Game lethargy and over-stimulation … all at the same time.
I should start out with describing what type of a gamer I am … umm … okay it’s not that easy J I’ve been described as a dedicated casual MMO player. I started out in Everquest, got into the raiding scene a bit .. played every day for 4+ hours during the week and pretty much all weekend. Time, jobs and priorities grew and my play time became less. My other hobbies also grew into taking more time. Now I spin, crochet, knit, weave, and game … and participate in a number of different forums (mostly crafting … gaming forums can get scary). I have discovered that I can spin during downtime in MMOs, so there is some overlap in my crafting and gaming, but usually it’s one or the other.
Now I have a job with a 50 minute commute each way … I’m getting more reading done, but it’s hard to game without a connection. Even a 3G connection won’t help as halfway through the trip I lose all connectivity on my iPhone for about 30 seconds. No 3G, no E, no nothing.
So I play for a few hours on weekends, and occasionally a couple hours in the evening … maybe once or twice every couple of weeks. It makes for slow progression, which leads to me getting bored with the characters. I’ll occasionally pick up an “old” MMO and play through the first 10 or so levels just so I can have something different.
Aion just came out and the folks in the office seem to be enjoying it. Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming out and looks fun. Alganon just got reviewed in MMOZine #15 and is looking interesting. But will they fill the void? Will I ever find a game that captures me like Everquest did … or should I just realize that I’ll never regain that “first time” experience?
There’s so many options, but what to choose? Maybe I’ll just stick to free-to-play stuff (DDO-Unlimited recently came out) and see how that goes ….
