Quest Completed: Achievement unlocked: 40 days wow-free

So I gave up WoW for lent. Really, I wanted to see what it would be like to quit playing for a month or so, and calling it lent would give me a support system of my mom keeping me honest about not playing. I blogged in February about Lent, and how I think it’s good to give things up. Easter is this Sunday, which means I’ve made it about 37 days through Lent- not to mention the two weeks before Lent that I had pretty much stopped playing. So I thought I’d check in and see how it went.

The effect quitting WoW had on me was about equivalent to quitting raiding. I had a few more free nights because I wasn’t devoting those periods of time to the game. But here’s the thing: about the same amount of time was spent doing other “chill time” things. I started chatting more with friends on Facebook. I spent a little more time reading web comics. Also, I realized how much my WoW time was also spent watching TV. My mom and I watch a fair amount of TV, and without WoW I spent that time just watching the show, or fiddling around with the internet while watching TV.

The few days where I got home and went straight to bed without hanging out and decompressing I ended up burning out quicker than usual. So maybe WoW isn’t the problem. Maybe there is no problem. Maybe I just need a certain amount of time to hang out and chill and I’m going to take it. I can’t say I’ve had more trouble getting things done than is reasonable for my course load. The only real time crunch is getting all the 9-5 stuff in, and I never played WoW at that time, anyway.

So there it is. I wanted to quit to see if/how it changed things. It really didn’t. So there’s the lesson. I don’t have to be 100% efficient. I’ve been expecting a lot of myself lately. I’m taking 18 hours of classes at St. Edward’s University, I have a 30 hour crew component to one class, and two teaching internships at local area schools. So long as I’m getting all of that done, I can afford to spend a little time dancing in front of the bank of Dalaran.

While the experiment was useful, I don’t think I’m going to quit for good. Ultimately, I was worried it was taking too much time from my already overrun schedule. But I think it’s ok. The distance was good for perspective, but other than that giving it up wasn’t a big deal at all. So I guess I’ll keep playing so long as I’m having fun.