I have been in a funk lately. I want to write. I sit down every afternoon for an hour and sit here staring at the screen. I browse MMORPG.com, Shacknews, and a few of my old faithfuls. Nothing. Nothing about games to inspire me. More specifically, absolutely zilch about MMORPGs. The MMO news sites look like they’re sponsored by the east these days.
My first instinct was to publish a few articles currently pending as drafts that turned out to be nothing more than crappy negative posts about why my motivation is lacking. I’ll delete those since writing them only depressed me. And rather than be super critical of a few games (cough… survival MMO… cough) I’ll move on.
Total random thought:
Anyone planning to try Kingdom of Loot? It releases in 18 hours on Steam early access. Yeah, early access. FML. It looks… tempting. I think pixel graphic and fantasy settings are like crack.
Back on track, I think my blogging mojo will come back when I remember this is a blog and not a site where I have to be profound. That’s one of my weaknesses. I feel like I can’t just write random posts without a ‘point’ to make… but that’s not why I blog. I’m in a funk, and I’ll get over it.
I told my wife (halfway through writing this stream of consciousness mess you’re reading) that I think my solution to my blogging funk is, “to buy more games and just play them.” Her response was “Yeah, you need to do that!” Â Is it a trap? Pity? I don’t know…
My lack of motivation lately has been a bit of a gaming depression. I slipped into it shortly after following the advice of some of you to focus more on career and making money. I succeeded… quite well, actually. But for a while there games were losing their savor. That felt wrong to me. I have to return to what I enjoy.
Anyway, thanks for reading. Another QuickCast releases tomorrow and I’ll try Kingdom of Loot and a bunch of other random crap I find on Steam to blow money on.
Maybe you need a post for people to recommend games to you for fun? 🙂 If you haven’t tried Hand of Fate (steam), it’s quite fun! I do share some of your gaming depression. I bought a founder’s pack for Albion, but haven’t played it much lately. I feel guilty, but I just don’t feel like plinking away on a character that will be erased. However, gaming is something I truly enjoy so I’ve been browsing my Steam library and my wishlist, thinking about what will come next. I have a feeling Divinity Original Sin 2 will win. (which I can also highly recommend the first Divinity Original Sin. you can play co-op with your wife too! :D) Also, we haven’t heard any lovely music from said wifey lately! <3 Have her look up Grandia OST – The Sandy Beach of Gumbo on youtube and see what she thinks!
Yeah that’s a good idea! I’ll post that topic this weekend to hopefully draw some ideas. 🙂
I hear you on the Albion Online thing. I have a founders pack too and I just can’t play knowing it’s going to be erased. So much work goes into that game — and it’s awesome — but I can’t do it for the 4th time knowing it’ll be erased.
Divinity Original Sin 2… yep that’s on my list. Haven’t tried Hand of Fate (thanks for the recommendation!). I’m directing my wife to this comment for the music recommendation! Her music business has taken off which sucks her free time away, but I totally agree she needs to make more videos.
You’ve kept me checking your blog off and on since I stumbled on your LOTRO leveling guide way the heck back in 2007ish. You’ve always had an interesting take on the current issues with games and in the gaming community. I for one appreciate your honesty and the ideas that get thrown around. Maybe one post doesn’t have a profound message, but I’m still interested in hearing your opinion, whatever it may be.
I fully agree the current state of MMORPGS isn’t good. The MMORPG is in a depression. I’m waiting patiently for Camelot Unchained to hopefully revitalize the genre, at least for me. There are few other titles that may produce and IMHO the next few years are looking good.
One suggestion I can make is getting a Raspberry Pi and setting it up as an emulator. It’s easy to move from the computer to the TV, and sitting down to play some older games just to kill some time revitalized what I love about gaming. Its just plain fun.
I actually agree with pretty much everything Alex said in the first two paragraphs of his post (I know nothing about raspberry pi, so no comment there). I’ve been reading your blog on and off since I found it while browsing the internet for more information on Dominus, the promising MMO that was supposed to be the 2nd coming of DAoC, but ended up getting scrapped. And even though I’ve been a long time lurker, and this is only my 2nd post here, I have thouroughly enjoyed reading your opinions on gaming, as I can identify a lot with your positions on the gaming industry.
I’m also looking forward to CU, to come along and shake things up in the MMO industry. I’m not a backer, but I’ve been keeping an eye on it ever since the kickstarter. My wife isn’t as understanding as yours; she never would’ve let me pay money for something that’s not actually “real” yet! So, while I bide my time waiting on CU, I’ve been having a blast playing DAoC on Uthgard.
@Alex: I appreciate your kind words and readership. Funny you should mention the Raspberry Pi. Graev and I are sort of in a discovery phase right now with those and actually mentioned it in our QuickCast episode that goes live today.
@Hoemurr: Thank you for being a reader and for the encouragement. 🙂 Uthgard is fun. I wish we could have a modernized version of DAoC with the exact same mechanics and features of the original, but modern quality of life improvements.
This is far from the first time you’ve posted something along these lines. People do grow out of hobbies, even ones they were completely committed to and made their life. Maybe blogging isn’t going to be a thing you always do. Maybe gaming isn’t, either.
One thing that definitely won’t work is forcing it. I think just playing stuff that interests you and posting only when that inspires you to do so is probably a good start but if it turns out that either blogging or MMOs ends up being something you used to do not something you do then so be it.
I seem to fall into a rut 2-3x a year — at least where I verbalize it here on the blog. The reason I’m frustrated and in a rut is because blogging and gaming ARE for me.
I find more enjoyment in blogging than I do actually playing many games. This type of interaction with other people where we express ideas, debate, swap recommendations, is really important to me. It’s also why I love and wish MMO forums were still a big thing.
There’s a combination of factors at play. My time and money curves shifted over the past two years. I think most people go through a similar phase where time used to be plentiful and money was the determining factor. Now I can play whatever I want, but my time is even more limited than money ever was. Where I would have even spent money I didn’t have on any old game to play it, I don’t do that anymore because I have to figure out how to squeeze everything into the few hours I have every day.
While I do not blog, I do find I hit a rut when it comes to mmo’s. I am in one right now. But I also love console games. So I am going to do the same as when this happened last time which is to take a break from mmo’s and catch up on my backlog of other games.
I am working my way through the Uncharted trilogy right now. It came with my PS4 and I never played them. After that will be Shadows of Mordor.
Anyway, I would like to hear some more about the new Zelda game if you are still playing it. I am still on the fence about buying the Switch.
You should check out Stellaris by Paradox if you want to scratch a strategy 4x itch. At this point, I spend probably 90% of my time playing EU IV, HOI IV, or Stellaris… all games made by Paradox. They just released the Utopia DLC for Stellaris.
Like Topauz mentioned, I wouldn’t mind more thoughts on Zelda. I’m also on the fence about a Switch right now.