Welcome to the second to the last day of Promptapalooza! Thanks to Belghast for setting a different way for us to celebrate Blaugust. Yesterday's post was UltrViolet at Endgame Viable. If you haven't ready it yet, you can work your way backwards! Tomorrow return to Belghast's Tales of the Aggronaut blog for the last day of the event.
I almost didn't join. I am on something of a hiatus, given that I've finished what I want to do in World of Warcraft and have unsubscribed at least until the Shadowlands prepatch arrives. However, after seeing another request for people to join I thought it would be nice to participate in the community again have joined in Blapril for my first Blaugust community event. Belghast was kind enought to put me close to the end, but here I am, writing my post, the night before it's due. When I write, that's typically how it happens, so I guess it's only to be expected.
Speaking of communities, today's prompt is "Tell us about some community that you are part of and why it interests you or how it impacts you?"
I struggled for a while with this prompt but then I remembered a quote for an author I saw somewhere years ago (I tried to figure out who without luck) when asked about influences he said that even nothing compares to the influence his family has on his writing.
The whole reason for this blog relates to my family. I was intrigued by MMOs but, though I read about Ultima Online and Everquest, they never looked that interesting to me. Something changed with World of Warcraft. I followed it before it was released, I searched for a guild and joined it during beta, I was there on day one and signed the guild charter, and I was one of the slower levelers in the guild.
But that really didn't matter. People weren't leveling in Classic over a few days or a week like they were in future expansions. I enjoyed being able to do silly events with my guild-mates. I read the forum (now dead) regularly. I occasionally went on dungeon runs with them. And eventually I was max level and did raids with them, not in the first raid group but in a second group. That was fine with me and I enjoyed it.
But this isn't about my guild (with whom I'm very grateful to still be a member), it is about my family. I kept with my guild but sometime towards the end of Burning Crusade I knew I needed to change how I was playing. I was getting frustrated about being taken away from my computer by the people I love the most in this world. So I decided not to buy Wrath of the Lich King when it came out and went on hiatus from the game.
I did eventually buy Wrath and Cataclysm well after they were released and enjoyed playing solo while still being able to chat with people in the guild. Then, in 2012, I was trying to see if maybe it would make sense to play some other MMO and try to play it occasionally and this blog was born. I kept reading about MMOs (on Google Reader) and Syp on Bio Break created the Newbie Blogger Initiative and I joined so I could write about how to play MMOs not in a typical way, but in a way that worked with my life and kept me engaged with my family.
So now I protect our old cat and pay attention to our dog so he does get too jealous of our new kitten who demands our attention. I try to be a good parent to our three daughters, particularly, the oldest who has very limited speech and is about to turn 18. I try to make sure my wife knows I love her and do what I can to support her. And, occasionally, I still play games when the more important things in life allow it.
I'm not a very social person. I don't need a 'community,' but I do need my family.
