I’ve been blogging for the better part of the last 6 years. I started on a blog named, Him, Them and Me (HTM). That was my first journey into expressing my opinions on the Internet. HTM talked about two life altering events – a seven year relationship that ended in a broken engagement, followed a few weeks later by a cancer diagnosis. As you may imagine, my whole world splintered into a million fragments of pain and despair. It was during those first terrifying weeks that I turned to blogging as a coping mechanism and MMOs as an escape from the thoughts surrounding my fear of dying a slow and painful death, as I’d seen my grandmother, her brother and my mother’s only sibling, my uncle, all suffer through years before my own diagnosis.
Online gaming became an avenue for having fun and adventures while I was stuck in bed or too sick to do more than sit up for a couple hours at a time. Having loved fantasy all my life, fantasy MMOs were the perfect outlet and I quickly indoctrinated all of my children, so that we could share the experience together. I spent a few months trying to forge various unique and interesting memories with them just in case. We played video games, MMOs and board games together. I wrote them each a collection of poems to make sure that they knew how much I love them individually as human beings. I didn’t want their last memories of me, if it turned out that way, to be any more painful than necessary. We gamed. We laughed. And of course, at times we cried.
Semi early detection was on my side and I achieved a full recovery within 6 months. I’ve been in remission ever since. But I didn’t stop gaming or blogging. I had a second blog that was all about the wondrous joy I was having in MMOs post the medical issues. It featured posts about Asheron’s Call 2 and the absolutely amazing people I met through that game, a couple of whom became real life friends. I said goodbye to that blog when AC2 closed its doors. At the time I thought, I’m never getting that attached to a game, internet friends or blogging about it all, ever again. Oops, I didn’t quite stick to that declaration.
World of Warcraft and our AC2 guild reassembling in Azeroth inspired me to start my third blog, Mystic Worlds, which is the longest running blog I’ve had to date. I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. I appreciate the learning experience managing this blog provided. I know my writing improved while also providing a diverse and creative outlet. I encountered many of the MMO blogging community’s best and brightest players and bloggers along the way, whose own blogs I’ve adored. It has been my pleasure and an honor to have had persistent readers and comment participants. There are thousands of gaming blogs on the Internet. Thank you for taking the time to have read mine.
Closing down Mystic Worlds has been on the tip of my brain for a few months now. As much as I enjoy writing about games and my opinions – I’m never short on opinions, I do think blogging distracts me from somewhere else I’m trying to go. Between work, family and exploring other writing projects, I can’t justify the time I spend gaming or blogging – at least not right now. So I’m going to officially bow out of both for a few months and direct that time elsewhere. I expect I’ll resurrect myself on the Internet again some day but I doubt it will be a gaming blog. I will continue reading my favorite blogs and listening to my favorite podcasts. I like eavesdropping and keeping in touch with my blogosphere “friends”. That much won’t stop.
Thank you all for your readership and participation. The comment thread on this post will be locked. No sad goodbyes and notes of farewell. Take care and be happy.
Lauren aka Saylah/Alysianah/Illianah/Suri
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