May 05, 2017

More or Less Goodbye to Smite

Views: 6315 Zilby
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:[  |  sorry fam  |  whelp
Sooooooo if you're one of the people who used to regularly play Smite with me you've probably noticed that over the past two years my activity has decreased, and decreased, and decreased. Really it hit its peak towards the end of Season 2 and has dwindled since. A number of factors led to this; I began college which allowed me to socialize more outside of games; I grew very interested in the competitive smash bros scene and other games such as Overwatch which drew time away from Smite; I found myself unable to dedicate the long stretches of time necessary to complete Conquest matches (which have always been the heart of my playing Smite); and over time playing less and less, my interest in the meta, improving, and the game itself shrank.

Over the past 9 months or so I've more or less entirely played Smite with friends, and oftentimes would only even do that on weekends once my social obligations were finished. What this usually meant was playing Smite between 1:30-4 am in a drunken haze, unable to talk since my roommate would be sleeping, assuming I got back early enough to do so. As the last semester went on, even those opportunities became fewer and fewer over time. For the past 2 years though, I've repeatedly said that this has been more or less an intermission, and it was my intent to get back into the full swing of things in the future.

I'm just going to lay it out here since I finally came to the realization that this is simply not the case anymore. I don't intend to get back into Smite, update my guides, and go back to where I was 3 years ago. Smite was a fantastic outlet for me when I had a limited social life, few close friends, and a lot of stress via a demanding relationship and mountains of schoolwork. Ever since I was no longer able to invest my full time into it, it's never really been as enjoyable for me, and it's a lot easier to play other games on a more casual intensity while remaining competitive (eg: I almost got to grandmasters in Overwatch in S3, but I do absolutely no research on the game, or even practice anything in particular, all I do is play matches from time to time. Similarly, I rank in the top 100 of Rivals of Aether but have invested less than 200 hours into the game).

Being able to consistently play the game, keep up with every patch, read every patch notes, analyze items and character changes, test out different build concepts and see how everything worked differently from patch to patch was a blast. But I have to face the reality that I neither have the time to do that in the coming few years, nor really want to again. I got to experience that for a good while, anyone that played with me in Season 2 knows that I knew every single god, item, and mechanic in Smite to such a detailed level that I maintained a mountain of unnecessary knowledge 85% of the time (and comprised a lot of that knowledge in that items guide I made oh lordy).

But.. here me out at least.
That doesn't mean I'll stop playing with friends.

If any of you guys are online playing Smite and I have some free time, I'll still be happy to pop on. Even after losing my competitive edge and not taking the game as seriously anymore, it's still always been a great time to play with you guys, and I have no intent to give that up. Just.. I wanted to make it clear that I really don't have the intent anymore of "getting back into Smite". It's not going to happen. I'd rather dash all of your dreams than get your hopes up to just continually disappoint you all. I'm sick of insincerely saying 'someday' for the thousandth time.

And no worries, I'll still stick around the site. *I'm always lurking*

Happy Smitin' yo
~Zilby