It’s always tough to write something when you’re not entirely sure if anyone is going to read it… I’m going to begin by outlining the goals of this blog and then end with a brief bio of myself and where I’m coming from.
The Working Raider is a concept that I sort of “invented” for myself a little over a year ago and truly defines how I play and enjoy World of Warcraft. A lot of this stems from joining my current guild, Bushido, back in February of 2010 and the rest comes from working 2 to 3 jobs all while progressing through end-game content. Nearly every fansite, blog, forum thread, etc. out there is geared towards two types of WoW player: the hardcore raider and the casual gamer.
A Gamer Defined…
The hardcore raider, by my own definition, is a player who devotes 80-90% of his playtime to raiding itself, for several hours each day or night. The hardcore raider spends the other 20-10% of his time advancing professions, collecting valor, or whatever it is that needs to be done to ensure his raiding experience later in the day will be optimal.
No, that's normal...
The casual gamer can fall into several categories. He could be older, working or going to class, and really only have time to play for an hour or two a day or maybe only on the weekends. He could also simply not be interested in raiding or group content and choose to focus his attention on questing, PvP, playing the auction house, etc. As of late, blizzard has given the casual gamer a lot of attention… and for good reason. The majority of the player-base does not have time to devote hours upon hours to sitting in one raid instance.
Why should you even read this?
The overall goal or message of this blog is to give some attention to that “middle of the road” group. We only spend a few hours each week in raid content, but we progress with the best of them and still manage to raise a family, go to work or school, and live normal lives. This group I have dubbed, “The Working Raider.”
I began by saying it’s difficult to write when you aren’t sure if anyone is going to read. To this end, I have chosen not to necessarily “map out” the direction of this blog but rather let my readers (if any) take me where they want to go. While several topics come to mind, it is always more interesting for a reader to read what they want to… read. This blog exists to allow me to put my thoughts down in some sort of “ink” as well as give my opinions on some hot WoW topics/issues.
Who’s even writing this?
To wrap this up, I’ll just give a quick background on who I am. I play Midniyt, a Dwarf Resto Shaman on the US realm Kilrogg. I have been in my guild, Bushido, for a little over a year and as I stated early, my time here served as part of my inspiration for this blog. Bushido is comprised of working adults ranging in age from early 20’s to… well I don’t think they’d want me to disclose that! Anyway, while we are not as progressed as the top end guilds, we are slowly eating away at Heroic encounters until the release of 4.2 in a week or so. What is truly amazing about where we are in our progression (in my opinion) is that we only raid for 6 hours per week: Tues/Thurs nights from 730pm to 1030pm server time. I believe getting so much done in such a small window of time takes a great deal of maturity, attention to detail, and an overall positive attitude towards what you are setting out to accomplish. I am not saying that we are the only guild to have ever achieved such a “feat” but I am certainly proud to be part of one that is able to do so.
Midniyt of Kilrogg
To continue about myself, I began playing WoW roughly 2-3 months after Vanilla, raiding through BWL content as a Holy Paladin. I made it through half of BC playing the same character and eventually rolled a Shaman as enhancement for the remainder of BC. Wrath brought about the decision to make Midniyt my focus and return to my previous love of healing. I have remained dedicated to the Resto Shaman class ever since and the majority of my blogging will be from a healing perspective.
I'm in there, I swear...
To conclude, I would like to thank you for reading my wall of text and encourage you to stay tuned for future posts as I can assure you, I plan on being more interesting in the near future. These first posts are a necessary evil to get the ball rolling and set the tone and I hope I have accomplished just that.
Please feel free to leave any comments, questions, concerns and be sure to follow me on Twitter (@WorkingRaider) for the latest articles.
The Working Raider 