I don’t know about everyone else, but in order for me to really feel ‘involved’ in an MMO, I need “something” to do when I’m feeling quiet. Something that I can work towards when I’m not feeling very social, when my attention is diverted by other things, when I want to let my mind wander.
So what do I do?
It varies by game. In WoW I tend to harvest, do pet battles, fish, and archaeology. These are things that still give me an illusion of progression but are also quite relaxing and trouble free.
In EQ2 I’ve been working on my lore & legend quests on Jacquotte, my very-behind swashbuckler. I only have a handful left to go, and then I’ll probably start working on my neglected language quests. These things along with going back and visiting old zones, harvesting, crafting, and housing, occupy my “lets do something, but not too much something” moments. They’re actually what keeps me logging in when I’m done all of the content that I can explore (as in I have completed my weeklies and dailies and I don’t really want to group to do more, but I wouldn’t mind hanging out in the game while I do other stuff). This is the bread and butter of any game for gamers like me. If your game doesn’t have something for me to do when I want a little down time, chances are slim that I will stick around. I won’t find a reason to log in – because lets face it, doing dailies over and over and over gets to be a bit much.
What do you do to relax in your MMO of choice? Or are you one of those people who prefer to just go go go? There’s absolutely nothing wrong with that, either, it’s just not my personal style of play.
Let me know in comments!
Recently I’ve spent more time in MMOs (WoW for me) doing the restful activities than the active ones. I farm (on the farm, not for mats) most days. I’ve fished. I’ve advanced archaeology. I’ve finished up the last few quests in a few old zones.
Right now I am ‘playing’ (leveling an alt to 60 to be ready to become an instant 90, eventually). I keep thinking I’ll work on the Legendary cloak, but I might never do it. There are a lot more casual than serious players of these games and I think we get a skewed perception because most of those who blog take the game more seriously than average. Yes, I’m casual and if you don’t like it I don’t care. ;)
(And, yes, I’m a week behind in responding, but maybe you’ll think I must have really wanted to!)
I farm stuff, usually. Get somewhere with profitable mobs to kill and just go through them like a meat grinder. Or run from harvesting node to harvesting node going “tink tink tink” with a mining axe and so on.
Something easy and mindless and meditative while I’m either listening to music or got a video on in the other screen.
The alternative is just putting the game down and switching to another game for a while, maybe a singleplayer one or another MMO I’ve been intending to try.
It depends on if I’m actually happy with the game and just want to relax, or if I’m bored with the game and need something different.
I just blog about the game instead of playing it when I am not enthused to log in or during slow times =)