I play WOW because there are few things more fun, and unfortunately I work a 60 hour a week job. This forced me to ask myself, "What's an hour of my WOW time really worth?" Well, I keep playing because the fun *is* worth it, but I figured out that I was throwing away good RP time trying to make just enough gold to get by. It took a lot of the fun out of the game.

In fact, I was basically valuing my time at less that $1 an hour, for all the time I spent uselessly grinding survival money.

Now, I'd be insulted if someone was offering me that little for my time, so why throw away hours of it that I could use to RP, help your guild, and have fun? My perspective on WOW has never been the same since I realized this.

So how did I grab control of my destiny in WOW? I read *A LOT* of crappy online guides, many of which I paid for (over 15 of them).

Most of them were seriously lacking, but a few stood out. I thought about writing my own guide, integrating the best of those that I had discovered, but the writers of those guides obviously put in a lot of work and I didn't want to plagiarize the content they had worked hard to make available and which had helped me so much.

My biggest mistake ever was buying gold in order to have more fun.

Being an RPer, I hadn't been that concerned with hitting 70 in a reasonable amount of time. Because of this, it took me 14 played days just to get to 55! I had a lot of time invested, and had built up many deep relationships within my guild. When the GMs shut me down and took away my account because I bought a measely 1000g, I was devastated. That was *really* expensive gold, at the cost of months of my time!

I realized that when I returned to the game (using my girlfriend's account), I'd have to find a better way. First, I loved RPing, but felt that I needed to get back to 55 pretty quick. Not so fast that it became a grind, because having fun was still my top priority, but getting back to where I had been *couldn't* take me another 14 played days. (which wasn't that outrageous if you consider all the gear, mats, and skills I had to build up again).

Second, on my way back up I didn't want to be the person always needing help. My character is the one who always stops and helps strangers finish off that yellow mob, making a new friend in the process. Playing like that can burn through a lot of supplies, and I hate trying to help and getting wiped, so I always go full out to help as use whatever I need.

You should always have fun playing WOW.

When it comes down to it, the whole point of WOW is to have fun. A serious part of that fun is being in control of what kind of things you can spend your time doing. Those things are different for everyone, but having the techniques in your toolkit to control where you spend that time gives a person a lot of power to have fun. Grinding can be tedious, but sometimes that's what you're in the mood for! I just don't like having to grind for 12 hours to gear up and buy consumables to avoid getting my guild wiped on a Raid.

Just remember to ask yourself this question, "What else could I be doing?"

If you're of like mind as me, and the mindset is what is important, you can read more at www.mastering-wow.com

Thanks!

-Michael
www.mastering-wow.com