I Paused My Game to Write This

It’s been a while since I blogged. Too long. This time it wasn’t out of fear, but simple frustrated laziness. I wrote out several would be and could be entries over the past few months. You can see how far they got. A reoccurring theme it seems revolves around my gaming habits. (Hint: Gaming relentlessly is a part of that “frustrated laziness” bullshit I mentioned) I am without any doubt or reservation, a gaming addict. When I don’t have a controller in my hand, I watch Youtube videos on my favorite titles. It’s a part of my life.

I read blogs about gaming, and wait with unrestrained impatience for new releases, remasters of old titles, and remakes of classic games. Looking at you Nintendo (It’s the 35th anniversary of Zelda, guys! Give us a Zelda 3D ports like you did with Mario!) and SquareEnix. I’ve been following the Activision-Blizzard drama, too.

I dove head first into Blizzard and Warcraft back in 2005. Unlike Everquest 2 or Final Fantasy XI, the game lore and backstory was readily available. It didn’t take a deep understanding of previous titles to learn. It was a fun game. I ran end game content in Vanilla and Burning Crusade. Played solo for most of Wrath, Cata, Mist, and Warlords. Hooked up with my brother’s guild for Legion, and settled in for BoA.

BoA launched and quickly, I came to a realization. BoA amounted to a rehash of Cata without anything new to add. I’d be lying if I said I quit WoW solely over BoA. No. Simply put, WoW was no longer fun. When I logged on, it felt more like a 9-5 job than a game. Once I loved completing reputation grinds for shits and giggles. From Warlords on, if I wanted to use my flying mounts, I had to grind reps. You were allowed a limited number of daily quests and paltry rep points from them. If you were a causal, you were fucked. If you had anything outside of WoW going on, you were fucked.

My wife came to this knowledge long before I did. Working from home gave me the (dis)advantage of switching between work and play. This was how I finished all the rep work for Legion. My epiphany coincided with the launch of patch 8.2. I was already pissed off they made Sylvanas into Garrosh 2.0. I completed the 8.0 and 8.1 reps, albeit slowly. I told myself I’d get through the grind fast. I think I did the dailies in Nazjatar as my Ally Pally for a week. Then one afternoon, I logged on, looked at the list of daily quests, and I logged off. I cancelled my sub before the next billing cycle. I haven’t been back.

Two years gone now and I don’t miss it. I thought I would. Even the chance to play Classic Vanilla is meh. I check in from time to time, reading where the story went. The ending to 9.1 was so bad. Then to learn about the harassment and terrible treatment women and minorities experience at Acti-Bliz. The WoW community always held a high level of toxicity in it. So, it’s not surprising to hear of it behind the scenes, too. I’m so glad they don’t get a dime of my money anymore. 

My new online game is Final Fantasy XIV. I played it way back in 2014, but left when I didn’t find a guild with people my age or maturity. During 8.1, my brother and his wife jumped over to FFXIV and he convinced me the move was a good idea. He was right. Unlike XI, XIV has a rich and dynamic story, loveable and relatable characters. Most importantly, its end game content has never felt as if it needs to be done. I haven’t been playing much the past few months. Finishing The Witch’s Cradle and starting Book 3 takes up a bit of my time. Mostly, I’m just building up money on my retainers for Endwalker. Also, I’ve been revisiting Steam games again.

During one of my previous attempts at writing an entry, I downloaded a few titles off of Steam as I wrote. I noticed the playtimes and my jaw might have hit the floor. Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD is 193.6 hours. Final Fantasy XII is over 130 hours. The Final Fantasy XIII/Lightning trilogy caps out at about 275 hours and Final Fantasy XV is 100 (more now since I started over). Nier Automata and Replicant aren’t far behind either. Oh, and then there is Lego Star Wars. I also won’t discuss how many hours I clocked on The Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild or FFXIV. I’m fairly sure I don’t want to know how much time I’ve spent on them. Not that I regret it, it’s just never a good conversation piece outside of the
gaming community.

“Hey friend/relative I have not spoken to in some time, or new person I just met! Oh, things are good. Book 3 is coming along and oh, I just broke 400 hours of play time on a video game! Wait, why are you looking at me with such a thoroughly disappointed look?”

It doesn’t help I’ll likely be wearing a t-shirt saying “I Paused my Game to be Here.”