Motivation

Is it rooted in progression? Is it the thrill of playing with your friends? Is the potential for something new and exciting up ahead?

Strangely enough, I haven’t pushed my mage beyond 60 yet. She did some Hellfire quests, a horrific PUG through Ramparts, and grabbed all of the flightpoints in Hellfire, Terrokar Forest, Zangarmarsh and Nagrand. Her lethargy is certainly not for lack of quests or rewards, ‘cause they run a’plenty in the Oh El. I actually think it’s for lack of friends in the game.

My first push from 60-70 was with my old guild, with whom I leveled to 60 in “Classic WoW,” pre-BC. After 70, though, there was a bit of a falling out, and I’ve yet to find a decent guild since. Not a decent guild; that’s the wrong wording. I’ve yet to find a guild where I’ve fit in, and made friends. I think the most time I’ve ever spent in a guild has been 5 months or so. Most of the time I end up leaving after a month at the most, simply because no one ever talks, or talks to me, and there’s just no socializing to be found. No general conversation, lame guild chat saturated with links to gear people will never have, and a greater sense that you’re just not there. I’ve heard that some of the higher-end raiding guilds will simply regard your character as just another body of the 10 or 25 or 40 total they need to achieve their goals. In my guild experience, it’s been the same situation, only the guilds I’ve joined don’t have any goals.

Post-70, in February 2007, I jumped servers to get out of my classic guild. Four months later, I jumped again. Now, I’m on another server, and still having the same problem – loneliness. I’m searching for friends. The irony is crushing. In a game where a reported 9.5 million people play globally, I’ve yet to find people I can connect with on a social level.

This wasn’t meant to be a QQ post. I’m generally a homebody in RL, and have a few select good friends, but I don’t know anyone else who plays WoW. I can certainly continue my solo style, but I can’t help missing that element of group play just a little. I certainly get nothing but frustration in PUGS. That, or cool professionalism from good players. And in those cases, we get in, get the job done, and get out with little or no conversation.

A nice counterbalance to my WoW solitude has been Team Fortress 2, which is fucking killer.

WoW: low-key, task-oriented, amusing, entertaining.

TF2: Loud, crude, yelling, rocket-to-the-face-as-your-killer-dies-in-Pyro-flames insane. :)