Back in the Game
18 Apr
If you follow me on Twitter, or know me IRL you probably already know that I used to play World of Warcraft a lot. I had played since January 2008 but decided to quit for a while in early 2011 because I was sick of dealing with the drama that came along with serious raiding guilds. (Which is a whole ‘nother story for another day. Let me know if you’d be interested in a “Why I Quit World of Warcraft” post about it.)
It’s been over a year since then, and I picked the game back up last month after a friend convinced me to give it a shot again. I’m trying to approach it a different way, this time. Previously I was, as mentioned, in hardcore raiding guilds and that was my main focus. This time, especially since it’s late in the expansion, I have avoided raiding guilds. I joined a role-playing guild, and am super excited to get back into playing my character and have been doing so slowly but surely. If you’re interested, I have an in-character journal for her which you can read here: Fire at Dawn.
Role-playing has been a huge hobby of mine since college, when my coworker from the Apple Store introduced me to LARPing. As a writer (I double-majored in Creative Writing as well as Graphic Design in college!) storytelling and character development has always been a huge deal to me, and LARP/role-playing seemed to be a natural, nerdy extension of that. I quite enjoy writing stories based on characters I create. It’s much like fan fiction, I suppose, except you’re not using characters from canon very often.
Though I’m excited and engaged by RP in WoW, I admittedly miss raiding quite a bit. There’s something about the fervor of downing a boss for the first time after hours and hours of attempts—hell, weeks of attempts! It gets the blood flowing. I remember how I felt after downing Sarth + 3D (the hardest raid boss at the beginning of the Wrath expansion) and it was amazing. I loved it, it’s like a runner’s high but for gamers. Gamer’s high?
Anyway, I just don’t have the time to commit to raiding anymore. As much as I miss it, it isn’t a priority. There’s so much else I’d like to be doing! I have a list of hobbies about a mile long, so I’m okay with being a non-raider for now. ;)
