain.

4.  Find a good Guild and set your WOW Goals appropriately

This is important.  You need to find a guild that will let you play during the times you’ve set in tip #3.  If it’s possible, try to set your play times to correspond with the raiding times of your guild.  However, if that isn’t possible, if there’s no way you’ll get everything done before raid time, then you’ll need to be realistic and either give up raiding, or find a new guild that raids during the times you can be on.  You may have to make some compromises with your guild.  Tell them which days you can be on to raid and which days you can’t.  The level of play time you can devote will determine what kind of guild you should be in and what your WOW goals will be.  Be realistic with your goals and don’t let your WOW goals trump your real life obligations.  There are  a ton of casual raiding guilds who would love to have you.

If you’re really ambitious, start your own guild so you can set the raid times yourself.  However, if you do this, make sure you’re actually able to be on-time for every raid and able to deal with everything a guild leader has to deal with.  It is possible to be a casual guild leader leading a casual raiding guild, but you have to be realistic with your guild’s goals and let your members know what those goals are up front.  And you have to at least be on for every raid with few exceptions.

5.  Don’t create Stress

Your ultimate goal is to be able to play WOW while keeping everyone in your life happy, including yourself.  Stress is bad.  You’ll know your WOW/Life balance is out of whack when you feel stressed out from playing WOW, either from pressure from others around you, or from pressure within the game.  WOW is a fun, awesome game, but you need to make sure that it falls in line with the other priorities in your life.  If you’re finding your internet connection is getting unplugged in the middle of raids then you’re either playing WOW too much or you’re not using your time outside of WOW wisely enough (or both). 

Don’t get upset at people in-game or out, it’s not worth it.  Don’t yell at or blame the people in your life for wanting your time.  They deserve it, you need to accept it and do what you can to meet their needs.  Be patient, be accomodating, be understanding, be accepting.  The people in your life deserve your time even more than the people in your guild.  Understand where they’re coming from and do everything you can to meet their needs - before you play.  If that means you occasionally have to stop playing in the middle of a raid, accept that willingly and don’t get upset.  Some things are more important than your guild and any good guild will understand if you have to go.  Just patiently explain how the game works to those in your life so they can understand your expectations and hopefully it won’t happen too often.

Summary

In most cases, as long as you meet/exceed your SO’s expectations, show them you care, make good compromises, and prove that you can play responsibly, your significant other shouldn’t have a problem giving you some WOW time each week.  If you’re doing all of the above and still getting flack for playing WOW then that means you’ll just have to work even harder to make them happy and earn your WOW time.  Or you may have to question whether playing WOW is right for you right now.  Or just get a girlfriend who already plays WOW.  =-P

Good luck!