A Change of Pace

So, after about three years of continuous gameplay in either raiding, RPing, or both, I think it's time for a much-needed break from World of Warcraft. A prolonged and exhausting bout of drama in my raiding guild (former as of a few days ago) has really just woken me up to the fact that hey, you know what? The game isn't fun anymore. It's become a job, one I have to pay to play and dread logging on to. Whether it's just raiding or even fucking around in-game, it's all suddenly crystallized to me how boring and ultimately pointless it all is. We'd been working on Ragnaros right up until I quit, admittedly one of the things that held me back from leaving earlier. That mentality of oh it's the end-boss right now, oh I need the gear so I don't fall behind, gotta be better, better, better.

But you know what? I don't care. It has no bearing on my real life. The only people who care about WoW are other WoW players, and while I've certainly made some awesome friendships from this game, I know that I've let it negatively affect my real life. And I don't mean that I've turned into a fat, slothful mutant who never leaves the house and doesn't work, it's more subtle. Drugging me into a sense of complacency, filling the lack of purpose in my active life with mindless numbers on a screen in a fantasy world. Trust me, I'm a geek and I love my fantasy worlds, but how many rotations will it take of WORKING MY BUTT OFF for hours a week to get the next tier of gear, be the best, earn my place, only for it all to be replaced in a month when Blizzard releases a new content patch? It was fun for a while, but it's just turned into very much a rat race to me these past few months, and it's not something that I want to spend any more time or effort on.

With that in mind, I've reconnected with some old, non-WoW friends and honestly been having a blast dorking out about various other stuff, old fandoms, new amusements, etc. It's been a breath of fresh air after nothing but negativity and hatred. I won't say that some actions and decisions of multiple people in-game don't still have me kind of sore over the general principle of the matter, not just how they affected me in-game. But I'm not prepared to waste my energy or emotions holding grudges.

And as far as in-game stuff goes, I'm very much enjoying my break right now. The thought of going back sickens me a bit, but at the same time I'll be realistic and admit that I probably will eventually. When I do, I'll likely be focusing on and/or moving any of my toons back to Wyrmrest Accord and playing as casually as I can. No hardcore ratrace raiding, no drama, no obsessing, just pissing around seeing if it's worth my fifteen bucks a month. And if not? Oh well. I'm on WrA mostly as my mage Skyerocket right now, but I will update the list below if I decide to move any other toons back over and play them with any sort of regularity.

As a result, I'm also going to try to move my gallery away from being quite so full of WoW fanart. I have lots of pieces I'm proud of and don't regret doing any of them, but it has been more or less dominating my artistic productivity for really... years now. I'm certainly not going to stop altogether, you'll still see the occasional goblin or troll piece from me no doubt, but I do want to get back to some of my own original work. If it loses me watchers or attention, so be it I suppose

So! If there's anything you'd like to see more of from me as far as different genres, characters, or other subject matter, feel free to speak up! I'd like to get back to drawing my nagas and anthros some more, and right now I'm kind of on a new-Thundercats kick that's more for fun than anything serious. But yeah, time to spread out and diversify. Let me know what you like to see! I draw as a hobby, and mostly for me, but I like making other people happy too when they see my galleries.