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60 druid, The Venture Co, EU. (13/33/5 feral tank spec)

I quit WoW on 26 August 06 03:32 CEST. I decided to quit on the 25th, and luckily the 26th was when my monthly game time was expiring. I’m not sure that I would have gone through with it had I had a longer run out period. I quit the payment and removed my credit card number from the payment system, so I’ll have to consciously enter it again to restart my character.

Although the temptation is there I haven’t gone back yet. I feel like an AA guy saying “one day at a time”. I didn’t delete my character or bank because I was telling myself I might consider playing the Burning Crusade expansion, but that’s probably a real bad idea so I think I’ll pass.

I was not the worse of the addicts, I played 6 to 8 hours a day for about 4 months and I considered myself a “casual player” - haha, what a joke! I was considering back in July that I wasn’t enjoying it as much any more - I was part of a small guild and didn’t want to join a large raiding guild, but at the same time I am really competitive with myself so wanted to try out the tough stuff. We joined with a coalition of other small guilds and tried that for a month or 2.

It was good, with some really cool people, but when I see people complaining online about 4 hour raids I laugh - we took 8-9 hours at a time due to people leaving, getting substitutes etc. I led one of the ZG raids, which was a good learning experience, but boy that was tough. At the time there was no DKP which didn’t help matters, we were rolling on each drop so it was really hard to get people to commit to the raids and see them through.

The coalition started changing a bit, deciding to get more organised, with DKP etc. I was asked about whether I was going to keep doing the coalition raids. They just loved the ~12,000 armor druid tank, and I was good with tactics and a trusted master looter. I asked what kind of commitment is necessary, because I will not commit to something I am not able to follow through on. They told me minimum of 2 runs per week (AQ20 and/or ZG).

I just couldn’t afford that any more… I was willing to commit 1 evening a week to a regular event, and possibly a second or even 3rd evening depending on the week.. but I could only ever guarantee 1 to them. Unfortunately that was not enough for them so I bowed out as a regular member. I said if they need a substitute tank, I was happy to step in. Pity, because some of those guys were really, really cool people.

After I stopped raiding I did a lot of the 5 and 10-man instances, I got my UBRS key, running Baron to figure out Baron 45 strategy, and having lots of fun with my guild. The game became fun again! I was really enjoying myself, and our guild started expanding from 8 to 10 to 20 as we had un-guilded guys be the 5 man into instances or join us in UBRS when we needed a sub. We got a good rep on the server as decent, friendly, non-a$$holes, with some fairly skilled players.

Then it started going wrong again. We grewing too fast as a guild, and that caused its demise. We wanted to get us to ZG and AQ20 raiding level quickly and we were a lot less discriminating than we might have been in accepting new candidates. Older members didn’t get on with the new guys and things started to disintegrate. Lesson: Rome wasn’t built in a day, neither is a raiding guild.

I had 3 goals playing WoW:

• Fun: Have fun playing
• Competitive: Do stuff that’s challenging
• Reality: Don’t let the game affect real life negatively

Ultimately I was hitting 1/3, and that only about 50% of my time playing.

One of the guys at work is in an old school guild of about 50 mates with MC on farm and working on BWL - they go every Wednesday to either of them, and play little or no WoW besides that one evening a week. I can see the attraction of that, that’s a great way to play. If I could get to that, I would love it, but I’d have to sacrifice playing with my friends.

I guess I have to be thankful that our guild imploded, otherwise I’d probably still be playing from 6pm to 2am every day and longer on weekends. I wouldn’t be out cycling or playing rugby or going to bars or any of the normal activities of a semi-healthy 28yr old.

When I was levelling my druid I was averaging about 6-8 hours a day for almost 4 months.. that’s fuckin crazy! That’s 6-8 hours 7 days a week - more than my full time job and they pay me a lot of money for that privilege! One job is enough.

Only recently seen this, explains some management decisions we’ve all experienced.

In the beginning was the Plan and then came the Assumption.

And the Assumptions were without form, and the Plan was completely without substance, and darkness was upon the faces of the workers.

And they spoke amongst themselves saying, “It is a crock of shit, and it stinketh.”

And the workers went unto their supervisors and sayeth, “It is a pail of dung and none may abide the odor thereof.”

And the supervisors went unto their managers and sayeth unto them, “It is a container of excrement and it is very strong, such that none may abide by it.”

And the managers went unto their directors and sayeth, “It is a vessel of fertilizer, and none may abide its strength.”

And the directors spoke among themselves saying to one another, “It contains that which aids plant growth, and it is very strong.”

And the directors went unto their vice presidents to sayeth unto them, “It promotes growth and is very powerful.”

And the vice presidents went unto the president and sayeth unto him, “This new plan will actively promote the growth and efficiency of this company, and these areas in particular.” And the president looked upon the Plan, and saw that it was good.

And the Plan became Policy

And this is how Shit Happens.

totse.com | How Shit Happens