I've posted before about my insomnia and how it affects my WoW play: last night was a key example, as I ground AB marks on my Tauren Warrior, then ran Durnholde Keep on my Draenei Shaman, then went back to Arathi Basin on the bull until server shutdown.

When I play in the afternoon or evenings, my PvP experience tends to be mostly positive, with the Horde winning about as many games as we lose and giving a good showing for ourselves even when we do lose. Last night was not like that. Instead, it was the Alliance rolling over us like a crimson zerg, crushing our faces into the dirt, every AB mark I managed to collect soaked with the blood and tears of a demoralized force that actually cheered on the eventual five caps as a mercy killing. As you might expect I found it frustrating enough that I took the time off to go run an instance on my Ally shammy, which went well enough... basically it was four 70's and a 69 (me) burning our way through Durnholde Keep, remarkably little strategy or tactical application of our abilities, very much the kind of 'Hulk Smash' run I usually hate. And I hated this one, too, as they talked to Thrall before I had a chance to and so I didn't get to finish the quest, so I'll have to go back there again to get that done.

Disheartened, I went back to Shadowburn and Arathi Basin. The Horde was still losing, but we were fighting a lot harder for the various flags. I looked at the time (midnight server, approximately 11 pm pacific time) and realized we had three hours till shutdown. I didn't really need any more honor, all I needed was marks. And suddenly the idea of just rolling over and letting them stomp us a lot to get fast marks actually appealed to me.

We didn't do it, of course. We even won a few games against the premade that had been stomping on us, as they started to get tired and we started to be filled with the kind of desperate hatred for them and their BT/Hyjal gear that moves you to valiant, stupid acts of heroism like sending 10 people to stables while having your two rogues run around ninjaing every flag. I still can't believe I killed a guy using Cataclysm's Edge in a one on one fight at the farm, and I know it's because he was dumb enough to charge me at half his health and I got a lucky disarm off. The game plays differently at different times, it seems, instance runs become much less chatty, PvP gets grittier somehow.

Anyone else out there a late sleeper or someone who plays over extended periods of time? Noticed the time of day on your server almost changing the server into a whole other place?

Tags: Arathi Basin, ArathiBasin, Insomnia, Late Night, LateNight

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Social Conventions, Odds and ends