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The “I’m Baaaaaack!” Post

Greetings, Ladies and Gents; long time no see! It’s been a night or two since my last post and a drought-like before that. Well, I’m happy to say that the long spell of postlessness is over. To be honest, this post has been in the works for a while now but the recent invoice-y prompting of my host nudged me over the edge. I’d like to fill you in on why I’ve been absent and why the change is a-comin’ (a-came?) and a little of what I’ve been up to before getting back into the multiple-post-a-week thick of things. So let’s dive in!

Excuse the “brief” interruption

To state the obvious, posting on Game By Night took a dive around the beginning of the year. Without going into too much detail, circumstances in my life added up to a lot of isolation. Work slowed to a crawl, my grad work kicked into high gear, and I was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. I dove into self, played a lot of single player games, and pulled back from a lot of the social outlets I had. It wasn’t good and it wasn’t helped by a subsequent determination I settled upon in March. I stopped caring about contributing to conversations I’d been active in my last five years of my blogging. I read a lot but rarely commented and questioned how much I even cared about MMOs or gaming in general.

Fast forward. A lot has happened. I found my faith again in a way that I never had before. I joined a support group that I attend daily. I stopped isolating and have started back on my path to recovery — physical, mental, and spiritual — taking a leave of absence from Vagary.TV to focus on it. In short, life is still far from perfect or where I would like it to be but things are better than I began the year in the ways that matter most. This blog was always important to me and the time for neglect has ended.

So where does all this take me? Back into MMOs and the blogosphere, of course! Starting today, I’m returning to weekly writing. And perhaps now is the time to do it. If there’s one thing I’ve noticed in my time “away” (hey, I have posted some), it’s that this little circle of ours is healthier than it’s ever been. A bigger community means more and better conversations.

And what have I done in the meantime?

I firmly believe that it’s important to know where a writer is coming from, so here’s a brief recap of my gaming outlook recently.

LotRO: Played it a little bit, working on my level 46 Guardian in Forochel. I burned out on Guardian-ing long ago but I don’t have it in me to re-level another character through all that content. It’s a good game but the slow pace is an acquired taste and there are too many options to dedicate myself to re-acquiring it.

RIFT: I started playing this again back in early July to prepare for Storm Legion and I didn’t really expect to stay. At that point, I was still burnt out on MMOs and didn’t see me coming back. Like is often the case, trying something new refreshed my outlook. In my case, it was a new class — rogue — and new playstyle — PvP. For all of it’s pre-50 balance issues, I’ve come to love PvP in RIFT and found that it speeds up the leveling process more than any other game in recent memory. To be perfectly honest, the levels 28-40 were spent mostly in warfronts with experience and favor potions for my time as a Veteran.  I’m now 50 and going strong. Expect a post on this soon.

Batman, Batman, BATMAN!: I played Arkham City when it first came out and was enamored. After watching The Dark Knight Rises, I decided it was time for another trip back to Gotham. Having never beat Arkham Asylum, I loaded it up first. It now holds the title for my quickest AAA game beat. I finished it in 8 hours on normal over two days. Excellent, excellent series. And I can say that now since I’ve beat both. My only problem is that Games for Windows Live is the spawn of Satan and should be summarily executed.

Well now…

That’s a long enough post for this Friday. Suffice it to say that I’m happy to be re-dedicating myself to regular writing. I need it, whether the internet needs me or not. For those of you who have remained subscribed, thank you; really. It means more to me than it probably should, but you know what, I’m okay with that. For everyone else who’s just happened to stop in, well, I appreciate you too and hope you keep stopping by. You guys rock.

– Chris

 

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