A Refreshing Break

A couple weeks ago a good friend of mine who doesn't play WoW (he tried the trial, didn't like it), suggested I take a break from the game after my ranting about it on a SATURDAY NIGHT playing billiards.  I was ranting about how I wasn't keeping up with the Joneses, especially with the Cataclysm expansion not too far off on the horizon.  He told me I shouldn't worry about that, as WoW is a game players can play at their own pace.  I took his advice about the break, and I did not log on at all during last week.  The first time in a couple months I took a day off, let alone week.  There was time for me to detox a little, as well as to put the game, and how I play in relation to it, in perspective.  I want to apologize in advance if this post seems a bit of a downer. 

When I logged back on over the past weekend, I didn't feel the frustration and sense of falling behind as I did before the break.  Instead of putting 4-5 hours of a weekend day into it, I put in less than one.  I logged in, ran a random, did a couple dailies, logged out.  I felt that was enough for me.  Sunday I logged less than an hour of playtime yet again.  For this session, I did several dailies (wasn't in the mood for a random), and logged out, repeated the same routine last night.  To my surprise, I felt content, which I wasn't feeling before the break, as I felt as if I wasn't making enough gold, or earning enough badges for gear upgrades, etc. 

The feeling was akin to when my toon was in the 75-80 level range.  I was in no rush to get to 80, going after some achievements, did stuff in the vanilla content.  To me, 80 was more of a destination than a goal.  In my mind, I'd hit it the level cap when I did.  Once I had hit 80, that mindset was erased, and replaced with one I didn't much care for.  When I logged in, no longer was I the mellow, fun, person that I bring into the game.  Instead, it was a negative alter ego; one who felt frustrated, left behind, lonely, and had no clue as to what the toon should be doing next.

During the hiatus, I was also honest with myself and how I play WoW.  If you read previous posts, I had mentioned how I'd like to try my hand at raiding before Cataclysm comes out, and the WoTLK content becomes irrelevant.  However, I realized that perhaps I wasn't meant to raid.  I realize WoW is a social driven game, and ultimately players need to work with others to accomplish certain tasks.  While I try to keep in contact with people on my friends list, and lend a hand to players who need one, I will always be a solo player.  I've PUG'ed instances numerous times, and I STILL feel nervous when waiting in que, afraid I'll be the "huntard" who screws things up, or has poor dps in relation to gear score, or makes "noob" mistakes.  If I feel that way toward 5-player instances that are easily cleared at this point, I'd probably have anxiety attacks if I tried PUG raiding! 

Putting things in perspective was necessary.