June 24th will mark my 5th year on World of Warcraft so I've found myself thinking about it and how I ended up sucked in. I've taken many breaks over the years, most for months at a time. Once was to move Germany (and then move back two years later.) Another two breaks were to focus on my studies and plow through finishing my degree.
The latest was a trifecta of fail: First I started working nights and was exhausted constantly. Then the power supply on my PC went rogue (not in a good way.) When that was fixed? My wireless internet spazzed, shit the bed and died. When sleep, PC and internet were fixed I logged on only to find my talent points reset. Again. (Later I shall have to blog about the impotent rage-fit I experience every time I have to redo a character spec. Today is not that day. I need to sleep soon.) I logged off, removed my credit card and played Rift for a week. (HA!)
Always, I come back.
Because of the breaks mentioned I definitely have not gamed consistently and have only one, pathetically (as in not at all) geared 85 to show for it. But the love for the game is there nonetheless and sometimes that is all that matters.
Years before I started playing WoW I heard friends talk about different online games (maybe even once upon a time I even accidentally played Second Life for a day) and honestly didn't "get" it. When a friend sucked my ex into the game, I suddenly understood why wives around the world wanted to stab their husbands in the face for eloping with the Azeroth mistress.
I think it was four months that he played while I watched, twitching at his horrible hobby, listening to “I can’t cast that yet” in dwarven brogue over and over because he couldn’t grasp the concept of a godforsaken global cooldown (hint: you’re not a rogue, dude.) When I actually began to play the button spamming annoyed me even more. (Another story for another day. ;D)
I joined the madness one afternoon when I realized, at 39 weeks pregnant and unable to exist comfortably, that I obviously had nothing but time and needed to do something to maintain a grasp on my sanity. My daughter didn’t make her debut until the 43rd week, one month to the day (and 40 levels later. You know, back when you had to walk everywhere for a quest and there was only the one flight path in Stranglethorn Vale) after I started playing WoW.
I then turned around and dragged nine friends AND my mother into the game. Give me a few more years and I’ll add a 3rd generation of gamer to that roster and the spawn will be rocking the gnome rogue she loves so much.