The World's Top WoW Player...

[SteveLord]

http://videogames.yahoo.com/events/plugged-in/meet-the-world-s-top-world-of-warcraft-player/1377953

That's an unofficial title, though I think it's pretty safe to say that "Little Gray" has played more Warcraft than you. A lot more.

Courtesy of Gamepro comes word of the Taiwanese player's absolutely insane Warcraft accomplishments. In addition to having nabbed every single one of the game's achievements (minus a brand new one that cropped up in the game's latest patch), he's the first player to complete all 986 tasks listed in the game's Armory. Considering that over 11.5 million people play the game worldwide, that's one heck of an honor.

And that's just the tip of this online gaming iceberg. Playing as a Tauren Druid, Little Gray has racked up some staggering numbers: he's completed nearly 6,000 quests at the rate of about 14.5 per day and killed nearly 500,000 enemies while dying only 8,543 times himself.

How? By doling out an awe-inspiring 7,255,538,878 points of damage...but before you label him some sort of mindless brute, know that he at least had the heart to heal 1,377,435,762 points of that back. Unsurprisingly, he's also a bit of a loner, having "waved" at other players only once.

If it's tough to put these massive numbers into a real-world context, consider this: a member of our Yahoo! Games team (who will remain unnamed) once logged an average of six hours a day playing the game over the course of a year -- and never came close to achieving so much with his character.

We could hazard a few guesses, though. At 14.5 quests per day, it would take about 414 days to reach Little Gray's 6,000 quest mark. Speaking conservatively, a veteran Warcarft player can pretty handily knock out three quests in an hour, which would mean about five hours a day for Little Gray.

But that's just for quests. You do a LOT more than that in Warcraft, such as going on raids, engaging in player vs. player combat, and tinkering with your abilities and gear. It wouldn't be even remotely surprising to find out that Little Gray has spent in upwards of ten hours a day playing the game.

Normally, I would classify this as unbelievable.

[4GHZ_or_bust]

I agree it is unbelievable he was able to get all but one achievement. I myself have a bit over 600 or about 2/3 complete.

[SteveLord]

Well, considering its WoW....I don't really classify it as such. That's what I meant. ;)

[shard]

The part that makes this whole thing extra insane, is the fact that achievements have only been tracking for little over a year. So all those PVP achievements, raiding achievements, and so on, all within the last year basically. That is literally insane. Sure makes my ass hurt just to think of the hours put in.

[crackers]

What's REALLY insane is he could be doing something more productive. People being celebrated for doing nothing more than sitting on their asses playing a game is asinine.

[4GHZ_or_bust]

Some achievements are retroactive from before it was implemented. Mostly quest related achievements as Blizzard kept track of all quests. Some dungeon that do have quests related to end boss is also applies.

I got a number of achievements, about 150 total marked "done" when it went live first.

[Firey_chasm]

The part that makes this whole thing extra insane, is the fact that achievements have only been tracking for little over a year. So all those PVP achievements, raiding achievements, and so on, all within the last year basically. That is literally insane. Sure makes my ass hurt just to think of the hours put in.

ye :/ crazy

but its hard to shock me anymore with wow stats.

back being a recruitment officer for my guild in vanilla wow I had one guy apply with >300 days /played (to put this in perspective I played an unhealthy amount back then, right from release day pretty much and was at around 80 days)

In my guild we had members with 100% raid attendance, thats 6 nights a week for >2 years and not ONE missed

on TBC and wotlk launch guildies didn't sleep until they had hit the new max level, just lived off redbull etc :/

A few guildies loved to level alts, 1 guy swapped chars so much he has played around 40 different chars up to max level accross different accounts and realms.

On top of that back in the old pvp ranking system we had people maintain hardcore raiding and also get max pvp rank (which if anyone of you has tried knows it takes an insane commitment)

so my only surprise is that it took someone this long to do lol

[Blkout]

Textbook definition of a nerd. I'm not happy for him, I feel sorry for him.

[deed]

Textbook definition of a nerd. I'm not happy for him, I feel sorry for him.

I just think he will have a heart attack or end up alone :frown:

Or have wow nerd babys

[ratbuddy]

What's REALLY insane is he could be doing something more productive. People being celebrated for doing nothing more than sitting on their asses playing a game is asinine.

What about people doing nothing more than sitting on their asses calling other people asinine?

I'll take the gamer over that second guy any day.

[BenF]

Wow...I wonder what this guy does in wow now that he has completed everything?

[joedymueller]

What's REALLY insane is he could be doing something more productive. People being celebrated for doing nothing more than sitting on their asses playing a game is asinine.

in your eyes yes. other people think its cool or amazing or whatever. dont knock the dude for doing what he wants to do.


Wow...I wonder what this guy does in wow now that he has completed everything?

New Toon. do it again

[YoMatta]

was kind of hoping they would come out with their Account Achievements soon. they haven't mentioned them in a while though. I get bored playing the same characters so I level alts in some spare time. I have 5 80's, 4 more 60's, a 53, and 2 other quickly climbing alts. I hope to have 10 80's (one of every class) on the same server before cataclysm.

that said, the time it takes to get 10 80's is nothing compared to the time it takes to get all of the achievements this guy has =/, quite frankly 10 80's is easy once you've done the first 2-3 since the quests and routes and paths are all the same, not to mention BOA gear making it a joke.

[BlitzPuppet]

What about people doing nothing more than sitting on their asses calling other people asinine?

I'll take the gamer over that second guy any day.


Oh yeah....being an addict is so much better than contributing to society or interacting with others (outside of a friggin game he has to pay to play) :rolleyes: . You and the gamer both win in my book!.

/endSarcasm

[benbaked]

Oh yeah....being an addict is so much better than contributing to society or interacting with others (outside of a friggin game he has to pay to play) :rolleyes: . You and the gamer both win in my book!.

/endSarcasm

Hmm, a video game addict or a person who rips on others that do things he/she doesn't approve of? There are enough haters in the world already and there are far worse things to be addicted to then video games. Maybe the guy gets paid to play WoW? There's a thought.

[BlitzPuppet]

here are far worse things to be addicted to then video games. Maybe the guy gets paid to play WoW? There's a thought.

An addict is someone who loses control of one's self, and cannot continue to function without the "drug". Video game or not it's still an addiction if he really did play 10 hours (the estimated time) a day that's 14 hours left to sleep, eat, pee/poo, shower, do laundry, go shopping, have family time, work (if they have a job) etc.

Lotta things to do in 14 hours! Sure they can function on that now, but I also know many alcoholics/drug addicts/various other addicts that function as long as they have the cash to fuel it. But that's besides the point.

I like poodles.

[crackers]

What about people doing nothing more than sitting on their asses calling other people asinine?

I'll take the gamer over that second guy any day.


Actually I was standing up, but nice try though. If you want to support this loser that's your prerogative.

[burningcpu]

If the dude wants to spend his life gaming, why do you care?

[BlitzPuppet]

If the dude wants to spend his life gaming on a horrible game, why do you care?

Fix'd. :thup:

[Wicked Klown]

Guys how bout we steer clear of what could be considered flame baiting. Before this gets in to a flame war.

[Shiggity]

There's only a handful of achievements that are challenging. Most are just tedious and time consuming.

Hard Mode 25 Heroic / PvP are the only truly skill based achievements imo. I respect those.

*THE FIRST RULE OF MMO'S*

-If someone is less progressed than you, they are a noob. If someone is more progressed than you, they are a loser who only plays this game and lives in their parents basement.

I could easily say any amount of time spent on anything that I don't like was a pure waste of time and said person is a loser. What are you guys, in 8th grade?

[Rydis]

I doubt its just one person playing. Didnt they do stuff like this in diablo II and such, multiple people playing 1 account.

[shard]

I doubt its just one person playing. Didnt they do stuff like this in diablo II and such, multiple people playing 1 account.

Trust me when I say, it is very believable that this is just one guy. There are some people that can really focus and just get stuff done. Me on the other hand, I just lose steam and end up taking 6 months to get some of the more basic achievements in that game ;) Still slowly working on the Insane in the membrane.

[ArcturusVi]

Oh yeah....being an addict is so much better than contributing to society or interacting with others (outside of a friggin game he has to pay to play) :rolleyes: . You and the gamer both win in my book!.

/endSarcasm

So how do you contribute oh so much more than a guy minding his business playing a game?

[twEEkerAreUs]

Oh yeah....being an addict is so much better than contributing to society or interacting with others (outside of a friggin game he has to pay to play) :rolleyes: . You and the gamer both win in my book!.

/endSarcasm

Not everyone cares what other people think of them, sure he plays a lot but if that's what he enjoys so be it. You could easily be labeled the same for being a clan leader or gaming on your computer.

By the way I don't care for WoW either. ;)

[Firey_chasm]

An addict is someone who loses control of one's self, and cannot continue to function without the "drug". Video game or not it's still an addiction if he really did play 10 hours (the estimated time) a day that's 14 hours left to sleep, eat, pee/poo, shower, do laundry, go shopping, have family time, work (if they have a job) etc.

Lotta things to do in 14 hours! Sure they can function on that now, but I also know many alcoholics/drug addicts/various other addicts that function as long as they have the cash to fuel it. But that's besides the point.

I like poodles.


well I'll start by saying I am not envious of this guy, its not what I'd choose to do, but it is possible to contriburte and be self sustaining while manage this.

so, 14 hours in the day to work/sleep/eat etc. :)
6 hours for sleep
8 hours to work - lets assume he lives close to work so his travel time is <30mins a day
then remember the weekend, this is 16 hours he would have spent at work mon-fri, so averaged out accross the week thats over 2 hours free a day on average to do all the other menial tasks
Dont forget you can easily 'cook'/eat/shower while playing - flight paths atc are long :P

so it is very possible to maintain a 'healthy' life and play that much. There is no doubt though his social life is probably non existent though, but if wow fulfills him then we aren't in a place to judge.

[BlitzPuppet]

You could easily be labeled the same for being a clan leader or gaming on your computer.

By the way I don't care for WoW either. ;)

so, 14 hours in the day to work/sleep/eat etc. :)
6 hours for sleep
8 hours to work - lets assume he lives close to work so his travel time is <30mins a day
then remember the weekend, this is 16 hours he would have spent at work mon-fri, so averaged out accross the week thats over 2 hours free a day on average to do all the other menial tasks
Dont forget you can easily 'cook'/eat/shower while playing - flight paths atc are long :P

First :beer: to the both of you!

I wish I had more time to clan lead but I don't anymore, Just hope on the computer for at most 4 hours a week because of other things taking up too much time.

That is hardly an envious lifestyle. I remember playing 6 hours a day in SWG back in 04, I also remember people waking up early (6am) on weekends so they could play after server reset. It never got that bad for me, and I will never let anything wake me on weekends when it's my chance to sleep in :D .

I'm more inclined to say that it is most likely a group of people, or maybe even a family playing. Better be or else the guy will be dead before 50 with all the redbull I'm sure he's drinking :p

[YoMatta]

If he's had that character since release and has always been active in accomplishing things on his guy then he actually wouldn't have had to "grind" that many achievements since Wrath release (as compared to a new 80).

Take for example reputation achievements and old world dungeon/raid achievements. Could have easily finished almost all of these 2-3 years ago before Wrath even came out. As long as you take an interest in your character and aren't just sitting /afk when you're logged on then you can actually accomplish a lot in a very short period of time.

Basically saying that I think the assumption that he had to play 10+ hours a day or had to have multiple people playing his account is quite false. I'm sure there are periods where he is playing a lot, but I'm not sure there is evidence enough to assume it's all the time.

Seeing a screenshot of his /played would be pretty interesting though.

[Prime]

i wonder if hes gunna feel proud when the game shuts down in the future...

[insanemonkey]

WoW is never going to shut down. Eventually it will take over the world economy and everyone will be doing their daily tasks on it. Such as shopping, working, going out on dates, etc.

[TheGreySpectre]

does it really matter as long as he is happy with his life?
Also there is a lot he could have accomplished if he has been playing since release.

[don'tknow]

I played WoW more than this guy, got too bored though. Then moved forward to better, more PvP-focused games. WoW was too carebareish, casualized and whiner-driven.

[ratbuddy]

I played WoW more than this guy, got too bored though. Then moved forward to better, more PvP-focused other games. WoW was too carebareish, casualized and whiner-driven not my taste anymore.

I fixed that up for you.

[Firey_chasm]

I fixed that up for you.

why thank you :) prevented me doing it lol. No matter what you say about wow it has to be called a good game, too many people have got too much enjoymenet out of it. But as with all games it has its haters :)

[sHape oF gReY]

Kudos to the guy, but yeah, it's a bit sad.

[Emotional Ninja]

Yeah I saw that a few days ago and had wrote an article about him on my website.

I'm pretty shocked he got all the achievements that he did but he could be doing so much with his life other than playing that game.
I admit the game can be fun, I am starting back up again and it's been enjoyable for the first 6 levels so far on my Warlock but still at the end of the day it's a game and I get so much more joy from working on my website or spending time with the lady.

None the less it's an amazing feat, I just can't say I would want to be known for that.

[iAmCodeMonkey]

there are far worse things to be addicted to then video games.

Alcohol and Hard Drugs (Heroin or Crystal Meth), yes... but still.

Playing a game for that long is NOT healthy in any way shape or form.

I speak as a former video game\computer addict (around 8 hours per day), playing for 8-10 hours per day can lead to all kinds of problems, like:

-Poor Social Skills

-Tendonitis\Carpel Tunnel\RSI Problems

-Loss Of Personal Hygiene (ex: not brushing their teeth or not showering)

-Depression\Anxiety (ex: when not on the computer or playing the game)

I was also a minor porn addict in grade 11 - 12 due to Depression resulting from unrequited love, (a bit off topic, but the addiction part is still relevant here) and I am paying for that dearly, due to my slight decline in social skills in general.

-rant over.

[iAmCodeMonkey]

Also there is a lot he could have accomplished

Er, well yes, he could have been making something of himself or in the process of making himself into something in his life, like a college education for instance (as I am doing right now).

[I.M.O.G.]

Guys how bout we steer clear of what could be considered flame baiting. Before this gets in to a flame war.

Seconded.

Everyone is expected to follow the spirit of our rules, not just the letter. Everyone has an opinion on this. There is no reason to judge eachother or argue because we don't agree.

So how do you contribute oh so much more than a guy minding his business playing a game?

Lose the attitude. Treating other members that way or flamebaiting is not welcome here.

To everyone else, keep it icy. We're all friends here.

[OnDborder]

I doubt its just one person playing. Didnt they do stuff like this in diablo II and such, multiple people playing 1 account.

+1
Imo, it's more than 1.
I read an article, a while ago back, where some were doing this sort of thing in Everquest. Around the clock gaming on 1 character to accumulate points/money.

[sHape oF gReY]

+1
Imo, it's more than 1.
I read an article, a while ago back, where some were doing this sort of thing in Everquest. Around the clock gaming on 1 character to accumulate points/money.

That would make sense.

[SteveLord]

I thought Diablo/Diablo II had some infamous account that was controlled by multiple people too?

[shard]

+1
Imo, it's more than 1.
I read an article, a while ago back, where some were doing this sort of thing in Everquest. Around the clock gaming on 1 character to accumulate points/money.

I have known of a good deal amount of people that have done something like that in one form or another. A good way to get farming, or whatever else done.

[FastRedPonyCar]

never played it.. hm..

[don'tknow]

I fixed that up for you.

By showing another opinion and calling it a 'fix'. Don't bother.

[Firey_chasm]

I thought Diablo/Diablo II had some infamous account that was controlled by multiple people too?

it did, particularly for the ladder season. a hamerdin played 24/7 by around 10-15 people to be the 1st 99. Bur more importantly it was organised on a forum (diabloii.net) that then organised baal games almost 24/7 so they always had 8 player games with trustworthy people, that shared the loot to the people that needed it and found the pala an xp shrine 90% of games.

Always fun at the start of a ladder season leveling with them. Blitz normal, farm nm countess for runes (all 8 of you go your seperate ways to do this), make the uber cheap runewords, kit out a sorc with uber fcr stuff, then boost yourself through nm and hell. Usually can be level 80 in a few hours.

I really can't wait till diablo 3 :D lol