Bored With WoW? Change Your Approach!

I recently read a post over at Big Bear Butt where he mentioned that he was once again excited about playing Wo W. He created a couple of alts on a new server and was embracing not having a max level toon to support his new characters. He is now playing as if the game is all new to him, and in most aspects it is. Cataclysm brought WoW redesigned zones, new quests and new races. It is basically a new game.

My approach to Rift has been the exact same thing. I have embraced it as whole new  experience. As a result, I am trying to experience just about everything the game has to offer. While my leveling speed might be a bit slower than most, I do not see that as being entirely bad. I have decided to enjoy the ride, to stop and look around and take in all that the game has to offer.

My jump to Rift has given me something that I have been missing in my gaming life for a long time. Now when I log in, I have plenty to do. I do not find myself standing in a major city trying to figure out what would be fun to do. For far too long that was a normal occurrence for me in WoW. I was logging in, out of habit, and forcing myself to do things that were just not that fun for me.

I think there were a couple of things preventing me from going the BBB route in WoW. The first was access. The access I am referring to is access to gold, heirloom gear, end game raiding and most importantly information. After playing a game for 5 years, you develop a resource base. In WoW, I was unable to break away from those resources and play the game as if it was new. This had nothing to do with the game; it is my inability to start over from scratch that causes an issue.

The second thing that was a problem for me was expectation. Traditionally when I log on to play a game it is to play with friends. Regardless of the game, there are 3- 4 us that have been together for over 10 years. When I logged into WoW it was to game with those friends. There have been multiple times throughout the years when one or more of us have felt the urge to change servers or games. Where one goes, the rest follow. Time and time again this has been the pattern.

I downloaded Rift on a whim, I was bored and I thought I would take a look at the game for the blogs sake. I wanted to be able to discuss the game and to do so intelligently I needed to experience the game. When my buddies asked what I was up to, I told them. I also warned them AGAINST trying the game because I had no expectation for them to come over to Rift. I felt it would be an unnecessary expense if the game turned out to be bad. Of course they didn’t listen and now we are all playing Rift as our primary MMO.

If you are in the rut I was in and still love WoW, I suggest you try what BBB is doing. Go back, start over and try out all those redesigned zones and quests. Go get that rep mount you wanted or play that spec you know you will love regardless of what the min/max guys say. If you change your approach to the game, it might be new all over again.