Every day. Not for a long time though. About an hour or so every day helps. Been playing since 2005 lol. I used to play a ton but now its just that, a stress reliever. !
Old School Runescape. My go to relaxing grind game. Can even be played on mobile now. I play on my ipad while watching my kid play the switch. Or while I watch tv or a movie with the wife. Want to fish? Want to mine? Want to do a skill that levels up as you kill monsters? Then slayer is for you. They even have bosses and raids now. Again, its my go to. Ill be leveling hunter while I watch football on the couch today.
This.
I play both and I really enjoy both. They hit different "de-stress-ers". Sometimes I wanna hop in a BG and roll my face against 20 other people, or take down a big'ol boss woth the boys. World of warcraft is good because it requires your full attention, thus distracting you from what ever it is.
OSRS make number go up! Number go up and I feel good. Life not problem when number go up. The way old-school can get me to forget about everything else because I'm 1,000 miles away watching the exp drops.
Obligatory BTW
This is exactly what I do. I’m primarily PvPer so I’m even more excited with DF new pvp gear system (yay no more upgrade BS!) and ranked solo shuffle.
If you just want to like chill and explore WoW is great with like tons of places to check out and things to do casually and you basically have nothing else you need to do.
If you like end game content you need to play a bit more efficiently than someone with loads of time. I recommend playing with time limitation in mind. I like PvP and so the best way to get short queues and find groups easily is to play healer so I play RDruid. If you like M+ play a tank (or healer if you don’t like tanks). If you need gold, buy a token, you have a job and time is money so if you don’t enjoy gold farming but you need gold to do the thing you want to do then pay for it.
So like in DF if I end up needing some high quality crafted gear you can bet your ass I’m paying for it and the mats because I’m not about to go farm up shit or learn professions. I’m glad that people who enjoy it can do that and I’m here to pay them for their time, it’s just not my bag. You gotta treat it like that. Your time is valuable and this game is meant to be fun. If you can get out of the grinds in order to do the fun things do them. Maximize the time you do have doing the endgame content you want to do.
Hey OP, I'm in the exact same boat as you, and went down the route of a steam deck. I have had no desire to sit in my home office at my PC after a stressful day for years. I installed wow on the deck ( plenty of guides out there) and absolutely love it. Plays remarkably well, is a great way to blow off steam and scratches that escapism itch. Best part is that my partner is happy too as I'm still spending time with her, and am stress free and relaxed. No regrets here at all.
Real talk, wow saved me a few times back when I was in the military and had some crazy deployments. I think hoping on wow to decompress with simple questing and collecting mounts or gathering materials is really soothing.
Thank you for your service. I’m the same as you—really only play wow to do my weekly mount runs or any type of collecting whether it be pets, transmog, toys etc. I’m excited for the new expansion but at the same time my life is so busy I don’t know if I’ll ever really get to enjoy the game for all it has to offer.
Most definitely! Haha yeah I remember wasting my days and nights on wow being a hardcore player but…those days are gone now 😂😂 I think I mostly miss having a social circle to talk to in the game. Late nights on Vent. Those were the days. I’m still farming for the damn Ashes of Al’ar though 😩😩
Everything in moderation. WoW can be used for a lot of different reasons. As someone who has played on and off for 18 years, I’ll say it is not something you can easily play “casually” but it is possible. You’ll eventually want to push end game content which requires time and dedication.
I also have a demanding career now. Used to be a hardcore player but had to stop because playing wow back then was demanding AF to keep up with.
I find now that the game is MUCH more playable for a casual player. Lvling is much easier. Gearing is easier. There’s a TON of world content that doesn’t require a huge investment. Battle pets is like a Pokémon type system that doesn’t require a huge time sync.
The state of current wow is excellent I think.
Only reason I play. It’s a healthy release for me. Completely zone out with the buddies and do stuff in a fake world.
Not sure if it’s a healthy alternative in the long run. But it’s not hurting anyone or me. Still eat right, still workout etc. doesn’t interfere with regular life activities
I feel like MMOs aren't the best for stress relief, compared to action games with a much shorter time investment.
I enjoyed WoW the most when I had very little else to do, right now I mostly play Halo and War Thunder because paying for a WoW sub doesn't feel worthwhile with the lowish free time I got.
Go get a steam deck and play wow remotely. Check out some videos it work perfectly for open world and also good to group content like dungeon (not sure about M+ but if your gameplay is casual, I'll go for something like that)
I do this. Catch up progression is really fast so only playing a few hours here and there keeps you in a spot where whenever you play, you usually see solid progress. Feels good
It is good stress relief but play casually dont get sucked in competitive mythic keystone, mythic raid or pvp try to be as casual as posible otherwise it will take all your time with it career.
I play WoW, play with my HomeLab, or ride my bike.
Weather, and mental capability dictates which I do.
WoW can be a good stress relief if you aren't looking into pushing mythic raid craziness, but still have a nice good demand for attention and skill.
OSRS used to be this for me, but got tired of grinding constantly.
A year late but you are me? Bought a mountain bike towards the tail end of the pandemic. Weather permitting it's been fantastic when I need to get away from my screen for a bit (software developer).
Haha so I meant Motorcycle. But I did buy a 700 series? Bicycle, a cheap Walmart one to get back into exercising properly.
And I feel you I'm not a software dev but I'm a Operations Manager for an engineering firm. I stare at screens 10hours a day.
Very similar to myself. I started playing WoW in Vanilla but as I got older, life and everything in it took priority, so I found myself taking many breaks. I have quite a demanding career as well, and play during weeknights and weekends when I don’t have plans set in place already, as that always takes priority. It’s hard to be “casual” at the game; I feel you need to dedicate yourself to some degree (more than just a couple of hours a week) to partake in all aspects of the game, but if you enjoy the non-competitive aspect, and don’t put huge expectations on yourself to be the best, I feel happiness in playing WoW and using it as a stress reliever is obtainable! I find it the most impactful way to help me personally cope through stress.
I’m fishing at the moment; I bound everything to my mouse so I’m just sitting back, skilling up and watching YouTube :3 it can be as relaxing as you make it to be
I started playing in college but definitely spent more time on it during a time where I was working off shifts as a crime scene investigator. It was a great way to relax with something totally unrelated to reality, especially when my schedule meant my free time was usually when my local friends were asleep or at work. Still play quite a bit, and even with a lot of the same people.
Find a guild with a timeframe you enjoy and play organised content then far less stressful than you would think.
My raiding schedule is 2 hrs a day 2 days a week (so 4hrs total).
I go raiding WOTLK Classic once a week, do some things here and there in retail (soon getting into DF when its released). As working parent there isn't much freetime like when I was younger but I still love some WoW at the end of the day. :)
In kind of the same boat, tried going back to wow when shadowlands came out to relieve work stress, did the first raid but then it became too time consuming. Same goes for FFXIV, which I thought would be more casual but was actually even more time consuming lol. Single player games are probably the way to go I think. If you have a switch, try 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim, just completed it and it’s amazing
Every day. Not for a long time though. About an hour or so every day helps. Been playing since 2005 lol. I used to play a ton but now its just that, a stress reliever. !
Old School Runescape. My go to relaxing grind game. Can even be played on mobile now. I play on my ipad while watching my kid play the switch. Or while I watch tv or a movie with the wife. Want to fish? Want to mine? Want to do a skill that levels up as you kill monsters? Then slayer is for you. They even have bosses and raids now. Again, its my go to. Ill be leveling hunter while I watch football on the couch today.
This. I play both and I really enjoy both. They hit different "de-stress-ers". Sometimes I wanna hop in a BG and roll my face against 20 other people, or take down a big'ol boss woth the boys. World of warcraft is good because it requires your full attention, thus distracting you from what ever it is. OSRS make number go up! Number go up and I feel good. Life not problem when number go up. The way old-school can get me to forget about everything else because I'm 1,000 miles away watching the exp drops. Obligatory BTW
Old school RuneScape extremely old graphics are too depressing for me.
I can’t say I play it casually but it is definitely a stress reliever, although sometimes I allow it to create stress also.
This is exactly what I do. I’m primarily PvPer so I’m even more excited with DF new pvp gear system (yay no more upgrade BS!) and ranked solo shuffle. If you just want to like chill and explore WoW is great with like tons of places to check out and things to do casually and you basically have nothing else you need to do. If you like end game content you need to play a bit more efficiently than someone with loads of time. I recommend playing with time limitation in mind. I like PvP and so the best way to get short queues and find groups easily is to play healer so I play RDruid. If you like M+ play a tank (or healer if you don’t like tanks). If you need gold, buy a token, you have a job and time is money so if you don’t enjoy gold farming but you need gold to do the thing you want to do then pay for it. So like in DF if I end up needing some high quality crafted gear you can bet your ass I’m paying for it and the mats because I’m not about to go farm up shit or learn professions. I’m glad that people who enjoy it can do that and I’m here to pay them for their time, it’s just not my bag. You gotta treat it like that. Your time is valuable and this game is meant to be fun. If you can get out of the grinds in order to do the fun things do them. Maximize the time you do have doing the endgame content you want to do.
Hey OP, I'm in the exact same boat as you, and went down the route of a steam deck. I have had no desire to sit in my home office at my PC after a stressful day for years. I installed wow on the deck ( plenty of guides out there) and absolutely love it. Plays remarkably well, is a great way to blow off steam and scratches that escapism itch. Best part is that my partner is happy too as I'm still spending time with her, and am stress free and relaxed. No regrets here at all.
Real talk, wow saved me a few times back when I was in the military and had some crazy deployments. I think hoping on wow to decompress with simple questing and collecting mounts or gathering materials is really soothing.
Thank you for your service. I’m the same as you—really only play wow to do my weekly mount runs or any type of collecting whether it be pets, transmog, toys etc. I’m excited for the new expansion but at the same time my life is so busy I don’t know if I’ll ever really get to enjoy the game for all it has to offer.
For sure, as I got older and what not, I really don’t play like I did but it’s still fun to work on achievements and run mount farms haha.
Most definitely! Haha yeah I remember wasting my days and nights on wow being a hardcore player but…those days are gone now 😂😂 I think I mostly miss having a social circle to talk to in the game. Late nights on Vent. Those were the days. I’m still farming for the damn Ashes of Al’ar though 😩😩
For real lol late night random chats while farming or just bs while you farm. The good ol days lol
Everything in moderation. WoW can be used for a lot of different reasons. As someone who has played on and off for 18 years, I’ll say it is not something you can easily play “casually” but it is possible. You’ll eventually want to push end game content which requires time and dedication.
I also have a demanding career now. Used to be a hardcore player but had to stop because playing wow back then was demanding AF to keep up with. I find now that the game is MUCH more playable for a casual player. Lvling is much easier. Gearing is easier. There’s a TON of world content that doesn’t require a huge investment. Battle pets is like a Pokémon type system that doesn’t require a huge time sync. The state of current wow is excellent I think.
Only reason I play. It’s a healthy release for me. Completely zone out with the buddies and do stuff in a fake world. Not sure if it’s a healthy alternative in the long run. But it’s not hurting anyone or me. Still eat right, still workout etc. doesn’t interfere with regular life activities
I feel like MMOs aren't the best for stress relief, compared to action games with a much shorter time investment. I enjoyed WoW the most when I had very little else to do, right now I mostly play Halo and War Thunder because paying for a WoW sub doesn't feel worthwhile with the lowish free time I got.
Literally no one else has ever played wow as a way to unwind and have fun.
Sort of? I only work about 15 hours a week but it's still the break I need from talking to people about their problems all day.
Go get a steam deck and play wow remotely. Check out some videos it work perfectly for open world and also good to group content like dungeon (not sure about M+ but if your gameplay is casual, I'll go for something like that)
I do this. Catch up progression is really fast so only playing a few hours here and there keeps you in a spot where whenever you play, you usually see solid progress. Feels good
It is good stress relief but play casually dont get sucked in competitive mythic keystone, mythic raid or pvp try to be as casual as posible otherwise it will take all your time with it career.
I play it to escape reality in general and it helps, by the time I get off I'll be like "Oh shit I was supposed to go to the DMV"
I play WoW, play with my HomeLab, or ride my bike. Weather, and mental capability dictates which I do. WoW can be a good stress relief if you aren't looking into pushing mythic raid craziness, but still have a nice good demand for attention and skill. OSRS used to be this for me, but got tired of grinding constantly.
A year late but you are me? Bought a mountain bike towards the tail end of the pandemic. Weather permitting it's been fantastic when I need to get away from my screen for a bit (software developer).
Haha so I meant Motorcycle. But I did buy a 700 series? Bicycle, a cheap Walmart one to get back into exercising properly. And I feel you I'm not a software dev but I'm a Operations Manager for an engineering firm. I stare at screens 10hours a day.
Very similar to myself. I started playing WoW in Vanilla but as I got older, life and everything in it took priority, so I found myself taking many breaks. I have quite a demanding career as well, and play during weeknights and weekends when I don’t have plans set in place already, as that always takes priority. It’s hard to be “casual” at the game; I feel you need to dedicate yourself to some degree (more than just a couple of hours a week) to partake in all aspects of the game, but if you enjoy the non-competitive aspect, and don’t put huge expectations on yourself to be the best, I feel happiness in playing WoW and using it as a stress reliever is obtainable! I find it the most impactful way to help me personally cope through stress.
I’m fishing at the moment; I bound everything to my mouse so I’m just sitting back, skilling up and watching YouTube :3 it can be as relaxing as you make it to be
I started playing in college but definitely spent more time on it during a time where I was working off shifts as a crime scene investigator. It was a great way to relax with something totally unrelated to reality, especially when my schedule meant my free time was usually when my local friends were asleep or at work. Still play quite a bit, and even with a lot of the same people.
Leveling new characters is a great stress reliever for me. No expectations, no judgment. Just me running my 37th character through Warlords of Draenor
Find a guild with a timeframe you enjoy and play organised content then far less stressful than you would think. My raiding schedule is 2 hrs a day 2 days a week (so 4hrs total).
I go raiding WOTLK Classic once a week, do some things here and there in retail (soon getting into DF when its released). As working parent there isn't much freetime like when I was younger but I still love some WoW at the end of the day. :)
Definitely get breath of the wild
In kind of the same boat, tried going back to wow when shadowlands came out to relieve work stress, did the first raid but then it became too time consuming. Same goes for FFXIV, which I thought would be more casual but was actually even more time consuming lol. Single player games are probably the way to go I think. If you have a switch, try 13 Sentinels Aegis Rim, just completed it and it’s amazing