Today was going to be a post about collecting mounts as a soloist, but I'm having Comcast issues and can't seem to stay online for more than 30 minutes at a time. Playing WoW has been right out the window today. Which stinks for me really, because what else am I going to do with my time? Stare at Twitter waiting for new tweets to come through. Welcome to my world.
So I thought I would talk about the reason why I still solo-and only solo-in WoW. When I started this blog, there were a number of other blogs by people who soloed in WoW. And then LFG came to the game and it seems that the definition of "soloing" went out the window. In my opinion, if you are joining dungeon and raid groups, you are no longer "solo", even if you never converse with others you are still grouping with them. I have absolutely no want to ever group with other players in this game. Nothing personal, I'm sure there are some really nice players out there, I talk to a few through my blog here or on Twitter. But the thought of grouping in game sends me into a panic attack. And that's just the first reason.
Availability
When you join a group, whether it is dungeon or raid, you are committing yourself for an undetermined set of time. You are agreeing to help the other 4/9/24whatever number of people to accomplish the task at hand. You will not suddenly bail out for no reason. But I can't do that. My kid comes first, and if she calls and says she needs me for whatever reason, I want to be able to drop what I'm doing and go. I've only got a few more years where this might happen because before long she just flat out won't need me anymore. I'm there for her no matter what and I refuse to bail on a group if something comes up, so I won't join any groups in the first place.
Bad Player
For those reading who do LFR and LFG, I've read the stories-there's always the really awful players who do horrible dps, die all the time, etc. Nobody wants to be "that guy". I especially don't want to be "that guy/gal". But if I joined a group, I can guarantee with 100% certainty that I would be. Not interested in attempting to soar with eagles because I don't want to be the turkey.
Panic Attacks/Social Anxiety Disorder
Is it a mental illness or just an excuse? I had a panic attack this weekend in a huge crowd at a high school function. They aren't fun. I can't control them. When someone I don't know talks to me or gets too close, I freak out. I prefer to use self-checkout lanes and if there aren't any, I probably seem rude because I don't make eye contact or answer questions in complete sentences. In the game, if someone whispers me out of the blue, I generally get really defensive, apologize profusely or just log out and play another character-and it doesn't even matter what the whisper was about! I've had people whisper telling me to go "straight to hell" because I helped kill a rare mob on Timeless Isle that this guy was "trying to tame", and people whisper me asking if I want to group up to farm for rep. I treat them both the same-panic, log out, move on. It's just how I am. The only people I talk to-not just on a daily basis, but EVER-are my husband and daughter. That's it! My mom lives out of town and I have no friends at all. That's my life, sitting at the computer, playing WoW or watching youtube.
There Is No Main, Only Alts
As I mentioned the other day, I have 43 level 90s. I love the gratification of leveling up. Getting new gear does not excite me(unless it's transmog gear, my characters have to look good, even if they are just farming!). Plus I have this weird thing where I almost absolutely can not level a character that doesn't have rested xp. Must have blue line, no purple! So I level many characters at once. And when they hit max level, I don't care what their item level is, I move on to the next character to level. None of my characters got the legendary cloak, but I did manage enough reputations at exalted to get "the Beloved" title.
So you see, I do love this game, there is plenty to do as a soloer, but I don't need anyone else to make my experience better. If it requires outside help, then it isn't something I need to have. Pet battles, farming transmog, farming mats, crafting for alts, farming old mounts and leveling alts-plenty to take up all my time in Azeroth and beyond.
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