The Cat Who Walks by Himself
March 16, 2009Groups are great, friends are great. MMOs are made special because they lead to groups, friends, sociability on top of the gaming experience.
But sometimes, you end up alone too.
Now, I know there are lots of people out there that genuinely prefer playing solo. I’ve never really been one of those. I’ve often duoed or grouped my way through games and then been lucky enough to have a good, friendly guild to play through the endgame with.
And I have a great set of friends now, but we’re all in slightly different places and mindsets gameswise. So I’m feeling a little more alone than I once was, and it’s unsettling. Or maybe I’m evolving into more of a solo player as a reaction to guild woes. And other life and work pressures which haven’t been around for me before, but have come into play bigtime now.
It’s weird. And I spend time wondering if I want to give up MMOs for a while, but really, there aren’t many I’m even looking forward to. And I do like LotRO and WAR. They fit my gaming needs quite well. But I remember that I’ve not yet ever stayed in a game where I’ve left a guild, and I know I’ll be missing content in LotRO that I wouldn’t previously have missed. But I am firm in my belief that I left the guild for all the right reasons, and am happier for it. Much happier for it, in fact.
I feel myself distancing myself from the games somewhat. Playing them but not connecting, or even caring so much. I’m not missing either game this weekend, but I’m missing my friends and the social aspect. I’d like to see what the Warrior Priest is like, I have yet to see if I’ll try and catch up a bit with her, or just use my cap-level Rune Priest and wait for the Slayers to catch me up.
And I can’t really motivate myself for Book 7 at all, since the same cycle of being behind and not being able to play when I want to will hit. I need to do some of the overtime I’m doing, I certainly need the weekends in London I’m planning to see my family. And I never want anyone to ever have to wait for me again… though I appreciate my friends delaying some of their Moria fun for my two week trip away in December, I don’t ever want to think of anyone holding back to wait for me, I don’t like feeling like a burden. And we’d chat on teamspeak regardless if I was soloing along. After all, I’m told Captains make excellent soloers.
There’s no real point to this, I just don’t feel like I have a place in any game right now, and that’s feeding through a bit to my lack of posting, my lack of blogging and my lack of ability to keep Book of Grudges properly up-to-date.
Nerf the Cat 
Eh, hang in there, you. Being off MMOs for a while doesn’t mean one is off them forever. Having a busy RL also makes it hard (for me anyway) to really get into games much — you really *want* to play, but when it comes to sitting down and playing, you’re either too tired or not motivated or wanting to do something easier, like sleep or watch the telly. That’s normal. (At least it is for me.)
I’ve been solitary most of my life, and that translates to how I tend to play games, so I’m luckier in that I don’t usually end up feeling left behind by anyone since I’m making my own way down the road. (That loathing for holding people back or making people wait for me is a large part of the reason I’m almost always bimbling around by myself in games, or in a duo with Mort.)
So um, yeah… Not much of substance or helpfulness to say, except: It’ll get better. This too shall pass, and all that.
I miss you too!!
Sometimes that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. A player’s relationship with a guild can go sour for any of a number of reasons. When I first joined LotRO, I came over from WoW with a group of about 15 guildmates. After the first couple of months, I was the only one left. Everyone else went back to WoW. For a long time, I felt like I didn’t have a home. There was some bad blood between me and the WoW crew. I was accused of recruiting people to LotRO, which wasn’t the case. So it’s not like I could go back but couldn’t really move forward either. But I kept my eyes open and found a great guild with awesome people. Now I’m an officer in the guild and we’re still having a lot of fun.
Then again, gaming breaks are good too.
And don’t let being solo disuade you from checking out book 7. It’s pretty much all solo stuff (including the epic book). Lothlorien is gorgeous.