Life likes to throw curve balls every now and then to keep us on our toes. And sometimes adapting requires a bit of down time for those things in life that aren’t our biggest priorities.
Without going into much boring detail, that’s been what’s kept me away from WoW for the past 8 weeks. Real life mayhem — some planned, and some not so much. I can’t complain, because it’s been mostly fun; either traveling or entertaining guests who travel to see me.
It’s left me little to no time to keep up with everything that life requires of me, much less sit down for any quality playing time.
And the timing was pretty awful. Cataclysm had just been released. I had just finished up questing in Mount Hyjal and was revving to get to more new content and keep leveling up to 85. I was not at all thinking that this would happen. But, as I mentioned — curve ball.
Finally, as life starts to settle down a bit again, the itch to play is strengthening. But I’m worried.
And here’s why: At the start of Cataclysm, everyone was a bit of a noob again. We were learning the new zones, figuring out the new content, switching up our playstyles to adapt to new abilities. Sure, we may have had an idea of what would be available, but unless you were one of the lucky ones who managed to get into the Beta, the shattered world wasn’t a reality to us until we experienced it ourselves.
But as you played, little by little, you adapted to the changes, figured out this whole archaeology thing, reveled in the guild achievements system, leveled up, geared up and moved on. Leaving me in the dust. Whereas I’ve usually been one of the more informed players in my guild (what with the blogging and all), I’m dreading the thought of feeling like a noob again. I think it’s one thing that many of us who have ever left the game for a while, and then come back, have had to face.
But I suppose we all have to start somewhere. Here’s to a steep learning curve and catching back up again!
I’ve been about the same recently too. I haven’t played WoW seriously since the week before Christmas. Other things have taken presidence in ‘real life’ during that time, but I have also been looking at other MMO’s (DCUo, Rift beta, to name two).
To be honest, after playing the Rift beta, WoW’s zones seem very stagnant. and the PVP in Rift is so much more fun.
I do pop on WoW from time to time, to see what’s going on in the guild and to congratulate them on the guild leveling/raid progression, but never for more than ten minutes at a time.
I feel I’m in a bit of a strange place at the moment as to whether I’ll start playing seriously again, or just remain uber-casual, as I too, am pretty far behind my guildies in terms of gear and bosses killed. Although I am 85.
Grind heroics for gear and rep? meh, I’d rather go for a beer or visit family and friends…
:)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojWGCeXebsQ
I watch that machinima whenever I get the ‘noob blues’ myself and it helps put things in perspective. I took a good 4 week break right before Cata launched not even sure I’d get it no matter HOW excited I was to get it. I tried LotRO and found it dull and snotty in comparision.
The community can be cruddy in WoW but when you go to a new game, the LAST thing you need is a bunch of screwballs with NO sense of humor telling you to leave which is what happened in LotRO. For all it’s ‘L2P’ asshattery and trolling, WoW has a much more entertaining and dynamic community.
Grindy? Try LotRO. Running all the way across a zone to collect a node to level a profession that I’ve long since outgrown is crazy. Paying RL money for something like riding skill? Stupid. That or grinding out enough Acheivements to earn it with Turbine points…no thank you.
The great thing I”d be looking forward to Pixie, is that others have gone before you and you’re in a MUCH better position to learn what needs to be done now. RL always should take precedent of course, but never fear being a noob. We all are no matter how much we like to think otherwise :P. Be proud of it, I am!