The Energizer

I'll be frank:  when it comes to SWTOR in my family, things haven't been looking promising.

You may be wondering why I've been sticking with my blogging challenge topics, instead of interspersing them with other posts, as I had intended.  Well, I haven't found myself playing a whole lot in the last week or so.  There are a number of reasons for this, generally boiling down to a lack of enthusiasm in my family or a lack of enthusiasm in myself.

My husband finds himself not terribly interested in playing on a normal night.  He is interested in the story lines of the individual classes, and he's willing to play if I make an appointment with him to do so, but with his main, he's not sure what he really wants to accomplish by logging in without a defined purpose.

"What's the point?" he asked me.  "I finished the story line, but the operations seem disconnected to the main story.  I'm just not clear how they fit in, unlike some other games, where the end game was something toward which you progressed the entire expansion.  In addition, I worked hard at raising my companions' affection levels--even got married--and now my wife doesn't even talk to me anymore."

I laughed and told him that might be some people's impressions of marriage in real life . . .

The fact is he's been finding other things he wants to do more than play SWTOR.  We finally got Skyrim from Gamefly, and he and the girls liked it so much he picked it up for PC and paid for the PS3 used copy, so two of them can play at the same time.  And he and the girls have had a great time lately watching the Castle DVDs we've been getting from Netflix . . . or streaming survivalist shows.

The girls still play a little, but not much.  They are having fun on the Xbox and the PS3, as well as reading, watching/listening to things on their iPods or laptops, or finding outdoor activities, now that spring has arrived.  (I have one who is really good about watering my garden for me.)  My eldest daughter--the one who plays Sith--completed her GED and is now working full-time to save for higher education, so when she comes home, she wants to veg on her computer, reading mangas.

And me?  Well, again, I love my main, but I'm not intending to be a hard-core progression raider, so I don't feel the motivation to grind things terribly much.  Nishaa is now about level 14, but she's on Coruscant, which means aside from the class quests, this is the third time I'm running through these quests.  I find myself space-barring through the conversations, clicking on whichever option is most "STRAC", knowing those ones will usually be the ones Aric likes, while listening to Audible books on my phone.  (I've found more satisfaction some evenings cleaning or doing dishes, let alone baking a new bread for my bread blog . . .)

Last night, however, when I logged on my consular (after an emotionally exhausting night of preparing and e-filing taxes), I decided instead of running circles around the fleet base and logging off, I would go run a warzone.  Just one.  When I finally started zoning in, I realized I was entering a Voidstar encounter in progress.  Great.  (When you enter one in progress, it's almost always a loss.)

Our turn as defenders ended about three seconds after I finally saw the scene.  Then it was time to attack.

It didn't take long to figure out this team was most likely not heading anywhere very quickly.  But in spite of this knowledge, as I ran from point to point, I felt that old familiar thrill.  The pace of the action and the amount of full-scale attention required boosted my adrenaline levels and overall mood.

I couldn't help laughing as the Empire characters ganged up on me after realizing I was keeping people alive despite their efforts.  As purple lightning surrounded me, I giggled, knowing if I was drawing their attention like this, I was doing a good job as a healer.  (Comforting thought as I fall down dead, right?)

And every time I jumped back off the platform after rezzing, buffing as I fell, I felt a renewed sense of energy as I charged back toward my teammates, ready to bubble and heal like crazy.

I got the strange feeling I needed woad . . . and a barbarian cry . . .

After so many days of lackluster play or not logging on at all, it was great fun to feel that rush again.  It carried over into the quests I ran with Nishaa afterward, until finally I realized bedtime had snuck up on me, and I logged her off where she stood.

So now I know.  If I need a boost of energy, if I want to feel more enthusiasm about playing, it's time to log on my consular and queue for a warzone or two.

It works for a while, anyway.