I pretty much hated Silithis, but it made for a cool pic.
Last week I wrote a post about how well I’ve been adjusting to life without World of Warcraft. For the most part, I have had far fewer cravings for the game than I had expected, and have even felt very uninspired with respect to finishing up the feral druid articles that I had been working on at the time I decided to take a break.
World of Warcraft… and the power of suggestion
So a couple of days after I published that article, a friend of mine posted a “come back to WoW” comment on my Facebook page.
And this is where the title of this post comes from. The simple suggestion by that person reopened my mind to WoW. The call of the game, and the corresponding opportunity to be with friends, made a stronger impression with me than either of us could have anticipated!
So, does this mean I go back? For the time being, no. I still need time away from the game, and if I do play again, it will be in a different situation, with a smaller time commitment and different objectives. I’ll mix some of the familiar with the unfamiliar, exploring parts of the game that don’t necessitate a regular raid schedule. But now is not the time yet.
Each day has felt like forever, and yet the past month has flown by. It’s interesting how that happens…
* * * * *
During this break, I’ve engaged myself in hobbies and activities that I had previously not taken the time to enjoy when I was playing. First and foremost, I’ve been reading a lot.
Books
Last week, Franklin & Marshall held their annual used book sale, a three-day event. I went over with a friend on Monday (May 24), the first day, and between the two of us we bought around 35 books for under $50! I was able to pick up about a dozen Agatha Christie novels (Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot), as well as three of Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles series, a Lord Peter Wimsey short story collection, and a couple of Sherlock Holmes pastiches. With paperbacks at 50 cents apiece, it was difficult to go wrong!
I’m a big fan of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (and those authors who lovingly craft tales that attempt to fill in holes in the Holmes canon), and other authors of mystery fiction from the last half of the 19th-century through middle of the 20th. I suppose that my interest comes partially from watching so much of the PBS program ”Mystery” while I was growing up. At any rate, I can devour these books fairly easily, and if I get tired of one, I’m usually in the process of reading three to five books at any given time, so I eventually finish them all!
I’ve also recently picked up The Second Rumpole Omnibus, a collection which I had set down about eighteen months ago and forgotten about. I left off at a story that I wasn’t enjoying, but I am determined to power through it and move on to stories that I’m sure I will enjoy more.
Finally, I’ve recently started rereading the second to last book in Jack Whyte’s Camulod Chronicles, The Lance Thrower. I’ve only ever read each of the last two books in the series once, and I’d like to read them again in order to have a better understanding of what happened. For anyone interested in historical fiction and an Arthurian theme, the entire nine-book series is highly recommended.
I tend to read books multiple times, which I guess is strange. However, a book that I enjoy is almost always a book that I can read more than once, since I tend to get new things out of it on a second or third read-through.
There are some local bookstores downtown that I’d like to check out on one of my walks, so perhaps I’ll be able to pick up some more treasures in the near future.
Music
In addition to constantly uploading music to my hard drive, I’ve been playing more guitar lately. While my intention has always been that I would play my guitar every day, I had let it go this year to the point where I was almost never playing. As someone who loves to play guitar, noticing the callouses disappear from my fingertips was disheartening, and when I would occasionally attempt to play, both my muscle memory and fingertips were so ill-equipped that I would put down the instrument after a few minutes… And the cycle continued – disillusionment led to less playing, which led to more disillusionment when I’d try to play again, and so on.
Lately, since I moved out of my old place, I’ve gotten the opportunity to spend more time outside. I have, of course, been walking and taking pictures, but I’ve also spent a lot of time sitting on the porch, reading or looking at my surroundings. Being in a new place, and more exposed to the outdoors, has inspired me to pick up the guitar at times. As such, I played more guitar in the last three weeks of May than I did from January through April combined. I haven’t yet played a long session, and I’ve done very little as far as working on new material, but the simple act of sitting down with my acoustic and playing through some old songs and song bits has been gratifying. My callouses are slowly developing on my left hand again, and my picking hand is true more often than it had been.
Photography
As I mentioned, I’ve gone on a few walks where I took some pictures, and have posted photos from those walks on two occasions in the past few weeks. I’m about as fledgling as they come when it comes to photography, but I’ve concentrated on taking pictures of things that I find beautiful or interesting. I’m still learning how to use my camera, and it is my hope that as time goes by and I gain experience with it, I will be able to post a greater variety of quality photos. Most recently, I’ve concentrated on nature photography, but I would like to expand my horizons!
Video Games
Ah, this is where it gets tricky. In lieu of WoW, I’ve spent time with a half-dozen games over the past few weeks: Portal and Half-Life 2 for Mac, Dragon Age: Origins and Tiger Woods 07 for 360, and Scribblenauts and Professor Layton and the Curious Village for DS. Portal, Half-Life 2 and Tiger Woods have each gotten more than 90 minutes of play from me; the others did not hold my attention for long, for various reasons.
There is a common reason that none of these games has become my “go-to” game at this point: simply, I am still wired for WoW right now.
However, there are other reasons. In the case of Dragon Age, while the game seems to be very interesting (and I’m loving the music!), I don’t like the control scheme at all. I need to put some more time into it before I decide to scrap it and perhaps pick up the Mac version, but my first impression was frustrating… I’m not a big fan of using a console controller for these types of games.
In the cases of Professor Layton and Scribblenauts, I’m probably just not feeling puzzle games right now. I like them both, conceptually, but I’ve only put about 30-40 minutes into each in the past month. I’ll put them down and pick them up later if I feel so moved.
I have many other games to try, and so I’ll continue to throw a few against the wall every so often and see which one sticks.
Conclusion
I’ve had mixed results with not only finding other hobbies to get back into, but having the discipline to keep at them. With books, it has been easy – in fact, I’ve had to pace myself at times. Playing guitar has been more of a process (albeit a rewarding one), and finding new games to latch onto has been a challenge. We’ll see how June goes!
