We are all probably familiar with the typical wow player relationship scenario. One person, the player, loves WoW, while the other doesn’t. This can range from the non player being indifferent to downright hostile about the player’s choice of hobby. Until quite recently, this would have mirrored the situation in my household. I played and loved it, while my husband was indifferent to my game, just glad that we were no longer fighting over console rights anymore. But then one day he threw me for a loop and asked what it would take to get him into the world of Azeroth. Like anyone in my now previous situation I was shocked, we had tried this once before and it had ended abysmally, him swearing off the game in 20 levels.  That he was willing to give it another shot, and with the initial thought of having the chance to spend more spare time with me was exciting to say the least!

We are now both nearly 80, me on a paladin alt, and him with a shiny new rogue. Since he was determined to spend online in game time with me, we agreed to level together. This, it turns out, was one of the many ways my in game play time was impacted. Going from a solo player to one of a couple players meant a lot of adjustments for me. Some easy, some difficult, and while I anticipated quite a few, some of the adjustments I had to make seemed to come from nowhere.

I think my first thoughts upon playing with my husband were along the lines of ‘score! Now I get to play more!’ Some part of me thinking that time that was previously spent doing other things would now find its way into my Warcraft habit. This, of course, turned out to not be true. Since I tend to play the most during the times that my kids are either busy or asleep, this meant they were the best times for the husband to play as well. A lot of my goals and in game priorities shifted when he joined the game. My own personal achievements such as going for loremaster went on hold as I learned how to play a new class and did my best to teach my husband the rules and ropes of azeroth.

I also learned that your spouse, fresh into the game can be a constant source of distractions. Without warning he was hooked on the game, spending most of his free time running around and trying to learn new things. Time I typically spend doing other things, (like say… studying) was suddenly spent in azeroth, if only for a few minutes, to help him find this or explore that other thing. Ground rules had to be set, such as not dragging the other person to play when she had to study!

Some lessons were easy, such as keeping the game in the game. Sure we tease each other about events that happen, mistakes made and even about great moments that we have been through. But in the end, we are just sitting at two computers, typing stupid emotes at each other as we kill countless frostwolves for their skins (or hearts, or for a kill number). This game is nothing to fight over, and we have an unspoken agreement that if a real world fight occurs over the game, well we are going to have to step back and take a look at what the problem is.

In the end, I think we have managed to strike a balance that is even more difficult then work/school/family/hobbies. A way to do all of that while playing as our rogue/pally duo.