Games that consume so much time they're almost a second job

There are games you turn on to relax after a stressful day at work. And then there are games that make the workday itself stressful. These 10 easily fall into the second category. They demand routine, organization, even some spreadsheets, almost daily presence, relentless grinding, and, in many cases, commitment to other people in your guild. You could even say that some people end up organizing their daily routine around these games.

Then the question remains: Is this the type of game you're looking for, or is it the type of game you're trying to avoid?

These ten games show how the line between leisure and obligation can become very thin. Before you know it, you're organizing your week around daily missions, raids, boss timers, and upgrades that take hours to complete. And then the game stops being just a pastime and becomes a fixed part of your routine.

If you want a game that will consume hours of your time, or if you're wondering if it's worth getting into the game and want to know if you'll turn into a Wompa-Loompa afterward, we'll explain everything to you, and if you still have doubts, leave a comment.

ESO is the kind of MMORPG that seems easygoing in the first few hours, but once you get past the initial level, you realize how much of a trap it is. The game is full of side systems that demand constant attention. The famous daily crafting writs are a clear example of this. Each profession has its daily quest, and if you want to improve your crafting, you need to complete them all. It's not something you can do in ten minutes, especially when you start dealing with Master Writs, which require specific items, rare styles, and hard-to-obtain materials.

Furthermore, there are the daily guild quests, such as Fighters, Mages, and Undaunted, which function almost like clocking in. You log in, pick up the quests, do repeated dungeons, turn them in, and repeat the next day. Anyone who wants to keep their character competitive in the endgame ends up trapped in this routine. Add to that the search for perfect equipment, specific dungeon and trial sets, and the hunt for armor styles. There's always something pending. The game doesn't leave you alone.

Rust is the game that teaches you that trusting is a mistake. You build your base, think you're safe, sleep peacefully, and wake up the next day to find everything looted. This happens because the game doesn't stop when you log out. Your base remains there, vulnerable, requiring constant maintenance on the Tool Cupboard to prevent it from rotting away. Logging out of the game means losing everything.

The routine becomes collecting wood, metal, sulfur, reinforcing walls, repairing doors, and keeping an eye out for potential attacks. And attacks happen all the time. Organized groups spend hours planning raids, testing explosives, and waiting for the right moment to catch you off guard. Those who take Rust seriously log into the game several times a day just to check if their base still exists. You die, you lose everything. There's no such thing as playing casually here.

Tarkov is unforgiving. It's a shooter that blends RPG elements, survival, and psychological torment. To progress, you need to complete an absurd number of quests from traders. These aren't simple tasks. Some require you to find extremely rare items in maps teeming with other heavily armed players. The hideout system is another time-consuming element. Each module requires specific materials and takes real-world hours to build.

Meanwhile, you continue farming components for the next upgrade. And all of this happens in wipe cycles, where progress is erased and you start practically from scratch. The result is that, to keep up with the pace, the player spends hundreds of hours just to reach a minimum level to survive. Tarkov is the type of game that demands almost professional dedication to avoid falling behind.

EVE isn't a game, it's an Excel spreadsheet disguised as a space simulator. You don't just pilot a spaceship. You manage resources, participate in corporations, engage in large-scale wars, and navigate a galactic economy that functions like a country's. Mining, manufacturing, transporting cargo, trading in interplanetary markets—all of this takes time, dedication, and organization.

Large guilds, or alliances, plan operations hours in advance. Fleet battles last all night. Those who truly engage with EVE end up treating the game like a second job. You need to learn complex systems, keep up with the internal politics of corporations, and also deal with betrayals and espionage. There's no game closer to running a company. You could even put it on your resume!

WoW popularized the concept of scheduled raids. Guilds organize weekly schedules, and those who miss them delay everyone else. These are usually long sessions, three or four hours at a time, on fixed days. You can't just show up whenever you feel like it, and missing these raids means losing resources and prestige within your Guild.

Aside from that, there's the weekly farming of dungeons, reputations, equipment, upgrade items, and seasonal events. To keep a character competitive in the endgame, the player needs to complete a long list of tasks every week. This becomes part of the routine. Many people treat raid night as an unmissable commitment (and often even the most committed players will criticize you for not going on the raid), almost like a class or an extra shift at work.

Ark starts with you naked on the beach and ends with you managing a prehistoric zoo. That is, if you dedicate yourself enough to it! Taming dinosaurs takes hours (which seems obvious, after all, you can't just throw a bone and expect the T-Rex to let you scratch its belly). Some require constant vigilance, specific food, and defense against predators while they’re unconscious.

After being tamed, these creatures still need to be fed, protected, and, if you play online, defended from attacks by other players. Building a large base requires an absurd amount of resources, which means spending days collecting metal, stone, wood, and cement. Those who play Ark on PvP servers practically live in the game. If you're absent, your base becomes worthless and your dinosaurs become extinct again.

RuneScape is a grinder's paradise. Each skill requires millions of experience points to reach the maximum level. It's not uncommon to spend weeks training just one skill, repeating the same action thousands of times (which explains the existence of bots that roam around the cabbage patch grabbing every single one that appears).

Furthermore, there are rare items that only drop from specific bosses, with extremely low odds. This means repeating the same fight hundreds of times, hoping the RNG cooperates. Those who try to maximize all skills end up investing thousands of hours. It's the kind of game that becomes a daily habit for years.

This Chinese MMORPG based on Saint Seiya, which was never officially released in the West, demanded a schedule commitment. Many dungeons only opened at specific times of day and could only be completed once. If you didn't log in at that time, you lost the chance to level up and obtain specific items, such as pieces of Athena's Gold Cloths, Poseidon's Scales, or pieces of Surplices, Hades' dark armors.

World bosses only appeared twice a day, and the most important items in the game dropped from them, such as parts of divine armor. These items only went to players who landed the final, strongest blows, meaning you were either a guild leader or just there to fill space (not to mention that, besides fighting the boss, you also had to fight other players for the drops). This forced players to organize their schedules around the game. Those who wanted to be strong for the endgame or guild wars needed to be online at specific times every day.

Currently, this game has been officially discontinued but survives on private servers, and you can still play it.

Warframe is a grind festival. To assemble a new character, you need to farm specific parts, often with very low drop rates. After getting the parts, you still have to wait hours or days for the build to finish.

And it doesn't end there. Each weapon, each Warframe, each mod requires its own evolution. Relics, Arcanes, Forma, everything demands more repeated missions. Those who try to complete everything discover that there's always something new to seek. It's the kind of game you log into for a quick mission and leave three hours later.

Diablo III seems simple, but the endgame is a time grinder. The real goal isn't to finish the story, but to optimize your character to the extreme. This means running normal and greater rifts non-stop, searching for items with perfect attributes.

The problem is that every upgrade depends on luck. You can spend an entire week looking for that ring with the perfect roll and not find it. This pushes the player into an endless cycle of grinding, always trying to level up in rifts, always chasing slightly better equipment. Those who take Diablo III seriously play for entire seasons, repeating the same activities in the hope of reaching the top of the rankings.