Burnt Out and Stressed Out

For a while now I’ve not been happy in game. It’s that pre expansion lull, which I’ve had before but personally I think Blizzard released the 4.3 patch too far away from the MoP release. To put it bluntly, I’m pretty damn bored. I have tried keeping my interest alive by levelling alts, but now Pinkamena is 85 I can’t bear the thought of levelling another alt, even my lvl 82 hunter. The only thing I do still enjoy is raiding. Not LFR or random pugs, I like raiding with my guildies. We tend to clear normal DS in one night now, leading to a fun alt run not long ago, but I’d also like to try some heroic modes. But this is where the problem is.

My guild is a ‘mature’ guild. Most of our members are adults with jobs, kids and other responsibilities. And I’m guessing there may be some burn out there too. Which means a lot of raids are being cancelled, with only four or five sign ups. On the occasions we have 7 or 8 sign ups we will pug in a few members, but that tends to mean we don’t try HC modes. I can’t actually remember the last time we had an entirely guild run. And it’s gotten to the point where I’m not sure what to do any more.

Today I spent the afternoon on Pinkie, and took the plunge and after getting enough VP to replace my crappy green trunket, I did LFR for the first time. Both parts. I got the shoulder token to replace the blue ones I was wearing, and a ring, but I ended up losing the staff from Deathwing to a 390+ geared Balance Druid. I guess it was the straw that broke the camels back.

I logged off and just don’t have the will to log back on. There is no raid tonight, so I’m sat at home waiting for pizza and watching antique programs.

Like I say, I don’t know what to do. The options before me are quitting the game til MoP, or trying to find a guild that is raiding. The thing is I love my guild, I love the people in it, but I don’t love the lack of raids. I don’t want to leave but I want to raid! Ack! And if I take a break, what will I do in the mean time? I just can’t get into SW:TOR, not sure I want to spend money of Tera as I keep buying games that I end up not subbing to for more than a few months.

There is always Diablo 3. I signed up for the annual pass so I get it free, and it’s downloading as I type. I have been waiting for it for a long time, and I’ll be able to keep in touch with people via Real ID.

So anyway, I’m far too stressed out to say this is all about a game!

Good News! But A Whole Other Worry.

Well after my last post there has been much discussion on our guild forum, resulting in a brilliant DS run last night. People signed up in good time (we even had to bench one as we were 11 rather than 10), we started on time and we were all prepared. We sailed through the first 4 bosses (buff turned OFF), then managed to down Ultraxion in 3 tries. I won my tier pants. Well actually I won a few things but I gave the others away because I didn’t want to be greedy. Yeah, I’m daft like that. I can say the whole thing on board the ship is damn confusing though, so we need to work on that.

But after the joys of last night come the worries of today. Last August I had what I thought was two nasty stomach bugs about a week apart. After the second one I hadn’t been able to eat more than a few mouthfuls for a week or so afterwards, and was very tender on the right hand side of my stomach. So I went to the Doctors who sent me straight to hospital for tests. I was given fluids and an anti nausea drug, which helped me start eating again, and all tests done there were normal, so it was decided I needed an abdominal scan. It was done at a later date in September as an outpatient. Months went passed and finally in November I got a letter saying they needed to discuss my scan with me. I had an appointment for Dec 13th, which was cancelled on the day. But I was assured I would get another appointment in a few weeks.

I didn’t. It took 3 days of phoning different numbers to finally get the appointment I finally have today. Now I am not thinking I am dying. I’m still sore on the right hand side of my abdomen but it’s bearable. And if I get there and the doctor says “Oh, your scan showed nothing, you’re being discharge” I’ll kill him as that could have been said in a letter. But I am worried. It doesn’t help that the Morecambe Bay Health Trust which runs the hospital I go to has recently been in the news because of…. You guessed it, the high number of appointments being cancelled and not rescheduled in its hospitals. Some of which were for seriously ill patients. It’s not good.

Anyway, I have a few hours of work to do then I’m off to see what’s up. I’ll let you know either way.

The Fine Line Between Social and Casual

I’ll admit this entry was done in reaction to http://www.guildmum.com/2012/02/what-do-you-expect-of-a-raid-and-other-raiders.html post here. It’s something I’ve been pondering a while now though.

Way back in 2005/2006, before my first marriage went bad, I was quite the raider in Warcraft. Now I’ve never been THAT hardcore, I wasn’t in guilds that tried to get even server first kills, but at one point I thought nothing of raiding 5 days a week, possibly more. This was before the days of fish feasts and cauldrons, so I bought all my own food, pots, bandages etc. Eventually though it all caught up with me and I cut back to 3 days a week max, something I have always stuck to.

After my marriage broke up and I met my partner, G, I didn’t have net access for a while and didn’t play WoW at all for about 6 months. G doesn’t play, he like antiques not computers, and he always used to find my tales of Warcraft amusing but also kind of worrying when I told him of the time I used to spend on it. So when I did start playing again we sat down and talked, and came to an understanding. I would only raid 3 nights a week maximum, I wouldn’t spend all day on the game and ignore G, and weekends were ‘our time’. We are both happy with this still.

But herein lies the issue. I love my guild. I love the people in the guild. I don’t care we are not the most progressed guild on our server. But I DO want to progress. And herein lies the problem. As well as the issues brought up by Seph, I feel there is another issue. Raid attendance.

We are scheduled to raid on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. But we are a mature guild, with most members having families and careers. Which brings its own problems. Currently we have members who cannot raid for various reasons, such as moving house, new jobs or being busy in their existing jobs. Non of which can be helped; I myself can no longer raid on Tuesdays thanks to my improved job. But sometimes raid once a week at most and even then it may be FL over DS if we have to pug members in we don’t know. How do we progress like that? And when I have limited raiding time I try and make the most of the time I do have.

So what to do? Can a guild be social AND casual? Can things pick up in my guild? Do I stick with the people I know and love or look at new guilds? I think for now it’s wait and see.