Friday, June 26, 2020

How to Balance Ragnarok with Personal Life

Overview:
Time is the greatest resource in the world. Once its passes, you cannot bring it back. Ragnarok is one of the things that taking up our time since we share the same interest. We somehow need to know how to fit it into our life without compromising our responsibilities in life.




How to Balance Ragnarok with Personal Life
The short answer is time management. However it is not just allocating a specific hours to the game since our schedules are very much flexible.


1) Perspective of the game
Examine first on your outlook for the game. Determine if you are playing the game as a hobby or as a source of income.

Playing the game as Hobby
Playing the game as a hobby means that the game has a lower priority in your life. You play the game to have fun, connect with friends and have virtual adventure. The time allocation mostly is from free time which means you play the game if you are not doing anything else. But there are times that you may agree to online commitments like participating in the War of Emperium or scheduled adventures like Boss Hunts.

Playing the game as source of income
Playing the game as a source of income means that you need to a lot more time on the game since you get money out of the game. Example of these are content creators and black market sellers. As a content creator, you need to produce features of the game which means you need to dedicate more time checking on what to offer for your fans. Researching, doing the actual quests, performing adventures that normal players are skipping will eat most of your time. As a black market seller, you need more time checking for prices in the market, scout for potential customer and perform actual transactions. It is understandable that you allot most of your time on the game

2) Competitive vs For Fun
Another perspective to look at is on what do you want to do in-game. Looking at the game as for fun means that you play the game casually with not so much commitment which means lesser time is spend. You log into the game to level, farm and sometimes chat to friends. However if  decide to be competitive player means that aside from the leveling/farming, you also need to allot time to specific schedules like War of Emperium and Boss Hunts. As a competitive player, always prioritize commitments like War of Emperium and Boss Hunt schedules since it was organized beforehand and build a reputation with your co-players. Then the next priority is to perform dailies that you cannot skip. Lastly if there are spare time, you can spend it to level-up, farm or check the market.



3) Time vs Money
The F2P or Free to play is the most popular game model in the market which features micro-transactions like what Ragnarok Online has adopted. Ragnarok has both Aesthetic and Power Creep micro-transactions. Aesthetic products are new costumes, rare hats, changing color of your clothes and other items that does not alter the game balance. Power Creep products are items that provides additional stats/skills which are much better than normal items that can be looted in-game. Mostly are from Lucky Scrolls that are released every month. However these items are treatable but on a steep price. This is where the Time vs Money comes in. Spending more time on the game means that you have more time farming for zeny to be able to purchase dream items or competitive items. In doing so you will need to be allot more time than your free time. If you spend money on the game, you can gain the convenience of purchasing competitive items while saving free time from farming. Examine again your outlook of the game if want to be competitive on the game or just play for fun. Sometimes you also need to say NO to items that you don't really need so that you can cut your grinding time.


4) Real Life
Regardless of your perspective of the game always prioritize real life over the game. Spending more time with your family and people around you will build stronger foundation for you. Lucky for you if your family or friends shares the same interest in Ragnarok since you can make Ragnarok as a virtual bonding session. Learn to skip on the game to be able to attend important activities like family gatherings, team buildings, school activities, birthdays etc. Meeting more people in real life will help you navigate life easier. There is life outside Ragnarok Online that you need to be focusing on.

5) Game Priority
The game priority only applies to people who is playing multiple games along with Ragnarok Online. Rank the games according to your interest and choose only 1 game as your main game. The main game will have the chunk of your time while the other games can be dropped once you have time constraints. Sometimes your main game of choice switches to another game if there are new contents that triggers your hype but that is OK. As long as you don't go beyond your time allotment for gaming, you are good. Don't hesitate to skip playing if it is eating some of your time for real life stuff.

6) Sleep
As much as possible do not sacrifice sleep to gain more gaming time. Personally I'm guilty of the habit but thankfully I was able to overcome it though there are also times that I give in. Remember that your body also needs rest and nourishment. Remind yourself that will always be tomorrow to continue your adventure. Maybe if it is a crucial milestone for your character or you agreed on an arranged commitment like Boss Hunts then that is OK since you have prepared your mindset for it. But be sure to get enough rest after that.

Thank you to Yano Anderson for suggesting the topic.
It was a good and deep topic to cover that all of us can relate to.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Thank you so much for making this topic. As always, I learn a lot from you. Thank you again, it is clear now how should I play Ragnarok. God bless Herbert!

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