ABSTRACT
World of Warcraft asks for a serious time investment from players. Just getting to the highest level to reach the endgame, where most of the bigger instrumental challenges and social activities can be found, requires hundreds of hours of play. A 2006 data-mining project by game researchers Nicholas Ducheneaut, Nick Yee, Eric Nickell and Robert Moore showed that the average player had accumulated fifteen-and-a-half days (or forty-seven full eight-hour work days) to reach level sixty, excluding all the time played after reaching this level (Ducheneaut et al. 2006: 409). Patches and expansion packs have since significantly speeded up the process of gaining experience points. Increased knowledge about the leveling process among the player base, collected in and distributed through the vast knowledge databases and wikis dedicated to the game, also have undoubtedly made progress easier and faster. The average amount of time it takes to get to the highest level has nevertheless been somewhat constant over time due to an increase of content and the highest level jumping from level 60 to 85 (the maximum level introduced with the Cataclysm expansion pack). The time investment to reach the highest level therefore remains daunting.
