Gamers: The Gathering

I play WAY to much of it! (I love it!) Now - if I could find a way to play it and exercise life would be great! (Hook up a treadmill to my computer maybe I have not been playing as much since I quit raiding - that is probably a good thing - I had one of those frieky "It's a job be here at x time for hours at a time guilds." Then I decided I was going on a diet it was the first thing to go.

Now I just gotta get some balance going. The sad thing is - without the guild I am getting a little bored with the game!

Anyone considered putting a guild together of people in WoW trying to shed some pounds? This way there is some form of accountability.. (ie - you've been logged in for 4 hours now! Have you been OUTSIDE at all today??!!)

That's not a bad idea at all! What server do you play on?

Sisters of Elune

I used to play WoW (well, I've played a lot of different MMORPGs) and I came to the conclusion that I had to quit or I'd never do anything meaningful.

However, if quitting the game isn't an option I'd suggest a timer. You get one play session per day of X hours (start with 2 or 3) and no more. It worked for a couple of my gaming buddies, it might work for you.

I disagree with wintersmith... I could never limit my hours in sessions. I would never stick with it.

I find it best (during weeknights) to come home, make dinner, exercise for a minimum of one hour, then it's WoW playtime until bedtime. That way I am still getting my exercise, eating well and get to enjoy my favorite game. One could say I have my cake and eat it too.

For me, WoW isn't something that I feel bad about doing, so I don't need to set a timer, quit playing or even worry about it. WoW let's me spend time interacting with my RL friends and wife in a cheap venue -- much cheaper then going out to dinner, playing laser tag or even renting a movie.

I play wow as well. I spend almost all my time doing it, as i'm an officer in a progressing PVE guild. It's hard to stop snacking when you're doing nothing but raiding for 8 hours straight =\

I've held off as long as I can, but my roommate is installing WoW on my machine as I type this. May God have mercy on my soul. My roommates are addicts and have been trying to get me into it for months now. I told them that if I gain so much as an ounce I'm deleting it. So, we'll see how that goes.

Then again... I've never liked any MMO I've tried (I've played Guild Wars, FFXI, Chronicles of Spellborn). So maybe I won't like WoW either.

I've played WoW, FFXI, and Guild Wars (just a little bit). FFXI was my fave. WoW has more assholes that pick on you when you're still a noob.

But I'm a super-noob! For reals. My gamertags are usually variations of n00b_ZILLA. Like I said before... I've never played an MMO that I've liked. I like to play games for fun, and grinding = not fun.

True. I've started playing FFXI again and just don't really feel like putting the time into it anymore.

I love WoW, but I personally couldn't devote enough time to get leveled and geared up for my guild AND cook dinner every night and exercise 3-5 days per week. You just can't cook dinner if you want to raid.

I enjoyed the game A LOT, but I could really only play 4-6 hours per week and that just didn't seem worth it to me because I couldn't reach the level of gameplay that I wanted to. Right now my husband is going to school and doesn't have time to play with me. Maybe when he is done with school (in December, YAY!) we will start playing again.

I'm not sure though because quitting was one of the hardest things I have had to do. Especially saying goodbye to our guild. They were a family-friendly guild that was so big that there wasn't pressure to raid if you didn't have time, but I WANTED to raid and just couldn't. I set the pressure on myself.

There are easy-going guilds out there. Just see if you can find one that doesn't make it a job. Decide what part of gameplay means the most to you and find a guild that supports that.

Or... keep playing Team Fortress 2.

At this point I just don't think WoW is for me. I started a character on the trial and played that for a few days. Then my roommate sent me an email for some recruit-a-friend special and I created a second character and even did my first instance. I didn't really enjoy it either time.

I'm not sure where the disconnect is. I love single player (and co-op) RPGs. The nuts and bolts are similar, but something's missing for me.

There's a 'parental controls' section on WoW account management on which I believe there is a sort of timer to limit gameplay... Maybe that could be put to use?

I don't know if a Weight Loss guild would work for me. It'd be like, 'You should get off your ass and go for a walk.' 'Yeah... or we could raid Naxx.'

Swiss Chalet was my favourite raid snack. Now I don't have time to level my mains let alone raid, and coincidentally, I have lost 38 lbs....

Team Fortress 2 is my latest game addiction..I could play that game for days on end and still enjoy it..

I used to be a WoW nut, I play every now and then still but the guild I was in broke up, my boyfriend stopped playing and I found I just did not have the time...however, I am sure I will start again...there is a Star Trek MMO coming out.. : P

Just some disconnected thoughts that popped into my head while reading the thread:

- When I got rid of all the food in the house that required little or no preparation time, I found myself snacking much less while playing (there's not enough time during short breaks to make anything to eat).

- You might try PvP instead of raiding; it doesn't require the long continuous blocks of time that raiding does, and you can get pretty much equivalent gear nowadays. I used to hate PvP, but then I went and found some info online about playing my class better (like the "I suck at PvP" videos) and it became fun. I like PvP more than raiding now because it's not scripted, but I know that's not the case for everybody, and it took me a while to get used to the frustrating aspects of it (like dying all the time when you have crappy gear). It sounds like in the future they'll be adding the ability to level up in PvP events as well.

- I've thought a bunch of times about finding some way to play while I'm on a treadmill or some other exercise equipment, but haven't ever got around to doing anything about it. If somebody produced some gamer-oriented exercise equipment (like a Wii controller for WoW or something), they could probably make a fortune.

I'm with you. I had to quit. One day it simply felt like I was running out of life. That was the day I stopped.

I go back and forth between types of video games often. Sometimes I'll be all gungho for WoW or whatever MMO my friends are playing at the moment. Then I slack off for a few weeks and play cheesie Flash games. This past weekend, I busted out Gears of War and gave that a spin. I -really- need the next episode of Half-Life to come out.

I saw this quote recently and thought it was pretty neat: