Personally I think how much people enjoy WoW depends a lot on what they're looking to get out of the game, and how well that matches up with what their friends want. One of the things I like about WoW as opposed to other MMORPGs is how it supports many different play styles. Unfortunately these games also tend to be populated with fairly intense people, and on occasion, I feel really awful that I'm not nearly as hardcore. There's just too much to do, I can't spend enough time doing it all! Which is why I don't play with a friend who was particularly strict, to the point where he was scheduling times when everyone in our group had to be online doing a specific task, and it became like a second job. ;) I've had to learn how to try to tune out all the crazy raid gear/faction grinding and enjoy the bits I enjoy.
The most important thing I learned is to take a break whenever I'm starting to feel the slightest bit overwhelmed, to ignore people who tried to pressure me to play more than I wanted to, and to rein in my disappointment if my friends are in an off-cycle when I'm in an on-cycle. ;) I played non-stop for the first 6 months after it initially came out and I burned out hard, I refuse to do that again.
If your husband and/or son haven't already offered, I think the most fun strategy is to have a partner or two, for everyone to make new characters, and only play those particular characters together. My sister and I have a pact, we have two characters we only level with each other. That way we're always in the same place at the same time, and it's a lot easier to get quests done with a partner. It does require some discipline, sometimes its hard not to play if my sister is busy and vice versa, but we also have characters we play alone. Or we work on tradeskills or non-questing activities. I used to do this with my husband, but he quit the game years ago.
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branchandroot
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Date: 2009-07-01 09:40 pm (UTC)The most important thing I learned is to take a break whenever I'm starting to feel the slightest bit overwhelmed, to ignore people who tried to pressure me to play more than I wanted to, and to rein in my disappointment if my friends are in an off-cycle when I'm in an on-cycle. ;) I played non-stop for the first 6 months after it initially came out and I burned out hard, I refuse to do that again.
If your husband and/or son haven't already offered, I think the most fun strategy is to have a partner or two, for everyone to make new characters, and only play those particular characters together. My sister and I have a pact, we have two characters we only level with each other. That way we're always in the same place at the same time, and it's a lot easier to get quests done with a partner. It does require some discipline, sometimes its hard not to play if my sister is busy and vice versa, but we also have characters we play alone. Or we work on tradeskills or non-questing activities. I used to do this with my husband, but he quit the game years ago.