How can I keep an eye on warcraft usage
December 31, 2009 7:25 AM

How can I surreptitiously monitor someone's World of Warcraft usage?

I have had the argument where I assert that 40+ hours a week isn't a good habit, and the other person says it's nothing like that. How can I surreptitiously monitor the usage on this computer to get an idea of average weekly usage. It's running win7, and I have access to the router as well.
posted by tomble to Computers & Internet (9 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
Why be sneaky? You can always dare them to sign into their account and turn on the Parental Controls, which includes a playtime counter. You can limit the account to 40 hours a week, or just have WoW mail you a log of all time played in a week. If they don't think they're playing nearly that much, why would they decline?
posted by headspace at 7:30 AM on December 31, 2009


If its an addiction, as you seem to suspect, then open communication will be difficult, and your player is likely to be defensive about it. However, sneakiness is still not a good idea. I like the idea above about asking him to turn on the counter and share the data. Your player might very well be resistant to the idea though.
posted by SLC Mom at 7:53 AM on December 31, 2009


You might find helpful support at Gamer Widow.
posted by hermitosis at 7:54 AM on December 31, 2009


[few comments removed - question is specific.]
posted by jessamyn at 8:03 AM on December 31, 2009


There's a tool put out by Microsoft called Port Reporter that will run as a service and log application traffic. You can read about it here, though I'm not sure if it will work on Win7.

In any event, if that doesn't work, I'd say your best bet would be to find some sort of similar app that will monitor specific port traffic. WoW uses 3724 TCP for gameplay, I believe. I'd say try to monitor that (sifting out other programs possibly using the same port, of course).
posted by Menthol at 8:16 AM on December 31, 2009


Do what headspace suggests, and if they patently refuse and do a lot of hand-waving, you know you have an addict on your hands. Another good reason: if you do it in a sneaky way, they'll simply claim that your chosen method was erroneous at best or a blatant lie ("bullshit, you just made those numbers up!") and you won't get anywhere. If they simply ramp down their usage during the test period -- then great, they'll be using it less, and you just keep the test going "to establish a monthly average" or something.
posted by davejay at 8:48 AM on December 31, 2009


If you know the character's name and realm (server), you can search here, which will let you know when the character last logged in (shown by "Last updated"). That will at least give you info as to whether he or she logged in on a given day. Also, if you go to the Stats tab, you can look at non-time based measured, like quests completed, etc.

http://www.wowarmory.com/
posted by seventyfour at 8:48 AM on December 31, 2009


Slife handles this under Mac OS X, surely Windows has similar programs.
posted by jeffburdges at 9:08 AM on December 31, 2009


There is a built in slash-command "/played" that gives Total Time a particular character has been played for it's lifetime, and for the current level. Tell him to login to each char, type that, and add up the numbers, 100% accurate.
posted by nomisxid at 9:14 AM on December 31, 2009


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