It’s Tuesday night, let’s do this raid!
Or not.
It took me a long time to realize that Tuesdays were the “Mondays” of the World of Warcraft week. Everything reset on Tuesdays (barring raids with a 3-day reset, like old-school ZG and AQ20). Thus, it was when a lot of people went in to do their raids. Once it sunk in, though, it really sunk in. I spent all of BC raiding on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Sundays and, later, we added Mondays. I spent chunks of Wrath raiding on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays, then my schedules shifted, but I’m pretty sure I kept raiding on Tuesdays for the majority of that expansion, with just Choice not raiding on Tuesdays.
And then, back to Apotheosis and our Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday grind. Although we haven’t needed to raid on Thursday or Sunday in months (the Thursday after 5.0.4 excepted), we’ve continued to raid on Tuesdays, doing full 8/8 HM clears in Dragon Soul.
So, here it is. Tuesday night. 8:17pm.
And I don’t have a raid.
In the last 21 months, I have missed two scheduled Tuesday night raids, both due to exams. We have rarely cancelled Tuesday raids, maybe just a couple over the Christmas holidays.
Basically, I don’t even know what to do with myself.
The guild has ceased raiding for now, but will go right back to the grind on October 9th. And I won’t be part of it. I’m not even going to be in town for the launch of Mists of Pandaria, I’m going to be in Italy with one of my best friends. It’s a sort of graduation present from my parents for having, finally, finished my university degree.
But it’s Tuesday.
And I’m not raiding.
I think that, more than anything else, has really hammered home to me that my time as a serious raider, as a serious player, is over. Last night, I almost sent Serrath a PM, asking him if he was going to do tonight’s roster or if I should do it. I stopped myself midway through my first sentence.
Today, I feel as though I’m forgetting something. All day long, my brain has been nagging me to do SOMETHING. Like, to look over our logs or prep for tonight. Anything.
While there are a couple of final tasks I do have to do, that’s not the buzzing in my brain.
Nope. The buzzing in my brain is like, “Kurn, it’s Tuesday. You’re supposed to RAID on Tuesday.” It’s this thing I have done for so long, so regularly, for so many years, that my brain actually cannot grasp the idea that “no, you don’t raid tonight”. Perhaps more accurately, it cannot grasp the idea that “no, you don’t raid tonight… or again.”
Going to Italy will be great for me. It’ll be a wonderful trip. And because it’ll happen right during the launch of Mists of Pandaria, I will be completely distracted and unavailable to deal with WoW. Hopefully, that’ll do a lot to break the habits that are entirely ingrained in me at this point. Hell, last time I was in Italy, in 2006, I WENT TO A ZG RAID. I am not even kidding. And we got Mar’li down (guild first!), too.
So it’ll be good for me to get away, particularly on the dates I’m going, to help me not get all caught up in expansion fever. And maybe, just maybe, it’ll remind me that there are so many other things to enjoy on Tuesday nights.
I understand the feeling that something is missing on Tuesday. Every so often, I still have it hit me, and I haven’t logged into my account on WoW for almost a year. Lately, though, I’ve been so busy, I’ve found myself actually glad I’m not committed to log in . . . even though I still miss playing with my guild.
Sounds like you’ll have a great time in Italy! Good luck!
I remember that feeling when I stopped raiding a couple of years ago. It definitely took some time to adjust but having that extra free time to enjoy the world is more than worth the adjustment.
Have fun in Italy, you picked a great time to visit! I live near Rome and the throng of tourists are finally thinning out.
Anachan – Oh, good, glad to know I’ll still have that odd feeling in a year’s time. ;) I understand about being glad about not being committed to log in. I went to dinner with my parents on Tuesday and while I had a couple of moments of “oh, crap, I have to get home to raid”, it was a nice feeling to know that I could actually not be concerned about going out to dinner with them on a raid night.
Thanks for the well-wishes!
Jax – Grazie per il tuo comment! Spero che io sentirò piu confortabile senza “raiding” a presto. Devo anche trovare qualcosa per fare i martedi!
Dove sei in Italia? Hai delle raccomandazione per cose a vedere in Roma per la mia amica ed io? (Scusi per il mio italiano, quattro anni fa che l’ho studiato!)
Tuo italiano è molto buono! Meglio di me, perche io non sono italiano, ma americano. Per vedere a Roma … ovviamente il Colosseo e il Foro Romano, o Città del Vaticano, e la Fontana di Trevi, ma la mia preferenza è il Vittoriano. At the top is a beautiful view of Rome, costs € 7, but I pay it nearly every time I visit. I’m sure a proper Roman could give you some better advice!
I stay in Latina, a 40 minute train ride to the south. If you have the time, I would recommend getting just outside of Rome to see Nemi or further south to Sermoneta. If you need any more help, just let me know!
Jax – Haha, I thought you might not be Italian! Your English is too good and you used the letter “J” in your name, which obviously doesn’t exist in Italian. ;) Your Italian is pretty darn good from what I can see, though. :)
Si, andiamo al Colosseo e il Foro, San Pietro e i musei del Vaticano e dobbiamo andare alla Fontana di Trevi! As for the Vittoriano, that’s an excellent suggestion and one we hadn’t thought of. I’m putting it on the list! :)
We might have a bit of spare time in Rome, so if we do, we’ll see about a quick trip or something to the south. We were considering Pompeii and Vesuvio, but decided against that, ultimately, since time was too short for that.
Grazie ancora per il tuo comment! :)
After quitting serious raiding I spent about 3 months trying to remember what the “normal” people do with their spare time. I watched a fair bit of television, and felt kind of out of my element. It got much better, though!
Also, your story about raiding ZG reminded me of the time I raided Molten Core with my guild while being on vacation in New York City. Oh, the old days.
Kurn, all I’ve got to say is have a fantastic time in Italy. I was there in 2010 and had a blast. Enjoy the sights, food and wine. Incase I didn’t get the point across. Enjoy the Wine. I know you don’t drink but your in Italy so make an exception :P Also, bring a good camera for some awesome photos.
-Mega
I still think you’ll be back eventually, Madrana. I made that bet with myself when you said you were quitting WoW. It may take awhile. But I think eventually the bug will bite you again and you’ll be back.
Liore – I think I’ve been lucky in that I set the dates and such months ago, so I’ve had some kind of ability to prepare myself. But now that it’s HERE, it’s still strange. I’ve been writing, practicing Italian, watching TV, playing some other games… and I still feel like I forgot something on Tuesday.
I loved raiding while on vacation! I might have preferred to actually, you know, sleep, but I felt like I was doing something helpful for my guild. This is likely my Achilles’ heel. :)
Mega – Sadly, I shall not be partaking of the wine. My friend might, though. It’ll be… technically, my fourth time (1982, 1990, 2006 and now), so I’m well-prepared for the awesomeness of it all. :) There will be many pictures!
Beez – see, it’s comments like those that strengthen my resolve to not play at all. What will bring me back? Most of the people I restarted Apotheosis for have quit (or will be quitting). Choice has had to go 10-man. I won’t be raiding with either Apotheosis or Choice — mostly because of the constant, ongoing nerfs to current raid content, which I abhor, but also because I’m just *done* raiding at this juncture. I miss it, sure, but I don’t miss what raiding has become. I miss what it was and it hasn’t been “what it was” for two expansions, now.
At best, I’ll be a casual player who enjoys making gold with the odd LFR, MAYBE carving out time for a challenge mode group (assuming the right people are up for it and further assuming that challenge modes don’t actually suck and honestly, my trust in Blizzard has eroded to the point where I don’t trust them at all).
But I won’t be coming back to raid with Choice and it’s extremely doubtful that I’ll do so with Apotheosis. I’m covering my bases, to make sure I CAN catch up if I so desire, but that’s more of a measure to feel better about the fact that a decision like this is, for me, very final. If I can make a crapton of gold, I’ll be able to buy any BOEs and such to get me back into the game IF I choose to return.
I don’t think I will, though. The making gold is just going to make me feel better.
I’ll almost certainly let my subscription lapse in November when my Annual Pass subscription runs out and if I feel like coming back casually, I might go ahead and do that, but I’m done raiding. They have ruined the raiding game for me with their consistent nerfs to current raid content and even with the introduction of the new achievements to distinguish pre-nerf content down vs. post-nerf content down, it’s not worth my investment, either financially or emotionally.
TL;DR: Fuck Blizzard and fuck their nerfs. I have no interest in playing the part of the game I feel they have wrecked for me. (Others are welcome to like it or not, but I hate what they’re doing. Period.) As such, they’ve pretty much wrecked the whole game for me.