Callin' All Raiders! Social WoW Project

[VelkynKarma]

Hey guys! Need your help, if you're willing to volunteer some info.

I'm currently working on a big project in a new media class revolving around video games. My part of the assignment is to research how games have become more social, expanding from sitting alone in your room with a console (or 4 people at best) to be able to interact with DOZENS of people in the modern day. AND how this has affected peoples' lives.

So give me some input, please! Especially you raiders, but if you're in a social guild too and play WoW for this reason, let me know also!

QUESTION:
How much time do you devote to World of Warcraft--interacting with PEOPLE? This will most likely revolve around guild-events such as raiding or pvping, so feel free to list your guild/raiding schedules for me to take a gander at.

IF you happen to play other games online (other MMO's, or over networks for your non-computer consoles), please let me know how often you interact with people over these games as well!

~VelkynKarma

[Saturo]

My current raiding guild raids every weekend, the exact days depend on when the raidleaders and the tanks are available.

I'd say about three hours per week pure raiding, about three hours in random heroics, some time on Stereo (about two hours per day or more) (mostly spent in /g), and an hour or so pure PvP.

This what you meant?

[Vephriel]

On my previous server I didn't raid too often, but I still spent most of my playtime interacting with others. Usually my boyfriend and I would be online at the same time, and we'd chat or run some heroics with our WoW-friends. There's quite a few people that we met purely in game, usually through our Guilds, that we've become close friends with. We stay in touch on Facebook and even phone each other.

I think older generations have a hard time fathoming the whole 'online friend' thing - parents are still stuck on the idea that anyone you meet online and become close to is an internet predator, yet in an environment like an MMO it's perfectly normal and understandable to make friends with others and be just as close as some of your real life friends. The only difference is real-life interaction, but when you can chat with each other through text and voice it's not that big of a deal. Maybe it's still weird for some people, but for most of my life I've had a huge amount of online friends through various sites, forums, etc.

Since joining the recent Petopians guild, my people interaction has definitely increased in game just because everyone is so fun to chat with. ^^ I'm really glad I moved my main over to that server, I'd rather have a guild of awesome people to talk and be silly with than than to spend my time raiding.

[VelkynKarma]

This what you meant?

Exactly what I meant, thank you much ^_^

And Veph, I know what you mean completely. Even if I have no plans to DO anything in particular on a character other than hang around undercity and powerlevel Tailoring, it's still great to have guild chat. The game is always more fun with people involved.

I remember several years ago, when my mother told me to 'stop playing that nintendo and go outside to play with friends.' "That Ninendo" was an N64 and the best I could hope for was 2-person interaction with only 2 controllers.

Now she'll ask when the last time I hung out with friends was. All I gotta do is point at the screen and say, "S'okay ma, I've got six friends I'm hangin' with right now!" Though honestly I think most of my family still has trouble grasping the concept that the people in the computer are REAL PEOPLE and not gamin' ones sometimes. XD

Times sure have changed

~VelkynKarma

[Anansi]

QUESTION:
How much time do you devote to World of Warcraft--interacting with PEOPLE? This will most likely revolve around guild-events such as raiding or pvping, so feel free to list your guild/raiding schedules for me to take a gander at.

Hours a day. I play WoW for 3-4 hours per night on weekdays and probably upwards of 6 on weekends. I'm in a raiding guild so the majority of my interaction is with my guild mates. We raid 3 hours a night three nights a week generally, and more if people are online.

Plus I post on forums like this and our guild forums, which is certainly interaction as well.

All in all I probably spend about 40 hours a week on WoW.

I think I'm going to go cry now.

[VelkynKarma]

Thanks for the input guys

Keep'em comin, everyone else!

~VelkynKarma

[Mania]

Hmm. I don't raid. I don't group. With the exception of the US Petopian guild, I'm not in any guilds. My play time varies a lot, from 8 hours a day to 4 hours a week depending on my schedule. I'd estimate that I spend perhaps a quarter of that time interacting with people in the game, with a ceiling of about an hour a day. (In other words, on an 8 hour day I'm only going to be interacting with people for an hour, not a whole quarter of my time.) That includes social or out-of-game chatting, game-related chatting (like giving advice or information to someone who sends me a tell with questions), and short non-scripted roleplaying interactions.

Of course, I spend the vast majority of my time interacting with WoW player out of game. But that's not really what you asked.

[VelkynKarma]

Of course, I spend the vast majority of my time interacting with WoW player out of game. But that's not really what you asked.

No...but that is a good point. Has social gaming affected other aspects of peoples' social lives? Might be another interesting point to address...

~VelkynKarma

[Epicfail]

I probably play 2-3 hours four days out of the week and about 3-6 hours on the other three days.

Of those 17-30 hours a week, I'd say I probably socialize... a third of that. Most of what I do is "play the game". I spend about 6-12 hours a week raiding, but I don't know if I consider that "social". I spend fairly little time in Guild Chat and the only people I really talk to at any length are either the few players I have raided a lot with or in guild hunters talking shop.

I'm the guy that says "sup" and "thx for the group" in my daily random . My only deviation from that may be to include "This fricken <class> is going to get us all killed" followed shortly by "Yep, I called it".

[Gigglemonsta]

I play probably about 4-6 hours a night on/off (eek its scary when i actually think about it).

I go out most weekends so not too much wow time (apart from hungover Sunday), which is probably around 8 hours haha. Mine varys a lot depending if I do other stuff.

In terms of what I do in game.

A heroic on two characters a day, so that 2 hours, plus I often pug a raid for another few hours on a character.

Wed nights is 10 man ICC night, so 4-5 hours doing that, Thursday night is ALT ICC night, Friday night is main guild raid night, so 4-5 hours doing that.

The rest of my time...well Im kinda one of those ones that talks in Trade to everyone (quite well known on the server), so I spend a lot of time talking in trade, and doing silly things (nude marches, trips to the dancing troll village, dressing up like a pirate and taking over an ally ship etc etc). I also pug raids if im bored (I like to help groups get through, and im a sucker for punishment).

Id say about 50% of my time is socializing, 50% of my time is raiding. That said im in a very social guild, so raiding means drinking/laughing/chatting while on vent, so close to 90% of the time im interacting with around 8 people +

I actually quit wow for 6 months, but came back. It was the people not the game I missed