Homecoming

After a 6 month hiatus, I'm back to the City of Heroes and the City of Villains!

I've played this game since its release in the spring of 2004. I was still in college at that time. I'd say CoH was the main contributing factor to my mediocre grades (well, that and binge drinking).

I've always been a gamer, but CoH was actually my first real foray into MMOs. I played it pretty consistently. I joined with a great guild (or a "Super Group" as its know in CoH) and had a fun time.

I left the game in April 2008 for a few reasons.

It was getting tedious. Level 50 is the cap for characters in the City of Heroes and Villains. My level 50s were fully outfitted in the proper Invention Enhancements. Even with bells and whistles added to the subsequent patches known as Issues (ala comic books), it gets redundant after a while. I had gotten all the badges that I was able to on my "main" character (without going completely nuts). On both Hero and Villain side, I've had experienced all the missions, task/strike forces, and raids that the game has to offer. I even led a hardcore team that ended up earning the elusive Master of Statesman Taskforce Badge. The game didn't really have much more to offer me.

There was some drama I didn't want to deal with. I'd actually like to point out that I would have quit the game years before, but I stayed because I had a good group of people to hang out with online. I've never met any of them in person, but after hanging out with them for years and getting to know them and their family, it was only naturally that friendships developed. These were people I cared for. I also put a lot of time and energy into the group but not to go into too much detail in what happened, I started to feel really unappreciated. Because it was a gradual thing that went on for so long, that feeling of unappreciation turned into bitter disappointment and then resentment.

But the main reason I left was because of the real life situation going on at that time. I had spent a miserable year working for this small liberal arts university. The work was tolerable, but my boss was the most stupid, ignorant, psychotic, unprofessional, unstable, unfair, and unqualified person I had ever worked with and for. Add that to a very mundane administrative work and you have someone dying to find another job -which I was. Looking for a new job was like a second job.

I was unhappy in the world outside of the game and I was unhappy when I came home to play. It just was no longer fun or relaxing. And with everything going wrong, it just didn't seem like it was worth it anymore, so I left quietly without much fuss.

But after 6 months. I'm back!

After going through 7 different interviews, I've finally found my dream job! I'm learning about things that I am actually interested in and passionate about. The clincher was really the drastic change in my work environment. I now work with some very knowledgeable, courteous, and professional people. I've learned more in 2 months working here than I did for the year I worked for my previous employer. To top it off, I got a 55% pay increase (which may sound huge, but my previous employer was paying me in lint and gum wrappers, so its really not all that much more).

And with my work life stabilized (it had actually been stable for the first three months working there!) and after some online friends persuading me to come back. Here I am!