Skip to main content

Insight into the mind of a Hardcore Raider

If you are reading this you are probably not a hard core raider, not really hard core anyway. Even the hour or so a day it takes to browse a few blogs and maybe pen a few lines of your own is just not compatible with the gruelling time schedule serious hard core raiding demands.

Ethic's Brother Grim is a serious raider in one of he world's top raiding guilds. Today Ethic posted an lovely short interview with Grim giving the rest of us some insights into the world of the really hard core.

The most striking feature of the interview for me is that how Grim belies the stereotype of no-life socio-path that raiders are normally portrayed as. He comes across as a well spoken (I assume young) man who really enjoys his hobby, who takes pleasure out of his achievements and who values the friendship and social aspects of the game. He really doesn't sound all that different from a guy who is into football or photography or Comic book collecting or any of a range of other more traditional hobbies.

Except for one thing.

Grim admits to 6 to 6.5 hours playing each weekday and 14 hours per day at weekends. I assume forum browsing and planning has to happen on top of that. I really cannot think of any hobby or pass time that demands that sort of time commitment even at the highest levels.

Comments

DM Osbon said…
The more a 'game' becomes like work where I feel I have to concentrate almost a work shift per day of play, that is when I consider the game a failure.

The idea of a 'game' should reflect the inherant meaning. I shouldn't feel the need to make it into some kind of 'career'.
mbp said…
Hi DM. I have read plenty of article from people who quit raiding because of the endless grind but Grim seems to be still enjoying it. I still can't get my head around what a time sink it is though.

Popular posts from this blog

Android Tip 3: Sharing a Folder between multiple users of an Android device

Android has allowed multiple user logins for quite a while now. This is can be very useful for tablets which are shared by family members. Normally Android erects strict Chinese walls between users preventing them from using each others apps and viewing each others files. This is a useful security feature and ensures your kids don't mess up your work spreadsheets when screwing around on the tablet and should also prevent them from buying €1,000 worth of Clash of Candy coins on your account. Sometimes however you really do want to share stuff with other users and this can prove surprisingly difficult. For example on a recent holiday I realised that I wanted to share a folder full of travel documents with my wife. Here are some ways to achieve this. 1. If you have guaranteed internet access  then you can create a shared folder on either Dropbox or Google drive. Either of these has the great advantage of being able to access the files on any device and the great disadvantage of bein...

Portal 2 two screen coop on one PC.

I mentioned before that I intended to try Portal 2 in "unofficial split screen co-op mode. Well split screen on a small computer monitor is a recipe for a headache especially when the game defies gravity as much as portal. However a minor bit of extra fiddling allowed us to drive two seperate screens from one PC. The Steam forums describes a complicated method of doing this that I couldn't get working so this simpler method which worked for me might be of use to someone. 1. First I followed the instructions in this post to get split screen multi-player working: http://forums.steampowered.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1847904 A minor issue not mentioned is that you need to enable the console from the keyboard/mouse options menu I am using keyboard and one wired Xbox360 controller as suggested. Getting the controller to switch to channel 2 was tricky at first but as Chameleon8 mentions plugging it out and in again during loading works. The trick for me was to do the plug / p...

Lotro: The Forgotten Treasury

Throg joined a Kinship group for the Forgotten Treasury instance last night. It was an enjoyable change from the solo questing that the now level 55 dwarf champion has been mostly doing so far in Moria. Some members of the group had tried and failed to clear the Treasury before so we knew it would be challenging but we were lucky enough to have a well balanced group with Guardian, Minstrel, Lore Master, Hunter, Burglar and Champion (Throg). Throg (level 55) and the minstrel (53) were both below the 56ish level of the instance but the others were all higher so it more or less balanced out. [SPOILERs ahead] It is a well designed enjoyable instance set in a circular chamber with balcony around. As you enter, a boss absconds to a locked side chamber with his treasure leaving the fellowship to clear trash ringed around the balcony. Once the trash are cleared you have access to a puzzle which must be solved in order to open the locked door. Clearing the (including six mini bosses) also get...