My gaming life has been through a lot of change lately. Long gone are the days when I raided and kept up with how things changed with each patch in WoW. And in FFXIV, I am so far behind on the story that I’m beginning to wonder if I’ll ever see it while it is current.
My little pup somewhat sealed the deal on my limited game time. And I’m never going back – I am officially a dog mom. And I love spending my time with him. But I do occasionally miss the socialisation and stress relief my gaming hobby provided. Hey – socialisation isn’t just for dogs! 😛
Some days I only get to play 30 minutes a day. Some days I don’t get to play at all. And ofcourse, the more my pup grows up, the more things settle down and the more time I get for my own stuff. Currently, I am flip flopping between three games trying to find that perfect zen state. That’s somewhat the story of my life right now with the move and all. Yes, I know it’s been six months but hey, I apparently am an OCD musician who is resistant to change and takes a while to put down roots. But back to gaming for now.
The three games I swing between are WoW, FFXIV and Hearthstone. I tried Legion in WoW and loved it until a few months after I hit level 110. I began with my gnome mage and did World Quests and a bit of LFR but never managed to do much more. And frankly there didn’t seem to be much of a point to do a whole lot more of the same. World quests became redundant after a point since I never really plan on raiding, so I don’t need lots of gear. I predictably then moved onto leveling alts and enjoyed that for a while. But it wasn’t long before my initial excitement just fizzled out and once I couldn’t afford the token in gold anymore, I decided just to switch it up and try FFXIV. On the plus side, playing my gnomes was awesome.
FFXIV for me was the exact opposite – there was OODLES to do. There are so many classes and jobs and story arcs that I haven’t yet explored. The music and art offer a welcome change. And so I began picking up where I left off. And here I am now, absolutely drowning in things to do. The problem is, everything takes a long time – which is great, I enjoy the challenge. But sometimes, with my limited gaming time, it feels like very little progress is being made. Heck, my pup has learned to do neat tricks like twirl, walk back, bop his nose on specific spots, shake, high five and lots more. And here I am STILL leveling my bloody White Mage and Summoner, and STILL working on trying to get my ilvl on my Black Mage high enough to do the next part of the main story quest line. On the bright side I love playing a Lalafell, and the trailer for Stormblood left in super fangirl mode with stars in my eyes.
Now we come to Hearthstone, an unlikely game for me to begin with since I’ve never been into competitive card games and deck building. But it offers small goals I can reach everyday like those daily quests. Then I make gold with those daily quests and buy solo adventures. That’s my play style and it was going great until they decided to get rid of buyable solo adventures with the new expansion. I really should’ve kept up with the news on it but I had no idea. So now, I’m close to buying the final wing of Karazhan (which is super fun fyi) but then what? The bright side is that the game offers me goals I can accomplish in an evening – but sadly not much more without adventures to buy.
That brings to me to the question of the hour – is there a game out there for me? Or is my dissatisfaction just another sign of moving-into-my-new-life growing pains? I just had to get it all off my chest. Because I remember the good times of logging on and having fun and looking forward to gaming. And I want those feelings back. The excitement and the enthusiasm with which I looked forward to and read about those games. I miss it. I know moving and change happens but there are some things about my old life that I miss and want in my new life here.
Heals n Heels 