Comfort Gaming
stargrace 
I’ve talked about this before in-depth, but this week more than others I find myself drawn to “comfort gaming”. Basically just like comfort food, we all have games that we’re very comfortable with. Maybe we don’t give them as much attention as we wish we did, or maybe we’ve moved on over the years to something more shiny, or maybe we’ve just stopped playing for whatever reason. Whatever the case may be, this week has been all about comfort gaming for me, and nothing gives me that feeling like EverQuest 2.
Lets face it, we all have a really bad week here and there. Mine started out with a doctor appointment that I was pretty sure was going to be bad news. Turns out, it was. There’s potentially something wrong with my pregnancy so now I have to fly to Vancouver for testing (in approximately a week) so I can find out what’s wrong, and how sever it is, and what (if anything) I can do to prepare myself for whatever comes next. Getting bad news sucks. Getting bad news and then having to wait a week before knowing anything sucks even more. Getting bad news, having to wait, and then having to take an unexpectedly expensive trip to find out results is even more stress. Then I found out my friend in EQ2 passed away after losing his fight with depression (which I wrote about here, too). Needless to say my weekend and the beginning of this week has certainly been filled with far more downs than ups. I’m ready for something good to come along.
That’s why turning to these comfort games is something I fully embrace. I’m not saying ignore the world or pretend the problems don’t exist, but give yourself a bit of a break. You’re dealing with some pretty rough times, you need some space to step away and collect yourself.
I decided nothing really gave me that feeling as much as leveling up a new character and so I created two. One is Milay, a berserker, and the other is Quails, a channeler. I logged in a second account and decided to power level both characters (one at a time) because what I really wanted to do was just plow through content without any thoughts at all.
So that’s exactly what I did.
Both characters are now at level 50, brokers are stocked with lots of yummy items for sale, and I feel a bit better about things (or at least calmer). Is it a perfect solution? No, of course not, but I can’t stress enough how much gaming has helped me keep my sanity in otherwise impossible situations. I had a lot of fun, and got to relax. It’s a great combination.