The Angry Raider

My previous post was somewhat fatalistic. I have been going through a mix of emotions the past couple of weeks, and while that may seem a little silly ("it’s just a game!"), those of you who play MMOs will understand. Not only do I have to choose which character to play in WoW, but I have to choose which character(s) to play across games. And each game offers something unique, while they all overlap. It’s not easy.

Last night I went to see the new James Bond movie with my fiancee and my brother. We had dinner at Chick-Fil-A beforehand an the inevitable topic of World of Warcraft came up. I relayed to them the various things I’ve read on various blogs (see my blogroll) and we talked about what the WotLK expansion has to offer. I also talked about Grabthar in EQ2 and what I wanted to accomplish with him, especially since the EQ2 expansion comes out today.

What I finally realized is that the games aren’t all-or-nothing propositions. I can get what I want from more than one game at a time. And the pressures I placed on myself–level faster, level slower, max professions, enjoy professions–were all of my own doing. That’s just the kind of guy I am. I was finally able to step back, take a deep breath, and answer the question, "What do I want to do?"

First and foremost, I want to play with my friends and family. It doesn’t matter what game. At the moment that game is World of Warcraft, so that’s the game I’ll play with them. I also want to invest in my EQ2 character, which I can do solo. (I mainly want to do crafting on him, which is best done solo.) The end result is that I’ll play my night elf druid, Wicker, who is currently almost level 72. Our regular group is druid tank (me), priest healer (fiancee), caster DPS (brother warlock), and melee DPS (friend rogue). We just need one more regular DPS and we have a prebuilt instance group ready to go.

I may never see Naxx in WotLK or I might run it every week. Who knows. All I know is that I have the most fun when I log into a game and see my friends and family in our special secret chat channel. And I’m glad I finally realized that.

We now resume our regular analysis of MMOs.