I was talking to Nin and it got me thinking about what is fun for me. The subject came up because, throughout my time playing World of Warcraft, I have been notorious for changing characters. Often. Sometimes, this isn't an issue. But when I want to raid, and I'm not feeling like playing the only character that is geared to do the content, this becomes an issue. So the discussion with Nin sparked some thought.
What is fun for me, in WoW, is playing with other people. Plain and simple, that's what I like to do. It really doesn't matter too much what character I'm on as long as I'm with my friends doing something. Soloing in WoW has gotten to be really, really boring for me. However, there is a certain point when a character also becomes boring for me. I have to discover where this point is, but it inevitably hits me with every new character. Why is that? Why can't I just stick with one character, or even one talent spec within a character? I don't know. It might be because I have ADD or because I just get bored of doing the same thing over and over again.
Unfortunately, this becomes a problem when I want to raid. I have one character geared for the upper level ICC content, but all my others are sitting down around ToC level. If my guild needs me to raid, they call on my druid because he's the only one that can do it. Healing on my druid is, occasionally, fun but mostly boring. DPS on my druid is stressful because if I make one mistake that can drop my dps my ridiculous amounts. I don't like that kind of pressure. Tanking I rarely get to do in a raid environment, so I can't really discuss that one. If I don't want to play my druid, but my guilds needs me, does the 'not-fun' of playing my druid get equaled out by the 'fun' of grouping with friends? Sometimes. But not always.
With Cataclysm coming up Soon™, the problem is only going to be compounded. All the new class changes make me incredibly excited and after doing some math, I figured out that I've made plans for having at least 10 characters at max level in Cataclysm. 10! Right now I have 6. I'm not sure what I'm going to do. Do I continue this cycle of enjoying a character, gearing them, getting bored, and starting work on another character? Or will I decide, sometime between now and the start of Cataclysm, that I can and will focus on one character? I don't know. I'm eager to find out. What I have decided is that, as fun as it is to play all these characters and have something to move to when I get bored of my current character, it is very much 'not-fun' to not be able to play with friends on the character I want to play on. I'm going to have to work on finding a happy medium in there somewhere.
I am kinda the same way, but a combination of the fact that I am a guildmaster and that I am rabid about gearing characters usually leaves me with 3-4 characters that are able to raid whatever the modern content tier is. For me.... the point of boredom always hits when progression becomes slow on a character. I love gearing characters, and when the upgrades stop coming, I know that sooner or later I am going to get bored again before long.
ReplyDeleteOne of two things happen to cure my boredom. Either I level another alt so I can gear it... or wander off for a month playing some other game. Problem with the gearing alts bit is... at this point I pretty much have one of everything I would ever want to play. The big problem with this up and down cycle however is at the end of an expansion like we are currently in... I am just burnt out beyond all recognition. On the alliance side I have a deathknight, warrior, shaman, druid and paladin that are all ICC10 ready or better, and hordeside I have my 2nd deathknight that is ICC10-able. But after leveling and gearing 6 80s I am just flat out toast :(
Viva la minecraft for filling the void