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Study Finds That "Extreme Gamers" Play 48 Hours a Week
An anonymous reader writes "Think you're a big gamer? According to a new study from market research firm NPD Group, to be considered among the real hardcore you'll need to play an average of 48.5 hours a week — nearly seven hours a day. This group of gamers is, on average, '29 years old, and — perhaps surprisingly — one-third of them are female. They're more likely to play on consoles than on the PC, and on average they've purchased 24 titles in the past three months — a bill that could easily run over a thousand dollars. But dedicated though they may be, the Extreme Gamers are just a small minority: a mere 4% of the US's 174-million-strong gaming public. '"
I was there too, except I was one of the idiots trying to wrangle 39 other idiots (read: guild officer). At the time I had just graduated from high school and due to a traumatic experience or two (not what you think but too long to detail) I staunchly refused to attend post-secondary or any other school-like institution. So I spent 8-12 hours a day on WoW, building my toon up and helping to run a whole guild instead. Surprisingly it was pretty good management training. In any case, we did the whole "best guild on server, #1 in MC, BWL, AQ40, Naxx, etc" thing, climbed into the top 100 NA guilds at one point, and shortly before the first expansion hit I had burnt out. I quit pretty much cold turkey and with some help from my parents and my now girlfriend, i've never been back. I feel like i've conquered the essence of that game and any new attempts would just be the same shit in a new pile. Now i've got something MUCH more challenging to worry about: University. :)
Anyways, just wanted to say that there are probably almost as many ex-WoW addicts as there are current ones. Coca^H^H^H^H WoW's a hell of a drug.
Yes, this is how I can afford to be a PC gamer. I work 9 hours a day, another 1.5 hours traveling, I play between 4 and 1 hours a night depending on what else I have on (guitar practice, gym, pub). On the Weekends I can play up to 14 hours a day between other things (meals, going out, shopping, etc...). I normally get 6-8 hours a day of sleep unless a new CIV has been released in the previous 2 months.
Currently posting from Thailand, 6000 KMs from my gaming boxen and most of my games. I will spend this time drinking, eating, carousing and other stuff one does on holiday. I'll be here for another 3 weeks. My laptop is really just for banking and browing the web, it has an Intel IGM so it wont play any recent games (cant even handle CIV).
Many people find a balance. Someone who spends 4 hours gaming per night is no different to those who spend 4 hours watching TV, playing cards or working on their car.
I dont watch TV so this may be where I'm getting all this time from.
Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
I don't mean to one up you, but I feel I should share a story from the top 1%.
I'm a former world first raider from EverQuest 1, and have been a top north american FPS competitor since back in the Quake 3 days until about 2 years ago in Counter-Strike:Source and 1.6. I've run 8-9 hour raids in EQ 1, and farmed things (ie. ToV key, stuipd fucking rare skeleton) for over 60 hours before straight. If 40 hours qualifies the top 4%, I'd consider myself formerly in the top 1%. Some years back (2006?) I quit EQ1 for WoW because I couldn't do it anymore. I'd gone to rehab for EQ1 and, the first day after getting out I walked nearly 2 hours in the middle of the night to a friends place (didnt have a car at the time) who was up all night to borrow his EQ 1 cds, walked home and was playing again before dawn.
It probably sounds odd to think of someone saying Molten Core and BWL (never did Naxxramas though) were "casual" for me, but that's exactly what it was. I was in the 2nd place guild on my server in Vanilla, the first on alliance in early TBC, second on server (horde) in late TBC, first (horde) in early WotLK, and now first (alliance) in late WotLK. I raid 3-5 nights a week as you say, for 4 hours of pure raid time per night, I have 5 80 alts - 4 of them ICC geared, 2 of them 2k+ rated in pvp on all 3 teams. I know this is abnormal, "extreme" but looking back on my EQ1 life I still feel casual by comparison. That shit was crazy.
Probably my favorite EQ 1 story of addiction (favorite as in the most telling, imo) was 2 wizards (husband and wife) in my guild, who were hooked on meth - started playing EverQuest 1 - and just one day completely forgot to score more meth because they couldn't leave EQ - and quit cold turkey, having completely forgotten about Meth.
The thing is - as human beings we are attracted to certain things more than anything else. When you get really into a game and start thinking about the bonding experiences of difficult situations in raids or pvp - and how you couldn't have accomplished that without them, or would be dead were it not for another gamer - that to me is comparable to a blood brother borne in a foxhole in a war. The foxhole might be a dragon raid, and the blood brother might be a virtual priest avatar - but the bond can be identical I think. At the same time, the surreal worlds where we are all so much more than mere men working 9-5 is impossible to deny the simple attraction of. Any sense of hopelessnes, weakness, loss that you might experience in the real world is caused by a tangible entity in a game world - and is usually solved by severing the head of some dragon or god - would that it be so easy in real life - perhaps games would not hold the bond that they do.
It sure is. My epiphany came one day when I realized it had been 2 years since I last picked up my guitar, something I was quite serious about before I started playing WoW. I quit cold turkey too. I've been back now and then since then to chat and fool around but I'm also one of those who wants to play at the so called top or not at all. Since the top is something I know I can't do anymore, I've hardly felt the pull at all. It's quite a nice thing that getting back on that hardcore raiding horse with WoW is not that easy. You can't just call your dealer in one second if you get the urge on a tuesday night. You have to put time in to catch up gearwise from where you where when you left off. Even if you manage that on your own (they've made it easier but having to grind heroics for badges with random idiots is an experience that can cure any addict) you have to find and apply to and convince a proper raid guild to take you in. So once you manage to quit for long enough, it's not something you can pick up again on an impulse since it's not just up to you. You'll still have quite a bit of time to consider what you're doing.