I’ve taken some time away from WoW as I’ve been feeling pretty fed up with the game. My attempt at using the Ironman challenge to reignite something in me failed…so slow & boring. Then I came down with a virus (which I still have – feel lousy), but increasingly find myself thinking about WoW and wanting to log back in. It’s like an ex I just can’t shake off.
So I’ve been thinking about what I miss about WoW & have narrowed it down to this:-
I miss many of the dungeons I’ve done a zillion times as dps & for some reason all of a sudden I want to do them all again. But I don’t just want to do them with a new character- I want to relive what it actually felt like when I did them a year or so ago- a time which seems to have been a sweet spot in my dungeon & WoW life.
In other words I want to go back in time. And creating an alt- which is a time machine of sorts I guess- just doesn’t cut it for me. You can never recapture that exact same feeling with an alt. I think that feeling was influenced by a multitude of things including the time I played, what was on the TV in the background when I played, how I was feeling about my life at the time, even the way the light streaming in through the French windows hit my screen (which was also incidentally the reason I got lost so often- or at least that’s my excuse!).
There was a time when I felt happy…or at least comforted…by WoW & I want that time back. But I don’t know how to get it. And maybe you shouldn’t look for comfort in a game anyway? Is that healthy? I have no idea. But there was something magical about a year or so ago when I played WoW- everything about the game interested me, I loved my characters, I loved the dungeons, I loved levelling, I loved gearing, I loved the sounds of Stormwind, I loved guild chat, I loved my time on the game – it made me happy.
I want to flick a switch & get all that back again, but I have absolutely no idea how. All I know is I have a very strong compulsion to log in & play & see where it all takes me. Maybe I can’t relive the past- but maybe I still have new WoW experiences ahead of me that will bring the same, if not more, pleasure? I guess there’s only one way to find out.
I’ve been in that same place. Took a break, not knowing if I would ever come back. I was at a place where I didn’t care if I ever came back. Then, after a couple of months, I felt the draw. Or, maybe I should call it a compulsion!
Anyway, what happened next was a great experience. I bummed around the servers a bit, then I ran into a RL friend who also played WoW. I did a character transfer to their server, and joined their guild. It was great! I obtained new experiences, made new friends. In a sense, my game experience changed (drastically). I didn’t “recapture” anything, but what I obtained was so much better.
I hope that you get back into WoW, find a sweet spot, and enjoy yourself.
Granted, I hope that because I enjoy reading your WoW stories! But, I also hope that you find some fun that games like these are supposed to provide.
Z
Yes I think it is like a compulsion! Glad you had a great new experience when you came back. I logged on yesterday after posting. Took my level 5 hunter Seashore & levelled her to 16 and I have to say really enjoyed it (although I was rather nervous going into Deadmines – felt so rusty!). She’s in the same guild as my other characters and it was great reconnecting with everyone but also a new experience with the hunter. I even found & tamed the fox Bushtail in Elwynn Forest! So cute! I hope I will have lots of hunter stories to tell (although I also hope that none of them involve me being called a “huntard” – a term I detest).
If you do figure out how to get that feeling back, write a book about it and make millions, because people have been trying to figure that out for centuries, I think. You’re much better off chasing new experiences than trying to recreate old ones, because I don’t think you’ll ever get the exact same feeling.
Yes you’re right. But it’s all bittersweet – those experiences were so nice. But I agree – need to get new experiences now. That’s what life’s all about isn’t it?