We all burn out. And that's okay. When I burn out it's pretty bad. My last WoW hiatus went from December of '06 to around September of '07 corresponding to the loss of my leveling partner (the shammy*).
Since then I have had multiple mini WoW burnouts. And I don't mean that like small gaps in my play (although those occurr, too, but are less burnouts than breaks due to real life complications). I mean mini burnouts as in getting tired of a specific character. I like to call it WoW ADD, which I have a severe case of. It's also called "altahol abuse" (i.e. someone can be an altaholic). It's Warcrack for a reason, people!
Anywho, why are we talking about this, you alt abuser?! you ask.
Have thou burneth out on Wow? Have thou made thy lastly alt, and thus vow to turn over a neweth leaf? Art thou leaving us?!
Stop freaking out or I'm going to smack you upside the head with my laptop.
The reason why I am talking about this is thus: a friend of mine thinks he has burned out on WoW. Again. Z and I were talking about this the other day. His guild is officially done with Kara. They do some ZA runs when they can. He claims his server is a dying one (and I can't blaim him). He has no patience for alts. At all. And he's sick of WoW. And he wants to stop.
Hmmm....
Okay, not that I really want to convince him otherwise. WoW is really an addiction, and if you burn out, then let yourself burn out. Especially for us—we're just now applying to college and finishing up high school. This is probably the best possible time for a break from the game.
But listening to him talk about how the game is ruining his last few months as a high schooler really got me thinking about my own addiction. And the addiction of other friends I have. And the addiction of all of us.
These are my WoW addictions:
- I play too much. I am a casual player and I still feel like I play too much. Hence why I blog about it now instead of spending my time actually playing. I think this is better.
- I have too many alts. Plain and simple. I know I preach that one can never have enough variety, but the emotional attachments I get to some of my >10 characters makes me crazy. Why can't I just delete them? If I want more space for alts on servers I actually play on, then why not just delete more than half of the 50 alts I have?
- Out of my alts, I think I play too many hunters. Gasp, I know, right?
- The Auction House.
- And a newer addiction: addons and user interfaces. This is a biggie.
Mostly I want to talk about WoW ADD. Anyone who has taken a look at my Big Page of Alts knows that I have got major WoW ADD. And that’s not even a complete list. It is missing some key alts still.
I have ADD when it comes to leveling Galileyo. On many levels, too. I tame hundreds of pets. I just haven’t found the right one for her yet. I hate her current pet—a yellow boar. And I am having a hard time leveling her at all. Quests just don’t appeal to me, and I never have enough time all in one chuck to run instances. I have goals for her, yes. She not going into Outland until sixty. She eventually is going to just be a PvP character, and not a raider. She needs her epic land mount above all else. I can get away with not having a flying one if I’m just doing bgs all the time.
The more time I am wasting with her, though, is more time I will have to put in to catch up with current seventies—gear and game play experience –wise. This is a problem.
What do I do when I don’t want to think about/solve said problem?
I roll an alt. Hence the recent birth of Khuza, the rebirth of Galileo (she’s a shammy again), and the instance I ran on Trikk.
I have WoW ADD so bad that I can’t even level Zocks at the moment. I had some real focus going on him for a while, but when things at War Party subsided I stopped playing him, too. Now, he is GM of War Party, so he’s got to stick around and do some moderating, especially with the hiatus of the other two GMs. And since we are resurrecting our dreams for War Party he will have to level to keep up with the guild.
Saraii was going to be a 19 twink until I got bored with Warsong Gulch. I’m hoping for a 39 twink from her. I’ve got gear for her and everything.
I have profession ADD, too, but that is another blog post.
And I’m having ADD with this blog post. I’m starting to lose my direction. Okay, back to the main point: burnouts.
How do you deal? How do we all deal with this? How can you help a friend deal or not deal with a burnout?
Do you roll an alt like I do? Do you join another server? Do you spend hours tinkering with your ui? Do you peruse WoW blogs and write long posts that lack direction?
Do you alt?
This is ADD at work. It’s ADDiction.
Hi, my name is Galizocksaruzaleyo, and I am addicted to alternate characters.
*The shammy post is very long and very emo, and also is only in part one of two.
7 comments:
One can never have too many hunters.
*nods sagely*
I feel your pain. Truly. And if you dont believe me I'd like to direct you to the nice long list on my blog. One is of my mains that I play more than alts. Those arent alts. My list of alts is too long to include on my blog.
Several of my blog posts will also get you aware that I am not good at sticking with professions. While, I dont ditch 'em or anything (i have switched a few times)...i tend to just forget about them as I lvl. So then by the time I hit Outlands, my profession is so sad and little that I hit lvl 70 before trying to pick it back up again.
I'm just now getting Cooking on Hawk.
I dont have First Aid on any of my alliance characters. Yes, even the high lvls.
I have about 20 other characters between lvls 30-40 that I try to ignore most of the time and just state that hopefully someday I can lvl them too. They are my "on the back burner - alts"
I've so far had 3 hunters hit 60 and one to hit 70. Only one of those hunters exists today however.
I agree with Pike. One can never have too many hunters. When you are like us...they are kind of that class that brings back the fun for you whenever you're in a rut with another class. Go hop onto that hunter alt and have a blast! That sort of thing.
But sadly the whole post just speaks true to me. I've gone on 6-8 months of MIA (once) and 4 months once...maybe 2 monthers here and there. But when you've played since release (nov 2004) you are bound to come back...especially after not playing your druid for 2 years and finding out about all the changes...
And in the end people like us have a million lvl 10's. I can't tell you how many lvl 10 alts I have just to reserve that name and that character for another day.
*sigh*
My name is Hawkspirit. I am One Among Too Many.
Yes, exactly!
I even feel a bit of remorse for those level tens even before I delete them, knowing that they are only a replacement for another hunter.
I have four hunters on Ner'zhul.
I have two hunters on the PTR at the moment.
I have at least two hunters on each of my alternate servers.
Goodness, I can't get enough!
And as much as I dislike class-only guilds, I'm tempted to try one out at least once, because I know that there I will find some people in-game who understand the total consumption of mind, body, and soul that my class has over me.
As for professions - Gal has skinning at 125 or so and no other prof (because I got tired of leatherworking). If that's not sad, I don't know what is!
Rant finished for today. I have another one coming about tank-party symbiosis at low levels. It's gonna be a painful one!
Farrow actually only has 1 profession right now too. 275 enchanting...She has mining too but somewhere after lvl 10, completely ignored it. So its at a very "coppery" skill at the moment. I'll hang onto it though. Someday when I've got an epic mount with her I might lvl it up. For now, just having enchanting allows me to focus on that more.
Yeah. I'm thinking I probably should grind up Gal's skinning and another profession after she hits sixty and before she goes to Outland. She also has no cooking, fishing, or first aide. I am a neglectful parent.
lol - my next post will be "My [Lack of] Professions.
I only recently began to get first aid on my characters. Hawk is the only one with it maxed out.
Hahah. I gotta write one of those, too.
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