The Art of Falling Behind

I think I'm looking at about the fifth time that I'll be behind the curve in game. It's been happening with more and more frequency as the expansions come and go, but the first time I ever fell behind was actually in TBC.

the one with the red hellfire peninsula

The difference back then was that I was still actively playing. Something about the game when I hit 70 prompted me to just chill, fly around, and farm rather than joining my guild in raiding. As I began to see more and more people in Shattrath with raid gear and, most notably, tier sets, I got frustrated and wanted to raid again. Unfortunately, I can never be happy playing the game without raid gear - yeah, just the gear. I really like raiding, but ultimately, it's the high end gear that I can't stand not having. I'm not saying I'm in favor of systems that grant raid gear to you without requiring some amount of raiding from you, just that basically I get frustrated when I'm not ahead of the curve. I know it sounds elitist, but I'm not really afraid to admit it.

Since my first raiding break back then, I have taken breaks from the game with increasing frequency and managed to always find myself needing to play catch up. Right now, in light of all of the work I've been doing to move and the fact that I still have rooms full of boxes and bags of clothes, I won't have much time, or frankly interest, to play to try and maintain my character between guilds since my latest dissolution.

The thing is, I've always returned to WoW. I'm never sure how long my breaks will be, but there is always a point where I decide to load the game up, and that same, well known fire begins to kindle in my gut. The end of my breaks usually come out of nowhere and I begin to play nonstop, as if I had never left.

this guy's room is actually way cleaner than it should be

Except, I did leave, so typically my gear is behind. I keep getting myself in these sticky situations, and I know I will have to deal with it when it comes up, but I suppose it can't be helped. Not only am I not always in a life situation where I can afford to play, but sometimes, due to one reason or another, I don't see a reason to log in anyway.

Not saying outright that I'm disappointed with Warlords, but this was the fastest that I ever fell out of the game after the release of a new expansion. I was feeling a break coming on as early as last year with the game coming out in November, but complications with the guild and my personal involvement in trying to help sustain it was pretty much the only thing keeping me in game. With the guild breaking up and my move in progress, I feel a stronger drive to play other games, or even do housework (gasp), than to play.

However, I know that by the time I want to play again, I'll have missed significant content and will have to play catch up, and I'll be doing it guildless, again. I only took one break in TBC, and that wasn't even a real break, leaving the majority of my breaks between late Cataclysm and current day.

The thing is, I guess I can never distinctly know if it's because of the way the game's changed or because of how I've changed.