EQ doesn't "require" any amount of time. There's a lot you can do if you put in a lot of time, but there's infinitely more you can be doing in real life. So play as casually as you like and everything will be there waiting for you when you log back in.
Back in the early days on live I was a teenager and would forego sleep, schoolwork, and social obligations for the next carrot - a piece of gear, a level, etc. Now I couldn't fathom doing that, and if I'm 99% to the next level, or about to engage the island 4 boss in plane of sky (for the ever coveted DCoS drop) and it's time to log, I log.
Another thing to consider is that marginal returns on power increase per hour committed to eq rapidly decrease. In other words, a level 20 who puts in 20 hours might end up level 25, a much larger power % increase than for a level 54 who puts in 20 hours and gets through 3 yellow bubbles, or a level 60 who puts in 20 hours and might finish half an epic quest or farm 20k of a 100k item they wish to buy.
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