In my last blog I gave a short goodbye to World of Warcraft. I’ve spent this week on vacation in Sweden and I have to say, I don’t miss my MMO’s at all. I didn’t bring my authenticator with me on purpose so I only had some Hearthstone on my phone to play and the games I brought with me on my 3DS. Not being online for awhile has helped me relax. Although I’ve been assaulted by allergies during my time here (2 lovely kitties that share my room) I haven’t felt this relaxed and positive in ages.
My Swedish friend, who is hosting my stay, is an awesome hardworking guy and we have been having a lot of fun this week just going out and doing stuff. I’ve seen Copenhagen, spent time on the beach. Got to experience the lovely town of Lund and dwelled the university and inner city there. It has boost up my motivation to make something out of my life and myself again, after feeling horrible for months.
I want to hold on to this feeling and need to find a way to do so without excluding all games from my life. Because I still absolutely adore FFXIV, I even miss WoW a bit and I have a library full of games that I still need to work through, but I want to do it all on a slower pace. I don’t want to be stuck all day staring at a screen anymore. I want to be able to enjoy an hour of a game and then log off and go do something more usefull. The summer weather will probably help a lot with this, since it’s much more inviting to go outside with the sun shining than when it’s cold and rainy.
I want to be able to pick up, but also put down a game whenever I want which makes me doubt if it has been a good idea to commit to raiding groups. Ofcourse it’s only a few evenings during the week that I don’t really do something else, but it’s still binding in one way or another. I will have to think about this and decide whether I want to have this commitment or not.
On a different note, I’ve been having my ups and downs with playing Hearthstone. I have unlocked tavern brawl and have been having a very frustrating but also very fun time with it. I think I have decided it’s a nice game to play on my phone mostly since it’s usually fast games and you can just do a game or two and then leave it. I don’t like battling my way up the ladder so I just go for the rank needed to get that month’s card back and leave it at that. It’s casual gameplay and I like it that way.
The RNG element is what puts me off the most of wanting to be really competitive. Even if you have a very good understanding of the game, if someone just draws better cards than you, you’re basically screwed. This has caused a 15 game losing streak in Tavern Brawl for me before, something that frustrated me a lot. And there’s really nothing you can do about it. This week’s Tavern Brawl has been a bit more friendly for me with a highlight on a game I played today where I defeated my opponent in two turns. Sometimes it’s really nice to be on the side where you draw just the right cards. I can only hope that it happens more often!