26/09/2019

Funk

Recently a commenter expressed worry about the game's (and presumably my own) well-being, based on my recent (relative) silence on the blog. I'll admit it: I'm in a bit of a funk.

It may not be obvious, but the regularity with which I've been putting out posts on here has been a fragile thing for a while, as I've had less and less time to both play and write over the years, first going from working part time to full time, and then adding a long commute to my job every morning. There've been many times when my posting frequency wavered, such as when I was ill or went on holiday for a while, but I always managed to get back on track.

This past month however, I've been hit by what you could call a perfect storm:

First off, I'm in one of those phases where I'm not super excited about playing SWTOR. This isn't really unusual by itself as I always have my ups and downs with the game and times when I want to play more or less. It does also tend to reduce my desire to write about it, but usually I've been able to compensate.

However, this time about a month ago also saw the launch of WoW Classic, a game that I was very much looking forward to and which to be honest has me more excited than anything MMO-related has managed since 2011 (when SWTOR launched). So not only have I been feeling a bit down on SWTOR, all my free time has gone into thinking about, playing, and writing about another game with the sort of enthusiasm I only get to experience about once a decade. (If you are at all interested, those posts have gone onto my old WoW blog.)

Part of me has been feeling a little guilty about letting my routine on here slide because of this, but ultimately it's all meant to be fun for me, so I should be able to do what I feel like, damn it! Mind you though, even as I say this, that nagging little voice at the back of my head has been insistent enough that I felt the need to at least sort of explain myself in this post.

So where am I with SWTOR at the moment? I don't really see myself going anywhere. I'm still excited about the expansion and love all my characters. However, I do feel like I'm in a bit of a holding pattern until Onslaught's launch.

Four months ago I was excited about getting ready for the expansion, but while I achieved some of the goals I set myself surprisingly quickly, others haven't really gone anywhere. I was really hoping to kill Dread Master Brontes on master mode for example, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen now (I might go into more detail about that in a separate post), so now the main things I keep thinking about is that I should be spending all those character-bound currencies before they go away, but there isn't really anything I want to buy with them so I'm not particularly enthused about that either.

Not even my beloved guild of nearly eight years has been motivating me to log in lately, for a variety of reasons. No big drama, just the sort of thing that makes you think: "I'd rather not deal with that right now if I don't have to".

I'm still logging in and doing things on a smaller scale though. For example I'm still selling off small amounts of old crafting mats from my legacy cargo hold day after day to increase my credit count, though I'm not sure for what purpose exactly as I already have more money than I know what to do with. This week the Pirate Incursion event also made another unexpectedly quick return, which means that I'm working on more pacifist adventures, yay!

However, that level of engagement isn't really enough to inspire a blog post every three to five days right now, which used to be my target. I'll have to decide on a new routine that works a bit better for where I am right now - maybe posting once a week? (I'm not one of those people for whom it works well to just write whenever they feel like it.) We'll see.

Anyway, none of this is indicative of any problems with the game from my point of view. Even though I discovered that I wasn't born to be a PTS tester, I do try to keep an eye on the dev tracker, where Eric and Dan keep posting really insightful updates about what's happening on there and respond to people's feedback. I also finally went back and read some of the more recent news articles posted on the official website, such as about the making of Onderon and Mek-Sha or "Behind The Scenes Of World Design", which were all really interesting and made me all the more interested in the expansion.

How about you all tell me what's been keeping you engaged and interested as of late?

9 comments :

  1. I'm in a holding pattern for MMOs at the moment.

    In Swtor I'm waiting for the expansion. I hit my goal of having my main hit command rank 300 for the flair. After that with the gearing reset coming I'm just lying low until we're all back re-gearing. I might even try to hit PvP rank 100 this time around. I've said that a number of times in the past, so I'm not holding my breath. :chuckle:

    In Wow Retail the content drops just aren't doing it for me as motivation. I'll probably still do things there sporadically, but I have no excitement to fuel daily playing.

    In Wow Classic, I'm waiting for my static group to start back up -- real life got in the way for some of them. I've also found that while I'll likely leave one toon on the PvP server where my guildies are at, I'd rather play on a PvE server so that I can enjoy things without looking over my shoulder. With all of the transfers my faction seems to be on the short end of the stick for balance. (It's hard to tell since Blizzard broke the LFG addons which also, probably unintentionally, broke all the Census addons.) I'd like to move a toon or two from PvP to PvE because of the time investment already made, but I may just have to relevel.

    In Secret World Legends, I stalled out after reaching Tokyo. I should push through that and finish the available story content. Though with Funcom not providing any sort of roadmap for the future it is hard to continue.

    I have Guild Wars 2, Lotro, and ESO installed. I've dabbled in those, but just haven't committed the time to seeing their stories. I've also been tempted to level a toon in Everquest just to see their content and understand how it fits in the history of MMOs, but I suspect I'll not manage that. Still having options and new experience around is nice.

    Amusingly, the thing I'm playing most is the Nintendo Switch I got for my birthday. I'm having fun replaying some of the emulated NES & SNES games I enjoyed in the past. Maybe I just need a breather from my 'main' games for a bit to recharge my mental batteries.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Levelling groups can be a tricky thing - my own shaman in Classic has fallen behind largely because I want to level her with my husband and his enthusiasm for Classic is nowhere near my own, so I can only get him to play every couple of days. ^^;

      And I think we all need a break from even the most beloved MMOs every now and then.

      Delete
  2. If you'd had your funk in the middle of Blaugust it would have made for a great conversation-starter. There was some discussion back then about whether it's advisable to run mutiple blogs devoted to specific topics or one blog that covers everything you care to write about. I think the consensus was one blog (I am trying desperately hard not to add "to rule them all"... and failing) but I believe you were the prime example of the multiple blogger.

    I thought a lot about it before I started including music posts on my blog. I had been minded to start a separate blog for it but it was the conversation in Blaugust that decided me to keep all my eggs in the one basket. I'm still not entirely sure about it but your post today gives a solid argument for not splitting the audience. I hadn't noticed you were posting less because... well, you aren't. I have your WoW blog and this one on my blog roll so I see all the posts on both. The WoW Classic ones have been excellent reading (as are all your posts) and since I'm playing that game and not SWtOR right now I'm naturally keen you should concentrate on that. Your Star Wars audience, however, may not even know you have other blogs, let alone be interested in them, so it wil appear to them that your signal is begining to fade. If all the posts were on the same blog they might stil not want to read most of them but a least they'd know you were active and posting.

    Classic is a bit of a facer. You can see from the blogosphere that those it's bitten have been been bitten hard. I'm struggling to keep my own blog balanced. I have to actively look for non-Classic posts every three or four days just to stop it being all Classic all the time. The fact is, though, that as Wilhelm commented yesterday, Classic just spews out post hooks like a baler dropping bales (it's harvest time around here...). Also, as I know from GW2, it gets harder and harder to find something to say about a game that seems to be determined to drag itself down into mediocrity or worse. (Not saying SW:tOR is doing that but al MMORPGs go through their longeurs...).

    I'm stil hoping to get back to SW:tOR sometime but the window for that is shrinking all the time as it recedes into the future. Classic now, GW2 has suddenly got a lot better, EQII expansion most likely in November, plus I go back to work in mid-October after my long summer of idleness...

    As a reader, I don't really mind what you write about. Your posts are always right up there among the most interesting and absorbing I read every week. So long as you keep posting about something I'll be happy. Although if it's mostly about Classic that would suit me very well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. First off, thank you for the kind words, Bhag! Really nice to get compliments like that from a blogger I admire a lot.

      I agree that the multiple blogs have their downsides but to me it's really important that all my content goes into the correct "bin" so to speak, hehe. It hasn't been an issue as long as I was able to fulfil my own expectations, which was to say regular posts on here and irregular ones on the other blogs whenever I feel like it. For example I haven't had anything to say about Neverwinter in a couple of months but that hasn't bothered me because I went into that particular blogging project with the expectation that it would be on and off, not meaning to pursue a regular audience.

      Technically all three blogs are linked up via the sidebar by the way, but I guess I can't fault anyone for not scrolling down that far...

      WoW Classic is certainly a phenomenon. Not everyone is into it, but those of us who are, are in deep! I've stayed up stupidly late way too many times throughout the last month and had to actively rein myself in for it not to interfere with my everyday life. That stuff is still addictive if you don't watch out!

      I'll have a lot more posts about it to make for sure. And I'm happy for each one you make on the subject as well. :P

      Delete
  3. I'd noticed a drop off in posts recently and assumed you were just trying to adjust the pacing so that your 1000th post would be on May the 4th 2020. I like to overthink things and ignore the obvious so you having nothing to write about didn't even occur to me.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ahaha, thanks Forztr, that comment made me snort out loud during my lunch break at work. I'd never even have thought about anything like that, but it's a cute idea. Unfortunately you made me do the maths now and I'd actually have to post more often to be able to hit that target (10-11 posts a month), not less.

      Delete
  4. I figure that as long as you're still keeping up a post per week (sorta) routine, you're fine. I've been amazed how you've been able to keep going with the constant flow of updates on both this and your other blogs, so this temporary slowdown is allowed.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I guess it's all relative. I look at some of the people on my blog roll who manage to update every day and feel very slow and unproductive in comparison!

      Delete
  5. Your "lacking motivation" mode is still about 10x as engaged as I am when I really lack motivation :P

    I'm splitting my time between both versions of WoW and a little EVE and and FFXIV on the side.

    ReplyDelete

Share your opinion! Everyone is welcome, as long as things stay polite. I also read comments on older posts, so don't be shy. :)