Before I start let me assure you that this is not a farewell post. I haven't stopped playing WoW and I don't intend to stop blogging either, just yet.
The nature of my play has changed dramatically, though. I also came to the realisation that I haven't written anything of any substance on the blog for at least six months - I do apologise for that.
About a month ago, I nearly wrote a farewell post for the blog and actually cancelled my subscription for a couple of weeks, but it turned out all I needed was a change of pace and circumstances to get me interested in both again.
Allow me to explain.
Effin' About
The last time I wrote about guild things I was lamenting that I was never online at the same time as my new(ish) Alliance guildies of Eff the Ineffable. Before my Sproutling was born, I envisaged being online during the day a lot more. I figured I should look around for an American-time guild to play with so that I would have some guildies to do dungeons and perhaps even raid with. The Effers are a friendly bunch - in fact they're looking for healers at the moment for their raid team.
I'm not sure what I was expecting from him but Sproutling doesn't sleep during the day on any kind of schedule or for a predictable length of time. For the last six months I've had snatches of play time during the day but usually less than an hour and certainly not enough to commit to a group of any kind. I don't use the computer at all while he's awake - I feel that's a bit unfair to the little Sprout.
After about twelve weeks the Sproutling started to go to bed at a predictable time, so I was able to play in the evening more. At 4am server time, Azuremyst is pretty deserted - even the night owls like Rhii and Fizzy are offline by that time.
I began to consider going back to Oceania and finding another Aussie guild to play with, since my Horde guild on Nagrand was still deserted. Playing by yourself is all right for a little while (there's a whole 'nother post coming about that), but my Alliance druid, Aoifen, was getting very bored with pugging heroics, and the Molten Front dailies are just... so... boring...
I was burned out. I was lonely. I didn't log in for two weeks and allowed my account to lapse. I was very close to that closing-up-shop post.
What brought me back, in the end, was Transmogrification. I wanted to run old raid content and couldn't bear the thought of trying to pug it.
No Longer Vitare (it means to avoid, don'tcha know)
I've been meeting up with Lathere in real life for a while now since her Sapling and my Sprout are about the same age. She had a break from the game since her bub arrived and was just starting to get back into playing again, so, for the first time in my whole WoW career, I transferred a character to another server. Aoifen bid goodbye to Eff the Ineffable and moved to Barthilas to join Lathere, Cassandri and Velidra in Vitare.
It was awesome to actually have some green chatter going on, even if I hardly knew anyone! Since I moved over I've run tier 1, 4, 5 and 6 raids, finally seen all of Ulduar and even run through Throne of the Four Winds and Bastion of Twilight for the first time. We haven't convinced anyone to take us to Firelands yet but I hope that will happen after 4.3 arrives.
The end result in all this is that I've re-discovered what makes MMOs so awesome and that keeps me playing: Everything is more fun when you are doing it with other people.
So, I'm still playing. I still love the game - I still have things to explore and classes to level, achievements and raids to enjoy (even if they're not progression ones). The game is certainly not boring if you're willing and able to get out there and find your own fun.
On Blogging
R&R has really suffered in the last six months. Babies are exhausting - when I get to the computer I tend to want to play rather than write these days. The Mogging series was a product of that extremely bored phase where I couldn't face doing another daily.
I'm afraid it's likely to stay quiet for a little while longer, but I'll be trying to post every now and then and keep up with the Druid resources. Next year I'll be going back to work full time, which is where most of my inspiration was gathered before. I'm not sure how much time or energy I'll have for writing then, but we'll see.
I just wanted to say a huge thank you to all you readers for all your support over this year. I really do appreciate it! If you made it this far, you're a superstar :D
<3
