MMO Holding Pattern: Not Done Yet
I think I mentioned in my last post that I’ve kinda been in a holding pattern when it comes to MMOs lately. I log in to FFXIV (the only MMO I’m really playing), I do some daily beast tribes, I maybe do an alliance roulette, and sometimes I do a leveling. Some days, I don’t really even log in at all.
I’m still working on my goal for the month, which is to get some leveling done on my Summoner/Scholar (which is now at level 66 as of last night). I do need to work on cleaning up story quests still, too.
But other than that, I don’t really feel the call to do a lot in MMOs lately. So there’s not a whole lot to write about here.
This makes me feel a little bad, especially since I’ve been much more active at putting out posts for my revived Second Life blog. Maybe it was a mistake to have separated the two blogs, I don’t know. I thought that folks who followed for MMO posts wouldn’t be interested in tons of Second Life posts and vice versa. Also, I wanted to reuse the URL I used to have for my original Second Life blog because there are still links out there that send folks to that site.
I also felt a little bad after reading Syp’s post on Biting the MMO hand that entertained you. While I do feel like I’ve been suffering from MMO burnout, especially FFXIV end game burnout, for quite a while, I’m still playing casually and I don’t have negative feelings towards the game or MMOs in general. I just need a change of pace.
But we are all seeing a shift away from MMO blogging. It’s gotten quiet around these parts. Not just in what people write about but in overall interaction with each other.
Right now, I’m really focused on many aspects of Second Life (even though I thought I’d never come back to it). Part of that is because of the response I’ve gotten from others… even though the grid is huge and I’m pretty much a stranger to everyone. Though some folks in the Second Life community can be jaded, they also seem to quickly laud and promote the work of SL folks.
For example, last week, a screenshot I took in world and posted on Flikr was chosen as a header image for a SL photo group there. That made me feel really awesome.
Yesterday, an established Second Life blog highlighted a series of tutorial posts I’m writing about being a Blender noob. I suddenly got this rush of new visitors to my young-restarted blog, with a few leaving random comments. I’m also getting a pretty positive response and conversation on Reddit. And boy does that encourage me to keep going with those posts.
I really love Syp’s Global Chat column on MassivelyOP for this reason, too. I always check it out just to see who’s been highlighted, and get a thrill if one of my articles appears there. I think it’s a wonderful thing to lift other people’s work up in that way, and always give props to him for keeping his finger on the pulse of so many blog posts.
This is in no way a knock against the MMO blogger folks, because I have nothing but respect and affection for you all. I guess it’s easy for us to get siloed into our little slots — maybe we’re writing about a game other folks aren’t playing or hopping around having a hard time finding that place to call an MMO home.
It only makes sense that if I’m playing X-MMO and another blogger is writing about X-MMO, they’re going to get more of my read and comment time than someone blogging about an MMO I’m not playing or interested in. It could be just another casualty of having too many games to choose from, not enough time, and most folks struggling to find a game that really calls to them to stay.
I don’t know.
I’m rambling now. But I suppose I felt I needed to write something to say “I’m not dead done yet. I’m really into something not MMO (but yet kinda MMO — Second Life is more of a virtual world), so I’m blogging about different things. But I haven’t quit playing or blogging or anything, even if my focus is somewhere else for the moment, and I seem a little quiet here.”
I’m sure someone will do something silly in a duty finder for me to write about. Just hang in there.