This week our family took a short trip out of town to visit family members out in Arkansas. While I did have internet access back at the hotel, my time browsing was limited and I did not have access to games; including WoW.

Upon returning home, I was actually a bit surprised that I was not drawn to my gaming machine. There was no longing to log in and “check in” with my guild or see if my auctions sold. I did not feel as though I had to work to catch up on anything I missed out on.

Instead, I waited almost until the last minute to log in for our Ulduar raid, and at the end of that time I did not feel like much was accomplished. In fact I started looking back at the eight hours our guild has spent each week over the last several weeks.  That time spent, has not been nearly as fun as the first several weeks, and for my character there has been little to no reward for that time.

The lack of rewards issue is being addressed in the next patch. While I might not think blizzard’s solution is the best one, the new emblems will give me a worthy reward for my time in ulduar each week without having to fight the RNG.  Though is a more worthy and consistent reward, enough to shake me out of my lack of desire to play the game?

I used to call this MMOADD, but I know now its not just MMOs that I jump between. No I know now that I am a “cyclical gamer”, in that I will go on a hot streak and dive right into the deep end of a game. Play it like mad for a while, and then my excitement lessens and I start looking around at other games, or activities. It’s just the way I am, and normally I have no problems heading from game to game, but with wow things are different.

I have several good friends I play wow with, and I really enjoy talking and playing with them. I don’t want to leave them behind, but I cannot expect them to jump games with me.  Which left me sitting last night trying to figure out how to strike a balance of my game time between WoW and some other game; not an easy thing to do.

In life, its often a good idea to step back from a situation to try to get a different view on it.  When I woke up this morning, I realized that our family trip provided just that sort of view change for me to get a on my gaming habits and friends.

I think I might start planning some harsh AFK time in the future.