Warcraft Broke Me

It was a very dreary Easter weekend here in Oklahoma.  Honestly it felt very little like easter at all.  It was much needed, since some parts of the state have been without water since November and we were bordering on dustbowl era type conditions.  So here I had a weekend filled with rainstorms, and three days worth of nearly uninterrupted gaming because of it.  Granted I had to do a fair bit of work to help out my wife, but overall I got plenty of time to play around.

Rift-Lite Weekend

Here is the odd part however.  I spent almost no time comparatively in Rift.  I would log in, chat around with some guildies, do a crafting daily and then log out.  I felt no pushing desire to be in game, and I knew my not being around wouldn’t really cause any issues.  The question you are asking yourself at this point, is has the rift evangelist gotten tired of the game?

No I am very much still enjoying what time I do spend in the game, and I cannot see myself playing another MMO at the moment.  However I find myself in a position where I just don’t want to take any one game super seriously at this point.  I think the years I spent raiding and leading a guild in World of Warcraft have broken me.

I Think I Broke It

If you have read my blog for long, especially dating back to the wow era of it, you will be able to tell that once upon a time I was a fairly devoted raider type.  At my worst I was raiding something, nearly 5 nights a week.  On top of this, I felt this overwhelming need to log into the game.  It wasn’t that I really wanted to play the game that badly, or that I had that many things that I really wanted to accomplish.

I had this overwhelming sense of responsibility for my very large guild, my raid group and large server community of friends.  Logging in felt like a job, as I had to wade through a sea of purple text each time I logged in.  Buried amongst the “hi bel!” tells, were always a series of guild or raid issues that had to be dealt with in a leadenly fashion.  Of which I dutifully responded with as much helpful advice as I could muster on a given night.

WoW had long ceased to be a game for me, and more like a second job.  Logging in each night, showing up at raid times, became like punching a clock.  House Stalwart was my baby, that I had nurtured for six years, and much of my pull to the game was tied up in its survival.  We grew from a small group of friends, to a semi-successful raid team but it had severe tolls on me.

Gaming for Fun

One of the problems with leading a guild, is the time commitment pretty much means there are alot of things you simply don’t have time to do.  One of the big ones was the fact that with the amount of time spent raiding, you really didn’t have any free time to play any of those other games you used to enjoy.  For me this was a constant drain, and I jealously watched other friends enjoying the new titles as they came out knowing I wouldn’t have time to participate.

When I left WoW last month, it started a chain reaction for me.  While initially I left to play Rift, in the grand scheme it has been a major paradigm shift.  In essence, I broke a shackle that one specific game had placed on my leg.  At this point, I cannot see tying myself to another game as completed as I did Warcraft.  While I leveled up relatively quickly in my normal fashion in Rift, I don’t feel the strong commitment to the game that I once did with WoW. 

I think this is a good thing.  I am open to new games that come along, but can still enjoy the MMO I am working on at the same time.  Lately for example, I have been playing the hell out of Oblivion.  It is a game I never really got very far in due to raiding commitments, and with the impending release of Skyrim (11/11/11 will be here before we know it) I want to play through the entire game to prep myself for the new content.

I have a similarly long list of games, that I either didn’t play at all, or didn’t really give enough time to that I want to go back through and play.  I feel like by playing WoW I have missed so many other things, that I want to go out and try and catch up.  On top of my number one hobby, gaming, there are others that got neglected like writing and photography. 

I used to go regularly on weekend photo shoots to various spots taking photos of the urban landscape.  However with the feeling of “needing to be there”, it took much of the enjoyment out of these sessions.  As the whether warms up, I look forward to going out with my wife again to various places on a photo safari.  She normally sits in the car with the windows rolled down and reads while I roam all over hells half acre in search of something that catches my eye.

Zen of the Flake

In my guild, we have been talking about raiding in general a good deal lately.  I would really like to see the various raid content in rift, but I think I have changed too much to do so successfully.  Right now I have trouble looking at my nights of the week and saying that I will be committed to log in and show up at a specific time on a specific night.  In my post-raid life, I enjoy not having to plan my days, not having to say “sorry hon, I can’t I’m raiding”.

I think a good number of the folks in Manastorm follow this same mold. I think in the grand scheme we are going to have to create some loosely organized raid nights.  Go off and do whatever we can with the number of players we have.  I can’t really call myself casual yet, because when I do play, I play extremely seriously.  However I just can’t see myself being locked down to a schedule again.  I hate to think that I will be one of those players I long called “flakes”, but it seems like they had the right idea all along.  At least in this case I am being up front about it.

Odd Start to the Week

I realize this is a pretty odd post to start a new week.  Everything in it has been weighing heavily on my mind, so I wanted to get things out there.  The biggest problem I have had lately is my desire to try and convert hardcore WoW players to this new reality I have arrived at.  While I still love Rift, I kind of see it as Methadone for hardcore WoW players.  If Everquest was the gateway drug to WoW for me, Rift has been the first step towards the cure.

I am sure Trion, doesn’t really want their game to be thought of as Methadone.  However I have played Rift from a much healthier mindset than I played the Blizzard juggernaut.  So I mean that statement with the greatest of respect.  Somehow Trion has managed to create something enjoyable and compelling without turning us into crack babies.  I am not sure if this was an intentional design ethic, but I appreciate it.