Summer Time

As things heat up outside (it is supposed to hit 100 in the PNW) sitting at the game feels less exciting.

Almost every weekend this month, I have been making road trips up and down I-5 to visit family and friends for all sorts of reason. This weekend, I visit my neiec for her 8th birthday. Two weeks ago, I visited friends from Georgia.

I am not too much of an outdoor person but I do enjoy the relaxation my summer vacation brings. Catching up with family and friends, catching up on T.V. I missed during school, catching up on sleep (zzzzz) all factor in on what I do with my days.

One slight side affect of all this non gaming time: little things about WoW are starting to get to me.

I feel a little blasphemous discussing my disenchantment of World of Warcraft. I blog about a game that in some aspects I am pasionate about. I love my role as a druid healer, I like the social aspects of raiding and the thrill of downing mobs alongside people I work hard with each week.

But little by little, changes into WoW have started to get under my skin. I don't want to spend a lot of time going over what bothers me about the game. Usually that kind of thing leads to comments like "Just quit if you don't like it" or "No one is forcing you to play this game." and I agree with those comments. But then again, ranting is a cathartic form of expression and I often use that for many other things this game has, namely raiding and dealing with Blizzard's changes.

I am nervous about the fine balance WoW has to walk between PvP and PvE. The latest Q&A over shapechanging and the overbalance of the resto druid is partly driven by PvP issues, but also because of developer vanity.

I worry that each patch is in effort to keep balancing classes while also homogenizing classes so everyone can have a chance to play equally.

I also worry that in effort to keep 10 million players happy, WoW is bitting off more than it can chew in doing so.

Do I want to quit? I recognize the social aspects of being in an MMO. I don't want to lose that or jeopardize it. A break? Perhaps, but a break for me usually doesn't last a week but actually longer.

I am choosing a compromise. My boyfriend has been doing this strategy for about year now and it seems to work well. My compromise is to spend time on another game for a change of pace. Casually playing something else can offer a fresh perspective on the game I have playing for four years.

So what game do I have my eye on? Aion. It has it's gimmicks and it has potential problems and potential success. But at first blush it is refreshing and is doing what several games in the past couple of years hasn't managed to pull off: launch with a polished and ready to play game.

I am in a funk that happens from time to time. Regardless of how I feel about 3.2 it will be a short term shot of interest I need to keep me going. And in two months, school will start up again and I will have less time to anything, no matter game I play.