You see that guy up there? The scary-looking Tauren in the picture? I have discovered that he’s the only reason I’m still playing World of Warcraft.

You may have noticed that I haven’t been writing much lately. Yeah, about that. Honestly I have no excuse except for one. It’s not that I’ve been busy at work (because I have but that’s not the excuse). It’s not that I haven’t had time, because one of the perks of being a shift worker is that you end up getting a fair number of days off. And while I do have plenty going on during that downtime, I like to squeeze in a few hours of WoW time and get my geek on, as they say.

I tweeted this about four days ago, because gaming angst is what Twitter was built for. That, and porn bots.

Staring at the character selection screen and thinking to myself “What the Hell am I supposed to be doing?”

That gem got one Favorite. Thanks @Sophaera!

But that happened. I had just returned from running errands and sat down in front of my computer. I logged into WoW, got to the character selection screen, and stopped. NOTHING was motivating me to take the next step. Not even the things I wrote about in my previous post! Stables, mounts, pet battles, PVP, none of it made me want to click that button.

Obviously this affected the blog. Most of what I post here are things I hope people find helpful, or at least somewhat informative/entertaining. But the main reason I post is because the content I’m discussing is content I’m currently engaged in. When I’m into gold making, I post gold making videos. When I find cool nuggets of info, it goes into a post. The lack of posts is a reflection of my gaming experience. Literally the only reason I have anything at all to post is because my Tauren DK looked cool and I wanted to know how badass a Blood DK would be to level. Turns out, they’re pretty badass.

I was trying to go to sleep this morning (night shift starts tonight), but between the dog barking and a quasi-dream about someone breaking into the house and smashing my head in while I slept, sleep wasn’t gonna happen. I then made the mistake of going on Twitter and read about people bitching about the Timewalker Dungeons on the PTR. Down the rabbit hole I went, reading a few patch 6.2 notes.

That’s when it hit me. Maybe this game wasn’t for me anymore.

FUCKING PEPE DISGUISES! ARE YOU SERIOUS! PATCH 6.2 – LET’S DRESS UP A VANITY BIRD!

Okay, I know that there are things in the game that aren’t for everyone. I know this, and embrace it gladly. World of Warcraft has something for pretty much everyone. Lately I’ve been struggling to find that thing for me.

– Raiding: right now, too much homework involved unless I found a very forgiving team.
– Dungeons: I said this on Twitter, and I’ll say it here – I don’t care how cool you make a dungeon, or what drops in it, or even if it gives you a five dollar coupon for pizza. If I have to sit around with my thumb up my ass for 20-30 minutes before I can even get in to start running the damn thing, I’m not doing it.
– PVP: I’m not pro. I’m whatever very not pro would be. But when I was running BG’s on my Warrior, things were fine if I had a healer nearby. But that doesn’t happen often, which leads to spending fifteen minutes for what, fifty honor points?
– Garrisons: Fuck this. Seriously. If you took the garrison function out of Warlords of Draenor, there’d be a few dailies to do, and raids. Servers would be filled with tumbleweeds. Pepe, that stupid bird that people seem fascinated with, comes from garrisons. Music box, followers, and selfie cams. And more mindless busy work in 6.2 when SHIPS! Followers at Sea!

Right now, leveling is my jam. I try to get as much done in the time that I have. Between a few hours last night and a couple today, my Blood Death Knight is at 99. One more level and then… what?

It’s people, I think. That’s what I need. Somehow I need to find a people that I enjoy engaging with online, in game.

That’s something I think I’ll work on when I get back from my vacation. Two nights of work, and then five days in sunny Florida. When I get back, I’m hoping my head will be in a better place.

Do you play WoW? What is keeping you playing right now?