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Distracted Gaming - What I Do During WoW Time

Fear my penguin army!  Guess the comic!

A few weeks ago WoW Insider did an article on a pair of users hooking up their treadmills to World of Warcraft.  Yesterday they added to that piece with numerous stories from their readers about how they work out during their WoW playtime.  Apparently a lot of players do the treadmill/walking thing while strolling around Azeroth with some losing 10, 20 even 100 pounds!

The stories got me thinking.  What the hell do I do when I play WoW?  Growing up in the age of multi-tasking causes me to get bored with one thing quickly.  Some would call that ADHD but I just consider it being efficient!

Most of these things I do while just messing around in World of Warcraft or during downtime.  However, there are many that I have done while raiding, for better or worse.  Some of my more common WoW sidebars are:

  • Browsing the web/checking e-mail/WoWHead etc (dual screen ftw).

  • Writing/researching articles for my various websites.

  • Drinking/eating.

  • Working at my day job.

  • Playing other games – I played Paper Mario (N64) start to finish during Molten Core downtime.

  • Playing with my ferrets.

  • Watch TV, movies and sports (especially the NFL).

  • mIRCing.


I have never done any exercise to speak of while actually playing WoW.  Unlike the people mentioned in the WoW Insider stories, I usually do mine while waiting for something in WoW.  Case in point, I bought a few dozen stacks of neatherweave cloth to transmute into bandages.  I spent the time it take to make 400 bandages jumping rope and doing push-ups.  I think I managed one push-up...

The most fun I ever had with one of these distractions was playing WoW at a party.  And I don't really mean a LAN party, I mean a party with tons of drinking, stupidity and breaking of things.  At this party a few friends and I (okay so we did have some computers hooked up, it was a Guild party after all) managed to raid Molten Core and Onyxia.  What made it fun is that we all switched classes, playing different accounts - after they logged us in of course.  Coincidently, we ended up playing classes we had never raided with before.  We had also been drinking and were distracted by everyone else around.  Hilarity and newfound respect for each other ensued.

What do you guys do outside of WoW to kill the downtime?

Reader Comments (26)

I'll make some calls. Figure out whats going on in RL xD
It's impossible for me to hold a conversation while playing WoW

September 17, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterConahh

i used to get so bored on long flights in WoW, until my friend sent me a Fire Emblem rom and an emulator. now i just alt-tab to that while i'm flying. FE ftw

September 17, 2008 | Unregistered Commentersandwix

I play WoW in a windowed mode so I can easily switch to a different window without having to alt+tab. So I generally just bro

September 17, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterCraig

I play WoW in a windowed mode so I can quickly change windows. So during downtime I generally just browse the web. The last Karazhan run I did I was just switching between playing the game and watch the new episode of Project Lore.

If there is nothing to look at on the Internet I am only sitting 2 feet away from my guitars, so... I tend to grab the guitar every no and again.

September 17, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterCraig

Watch tv, listen to audio podcast.

September 17, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterUrza

I watch Diggnation and Totally Rad Show! :D

September 17, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterOverwhelmingCode

when ever iam getting ready to do a long wow run i always tend to put on a movie or a show and just watch them just so i have something in the back ground. while we were doing kara this week and waiting for people to get there gear ready i put in mrs doubtfire. this has to be one of the funniest movie of all time cuz the last time i watched it was in 3rd grade and now seeing it again i get all the humor so i geuss i just have to thank wow downtime for letting me re-live this awesome movie

September 17, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterStephen Lozano

I play on a laptop so I can walk around the house or even take a shit while i'm playing wow. If I catch a boring lecture at school (happens a lot) I can just login and do dailies or w/e in class.

as for walking on a treadmill and playing wow that's effin awesome, i'll def try that sometime.

September 17, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterBrandon

- playing astral masters when i died and waiting 10 mins rest or flying the griffin
- playing a silly cardgame as solitare while waiting for the boat(s) at theramore isle etc
-looking up stuff on thothead, wowhead, wowdb
-looking up solutions for quests in the questhelper

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered Commentervictorvndoom

I watch Stargate while playing WoW. The downside is that i usually forget what happened in that particular episode, or what happened in WoW at that time :O

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterDoomy

i hear about how tons of people on wow look at pron in their down time, whether or not its a big joke....it makes me laugh as though it is one. i personally enjoy reading the comics of penny arcade, explosm.net, checking whats new on ign.com, and reading more about my current favorite bands (fall of troy, jobforacowboy, anthony green, and jaguar love, those are just the current continuous plays in my headset). i used to work out, just push ups and what not while waiting to fly, but ive decided its healthier to seperate wow and working out. i think its great though that some people have lost quite a bit of weight with the treadmill option. i hope they can continue that to disprove all the nay saying people that playing games like wow, make u sit around and only get unhealthy.

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterfriskydingo

i cant imagine working out while playing WoW, bc WoW is my down time when i relax after a long day

i mostly eat/play guitar in my down time, maybe alt+tab and browse thottbot or something

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterBorbock

eating, reading stuff ,TV

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered Commenternebrakaneizzar

I love multi-tasking. I always see how many things I can do at the same time and playing WoW is a perfect chance to do that.

I usually turn the TV on and catch a glance every now and then (The TV is 140 degrees behind me so my neck gets mangled often) eat, drink, tell my friend what to do (He ask me about everything cuz he thinks im smarter), and sometimes even cook a meal while still playing.

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterRugi

if im flying somewhere ill run and grab a snack, but usually im multitasking in order to do homework while questing. im interested in setting up a second monitor, or getting some kind of software because i want to be able to work or surf the web while still giving 50% of my attention to WoW. and yes its not adhd, its being efficient!!! Xb

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterDavid

...actually... exercise...

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterRed

hm..porn? rofl

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered Commenteranonymous

i'm always online when i'm playing. it leads to multiple afk wipes, but i keep on doing it.

one time my friend and i decided that we would go into the old folks homw we worked in the kitchen of and jack into the internet they had there and do some leveling.

so there we were, grinding our little gnomes to bust, when one of the nurses came in and wanted us to prepare some snacks for the people there. Chad, without missing a beat, looked up and said 'But i cant conjure, i'm out of mana' which lead me to scoff, 'Stupid noob'

lets just say that it's a REALLY good thing my mother was the personnel manager or we probably would have been fired.

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered Commenterlishuss

I usually play mute wow.
I have my music.
I like S.O.A.D.
^
|
|
\___ google it. You NOOB.

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterAlexander

I have wow on my desktop computer.
then I have my laptop right beside where I play music, msn(Only in REALLY long boss fights/flying), checking e-mails and SOMETIMES facebook... lol, only sometimes..

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterJosh

I am a big fan of cooking while afk - jump on ur flying mount - not epic - just regular flying mount - and point it in the direction u want to fly. Auto run and see if u can get back before u hit the end of the world. My favorite things to do with ingame downtime though are reading and cleaning. If i can vacuum my place while crafting some items, or waiting for my raid group - great.

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterWhytebread

I read a book, look up things on thottbot, play with my kitty :P

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterSteph

I tend to normally just watch what ever is on tv or play some music just for background noise. I am on a laptop so i do tend to walk around the house alittle or ever one time got bored of inside and sat outside in my yard playing wow (many people looked at me funny).

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterDimak

I hate you, because you can have ferrets, and I can't.

Curse Californias incredibly lame law, prohibiting ownage of this hiddeously cute creatures.

But ditto... Dual screen FTW.

September 18, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterFaaipD

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have a look at them:
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Thanks a lot 4 your site :-) xxoxo

November 26, 2008 | Unregistered CommenterPhilmedeGuili

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