decisions, decisions...

>.>

<.<

yeah... so, we're back. sorta. well, not really. we're thinking about coming back, though. we're having a really hard time deciding if we should or not.

see, life in the real world has been going pretty well... we've gotten back in touch with old friends and made some awesome new ones. we've had the great fortune to meet a wonderful woman. we've done some international travel. we've caught up on some hobbies. we've started learning a new language. we've gotten back into our gym routine. we're probably out doing something at least 3 times a week. all good stuff and exactly what we wanted to reclaim by way of leaving wow a few months back.

of course, we still have times where we don't have anything going on. maybe we don't have plans that night or friends are out of town over the weekend or whatever. naturally, being a gamer we've been filling this time playing games; half-life 2, a little diablo II (seeing the DIII trailer got us excited), nwn2, dawn of war (and all the xpacks) and other random stuff. great games and all, but they just aren't giving us the same satisfaction that wow did (to be fair, they aren't giving us the same moments of frustration either).

there are elements missing that we didn't think we cared about so much before we started playing wow. the sense of being a part of something larger is a big one... being able to interact with other people in-game that have shared the same experiences you have. when you gain a level in nwn, for example, you don't really have anyone to share your "Ding!" moment with. we haven't found that same sense of accomplishment and satisfaction in other games that we have in wow, either. getting our first mount was a memorable moment for us, as was hitting 60 the first time, seeing a new instance boss, etc. part of why those moments were so big was that there were others there to share them with us. another missing part is the whole social aspect. we miss being able to talk with other people while we're playing; chatting with friends, asking someone for advice about a quest or item, etc. we have to admit that we don't miss trade chat, though (or barrens chat, for that matter...).

now, for the sake of completeness we acknowledge that we could side step this whole dilemma by simply finding something else to do with our free time. watch tv, take up gardening, critique porn, wear funny underwear and save the world, etc. we're a gamer at heart, though, and this is how we enjoy spending our free time.

so, that leads us to the big question: should we go back or not. since we're in a rambling mood, we thought we'd lay out some pros and cons from our perspective, listed in no particular order.

cons:

• our biggest issue with wow in the past was being able to maintain a good balance between wow and our social life. being aware of this, we hope it would be less of an issue if we were to go back, but it's something we worry about


• until WotLK comes out, there isn't a lot in wow that we haven't already done. there are a couple classes we haven't delved into deeply, yet, but most of the content we've seen numerous times before


• once we hit 70, we're likely to get bored again. we don't want to commit the time to raiding and pvp's never been much of a focus for us... so what are we going to do when we hit the level cap again?


• we're not sure where we'd want to roll a char again. pvp servers were annoying us last time, but that's also where we still have a few friends. do we roll on a new server and start from scratch or go back to our old server where we know some good people?

pros:

• it's fun!


• it's fun?


• we haven't found another game that's been able to entertain and engross us the way wow has. obviously that's good and bad, but since this is under the "pros" section let's just consider the good part here


• we made some good friends playing wow


• we like the social interaction side of MMOs; being able to share the experiences with like-minded players


• we really enjoy the leveling process, mastering the nuances of a new class and being able to share that knowledge with others. it's something that we think we're good at and that's important to us

this is obviously not an exhaustive list, but it's all we can come up with off the top of our head. our two biggest worries are that we're going to get sucked in again or that we're going to be bored out of our minds once we hit 70 again (a month or two at the rate we level). the bored part is less of an issue; WotLK will probably be out in a few months and if we get bored we simply find something more entertaining to do. as for getting sucked in, we *think* we can maintain a reasonable balance... but we don't know for sure.

so, yeah... we've been thinking about signing back up and rolling a warrior. just for the hell of it. no guilds, no raids, play when we feel like it and we've got nothing better going on.

thoughts?