So regular readers are probably wondering where the rest of the class storyline reviews are.  After all I teased that I was playing through the Smuggler story next and true to my word I got all the way through Chapter 3 on him.  The reviews are actually outlined and in my draft pile.  I always enjoyed the smuggler and I’m looking forward to writing those soon and then hopefully moving on to the final storyline: the Imperial Agent.  However, I’m not going to lie – It may take me a while.  See, on top of Knights of the Fallen Empire now out and enjoying that (Thinking of doing a Vry Plays after my Sim’s inevitable go bankrupt and start eating each other),  I’ve also now got Metal Gear Solid V, and Fallout 4, the new patch of Final Fantasy XIV, and oddly enough among all of those things – World of Warcraft.

It’s odd.  While I did decide to join my significant other in playing catch up through the Warlords of Draenor storyline (My take? It was nice, but the whole Alternate Universe thing lessened the impact to near pillow fight levels.  Felt like it should have just been a novel.)  and I did enjoy my brief playthrough, I haven’t honestly had a “hankering” to play the game since Mists of Pandaria.  Yet, in the wake of the recent loss of a grandparent, and the depression that followed, I found myself turning to an old comfort.  My little gnome death knight, my lawful good blood elf paladin, and even some of my low level toons.  The game didn’t feel like a tedious trudge through the tides of futility like so many times before.  It just felt like silly fun.  Kind of like picking up a Mario game after a decade and just enjoying the simple run-jump mechanics.

But despite the level of comfort I felt when beating around the skulls of kobolds as Norris Brewshatter, Dwarven Shaman Extraordinaire, I found my mind pestering me.  “Didn’t we say we were done with WoW?”  “What about those Class Reviews?”  “You have like four brand new games you haven’t finished yet.”  And the thoughts hounded me as I played, and after I had logged out, and almost everything I saw or uttered the words ‘World of Warcraft’.  I was at odds.  This game was helping me.  I was feeling better.  I was starting to enjoy things again after the funeral.  Should I abandon that for other things I should play in my diminished adulthood free time?  And why only feel this way about WoW?

Maybe part of it is that World of Warcraft carries a heavy weight with it.  It’s a name that actually means something to people outside of gaming circles.  My sister may not know what Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward is, or if Star Wars: The Old Republic is a game or a comic or a cartoon, but she knows World of Warcraft.  She knows it for good and for ill.  There’s stigmas associated with that game outside of gaming, and even bigger one’s inside of gaming.  MMO gamers especially are very vocal about their opinions of what they like and dislike, and the fact that my site’s biggest draw is TOR, whose forums won’t even say ‘WoW’ but only refer to it ubiquitously as ‘That Other Game’ (Or they did, I will admit I don’t frequent the TOR forums very often anymore.)  Is that why?  I’m afraid that readers will leave my blog if they found out I was playing ‘The Other Game’?  I hope not.  My subconscious would be quite the vain thing then wouldn’t it?

Honestly, I can’t really say.  I’ve been mulling it over for days trying to figure it out but ultimately I came to the conclusion that it doesn’t matter.  I wrote this blog when it only had maybe 15 hits a day and most of those were Google Image Searches, I’ll still write it even if it gets back to there.  I write because I like writing it and I have all these crazy weird thoughts while playing games, watching movies, or reading comics that I just want to share with anyone who will listen… er… read.

No, I think the real thing to keep in mind with all of this is that you should do what makes you happy.  Even if others would turn away, or give you a weird look, or anything like that.  Don’t worry about it.  Just play what makes YOU happy.  Let them play what makes them happy.  The world can be cold, the night is dark, and we never really know how long we get to enjoy ourselves here on this big round madhouse.  So play games you enjoy, with people you enjoy when you can, and even without them if they want to play something else that doesn’t interest you.  Be happy.  We all deserve that much.  Games are supposed to be fun after all.

I’d like to dedicate this post to my departed grandmother, Carolyn, who I can never ever recall getting upset once in my life and of course to the ever cheery man my grandma loved to watch: Bob Ross.

Take care of yourself, and each other.