I’m not raiding…

Ok, maybe it’s not that simple but that’s a good start.  Raiding brought me some of the best times in game – it brought me encounters and teamwork and an ‘omg we finally beat it’ but it’s also brought me some of the worst – elitist attitudes, feeling like I have to stick to one main character all the time, having to get x or y buff for the raid, having to do stuff when I’m not in the mood and, of course, the stress over herding 25 cats around a raid instance.  I also dislike the tiny, incremental progress you get once you’re at the higher tiers of raiding – I can understand why they wouldn’t want you to upgrade by a tonne between tiers but I always loved the feeling of gear up, striving towards a goal of x mp5 or SP, etc. rather than worrying about 1% haste vs. 1% crit.  I’ve never been a hardcore raider at heart – I’ve always loved the encounters and the loot, too, if we’re being honest; but when you’ve seen an encounter 30 times it just gets boring.

I miss playing at that level, to be sure – I miss MH, BT and Sunwell where I actually felt, sometimes, like my shaman was literally gasping with effort at outputting as much healing as possible.  Even Ulduar, I miss, with it’s kooky fights and beautiful surroundings.  But, in the end, I don’t really miss raiding…

I’m levelling…

In fact, I’m levelling three or four characters as well as their professions.  It feels great.  What do I fancy playing today?  Druid? Cool, lets go blow through some rhinos in a storm of swiping; Paladork?  He needs to level his enchanting, off to get some mats! and so forth.  I think being in a raiding guild, with all the wonderfulness that it brought, made it too easy on me alts wise – there was always a guild bank full of random blues or levelling mats or the like, always someone to ask about specs, rotations etc. and always the goal of ‘get to 80 already’.

I’m dilly-dallying through the game again, enjoying quests I’ve not visited in a while (yay horde quests) and generally taking things slowly.  It’s a shame Spore is such a quiet server now, so instancing is not so easy, but I’m having fun levelling in a way I’ve not had for a long time.

I’m playing with RL™ friends…

Most of my real-life friends who play are way more casual – playing less or levelling slowly, and they give me a perspective that I often forget.  They’re brave in ways I never used to be – one of them, in particular, uses his own specs – never, as far as I know, looking up what’s ‘best’ whilst levelling – he picks what he uses for levelling carefully and with thought and enjoys the process of it.  It’s something I’ve always been ‘afraid’ to do, even whilst levelling.

We’re also able to do silly stuff like 3-manning instances and almost managed to three-man the Ring of Blood at level 66 – only beaten by the last boss after his self-resurrection!  It’s more fun when you do it with friends; you know each others thoughts better and we can chat about it before our weekly DnD game as well as organising fun stuff around tight schedules.  It’s also doubly fun for me as neither of them have been to Northrend yet – I’ll be able to tag along and see their reactions to the cool new stuff which often invigorates how I feel about things which seem, in some ways, ‘old’ to me.

I’m Horde…

To me the Horde has always been home – much as I love Dwarves and Space Squid, I cannot help hankering after the rugged, tribalistic Orc, Troll and Tauren architecture, the glimmering but sad spires of the blood elves and the dark, messy hovels of the forsaken.  There’s something about the ‘Barrens’ music which tugs at me, something about Orgrimmar at night which makes it feel like ‘home’.  Maybe it’s the crickets…

Also, as Pike said:

When I think of her, I don’t think of her as a character in WoW. I think of her as this living, breathing individual. She is of course, not real, but it sure feels that way sometimes.

(you can see how long it takes me to write posts by seeing what I link to /sigh!)

I can’t see my characters as generic, I enjoy playing them and I’ve gained a bond with them.  Though this means I miss my alliance ones, my horde ones have always been there wanting some love, too.  Mharai was my first max level character and, as such, has always held a certain something for me.  I might do a post to ‘introduce’  my hordies, so you’ll know who I’m talking to (especially since at least one of them shares a name with an alliance toon… for now).

I’m on an RP realm…(?)

Sporeggar is barely an RP realm any more (/sadface) but it’s enough of one that if you emote and talk in-character you don’t get too many odd stares.  You can also report people if they bug you about it.  The ‘idea’ of an RP realm appeals to me and RPPVP just makes sense in terms of an ‘always on’ war.  I don’t go around killing people, I’m a carebear, but I believe in the right to do so out-with ’safe’ areas.

Achievements…

Others may not think much of achievements -  they’re points for the sake of points… but it’s not the number of points I care about.  Loremaster is an achievement I always meant to get around to doing but never did.  A lack of love for dps/grinding on my shaman put me off – I can run around as a cat or bear for hours (how I got Ava to 80 I’ll never know…) Also, raiding took up a lot of my online time, and when not raiding, the peripherals of raiding (dailies, or fishing etc.) and so doing more quests just seemed like a chore, not fun.

Some which I’m not doing yet, but will do, such as Guardian of Cenarius, just didn’t seem right for my shaman – and since I was keeping most of my achievements to one character that meant a definite lack of willpower.  Mharai, on the other hand, will be going for that title as her next goal after Loremaster as it suits her and when it feels right, it’s more fun (for me, anyway).

Anyway…

This is a sort of ‘where I’m at’ post.  I know most of you will skip over it, and that’s fine – I use this blog partially as a journal so I don’t forget these thoughts and I can store good memories for when I need ‘em.  For those who have gone through it, you’ll know where my perspective is coming from in future posts!  Also, perhaps, it can help a little with those others who’re sitting and feeling in a bit of a rut at the moment - sometimes you need to step back and re-evaluate why you’re playing the game and what you actually enjoy.