Excessive

World of Warcraft is a game that keeps on going, as I'm sure anyone that's played it knows. I've started playing again recently, but not playing like I used to. I used to raid, and for those of you that don't know, that's a three day a week commitment, plus the other days doing what needed to be done to get ready to raid and raid effectively, and then on top of all that, the time required to manage a guild and ensure that the 50+ people co-existing as a team are getting along and understand our goals. No... that's not what I'm doing now.

Right now I'm playing to relax. Well, it's hard to describe accurately, as raiding was relaxing in a way, it felt good to be the best, you know? and there were relaxing times... if given the chance to raid with my old team, I probably would do it again once school was over, but I know that won't happen again. I also know that it's highly unlikely that I will raid as a team, but not as a leader, so my chances of raiding seriously are very low.

No, right now I'm playing to relax, and that means chasing random achievements, questing, levelling alts, levelling professions, and doing heroics or dungeons.

The game has changed a lot, but it's still the same old game... and while that sounds retarded, it's an old saying, "the more it changes, the more it stays the same." The talent system has changed, the world has changed, skills have changed, but it still feels like home.

I'm enjoying being in that world again, and I don't feel as burned out as I did when Catalysm came out. Questing and levelling was pretty fun in Cata, but once I hit 85 and started to raid (or didn't progress very well due to guild issues) there was little to do. I levelled my alts, too quickly in my opinion, and hit the wall of not raiding, but not having anything else to do. It made me quit the game because I would log in and felt like there was no point in doing anything. Now I log in, and the idea of doing random things seems exciting, so I'm not entirely sure what's changed specifically (beyond the myriad of changes that happened since then and now).

One thing that's really fun, and a great way to kill some time and relax, is the Pet Battles. This is Pokemon, in World of Warcraft. There are little, special critters existing all around each zone... the higher level the zone, the higher level the critters, and you can challenge these to fights, and use your own pets to attempt to defeat them, or capture them and add them to your roster of pets. There are numerous types of pets (humanoid, beast, critter, magic, etc) and there are hundreds of pets to collect, and each zone has a wide variety, as well as 'pet masters' you can challenge for rewards and experience, it's an entire game inside a game. I could do that for two hours a day and probably keep busy for weeks and weeks, and that's just one option when I log in.

I'm having fun doing heroic dungeons, as the gear that drops are upgrades, I continually improve my character, and that itself is fun. Heroics will become less fun when I've got the best gear I can get, and there is little to no reward for completing them, but until that time I'll keep doing them.

Alternatively (no pun intended), I play an alt. I haven't levelled a character since Cataclysm came out, so going back and playing through the game from the start is interesting and a new perspective, and completely different than when I did it seven years ago or whenever it was (and the coolest part is that five years have passed in the game world, as far as the story went, so things actually progressed). I started some Horde alts (because my main account is full), but also a Pandaren monk, a new class and race, in a new zone, and the experience was pretty awesome.

So, as you can see, err... read... I've been having a lot of fun being back in the World of Warcraft, and I feel as though the game itself is more fun now than it ever has been. The only thing missing is friends to play with. It seems ridiculous that it's an MMO and I have no one to play with, but I've tried to get everyone I know to play with me, and I've got a few people to say they would, but then just never do. I'm lonely... when I play I wish I had a friend to quest with and to do dungeons with, but I don't. I think that is the last thing that would make the experience the most fun possible. Ah well, things can't be perfect.

I'm gonna continue to spend free time playing, relax and explore the world, have fun and have a good time.

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