WoW Vs Relationships

First of all, anyone that has a girlfriend, wife, or significant other that plays WoW, or another game that takes up as much time as MMOs do, this probably isn't for you. (grats btw, im jealous)



Now, I don't think I'm very far off when I say that maybe 75% of women you meet don't fall into the category of "yeah I gotta go home and play wow." Serious gaming just isn't looked that highly upon by women, and by serious gaming I'm talking about something that takes close to what, 40 hours a week? Give or take, depending on how serious you take it, WoW is a huge time investment.



So where do you draw the line? Every relationship has it's ups and downs, and it's sacrifices. But in a game like WoW that's based on experience, gear, strategies, and raw play time, cutting your game play can really hurt your character. So do you limit your play time or even quit the game altogether? Or do you tell her "tough ****" and that she has to deal with it? Personally I choose the latter. I'm not trying to sound like an *******, but I just feel like you should be able to do what you want to do, this mentality has hurt some of my relationships but I stand by it.



The problem is trying to find someone with the same passion for gaming that you have. For me, this can be pretty tough to find. I live in a very small town and the only places to meet people are work, parties, etc., and personally I don't go around parties asking girls if they play WoW. I think we all know how far that would get me.



It might be different if I was getting paid to play, then you can look at it as working, but it seems that the majority of people who don't play look at it as just another addiction, or a phase.



Although I do like to stand by what I said above, I look back on past relationships compared to the one I'm in now, and one big difference I notice is that I'm not raiding. I'm just doing arena now and I play an alt occasionally. Yet I look at these players that raid 6-7 days a week and it just seems crazy to me. I don't think I would be
able to balance work, a girlfriend, arena, and hardcore raiding altogether.
Something would have to take a hit, and more than likely it would be
the girlfriend.




So what are your opinions on the matter? How have you dealt with balancing relationships and computer games?