WoW Groove

Don't be alarmed; this isn't an I'm quitting post! Quite the opposite, actually! Lately, with extremely decreased time for gaming, coupled with a struggling raid roster and lessened drive towards solo pursuits, I've been wondering if I'm heading into my final days in Azeroth. Of course, I've got the year sub and beta entry, so it's not like the end is that soon. At times, my desire to keep the blog interesting and current was the big (only) motivator to log in and come up with...something.

Before I really got my shit together and decided that I wanted to cook for myself and exercise more - both of which require skipping out on Monday and Wednesday raids - I was on WoW all the time. I would come home and throw my bag on a chair and get right into Azeroth for dailies and whatever grind I was working on, followed by the raid. Even after the raid I would stay on until finally admitting it was past my bedtime and grudgingly logging out.

When I think about it now, what I did to create my new habits was go cold turkey. In order to convince myself that meatspace pursuits were as important as WoW ones, I began to keep a meatspace todo list as meticulously as I did my achievement goals. On nights I wanted to go to the gym, I didn't let myself log in before or after I went out, to ensure I wouldn't get sucked into a raid or stay up late. That meant that eventually I was only able to log in on Thursday and the weekends, and even those frequently got filled up with other pursuits.

Weirdly, the less and less I played, the less I wanted to play. I would log in and raid on Thursday, and afterwards I wouldn't be able to think of anything to do! I thought I was getting burned out, but I think it means that I've kicked the habit. Well, you can't really do that, but I have replaced the habit with other, better ones! The elusive balance that I've been looking for is revealing itself to me. I realized this on the first night of LiitA, when I finished a Lunar Festival goal, did my Darkmoon dailies, and raided before I logged off to do other things. It was extremely satisfying, really fun, and it wasn't hard at all to think, "I'm done, time to quit."

I think I'm ready to reintegrate short WoW tasks back into my daily todo list, alongside dishwashing and weightlifting. And when I don't have time, I won't log in and I won't regret it! I got my mojo back!!