Just Breathe (A Reminder)
Last night when I got home, I went straight to my computer and launched full-bore into Cata. I went to the underwater zone first, but I don't do too well with 3D stuff/spacial perception things, so it wasn't long before I took off to Hyjal and started questing away on the toon that I chose to be my main for this expansion (my pally). One level and about two hours later, I realized something.
I wasn't having fun.
I logged off, much earlier than I had intended to. I was so surprised and disappointed that I felt that way - I thought that I'd be stretching every last minute before I HAD to log and go to bed, so I could get up for work in the morning. But instead, I had a headache, my wrists hurt, my shoulders hurt, I was tired and grumpy... so as I was laying in bed, I tried to figure out why. After having done so, I have a few words of advice, or a few gentle reminders to help keep you sane for the first few weeks.
First: Breathe. Just relax. Don't rush through the first few weeks. Take a quiet moment and remember that the content isn't going anywhere. Remember how well you knew the lay of the land in BC and Wrath after it had been out for a while? That will come. In the meantime, look at your surroundings. The game designers did an amazing job with these zones. I've always been a fan of aquariums and I would LOVE to go scuba diving but I am terrified of sharks IRL, so this is probably the closest I'm ever going to get, hah - but swimmin' around Vashj'ir is pretty convincingly close! Take the time to notice the little things, like the detail of the seahorse mounts. I was blown away by those. And Hyjal? Totally brought me back to hiking in the Santa Cruz mountains when I went to school there. Stole my breath away, when I took a few, brief seconds to look around.
Second: Mobs/nodes/quest objectives. They are not a limited supply, they will spawn again. This was a huge source of my frustration. I'm a guild/raid leader and I got it in my head that I needed to gogogogo, get my main to level cap and start farming heroics RIGHT NAO. I understand that some of you folks might be in guilds that encourage that - and that's fine, if that's what you enjoy! My guild is a bit more relaxed and many of my folks, as I realized later, hadn't really even touched their mains, just playing around in the worgen area or levelling tradeskills, or doing archaeology or whatever they felt like doing. Anyway, so there I was, questing along - and bam, someone grabs the Stormwind helm that I was standing on, fighting a mob that had aggroed. Or the Hyjal egg I was... again... standing on... and fighting a mob that had aggroed. I was getting so mad, as it happened over and over again. Once again, take a moment and just breathe. You will get your quests done.
Third: This is a game. It is worth repeating, so I'm going to say it again. This is a game. It is not a job. It does not pay your bills, deal with your ex-husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend or clean your house. This is to get AWAY from all those things (once they've been taken care of). If you are stressing about it, you are doing it wrong. This is supposed to be a stress-reliever, not a stress-inducer. This. Is. Supposed. To. Be. Fun. Have fun with it. :) If people ganking your quest mobs is starting to get to you - go do something else. Level archaeology. Go explore - just fly around with no other goal than to just SEE these places. RP with friends about the massive changes to the world. Heck, you don't even have to do NEW stuff, I rolled a nelf druid a few weeks ago to learn how to kitty and PvP, I might just do that for a few days here because I was having SO much fun with her.
Blizzard has Shattered the world that we have come to know so well. I know that a few of these pieces of advice, most of you know already. Or should, anyway. But I thought that this was a good time to just put a gentle reminder out there, in case anyone else was feeling like I had. It can be overwhelming and frustrating, especially when it seems like everyone out there only has a cut-throat out-for-themselves mentality. My advice is this: take your time and don't let yourselves hyperfocus on the small things, like idiots ganking quest nodes, the little bugs in the game we all knew would be there as it launched, etc, etc. Find the things in the game that fascinate and delight you, that make you laugh and are so touching, that they bring tears to your eyes.
And most of all, remember to breathe.
ETA: Wow, I had no idea how many Ladies (and lurklemen) felt the same way I did. :3 I'm so happy to know that I wasn't alone in the whole amg-why-am-I-not-enjoying-this aspect and I'm so glad that my advice helps. <3333
I wasn't having fun.
I logged off, much earlier than I had intended to. I was so surprised and disappointed that I felt that way - I thought that I'd be stretching every last minute before I HAD to log and go to bed, so I could get up for work in the morning. But instead, I had a headache, my wrists hurt, my shoulders hurt, I was tired and grumpy... so as I was laying in bed, I tried to figure out why. After having done so, I have a few words of advice, or a few gentle reminders to help keep you sane for the first few weeks.
First: Breathe. Just relax. Don't rush through the first few weeks. Take a quiet moment and remember that the content isn't going anywhere. Remember how well you knew the lay of the land in BC and Wrath after it had been out for a while? That will come. In the meantime, look at your surroundings. The game designers did an amazing job with these zones. I've always been a fan of aquariums and I would LOVE to go scuba diving but I am terrified of sharks IRL, so this is probably the closest I'm ever going to get, hah - but swimmin' around Vashj'ir is pretty convincingly close! Take the time to notice the little things, like the detail of the seahorse mounts. I was blown away by those. And Hyjal? Totally brought me back to hiking in the Santa Cruz mountains when I went to school there. Stole my breath away, when I took a few, brief seconds to look around.
Second: Mobs/nodes/quest objectives. They are not a limited supply, they will spawn again. This was a huge source of my frustration. I'm a guild/raid leader and I got it in my head that I needed to gogogogo, get my main to level cap and start farming heroics RIGHT NAO. I understand that some of you folks might be in guilds that encourage that - and that's fine, if that's what you enjoy! My guild is a bit more relaxed and many of my folks, as I realized later, hadn't really even touched their mains, just playing around in the worgen area or levelling tradeskills, or doing archaeology or whatever they felt like doing. Anyway, so there I was, questing along - and bam, someone grabs the Stormwind helm that I was standing on, fighting a mob that had aggroed. Or the Hyjal egg I was... again... standing on... and fighting a mob that had aggroed. I was getting so mad, as it happened over and over again. Once again, take a moment and just breathe. You will get your quests done.
Third: This is a game. It is worth repeating, so I'm going to say it again. This is a game. It is not a job. It does not pay your bills, deal with your ex-husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend or clean your house. This is to get AWAY from all those things (once they've been taken care of). If you are stressing about it, you are doing it wrong. This is supposed to be a stress-reliever, not a stress-inducer. This. Is. Supposed. To. Be. Fun. Have fun with it. :) If people ganking your quest mobs is starting to get to you - go do something else. Level archaeology. Go explore - just fly around with no other goal than to just SEE these places. RP with friends about the massive changes to the world. Heck, you don't even have to do NEW stuff, I rolled a nelf druid a few weeks ago to learn how to kitty and PvP, I might just do that for a few days here because I was having SO much fun with her.
Blizzard has Shattered the world that we have come to know so well. I know that a few of these pieces of advice, most of you know already. Or should, anyway. But I thought that this was a good time to just put a gentle reminder out there, in case anyone else was feeling like I had. It can be overwhelming and frustrating, especially when it seems like everyone out there only has a cut-throat out-for-themselves mentality. My advice is this: take your time and don't let yourselves hyperfocus on the small things, like idiots ganking quest nodes, the little bugs in the game we all knew would be there as it launched, etc, etc. Find the things in the game that fascinate and delight you, that make you laugh and are so touching, that they bring tears to your eyes.
And most of all, remember to breathe.
ETA: Wow, I had no idea how many Ladies (and lurklemen) felt the same way I did. :3 I'm so happy to know that I wasn't alone in the whole amg-why-am-I-not-enjoying-this aspect and I'm so glad that my advice helps. <3333