A Day in the Life Revisited

Back in September last year I wrote a post called "A Day in the Life", in which I talked a bit about how I actually spend my time in game. It's interesting to look back on that now, because things have certainly changed a lot. Back then, I was still in my old guild, but it was already mostly dead. I didn't get to run any operations. I also seemed to play under a sort of "priority" system, where there were things that I definitely wanted to get done every day and others that I didn't consider as important and would skip sometimes.

Nowadays I'm a lot more reliant on my guild to provide me with entertainment and as such my play time ebbs and flows with the pulse of guild life. Since I have irregular work patterns, the times when I can get online vary.

If I find myself coming online in the morning or early afternoon, the guild is usually very quiet. If anyone's online, it's generally just someone quietly grinding away on another alt or something. Personally I will use this time to rotate through my own alts, check their mails, send the companions out on missions and do some trading or crafting. I might also engage in a little bit of solo play: a random warzone, (rarely) a flashpoint via the group finder or I might do a couple of quests. On the whole I tend to spend only very little time playing like this though, as I know that more engaging things await if I can be there in the evenings.

Late afternoon is usually the time when guildies slowly start to trickle online, including my pet tank. Depending on how much time each of us has, we'll spend some time questing together or doing flashpoints. Basically, I do the same things I mentioned above, but with company so that they are much more fun.

In the evening, if there is an operation or other guild event going on, we will both join for that most times. Depending on what exactly it is, these tend to run for two to three hours on average.

Once operations come to an end, activity in the guild sees a sharp drop-off, as people who have to get up early for work have to call it a night, and others might simply consider themselves "done for the day" with no interest in doing anything outside of ops. However, most nights there are also two or three brave souls left who like to stay up late and enjoy PvP. If I'm in the mood I will join them for a few games, as the daily victories seem to come that much quicker when accompanied by friendly banter.

I guess some people would find this kind of relatively structured play off-putting, but personally I have to say that it's pretty nice to have a set pattern that you can slip right into, no matter what time of day you get online.