WoW Rest Stop

What do you do when you aren't having fun? I've been playing this game for over 5 years now and I've noticed it is starting to be a bit stale. When I first started the game everything was new and it was fun even though I didn't know what I was doing. One of the best things about the game at that time is I banded together with a bunch of other people to form one of the biggest guilds on the Khadgar server. We were all learning the game, exploring and just enjoying playing the game. The problems arose when we hit max level (60 at the time). My first toon was my paladin Henna and I distinctly remember hitting 10 man Scholo with the guild and getting owned. The issue was we were a bunch of noobs but didn't realize it so our guild slowly fell apart as we figured out that we all wanted different things. It was at that time that I started leveling Shribryn again who I left at level 37 when I started leveling Henna and decided because our guild was lacking in dps to create both Kelyn (mage) and Lemhi (warlock that I've never been able to get to max level - now at level 54). This happened to many of us in the guild and we soon found that we were spending more time with people outside the guild so we slowly disbanded. After I gquit I focused mainly on getting Shrib to 60 then realized that now that every guild was concentrating on Molten Core so I started working on getting my Wildheart set. I tried to do the same thing with Henna but soon realized that 1) paladin dps was terrible 2) paladin tanks didn't exist 3) Paladin healers weren't accepted 4) buffing 15 people every 5 minutes sucked and 5) the competition for plate armor was tough. On the flip side no one was playing druids at the time so it only took me a month or so to get my tier 0 armor (Henna never got a single piece). Now I was ready for the big time and i bounced from guild to guild never really finding a good fit or any fun. When the option to change servers happened in January 06 I decided to take the opportunity to jump ship and move to Eitrigg. Moving to a new server is always difficult but it was a bit exciting because it was a new beginning. My first guild didn't work out because I found out pretty quickly that they left their previous server because everyone hated them. They were working on a similar rep on Eitrigg so I joined some friends from Khadgar in a guild they had just joined called Requiem at the beginning of March 2006. I had finally found a home of likeminded people.

I have been in Requiem for 4 years and in that time I was a main raider in Molten Core to an officer in Blackwing Lair/AQ. I went back to raider for a short time until we started Gruul Lair then was a recruiting officer from that point through Sunwell. After 3 years raiding I decided to take a break when WotLK was released and have spent the last year PuGing and focusing on increasing my money. At this point I'm sick of PuGs and I'm well on my way to hitting the money cap but no desire to spend any of the money.

I've been waiting for my desire to raid to come back but I think it is gone and may never return. I do know that I'm not having fun and it makes me wonder why I continue to play. I think it has something to do with the fact that this is one of the first persistent world games I've ever played. It's not like when I finished Baldur's Gate that I had anything to do. The bad guys were beaten and I moved on to the next game. With WoW that will never happen and the treadmill gets to you after a while. There is no doubt in my mind that helping put a team together that did a server first kill of Vashj and Kael then being the only guild in Black Temple for a few months was the most satisfied I've ever felt in a game. The thing is the game moves on and raiding is stressful.

So what to do? I'm really not sure. If I'm not having fun I really shouldn't play but I worked pretty hard to get where I am and I'd hate for the time investment to feel like it was all for nothing. The thing is I know that is irrational as I've spent a lot of time in other games and had no problem walking away. I am thinking of moving a few toons to another server/guild to see if that helps but if things keep on the way they have lately my days in WoW are numbered.