Forced fasting
by Matthew Rossi 
Dec 15th 2007 at 1:00PM
One of the things that can really mess with your WoW gameplay is being forced to take a week or two off for various reasons. I doubt I'm alone in having less time to play in December, what with various holidays and family events near the end of the month, and it didn't help that recently our cable went out for several days, meaning I had a large chunk of time when I couldn't play at all. One of the things I noticed when I finally got back to playing was that taking several days off with no play at all means that I forgot what each of my characters was doing. This might in fact be exacerbated by my plethora of alts, but it still meant that I had to spend a day or two just figuring out what I had been doing before the cable went down. I'd actually gotten several characters new pieces of gear I hadn't equipped yet, and forgot it until I checked their bags.Oddly enough, it was less disruptive to my play back when I took several months off from the game before The Burning Crusade came out. Coming back to my characters after a two to three month break meant it really didn't matter what I had been doing but a week or two seemed jarring, possibly because I was mis-remembering what I had been doing or thought one character was keyed for a heroic when it was my shaman, little glitches like that. I'm curious to know if anyone else has problems getting back into the game after a small time off, and if the upcoming holidays will mean an enforced break for a lot of players. Even if you personally keep right on playing, it's hard to do a raid if everyone in your guild is heading to their family gatherings. Are you anticipating a longer than usual hiatus this month?
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, WoW Social Conventions, Virtual selves, Odds and ends, The Burning Crusade, Alts
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
eternalpayn Dec 15th 2007 2:47PM
I've had to take 3 weeks off for vacation before. Let me tell you something, when you are leveling your main still, it sucks to come back with all of your friends 10 levels higher than you.
Brent Dec 15th 2007 1:39PM
I can't handle multiple alts. If I create a new character and start playing it, even for a few hours, I can't go back to the other character and remember anything about what I'm doing. I think I may be autistic or something, or my imagination is running away with me and the roleplaying aspect, because I can only focus on one character at a time. I have had to miss a couple of weeks of play here and there, but I think it must be much easier to come back to one character than to several. Sounds like some of what made it hard for you was mixing up what different characters were doing with each other.
I know there are advantages to having multiple alts- you can create your own micro-economy among your characters and make sure everyone gets the best things for them through the mail system, but my mind just isn't capable of keeping track of even two different characters.
So I only have one alt, which I haven't played for months, and which I will probably only level up when I get to maximum level with my main alt.
Well, I've rambled too long, but there's my take.
Brent Dec 15th 2007 1:28PM
p.s. I have one friend who keeps a spreadsheet for his 15+ different alts, and he claims this enables him to remember what they are up to... It wouldn't work for me, because I want to feel the character in my bones and not just mentally keep track of skill numbers and professions etc.
Ladli Dec 15th 2007 6:54PM
I had a forced hiatus around this time last year for about two months. I had completely lost track of where my main was, and ended up just rolling a new char (ultimately making it my new main)
I've taken a voluntary hiatus for the last few weeks, however, and I've only made an appearance just now for Winter Veil. I'm a little lost too, with what my char needs done, and what exactly I was going to do with those armor pieces in my bags, etc. I'll figure it out though.
Trilliad Dec 15th 2007 7:17PM
Since each class has different tricks (best way to start a battle, finishing moves, etc.) than the others, and those tricks change depend on level, just being away from an alt too long can be tough for me. Usually, I need to play the alt for a while before I remember how best to beat up the mobs with it. The other problem I have is remembering where I was going with the character. Since the questlines tell a story, sometimes I need to go back and research the quests I had completed to remember where the character was going in the world. Also, plans on raising profession skill levels (such as needing to go grind somewhere to get certain drops) get lost in the haze of time, which ends up delaying those advancements even further.
There are two features I would love WoW to implement to help with this. First, I would like to see an easy reference for all (or the last X) quests completed so one can go back and look at what each character had been doing before the break. Second, an in-game "notes" pane for each character would be handy. (Yes, either of these could be easily done by me with a text editor on the gaming computer, but then I wouldn't get that font they use in Warcraft!)
Jurarandonee Dec 16th 2007 6:19PM
I too, have way to many characters- and spread out on three servers, 5 on PvE, 4 on RP and 3 on PvP. Yeah, I notice a certain lack of direction when I come back to a character, and a re-learning curve for their various talents and skills; I agree with Trilliad on the quest-log, keeping all, or at least x-number of quests completed in some kind of note pad accesable through the game; it would cut down on having to switch between the game and a word processer or have multiple machines up at the same time just to track a characters progress in the game.
Forced time off from the game has a detrimental effect for me too, but sometimes it's unavoidable; power outages, house guests that require my attention, or vacations away from home. All of them disrupt play-time.
It does take me a while to get back in the groove, but not too long. After about 20 minutes I'm reaquainted with the skills of a character, if not all the quests, and sometimes I make better progress after a break- if it was late a night when I quit, the rest bonus was gone, and I'd been dying at the hands of a boss over and over... A week later, I come back to the problem, and everything suddenly goes better! Voila! The boss dies in flurry of blows...
Anyway, there are pros and cons, but the interuptions are inevitable, so I just go with the flow.
Cheers,
Jurarandonee
awender Dec 17th 2007 5:59AM
Evil Blizzard gave me a hiatus. They suspended my account for a week without any given reason, then they gave it back.
A long story if you are interested in insane customer handling, detailed here:
blizzardsucks.blogspot.com
Good_Idea Dec 17th 2007 11:48AM
When I went to Europe for a month, when I got back the game seemed very strange and disorientating for a bit. Made it seem fresh. Got over it quickly though.
It's very hard (and time consuming), to be at the "top of your game" for a large variety of classes imo, so if you have more than 2 classes you play regularily, I can see what the OP means.
Mike V. Dec 18th 2007 4:38AM
i actually stopped playing WoW pre BC and only started playing again about a month ago...
It was hard at first getting back into the daily questing, posting stuff on the auction house, and basically getting into the routine i had when my main was exploring the, at that point End Game Instances...
I had to read up on all the new changes made to the rogue class (Which was my main at level 60)... had to look up new talent builds for him... even find out how to get to the outlands... and i know that it will take some time before i can PVP the way i use to... but... that will come with time..