Projects - a matter of choice

We all have them - to greater or lesser extent. Our Game Projects. Like if they were small plants or babies, we care for them, nourish them, give them their daily fertilizer. But there are different ways to handle them.

Some of us prefer to dive deep into one project at a time. We call it The Project, The One and Only, and we give it every single moment we can spare (outside of raiding, pvp-ing or whatever is the main purpose of our playing).

Nothing can pull us away from it, once we've started. We become like rabid dogs, refusing to let go of our pray. It could be levelling the fastest possible in order to join some friends at a higher level. It could be collecting mats for our spellfire set that will make us ready for some decent raiding. It could be the god grinding for an epic mount or reputation grinding for a pattern or recipe we desperately need. As a reward for our commitment we'll reach our goal pretty fast. On the other hand it's only ONE goal we'll reach. In every other aspect of the game our progress will be minimal, everybody else will seem too rush ahead of us when it comes to other tasks - badge collecting, honour point grabbing and such.

Then there are others who won't put all their savings into just one single bet. We'll spread our efforts between not only one or two, but up to ten or twenty different projects. A little now, a little then. In one single evening we'll finish two quests levelling our alt, get up our fishing skill one point, run one Eye of the Storm to get a few honour points for that PvP piece we want, gather one primal mana to that thing we're crafting, collect a few Marks of Sargeras for that Aldor rep and finally do three daily quests to gather a little more gold for that mount of our dreams. With this approach we'll be rewarded by getting a character that is improved in an allround way. Eventually we'll achieve a lot. And we'll get a lot of variety while doing it, the game will never become repetitive and boring. On the other hand it will take us ages to go there, for a long time we'll feel like not progressing at all, just standing at the same spot.

So - what approach is best then? And what about me? Am I single focused or do I do a little of everything, tasting every single dish on the buffet? Well, if I have to choose I actually believe more in the former strategy - to try to focus on a few things rather than to split your attention into dozens of projects that never seem to come to an end. My main reason is that I think you really need to complete projects every now and then in order to get some energy to proceed. You need the reward, the feeling of achievement, to manage to continue doing things that can become a bit monotonous after a while. And if you reach one goal it can often help you to reach other goals more easily, at least when the goal is about gear upgrades.

Knowing this, I still tend to end up having too many projects. Whenever I manage to finish a project there seem to pop up at least two new ones. It's a never ending story, though I guess it's the way the game works. If you haven't got any projects it's probably a sign that you're losing interest in it altogether. Still I think I should try to focus a bit more on one or to projects at a time - if I only could chose. I'm really angry with myself from time to time, finding it so hard to make decisions and stick to them.

Last week I managed to get end two of my projects and I'm happy about that:
One was the achievement of the Champion of the Naaru title, where I ran quite a few instances in a brief time - which was quite easy to do since there were a few more guildies striving for the same title. If I hadn't had that help it would definitely had taken me longer. I also got the badge dagger that I had been collecting for for a while - something that certainly was helped by my instance running for the title.

So what's up next then?

• The never ending collecting of gold for my epic flying mount. I'm halfway now.


• Collecting gear for the Sorcerer's Alchemist stone. One more primal might needed, a diamond and a bunch of primal fires, but I'm not too far from it.


• Getting mats to have someone make Belt of Blasting for me. I've already got a great belt, but that one is awesome since you can gem it. It will be the next gear gathering project after I've got the trinket.


• Getting exalted with Keepers of Time. I was just pointed out from a guildie that Flask of Supreme Power would be a much better choice for me currently being arcane/frost, since it will boost both frost and arcane spells. Until today I've been using Flask of Pure death. Mats are a bit less expensive for that flask as well. But to get the recipe I have to get rep with KoT unless I want to run Scholomance numerous times to see if it drops. I gather doing a few BMs is quite a lot quicker.


• Getting exalted with Consortium. Currently I get crap gems in my monthly bag.


• Gathering some Eye of the Storm marks and honour points to get that PvP neck with spell haste rating that seems pretty nice.


• Start out working on the Black Temple attunement quest line. I'm still stuck on Tablets of Baa'ri. Though there's no logical reason for me to do it, attunement requests removed since the last major patch, it still feels nice to do it the original way. And it will probably give me some gold and fun while doing it. Even though I may never ever see BT from inside before the expansion.


• Levelling Arisal, my rogue alt. I love her. How can I let her stay at 23? She hasn't even done any instance yet (unless boosted, which doesn't count). I want to learn how to play a rogue!

Oh dear. What a list. Eight projects that I come to think of instantly, probably there are even more of them that just slipped my mind and others I have never dared to look closer at (like collecting cards for a Darkmoon faire trinket). Eight projects are at least five to many. Every one of them has its rightful place on the list. Yet some of them will have to wait. If I could only make up my mind! Too many projects. Too little time. It's the constant state of my World of Warcraft gaming.