Sleepypete's Pillow

So trying not to rant at the moment, I’ve already done that on the Mercs forums (hidden area). There’s issues there which are steadily coming to a head as people get irritated at inactivity by people who are supposed to be the leaders. I’m actually one of those leaders but it’s kinda like being the person that a pollster always goes to when they need to figure the pulse of what’s going on. Ok, I started the Mercs guild off with a suggestion on the work forums but had to give up the top job after about 9 months because :

It was causing me lots of stress
The time online contributed to …
The lack of sleep contributed to …
Time on forums contributed to …
The …’s being reduced performance at work. When a game becomes a job, that’s bad enough. I’ve known a few people who have been effectively trapped into having guild or corporation (in Eve) management effectively become a second job and they’ve hated that their game time is effectively for organising things instead of having fun. Where it gets bad is when the job/game starts affecting performance in Real Life stuff like your actual job or being free to do as you please in an evening instead of having to ride herd on the guild.

Just had a thought that if you replace “guild” with “kids”, then a lot more people may emphasize with the above ! But whereas you can step back from a game, you can’t step back from being a parent – you can however, have much more influence on your kid(s)’s behaviour than on people you only know online. Plus there’s babysitters for when you need a break.

I’ve stepped back from the Warcraft world a few times in the past, mainly because people still seem to see me as the person who leads. They just tend to see the results they’re interested in instead of the personal cost that comes from having a anti-fanclub that didn’t like being on the receiving end of being kicked by the Icey one. Sometimes, I get to look at what it’s really like to be a cop, warts and all. After a flare-up at the weekend, I even got a message saying “we should do something about this”, from someone who really meant I should do something about it. This came from someone who’s supposed to be Number 2 co-Leader in the guild to a person who’s not even supposed to be an officer.

I be rantin’ again 😉 But not for long because I’m missing the excellent Demolition Man.

The real questions I have around my impending withdrawal from Warcraft and the politics are :

Am I running ? Am I looking to focus on stuff that’s important like real life ? Am I looking to use the stepping back to try and get the other officers doing their jobs ?

Maybe I’m running, maybe I’ve accepted that the problems in the guild aren’t really my problems any more. I started the guild and therefore have a deep attachment to it but I also passed on the responsibility. Still feels like I’m running though. Happy to ignore problems but not so happy about running from them.

Hello Sleepypete, I would have to agree with Oldoladyof the hills. I think you’re beginning a transition with gaming. Maybe it’s because your wrist is bothering you periodically, too. But apparently there are other projects in your universe that want to be completed. I miss the luxury of being able to cheat sleep, drink caffeine, and eat chocolate to my heart’s content. Not to mention other things… Someday, when I don’t want it to be, my son will want anything but me…

Thanks so much for visiting me blog!

You sound like you are Majorly addicted to problem solving. I have never played a lot of on-line games, except a very few that I find relaxing…And talk about simple and something any idiot can do…(No I don’t always win, at all….but loosing is very pretty….lol) But you really seem to LOVE the chalange of figuring things out that are very difficult. Maybe you are at a place where you want to take these skills and place them somewhere else more meaningful to you…
I probably do not know what I am talking about, but—THAT is what came to me as I read this post.

Thanks so much for your visit and for your very dear words!

Hi Sleepypete. Followed you home from Michele’s to thank you for that kind comment on my blog – and for the great caption suggestions!

I think every game, like any free-time activity, eventually gets a little stale. Variety is the spice of life, and too much of anything eventually reduces the novelty of it all.

I’m not really a gamer: I remember having an Atari 2600 a whole whack of years ago and over the course of a couple of years, it galvanized my interest in computers. But I never got back into the console thing. We bought a Wii last summer for the kids, but despite the fact that I work at home and could easily fire the thing up in the middle of the day, I’ve never been tempted to even turn it on.

I know, I’m weird that way!

I’d agree there – the thing that kept me in WoW for so long was a select band of people who were great to know. It’s what keeps me hovering around the Eve world too.

I had a look at City Of Heroes a while back but unfortunately didn’t go past the trial phase, think it was a victim of me being anti-game again at the time …

PS Think I’d like some snow instead of the weather we have at the moment. It’s a gale outside, with the occasional banging noise …

I have played 2 online games, City of Heroes and World of Warcraft for a couple years now. I only play for a couple of hours at a time and still enjoy both. I have a group of friends that I play with and we talk to each other using headsets and a program called teamspeak. Sometimes the conversation is more important than the game.

Michele sent me.

Michele sent me back!

You know, if it isn’t fun any more then give it up for something that makes you happier. ‘do the officers job’ sounds too m uch like work! 🙂

I have a great fun driving game for the PS3 called Stuntman Ignition. I really have been impressed with the PS3 games. There is one called Uncharted: Drakes Fortune which is a good shooter and puzzle game. I like a bit of problem solving mixed in 🙂

[chuckle] One reason I’m looking curiously at a PS3 is all the driving games it has 🙂 Not really played many of those on PC. Need For Speed 3 was amazing but that’s from a while ago.

Yeah, we’ve had our fair share of the teenage boys in the Mercs. They can be amusing to watch but they can also end up getting a bit too big for their boots. I have a little band of people who don’t like me too much because I was the one who ended up dealing with them (bit of a problem with officers not behaving like officers in the Mercs)

That’s probably one of my reasons for not wanting to play Wow too much – people wanting me to do the officer job I tried to give up ages ago.

I’ve never been into online gaming but whne I had an N64 I used to play far too much Doom 64. I loved that game. Now I have a PS3 I have bought some more games and some of them are really good. I’m far too busy to let it take over my life though!

I think the reason all those other players online were so good and spent so much time on it is because they were all teenage boys (or unemployed)! You know the ones who act real hard online but are just kids in real life. I understand the online gaming world is full of them, frustrating the people who play and have real lives! 🙂

Hmm – are games getting more complex perhaps ? I got thoroughly taken in by the ones I found via The Bluest Butterfly’s Thursday 13 the other day 🙂

PS Tetris is lethal for chances of the housework getting done 😉