"We were on a break!"

Anecdote
My wife made me watch an episode of Friends one time, years ago now. I did it out of love and loyalty to her, not willingly or because I liked it. In this particular episode, Ross and Rachel had stopped dating per Rachel's request, Ross ended hooking up with a Chole chick. Well Rachel finds out about it, gets mad for Ross being "unfaithful", and Ross spends the next four years of the show justifying his trist by yelling "WE WERE ON A BREAK".

Not Emmy worthy stuff, I admit, but it made its way enough into pop culture to have some sort of a lasting impact.

So, why do I bring this up? Because I noticed I haven't written anything since July. I've lost all my 7 readers, probably, and well that's ok. I guess you could say I'm taking a break due to real life crap. Being unemployed for 10 months with a family of four to shelter and feed is tougher than you may realize. But it's not like I'm being unfaithful and writing a separate blog on the side or sworn off MMO's and went back to board games. No, I just spend most of my days trying to find work as a partially disabled dude, and worrying about how to pay my power bill (which is like, really important here in the 110 degree desert).

Surprises
One thing I've done is continued to play in the evenings. I have tried something...refreshing. I decided to not throw all my alts into my main guild and branch out a bit, meet new people and all. It's been such a pleasure. I've seen debates in my guild chat about how it's so hard to split toons between guilds on the same server, but really I think that only applies to serious players or raiders, not casuals like myself.

It ceases to amaze me how many great, friendly, and helpful people are out there. People willing to laugh at me and themselves, but never in a way to make anyone feel worse about themselves. People willing to commit to having a good time and doing it together. Oh yes, I'm all for splitting time between guilds, if I didn't I'd meet fewer and fewer of you fine folk out there.

Observations
I haven't been ignorant of the goings on in the blogosphere, I never am. I see there continue to be more and more discussions on game design. I still try to stay away from that since I don't really wish to think too much about it. For myself (and myself only) I try to ask "am I having a good time" (per my personal standars). If yes I keep playing, if not I stop. The one thing I noticed is that as soon as I went multi-guild I started having a better time again. Proving to me, and me only, that these personal connections are useful in fulfilling my gaming satisfaction quota for the night. I still enjoy the freedom of playing multiple classes in all kinds of roles, but it's still the interactive nature of MMO's that helps me to come back, even if I'm feeling down cause I just went through another day with nobody wanting to hire me.

Plans
What do I have planned for the future? I enjoy writing, I enjoy connecting with readers and other bloggers. I will continue that, but later. Once I can find a good job and have my family in order, I'll be back and with a bang. Probably I'll re-brand myself as a more sociopathic personality, and make you constantly look over your shoulder wondering if I'm watching you read my stuff right now...like I really am, just look behind you!!!!

Peace out! I'll talk to ya'lls later.