Blathering about Azeroth

I’m a fond listener of the World of Warcast podcast, and the other day Starman was talking about something that I’ve had my own experience with lately: WoW Burnout and just general getting bored with the game.

For the casual gamers and the folks among us that have limited time to play due to real-life responsibilities and don’t have time to raid, there is little to do after 80 except the same repetitive tasks every day…. Dailies.

For the roleplayer, there is of course roleplay to be had, but when it comes to actual gameplay, well, there’s only so much jousting and trips to heroics before all of that repetition gets really old.  It’s at about this point when WoW becomes more like a job than a form of entertainment.

That’s about the point I found myself around the end of September this year.

When it came to roleplay, I felt like my characters had stagnated. They were too damn happy, too comfortable. One character, an elderly druid, and long past the point where her character will change and grow. She’s at the end of her life, and the most interesting things that will happen to her have already happened.

Game-wise, I had no interest in raiding, can’t stand PvP, and got bored with Dailies really fast, even my alt-itis wasn’t alleviating boredom, because everything felt like I was just doing the same old thing over and over again. Logging on was feeling more like a chore than something to look forward to.

I took a heavy break during NaNoWriMo to concentrate on my writing. I missed my friends, of course, but found that there was very little about the actual game to miss. I still logged on occasionally, but not nearly as much as I used to.

Now, after my break, I’m beginning to want to make some progress toward some things in game again, but I probably won’t be playing nearly as much as I used to until Cataclysm comes out to make things fresh and new again. Sometimes it takes a bit of a break to reawaken interest in something that has begun to bore you, and I’m hoping that’s what’ll happen here.

Rayen was intended to be a naive, young druid just setting out in the world.  However, as things progressed, and she found her voice, she turned out not to be young at all, but elderly, crotchety, stubborn, and maternal.  So, once again, we find ourselves with Barb Waterlight, who has been assigned to interview Rayen as part of her “Everyday People” series for the Azerothian Times.

Continue reading [In Character] Character Two: Rayen Cuailnge, Tauren Druid

Character Art of Meadhbh Dhommnail

Matojo, over at Troll Bouquet, has been doing extended character profiles for all of his characters, and I am quite unashamedly stealing her idea, because it’s a good one.  I’ve written a great deal about roleplaying in my “Zen and the Art of Roleplay” series, but have yet to really introduce my characters to you, beyond the little blurbs over on the “About Me” page.  So here goes.

I’m beginning with my oldest character, Meadhbh inean Dhommnail, who is actually a pre-wow character who was originally created under another name when I was about 14 and entering into my first D&D campaign.  I have now been roleplaying this character, in various forms, through various games, for sixteen years.  As such, her backstory is both elaborate and largely organic, built through events that were actually roleplayed out rather than something written before the character was ever played.  In each game, I changed only what was absolutely necessary to fit the character into the lore of game I was playing her in.

Throughout those years, no matter what game, she has always been whatever class equivalent there was to a “witch,” but for a short-lived experiment shortly after Burning Crusade came out, where I played her as a rogue to about level ten before she started complaining that this rogue business wasn’t for her at all.  In WoW, Meadhbh began as human, but is now a blood elf. Again, all that has changed of her history is what was necessary to make it fit the lore of the blood elves, though little was indeed needed, since they had been allied with the alliance, and switched sides.

She is also the character I have the least control over. When roleplaying Meadhbh, Meadhbh does what she wants to do, and I am just along for the ride.  It’s one of those odd things that the best roleplayers (and writers) will all nod their heads to, but it tends to make other folks blink and go “What, are you crazy are something?”  – Meadhbh is my creation, yes, but once she took on life and really started breathing, she began telling me what to do, rather than the other way around.

The English Major in me would call Meadhbh a “Lilith” or “Fury” archetype – a disobedient, strong-willed, lusty, and often profane, female, secure in herself and unwilling to take Any Crap from Any Man. She is capable of cruelty that, however justified it may be, is so savage and brutal that, at times, she leaves me trembling.  At the same time, she is in some ways the most vulnerable of my characters, the one with the biggest heart and the quickest to love.

I’ve decided that perhaps the best way to do these profiles would be in interview style, rather as a journalist (or perhaps a psychiatrist) would proceed to find out everything they could about a person.  The interviewer, for this purpose, will be Miss Barb Waterlight, a journalist for the Silvermoon City branch of the Azerothian Times.  Interview is after the break.
Continue reading [In Character] Introduction to Series, and Character One: Meadhbh, the Blood Elf Warlock