Lost and Bored – Need New Goals

I have been feeling a since of being lost of late. I just hit another goal of mine, to get Bricklethumb, my dwarf hunter, to level 80. This makes my 4th 80 in WotLK, which according to some would label me hardcore. I am not so sure I am hard core, but I do like to push myself in all areas of my life to see how well I can do. It is part of the “gamer DNA” that is in me.

I have been splitting some of my time between WoW and Lord of the Rings Online right now. While I seek a new place to serve, resumes out, making follow ups, and finding it hard to find employment as a 40 year old geek who has been in ministry for over 20 years, I have had to much time on my hands. So Instead of the joy and fun I have always had in my chosen form of entertainment, much more stimulating that TV, IMHO, I now face a wall I, and others, have or are facing.

What to do now?

As I logged on WoW last night discussion started in guild chat on what to do. This is where some frustration sets in. We often spend way to much time just trying to decide what to do. Added to this issue is that two of us have multiple toons to help the guild out. I have a tank, healer, and two DPS. Iss, a good friend, has a healer, tank and DPS. We both do not mind playing whichever character is needed, but sometimes to put our personal goals on hold to help out. . But that is what we like to do. On top of this, we have 1 to 2 to many for a five man group. So someone has to sit out. Normally you would think that people would whine and complain about this, but our guild is different. We fight over who will sit out to make sure someone else has a go at it. *smile* I love that in them, even though it prolongs getting things done.

So I finally bit the bullet and made a list of people who where going to go do an instance that 2 people needed for quests. I jumped on Vent where Iss and I got a chance to talk before and after the instance. He made a very good observation after asking me a pointed question.

“So, your getting bored with the game too?”

The answer is yes and no, and the funny thing is we have both gone through this before. When I started playing WoW I got to a point where things became boring. I was not in a guild that raided and I had pretty much done all I could do alone or even in the small guild we had. So when I heard about Lord of the Rings Online I jumped at it. We left wow, headed to LotRO and formed Redeemed, our kinship on the Gladden server.

While there we met a player who joined our Kinship named Issichar, or Iss. Iss was from WoW and bored and came to LotRO. Iss was the kind of guy that was helpful and giving, a perfect fit for our group. Several others either came with us from WoW or met and joined us while there. But after a few months we started to hit the “So, your getting bored with the game too?” wall. Most of us headed back to wow. New content helped, and then the promise of WotLK.

But, I ramble. So lets bring things back to point. I am not the only one feeling a since of loss, or boredom. We are waiting for our guild to catch up, and desperately need some new people if we are ever going to hit up 10 man, let alone ever want to see 25 man content. In the mean time what do we do?

The observation that hit me between the eyes was when Iss said that with ADD/ADHD he needs goals, once those goals are hit its sort of . . hit and miss. . .roam around. . get bored. BINGO! He hit it on the head. My first character to 80 was Paravel, my healer. Soloed her the 10 levels as resto, was fun. Valimonde, my tank, leveled with Tanya’s mage, so we would get levels when we could. I rolled Digory, my Death Knight and while not working on Val, got him to 80. Then Val and Tatiaana (Tanya’s mage) hit 80. Some gearing up . . all goals. . .pvp for Dig. Then bored.

Ok, no problem, let me level Brick. Pushed him from 73 to 80 in 2 days. Hit goal. . and . . . and . . . .

/run LotRO - work on new character - not many people around
/run WotLK – sit at character sheet and stair at what character to play. Log one in. . .do daily. . get bored . .

/sigh

So . . . what is one to do? How does and can this affect other areas of our life? If we lose our goals, or hit them, what next?

Let me know what you think? Are you bored? How do you overcome it? Game, Life, Church, Family, whatever. Link to heading

Comments: Link to heading

Tome of Long Rambling incoming… as another goal-… Link to heading

moxieblossom - Feb 3, 2009

Tome of Long Rambling incoming… as another goal-oriented, easily-bored person, I can relate.

I’m glad to hear that I’m not the only that ran into boredom with WotLK. As an expansion it was great! Awesome storyline, amazing atmosphere, etc. But overall it went by entirely too fast. Whether it really was faster-paced than the rest of the game or if it’s actually a change in my playstyle or just old-fashioned experience, I don’t know. But at the end, I just lost all desire to play. Even though I still had rep to grind and dailies to do, I just couldn’t do it. I had hit my goals and was like, “Now what? Wait until the next x-pack?”

So I quit. Went for about a month with no gaming whatsoever. It was like coming off of drugs… my mind cleared, my attitude improved, I started getting interested in other things. Other people started noticing and asking why I was in such a good mood and actually getting things done. Granted, occasionally I got a “craving”, but I had no desire to go back to WoW, knowing what it did to me. That’s why I started playing LotRO again… a game that I could handle on a part-time basis that wouldn’t completely suck me in and turn me into an arrogant, bi-polar, zombie you-know-what. WoW of course doesn’t do that to everyone, but it did that to me during the last year or so. The results weren’t pretty.

But I digress. As far as boredom goes… the only thing I’ve found to relieve it is to find something else to do. When I started playing LotRO I knew I wouldn’t be able to play it every night. So… I’m learning how to cook. Some nights I bake, work on new dishes, do the prep-work for the next day’s meals, etc. Or I sew/knit/quilt or whatever other crafty thing I’m in the mood for while listening to podcasts. Or I *gasp* exercise. Bottom line is I can’t game every night and not get burned out… I have to alternate. That way it keeps all my “projects” fresh. The downside is that I certainly won’t be barreling towards the level cap… but when I hit the level cap, I get bored, so that’s okay.

Or, if you want something else to do in-game, you could try leveling up a totally off-the-wall, non-traditional character. A tanking warlock, a melee hunter, a pacifist priest who will not kill things in-game, etc. While some laugh at those types of characters, and they certainly may not ever be raid viable, they could certainly present a new challenge and open up new ways of thinking about strategy and talents. The only catch is, if you’re really, truly bored with the game, that may not work… in which case it wouldn’t matter how many alts you have, you’re just bored with the game. At that point I think you have to reach outside of the game for more goals to hit. :)

Of course, YMMV… the old saying is true, you can’t do the same things and expect different results. Sometimes it’s worth shaking things up a bit and seeing what happens. :)

New blog post: Lost and Bored – Need New Goals https://tinyurl.com/bcp3sl