Pacing (or Prolonging the Magic)

I suffer from the self-defeating mentality of "I love this game.  Im gonna play it until I hate it."

While that is a little extreme, it isnt far from the truth in my case.  I look for a game that I enjoy and then I play the crap out of it.  One day, BAM, I dont want to play it anymore.  There are games in my collection that I insist on holding onto, because they were once the game.  The game that kept me up at night and distracted me from work.  Now, I look at them on my shelf and I cant bring myself to play them.  I need something new and something great.  What causes this?  Is it because I saturate myself with a game?  Is it the constant inundation of previews of the next great unreleased game that overshadows my now seemingly outdated favorite?

Right now I am split between two games, as Ive mentioned earlier.  I get my online jollies from BF2 and I get a ton of immersion in Oblivion.  Online games are their own animal. As long as I have a friend that occasionally plays the game Ill keep it and play when we can. 

Last night I was playing Oblivion, and I found myself torn.  How do I want to play this amazing game?  Do I finish the main quest?  Ive done the Arena and the DB guild line.  Im almost done with the Mage line, and I could easily continue where I left off on the Fighters line.  The question is what to do first.  Something about this game has me hooked and I dont want to lose it.  Im in this environment where I can do whatever I want, but there is a larger story looming in the background.  I want to finish the main story and get the dragon armor and experience the epic storyline.  Will I still want to do all of the other stuff after I do that?  Should I at least close every Oblivion gate before I do it? 

The obvious answer is that I should go about the game the way I will most enjoy it.  The funny thing is that I dont know how.  I am the guy that separates teh purple and red skittles from the rest.  Ill eat the other by the handful and then go back and enjoy my two favorites one at a time.  Here, I cant figure out which would be more fun.  Which way would allow me to play this game longer and not get bored with it?

Getting off the smack

Ive been playing World of Warcraft since its release.  

Like so many others I completely cracked out on the game from Day 1.  My commitment to the game completely eclipsed my other game systems, including the psp and 360 releases.  I grabbed a psp when it came out, but I was too into WOW to really even notice the 360.  The way I get obsessed with games, this was probably a good thing.  I had almost no anticipation of release and had avoided pre-ordering.  When would I play a 360?  I was already altering my sleep schedule to play WOW. 

Aside from a number of lower level alts, I had run a 60 Hunter in alliance and a 60 druid for the horde.  In the months leading up to Christmas, I had found myself joining a couple of ingame friends in a rather commited guild.  After a couple of years of playing this game, I was finally running those high end instances that I would hear those clowns in all purple complain that they were sick of.  The problem was that I was in a west coast guild.   Suddenly I was getting 4 or 5 hours of sleep so I could do these instances.  Needless to say, this was doing wonders for my relationship and my performance at work. 

People running around complaining about release shortages made me laugh.  Oddly enough, I couldnt see why people would get so obsessed over something like the 360.  The continued irony of this is amazing.  For Christmas my fiance got me a 360.  Aside from the obvious irony of my video game nemesis getting me a new system, the shear magnitude of the endevour is even crazier.  We live in New York.  Her parents live in Boston.  Like most of the US, they had been looking everywhere, but couldnt find any systems.  It turned out a friend of one of her cousins worked at a Toys R Us, in California!  They had it shipped to Boston and then she drove from NY to Boston, and back, to get it to me for Christmas Eve.   

While she may not have known it at the time, this was a work of genius.

The release lineup for the 360 was less than stellar.  As such, I had my NFS:MW but I was still livin the WOW lifestyle.  I needed immersion.  I enjoy the feeling that you are developing a character.  Now that Oblivion is out, I am getting all of that , without the monthly payment and without having to deal with a community that was so often annoying. 

My gaming focus has turned towards the 360.  Im getting my adrenaline rush from BF2 and immersion in Oblivion, and I can do both of these on my own time.  No commitment or felling that I am pissing people off by leaving to do things like sleep and eat.

I can thank my fiance for helping to get me off WOW and onto the 360.  It seems to be a much healthier addiction.

Of course, the account management page is down, so I havent been able to cancel. 

New to the Community

Other than the xbox forums and the forums for my former WOW guild, this is would be my first forray into an internet community.  Pretty embarrassing, for a 28 year old who is considered a video game crackhead.

Since its all pretty new to me, Ive got some learning to do as I develop my 2old2play identity and learn the interface.

First thing is first, i need a picture for my name....