Heya guys!!

So I was talking to one of my good friends about what the xpac blues are and it got me thinking about stuff.  Last night I had to take the night off of raiding due to some rl complications and that allowed me to relax and just chill some.

It was nice.  I picked up Mass Effect 2 finally from Steam for $23.99!  If you play other video games you should be checking out Steam right now.  They are having some amazing sales through the 4th.

But anyways, I had already prewritten like 7 posts for this week.  So excepting this post here, and the CATA NDA lift posts yesterday, I had nothing to write.

So I was kicking it back realizing I had 3 nights off of raiding and didn’t even have to work on a blog post for several days…and I felt this *HUGE* massive weight lift off of me…

That’s bad.

Not having to raid or work on the blog shouldn’t be a relief.  But it was.  So I wrote my friend trying to vent all of this and work it out and then decided to post about it.  Why?

Well it directly addresses what a lot of people think or feel in regards to “xpac blues” for one.  And also, it could impact my raiding and/or blogging.  So why not give a heads up on my thought process?

Skeleton Jack’s X-Pac Blues

Part of the issue…ok, almost the entire issue here is time and commitment.

Current Issues

1. 4 nights a week my sleep is interrupted to raid.  I have to take a nap before raid, then raid, and then only get 4-5 hours of sleep tops before work.  And I’m a 7-10 hour sleep kinda guy.  That is getting seriously fucking stressful.
2. I can’t do normal content with my guild on off nights.  I go to bed early on my 3 off nights due to #1, so I’m in bed by 9pm server time at latest.  Sometimes before 7pm.  So 10 mans, etc, are out of the question.
3. Writing my blog at the level that I do requires a *lot* of time.  I spend roughly 20 hours a week working on the blog and/or research about WoW.  Some of that does help me learn the game better, but I wouldn’t spend nearly as much time if it was just for myself.
4. Due to the weird schedule resulting from #1 I don’t get a lot of stuff done that I would normally.  Reading, writing, working out, etc…  I want to relax and stuff when I get home, so it becomes a pain to work anything else in besides WoW on those nights…

I’m a minor celebrity in a pool of 11 million people.  That’s cool and all.  But what does it get me?  Not a whole lot.

On the “rant” side of this it sucks having to prove myself to the new guild, not getting loot (I’ve been skipped constantly since this guild merger), getting weird ass sleep 4 nights a week, always writing posts and working on blog instead of doing other things, not having time to make for working out, going out, etc…

But then I think about CATA…  I would like to raid and experience the content…it looks amazing!!  And then I think about what would be required to make that happen.

Cutting everything out that I could (including blog) I’d still have to raid 4 nights a week with interrupted sleep for at least 1-2 months before we had all content down and could take a break.  And then with CATA release I’d have to start the pattern up again with 4 nights of interrupted sleep every week guaranteed.

So I keep coming back to that.  If I dropped the blog, dropped researching stuff, and just did more of a casual style of play with only 4 nights of raiding…  I still think of raiding with a cringe of dread.  So why?

Reasoning

The time constraint and the interrupted sleep is what I keep coming back to.  Raiding takes up 4 1/2 to 5 hours total.

Be online 30 min in advance, raid for 3 1/2 hours, and then miscellaneous stuff before and after where I’m involved with WoW or getting ready to be on for a few hours, so I’m not doing anything else.  4 1/2 is probably more accurate.  So 18 hours a week gone.

Due to sleeping before and after raid times, and wanting to relax some, that turns 4 nights a week into “dead zones” where nothing gets done due to personal preferences.

So my 3 nights left I can do stuff.  Sometimes I just sit there and think, “I’m not doing stuff when I’d do it normally because I’m making a commitment to a game…”

Don’t get me wrong…if it’s a hobby and you want to make the commitment then great!!  But I think I’m at a point where I only want to make that kind of commitment 1-2 nights a week, and no more.

And as to the blog…  That is such a weird love/hate relationship there.  I *LOVE* to write.  I love helping out my readers.  I like helping people.

I realized years ago that being a trainer or teacher of some kind would be something I would love to do so long as it did not involve being in a high school or elementary school.  No thanks to that there.  But I love to help people learn things and I love to write.  My blog is the *perfect* outlet for that desire!!

But then there is the *hate*.  Well, dislike is more apt.  I don’t really hate any part of it.  15-20 hours a week working on material to have it to where I can make 5-9 posts a week is a lot of fricking time.  Especially when combined with raiding…

So 18 hours of my week are spent raiding.  And then there’s another 15+ hours of my week invested in my blog and research.

And that doesn’t include time spent doing VoA, weekly raid quest, JC daily, random daily, and random BG’s…  So in actuality I spend 40-45 hours a week on WoW.

Fuck me.

No fucking wonder I’m burnt out on it.  All of that on top of working a 40 hour a week job where I’ve been having to pull some overtime on occasion (like this week).

The Fix

No fucking idea.  I’m cursing now on my site which just goes to show how at the end of my rope I am on this one.

New Guild?

Finding a top end guild (or even just a decent raiding guild at a lower level of play) that fits my work schedule is a pain in the ass.  I’ve already spent like 30-40 hours on that project.  I’m mostly limited to Oceanic guilds if I want to stay on a US server.

So finding a new guild doesn’t solve anything.  Heretic is a good guild and has some cool people in it.

The Blog?

So reduce writing on the blog or quit it entirely?  That doesn’t work.  I tried that.

What ends up happening is that if I’m playing WoW I inevitably get drawn back to “only make one or two posts a week…”  Next thing you know I’m pumping out 1 post a day again.

And that’s controlling myself!  I used to post between 12-20 times a week!  Especially when I’m excited about new stuff.  I did just 3 posts yesterday when I got stoked about CATA!!

Nowadays I force myself to just post one thing a day to help prevent burnout.  And even doing that it’s not working so well…

So even if I “quit” the blog, if I’m playing WoW I *know* myself.  I will end up right back here again posting about DK’s…  I can accept my own flaws and acknowledge them! 

Go Casual?

UGH!!  /scowl

*mutters angrily*  How do you play WoW casually?!!?  I. DO. NOT. GET. THAT!!

I mean, if you’re in a guild and you guys can’t progress…  Or you have kids or a business or a marriage or something…commitments to prevent you.  Or you don’t have the skill level…  If there are reasons then I get it!

But if you have lots of free time (which I do) and the skill and knowledge…  How do you look at these bosses in instances mocking you, teasing you with their epics like little tarts, without bringing down the pain!?!

I ask you!!  I do not know if I, personally, am capable of playing WoW casually.  Watching friends and guildies tackling content while I sit on the sidelines…  Not sure if that’s in me.

I considered coming back to WoW (when I quit before after playing for 5 years straight) for CATA just to be a PvP’er.  I’d do rated BG’s and maybe Arena.  And that’d be it.

*MAYBE* I could stomach that.  Not sure.

Quit WoW?

OMFG I WANT CATACLYSM!!!  O.O

I know…cake…eat it too…I get it.  I didn’t say this was “easy” for me. 

Facing the Truth

Really, what it all comes down to, is that I want two different things which are not possible at the same time.

I want to be in a top end raiding guild tackling the toughest content, but I only want to do it 1-2 nights a week tops.  GL there…won’t happen.

I want to write about WoW on my site, but I want the knowledge to magically pour out of my brain and on to the webs instantly!  But oh yeah…real life sets in.

Something is going to have to give is what it all comes down to.  Because I will not continue as is for more than another month tops.  It won’t happen.

As to what change that will be I’m not sure…

• Quit WoW entirely
• Take a break until CATA
• Stop writing on the blog
• Try to find a guild below my skill level that will take me on to just raid 1-2 nights a week
• Become a PvP’er for CATA and put raiding to the side

I don’t know…  But something will change in the future.

Advice

My friend suggested to me that she thinks I should just take a break for a while.  She knows how much I like WoW and my website.

But she also pointed out that being a hardcore WoW player and blog writer is like having two full time jobs and that it might be time to let part, or all, or WoW go.

Sadly I agree with all of her points and am just not sure what the solution is yet.

-Suffer Well Brothers and Sisters…

Tags: /rl, Website