wow-break
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Breakfast Topic: Do you take WoW breaks?
Though we all enjoy World of Warcraft -- we wouldn't be here otherwise -- sometimes even the things we love can become a bit tired over time. This is particularly evident now, while we wait for Warlords of Draenor without any new content on the horizon. Going through the same old daily grind can get old quickly, and when the game stops feeling fun and starts feeling like work it may be time for a break. Maybe that break means visiting another game, catching up on your reading list, or even just playing an new character or a new faction for a change of pace. For some of us, these occasional breaks are a necessity to keep our gaming time fun, while others prefer to stick with it and use downtimes like this to catch up on professions, collections, or achievements. So tell us, readers -- which of these categories do you fall in to? Have you ever taken a WoW vacation, however brief?
What do you do when you're away from WoW?
Right now, thanks to an ongoing saga of computer failure, I'm currently on an enforced hiatus from World of Warcraft. Readers, this is not how I want things to be! I've barely touched patch 5.4, I'm missing Hallow's End and all its glorious experience boosts for my alts, and BlizzCon is just a couple of weeks away. The timing for mass electronic failure just could not have been worse. Over the years that I've played WoW, my personal interest in the game has waxed and waned. I think this is probably pretty normal. We all go through phases where we want to play more than at other times. Maybe a person's interest is tied to the release of new content, or maybe it's tied to guild events, or maybe something else entirely. So it's not as if now is the first time I've been away from WoW for a while. What's unusual is that normally I'm away because I want to be, not because I've been forced to by circumstances beyond my control. So, because I'm stuck not playing WoW when I wish I could be playing WoW, I'm immersing myself in the game in other ways. These include things like researching transmog gear, meticulously planning out new alts (including names, backstories, and leveling routes), wistfully reading my friends' accounts of guild raiding progress, and some text-based RP with friends. Thanks to these efforts, I'm managing just fine. I just hope my new monitor gets here quickly. Have you ever been forced into an undesired WoW break thanks to forces beyond your control? What did you do, if anything, to keep yourself engaged with the game? Or did you take it as a sign and go dark for a while? Tell us all about it!
Cheating on WoW
Most of the other WoW gamers I know are simply gamers that play WoW, meaning that they play other games in addition to their Azerothian addiction. My guild forums often have a thread or two going about other games that members are playing, recommending them to everyone else, and there are many references to other games within the world of Warcraft itself. It's obvious that the core audience for this MMO plays other games as well.Personally, with an aging computer and a smallish gaming budget, I've missed out on a lot of the "must play" games of the last few years. World of Warcraft has served me well in that regard, since I haven't really needed to upgrade my hardware to keep playing it and it's a good value for the amount of entertainment it provides. Nonetheless, I have played other games from time to time, but I still find myself logging into Azeroth (and/or Outland) most days of the week, sometimes just to check auctions and mail. Oftentimes, playing other games gives me a needed break from Warcraft, even if only for a week or so. Undoubtedly, these short breaks are one of the things which have kept me playing WoW all these years.All of this leads me to wonder how other players balance their WoW time with their other gaming pursuits. Are you a WoW purist, only playing the one game? Do you own multiple consoles and buy every table-top and computer game that's released? The last few patches have coincided with the release of some pretty big titles and there are more on the way this holiday season. Have you had to make some difficult decisions about how to spend your time and money?
