Slave To The 1 Hour Timer

I was apparently one of the lucky ones that had 10 minute scout timers ever since I started the game 3 weeks ago, although I did not realize that not everyone had 10 minutes until yesterday. Yesterday my timers went up to 1 hour. I agree that everyone should be on the same timers, but if you look at it from my perspective, playing this game takes 6 times longer for me now. It seems like an eternity.

Actually it is worse than that. I used to play this game called Dead Awaken. You had a limited amount of energy points. You used them to kill zombies and such, which helped you level and gave you points to put into attributes such as Strength and Agility, which made you stronger. No different than any other RPG. Except your energy regenerated at X points per hour. I don’t remember what it was, but the lowdown is that you always wanted to log on just when your energy tank was completely full, do your fighting until your energy was at zero, then you logged out and set your alarm clock for Y hours later (however long it took for your energy bar to fill up again).

It got to the point where it was like being a slave. As you leveled up, your energy tank became greater (your max energy was higher). As a newbie, you basically logged on every 3 hours. If you didn’t, you fell behind in progress to those that did. As you leveled up and your max energy was higher, you could go 6 hours before having to log on again. But still, I got to the point where I was keeping my laptop under my bed and having an alarm wake me up in the middle of the night so I didn’t fall behind other players. I was pretty hardcore, and I was very high on the leaderboards.

But I got sick of being a slave to the game. I still liked the game and I wanted to play it. But at some point I realized I was a prisoner in chains that I had forged myself. The day I finally decided to quit you cannot imagine the sense of freedom I felt! Unlike many other games I have quit, I never went back to that one because I knew I would just be throwing shackles on myself again.

With 10 minute timers, I could play to my hearts content. I’d do three missions and play in the arena a little. Clear my inventory. Then I would grab a drink or check Facebook while waiting for like 3 minutes for a scout to refresh and I would be back to playing a game I really enjoyed.

With 1 hour timers, AB Evolution has become like Dead Awaken, a ball and chain. There is an event going on and I want Chuck as much as the rest of you. But with progress being made sooooo slooowly, the only way there is even a chance of getting him is to completely maximize scout missions. Log on just exactly as your third scout is becoming available so as not to waste any moments.

And bingo! I am suddenly a slave to the game once again. I am so well trained to be one from Dead Awaken that I almost naturally wake up at 2am, 4am, and 6am so scout missions are never wasted. Interrupted sleep makes me tired and irritated the next day. All the joy has gone out of the game and been replaced by a sense of oppression and obligation.

Tonight, I intend to at least break the habit of waking up in the middle of the night to maximize scout missions. I intend to get a full night’s sleep. And therefore I have given up hope that I may get Chuck during this event. There is a chance I could still get him by pure luck, but I have come to acceptance that I likely won’t get him. But the sense of oppression remains. I log in a few times a day to stay active – mainly only because I am the leader of a clan and want to stay active for my clan members – which now also feels like an obligation. But I don’t really PLAY at this point. It feels more like work. There is no joy in it.

Again, the timers had to be made the same for all players, and I now deeply sympathize for those who have always had 1 hour timers. I honestly cannot believe you have stuck with the game for so long. But I cannot imagine that I will stick with it for too much longer because I can’t stand the old feeling of the prison chains. It still leaves a horrible taste in my mouth and eventually I will have to again throw off shackles. It’s really a huge shame too, because I really was enjoying the game. But a game can only be enjoyed when it can be played, and playing for 5-10 minutes every couple of hours isn’t really playing all that much when I want to sit down and enjoy a good game for 30 minutes or an hour. There are plenty of games where you can enjoy playing for as long as you want, and don’t have to be a slave to a timer. I am sure I won’t be able to quit cold turkey, so you won’t be able to get rid of me for a couple weeks I would imagine. But at some point, the call of Freedom will have to again be answered.