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Officers' Quarters: Breaking good
Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook. Breaks are good. Everyone needs a break from something that they do on a regular basis: work, school, sports, etc. Raiding is no different. Raiders need breaks. So do roleplayers, arena teams, and achievement junkies. Whether it's one person stepping away from WoW for a little while or a team taking a week or two off from group activities, this kind of short-term sabbatical is a healthy practice. As an officer, breaks can be dangerous to your guild if you handle them poorly. Take a lesson from the Horde: Thrall needed a break and now Durotar is a war zone. Let's look at the right way to manage it.
The Daily Grind: Does absence make the heart grow fonder?
Single-player games have at least one distinct advantage over MMOs -- they don't go anywhere. You can spend months not playing one, and if you're behind at all, it's just a matter of not having bought all the DLC as it became available. Not so with online games, where a few months off can leave you behind the curve in both gear and incremental changes to your class of choice, making it almost easier to just start over. Even in a game like Guild Wars, where your character is never going anywhere and returning to the game just requires a login, losing some in-game time can leave you out in the cold. For some players, of course, this is what makes taking some time off attractive in the first place. The progression itself is enjoyable, not the end goal, and it's more fun to come back to World of Warcraft every few months to earn up new equipment rather than keep playing with the equipment you've got. So what about you? Are you more or less likely to return to a game as time passes? Do you get turned off by thinking of how much catching up you'll need to do, or is that the part of the game that really excites you anyway? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
The Daily Grind: What game do you watch the most, but don't currently play?
Sometimes we all take a break from an MMO, even if we're still enjoying parts of it. Other times, we're deciding on a purchase or wondering whether or not to come back, and it requires a lot of observation and research. It can be hard to know if it's time to come back to an old game or give a new one a chance, and often we've all got that upcoming title to obsess over. The biggest chore can be time management, where that wonderful thing known as life makes you choose just one game from a couple potentials. So what game are you watching patiently while hoping for a patch or expansion to fix issues preventing you from being able to subscribe to it? Or for that matter, what upcoming game can't you stop reading up on and obsessing over because it looks like the very thing you've been wanting from your MMOs.
Breakfast Topic: A change of pace
While I enjoy playing World of Warcraft, there are times when it feels like too much work and I need to take some sort of forced vacation. I got that last week when I needed to take my wife to the hospital and we were both properly pried away from the game. We were unable to play for a few days, she bedridden and I keeping watch in a sad, Internet-less room. It was actually refreshing. I watched some TV and my wife finally started on Brisngr. As soon as she was up and about again (thankfully), of course, she was right back on top of her game, commandeering the Auction House, performing her usual daily quests, and raiding left and right. In some ways, getting back into Azeroth was theraputic for her (the Inheritance Cycle has been put back on hold). On the other hand, just a few days out of the game and I found it hard to get back into my groove. I've only played one Battleground since we got back from the hospital, one game of Wintergrasp, and not a single Arena match.Actually, I'd found myself spending more of my online time tending to a virtual pet and lately, a virtual restaurant. I guess being so frazzled over the love of my life made me want to relax a little bit, and I don't want to get into the adrenaline-raising tedium of smashing heads just yet. Maybe later. How about you guys? How do you find getting back into the game after a short (or long) break? Do you get right back into the action (like my wife) or do you dilly-dally (like me)? When our lives force us to take a short break or change of pace, how do you get your groove back?
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?
