Naithin has written in his gaming blog that he believes he may be "done-done" with WoW. As we were chatting, I told him I thought it wasn't as big a deal for him to be really done with a game beacuse he's a gamer and there will be another one. Many more, in fact.
Over the last several weeks, I've been growing constantly more unhappy with WoW myself (and that's just even more unhappy - I haven't truly been happy with it for well over a year) and if, for a week, logging in makes you headachey and grouchy? Time to give it a break. Maybe even quit. I finally came around to that conclusion and am going to go with it, because even thinking about being "done" with the game makes me feel better. I no longer feel obligated to play by habit. Even if I want something in the game doesn't mean I have the patience and willpower to work to obtain it. When that work isn't fun, it isn't right. (Much like Naithin's tagline thingy.)
I won't bore you with all the details, but I posited that my "quitting" was a bigger deal because it was final. When and if I quit WoW, I am done with games. Period. WoW was the only game I've ever played. It was an anomaly. My attitude towards games and gamers was quite disapproving and severe before and was moderated only when I started playing WoW because can one judge too harshly a group that you yourself are a part of? But I think they're rather a waste of time (and looking at what I've "achieved" with WoW in the last five years, you could say that) and I don't care for the fantasty worlds they're set in.
Those are broad strokes describing games in general, but it doesn't change my opinion of them and the fact that I am just not inclined to care about them or want to play them. Give me some spare time and I will pick up a book to read more often than not. If for some reason I don't, then I would pick up some knitting. Never would I choose to play a game. Give me money and I'll buy books, not a gaming system.
When my brother got into sci-fi and fantasy and started looking at games and gaming systems, I thought it was such a waste of time. I will admit when he got an N64 and new games for Christmas, I was interested because it was something new and shiny - I never played though. The games didn't look interesting. He played some card game too... whatever it was. Not interested.
The boyfriend I was with at the time when I started playing WoW liked comics and similar things (which I thought again, were a waste of time and wasn't interested) and he also liked games. He encouraged me to create a character on WoW one night when I was all out of books and so desperately bored at 3 AM I thought I would die. I cannot express to you how bored I was - it was true desperation that led to me creating a character. With no intention of playing, mind you. Just to make something pretty. But I did play and it was intriquing. I later got my own account.
But it was an anomaly. Had I not been so desperately bored, I would never ever have tried it. Naithin says this points to an interest - that if I can be happy with WoW, I can find interest and happiness in other games as well. That if I do quit WoW, he has other games he can recommend.
Well. I have no such inclination. I have long claimed that I am only a WoW gamer and I see no reason why this would change. Through all my gaming time in WoW, I've talked with any number of people who also played other games in addition to WoW and they would inevitably recommend them to me - but they never sounded interesting. I would recommend a handful to The Boy for him to try (he being a gamer of sorts himself) but I would never play with him. When we go to the store to look at games, I'll look at them, but I'm not looking for anything, and nothing piqued my interest. When we're in the games section, we're there for The Boy. I want nothing to do with that section.
As I said before, an anomaly. I had no interest before and I won't have an interest again. My time that was sucked up by WoW will be filled with reading (definitely) and knitting (hopefully with finished socks) and also cooking. Because those are activities that I am interested in and that I want to do.
An example I thought might perhaps relate: The Boy. He doesn't like reading. At all. For any reason. Hates it. Never did like reading. However, let's say that in high school he had to read a book for a Lit class and enjoyed the story (let's hope that's true.) He enjoyed the story through reading but he doesn't like reading otherwise. Does that mean that just because he enjoyed a story he read once, that he can learn to love reading to read other enjoyable stories? No. I've tried to convince him that reading is enjoyable, you just need to find books you like. He would rather sit and do nothing at all than to read. (This does often happen to him at work - he'll be waiting for someone on the other end of the winch to finish whatever it is they're doing, which could be hours, and he'll just do nothing. Do. Nothing. An easy fix for this (in my mind) is for him to take a book with him when he goes offshore to combat the boredom, but he would rather be mind-numbingly bored than read.) So, I quit trying. The guy just doesn't like reading and there's nothing I can do about it. More book money for me.
Perhaps another bookish example: my brother, as I mentioned, likes fantasy books. His interest began early. As we grew up more (when he was in high school) we could talk as peers rather than as big-sister talking down to the younter-brother and discuss books. We would always recommend books to each other, but we would never read the recommendations. He likes fantasy and I like historical fiction and neither of us care for the other's tastes. In theory, could we probably find a book the other recommended that we would enjoy? I'm sure. Would that mean we would actively seek out that new genre? Nope. We like what we like and if we randomly enjoyed something new we did and it was nice, but that's all.
So, I view WoW like this. Even knowing as I do how much fun I had in the beginning (so much fun) and how sweet the honeymoon phase was (very sweet) and how many awesome people I have met through the game and because of the game (I even started a several WoW blogs) I also see how my interest waned. (Naithin will tell you this is largely because of altitis and it's detrimental effects, but that's neither here nor there.) So, it was nice while it lasted, but I don't see myself getting that same enjoyment from another game, because that's not my thing. I think, as I told Naithin, this is just unthinkable to him because he is a person of games - they bring him happiness and they interest him and they always have. Perhaps some of you reading this agree - you are of the gaming type also. I never saw myself as a gamer - I was a WoWer. That was my only game.
It is unthinkable to me that people wouldn't enjoy historical fiction. Wouldn't prefer chai over coffee. Wouldn't enjoy going on "vacation" just to wake up early every day to go on tours of the area that you're visiting. Wouldn't always wonder about things and be inquisitive. Wouldn't want to knit or wouldn't enjoy the color brown.
But I know that those things aren't for everyone. And that's ok.
Games just aren't for me. And that's ok.
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