Posts with tag taking-a-break

Every Monday, Scott Andrews contributes Officers' Quarters, a column about the ins and outs of guild leadership. He is the author of The Guild Leader's Handbook.

Breaks are good. Everyone needs a break from something that they do on a regular basis: work, school, sports, etc. Raiding is no different. Raiders need breaks. So do roleplayers, arena teams, and achievement junkies. Whether it's one person stepping away from WoW for a little while or a team taking a week or two off from group activities, this kind of short-term sabbatical is a healthy practice.

As an officer, breaks can be dangerous to your guild if you handle them poorly. Take a lesson from the Horde: Thrall needed a break and now Durotar is a war zone. Let's look at the right way to manage it.

While I enjoy playing World of Warcraft, there are times when it feels like too much work and I need to take some sort of forced vacation. I got that last week when I needed to take my wife to the hospital and we were both properly pried away from the game. We were unable to play for a few days, she bedridden and I keeping watch in a sad, Internet-less room. It was actually refreshing. I watched some TV and my wife finally started on Brisngr.

As soon as she was up and about again (thankfully), of course, she was right back on top of her game, commandeering the Auction House, performing her usual daily quests, and raiding left and right. In some ways, getting back into Azeroth was theraputic for her (the Inheritance Cycle has been put back on hold). On the other hand, just a few days out of the game and I found it hard to get back into my groove. I've only played one Battleground since we got back from the hospital, one game of Wintergrasp, and not a single Arena match.

Actually, I'd found myself spending more of my online time tending to a virtual pet and lately, a virtual restaurant. I guess being so frazzled over the love of my life made me want to relax a little bit, and I don't want to get into the adrenaline-raising tedium of smashing heads just yet. Maybe later.

How about you guys? How do you find getting back into the game after a short (or long) break? Do you get right back into the action (like my wife) or do you dilly-dally (like me)? When our lives force us to take a short break or change of pace, how do you get your groove back?

Most of the other WoW gamers I know are simply gamers that play WoW, meaning that they play other games in addition to their Azerothian addiction. My guild forums often have a thread or two going about other games that members are playing, recommending them to everyone else, and there are many references to other games within the world of Warcraft itself. It's obvious that the core audience for this MMO plays other games as well.

Personally, with an aging computer and a smallish gaming budget, I've missed out on a lot of the "must play" games of the last few years. World of Warcraft has served me well in that regard, since I haven't really needed to upgrade my hardware to keep playing it and it's a good value for the amount of entertainment it provides. Nonetheless, I have played other games from time to time, but I still find myself logging into Azeroth (and/or Outland) most days of the week, sometimes just to check auctions and mail. Oftentimes, playing other games gives me a needed break from Warcraft, even if only for a week or so. Undoubtedly, these short breaks are one of the things which have kept me playing WoW all these years.

All of this leads me to wonder how other players balance their WoW time with their other gaming pursuits. Are you a WoW purist, only playing the one game? Do you own multiple consoles and buy every table-top and computer game that's released? The last few patches have coincided with the release of some pretty big titles and there are more on the way this holiday season. Have you had to make some difficult decisions about how to spend your time and money?