Kinless' Chronicles

I wonder if I'm doing something wrong.

The wife and I play a few characters. We have a Draenei couple, Blood Elf couple, Night Elf couple, and an Orc couple. Oh, yes, a Forsaken couple, and a Human couple. (See sidebar on the left.)

Anyway, we tend to get spread out in who we're playing. So I thought a bit of a schedule might help regulate us. Monday these people, Tuesday these, and so on. I especially wanted to get the new races through their new areas, and then Msaker and Droonda through the Outlands. This way we'd even get to see all the new content.

But I've found myself kind of leading a "charge" to level. Going to Falcon Watch I'm planning out a strategy to hit the Pools of Aggonar, then the Fissure, then those bird people, ... Who's got time to read the quest givers texts if you're in a rush to get the xp flowing? I actually had to force myself to stop, pause, and read the quest texts. Why was I killing those bird people for the Blood Elf guy, for instance. I've forgotten, or never really read the quest. That's a shame!

I want to see the content, and yet I find myself rushing through it.

And after Droonda retired for the evening I took a look at the open quests. Ah ha! There was a necklace I could replace my old PvP one, and the later Frostwolf one, with, gotten by doing a quest to collect demonic essences from Taskmaster demons in the ruins in southwest Hellfire Peninsula. So I was going to do a quest for the loot. And I'm not sure why I needed those essences. Something to do with the Draenei prisoner. (Who dies upon taking the potion he's later given, and then instantly returns to life as if nothing happened. Even that pickpocket target in the Inn in Orgrimmar stays down longer. And he's a Tauren.)

Anyway, I'm in the ruins. I kill the Taskmaster, but don't use any AoE attacks (like cleave) in order to save the Broken slaves. I'll be going Aldor Faction, because in my heart of hearts I think Thrall means well, the Mag'har aren't vicious nor evil, and the Orcs aren't murderous. (Misunderstood maybe, but we aren't evil. Now Trolls and gnome warlocks, they're other stories. ;)

So here in the ruins I go into a tent and find a Broken sitting there. I speak with him. It turns out this tribe of Broken has a few leaders left and there is a high leader I should visit. I do, there is a key to find, then I free the leaders (and therefore the tribe), I kill a demon overlord type, and then I learn the high leader of the Broken was the original traitor. My actions have undone, or stopped now rather, the harm he caused his people. Hey. Cool. I'm part of a story of discovery and redemption. That's a nice change of pace. No, I'm not level 62. But doing that quick little quest, and being a part of that vignette, I really enjoyed that. Yes, I'll return there with Droonda, and free yet more of them, but that's good too.

Now back to my rhetorical question from the title. Was/am I doing something wrong? I asked that myself when I saw a level 61 Draenei ride past as Droonda and I made our way back to Falcon Watch. "Sheeyet." I tell my wife. "Level 61 Draenei. ... Level 61. 61. 61. It's like we're standing still. We're 61." I've got 20+ some days played on Msaker and I'm level 61. This person has had, what, a month to reach this level? 31 calendar days. Let's say you power through to 61 in 10 days played. That's still 8 hours a day, every single golldanged day, day in, day out, to reach 61 when we're 61. I just want to scream.

Heck, it's his $14 a month. If he wants to burn out in two months, meh, whatever. Skip over all content, his loss. Less competition for spawns when he quits to go play Vanguard. Or whatever. Aw, man, I know the wife is absolutely going to be playing LOTRO too. And where she goes, I go. I'll never reach 70. :(

:)

Oh, I'm sure I will. I keep later hours than she does.

P.S. Hmm, I still haven't gotten to my point. Oh, yeah: I want to read the quest texts, I want to enjoy the story, and yet I still want to make progress. Keeping up with the Jones's I'm going to miss out on that. Not keeping up means I "fall behind" my guild. End-game/instance runs are pretty much out because of it. (No takers in my guild for Hellfire Citadle now that a lot of the guild, the players, are level 65+ now.) How many people balance this well? How many folks can experience all the content, and yet still make progress to their degree of satisfaction. I suppose I might be wanting to much.

P.P.s. Anyway, tomorrow night it's off to Portes du Soleil for skiing! For the snow!