Slowly Starting Season 11

Season 11 of Diablo III started on July 20, 2017.  This one is being called the “Season of the Necromancer” because it is the first Season after the Rise of the Necromancer Pack became available. I was lucky enough to be included in the Necromancer beta – but I haven’t bought the pack yet. (I’ll explain more about that later in this blog post.)

I tend to wait a day or two before jumping into a new Season because I’m still traumatized from the difficulty we all had on Launch Day of Diablo III. There is a reason why my first Diablo III character, a Demon Hunter, was named ThirtySeven. I like to give the game some space and start a few days later, in the hopes of avoiding lag.

This time around, however, I tried to get through Chapter I of the Season Journey in one sitting. I’ve never actually tried to do that before, opting to move at a much slower pace instead. Part of the reason is because a big chunk of my time is spent working – something I think most people can relate to.

The other reason is because I have three chronic illnesses that can be somewhat managed – but have no cure. If I’m not working, or running necessary errands, I’m sleeping for more hours than most people require. I do not wake up rested, because of the nature of my chronic illnesses.

Somewhere in the back of my mind, I started toying with the idea of becoming a Twitch streamer. It is my understanding that people who do well on Twitch stream several times a week and/or have specific dates and times that they stream.  I’m not sure how long a typical stream is supposed to last, but I’m guessing maybe an hour or more. My best guess is that streamers who are playing the newest content, and whose characters are high level with plenty of great set pieces, get the most attention from viewers.

As I mentioned, I tend to take things slowly. This isn’t really by choice – it’s due to my limitations placed upon me by my chronic illnesses. Past experience taught me that my health issues make me unreliable when it comes to keeping a set schedule. (I’ve had to quit some podcasts, that were super fun to do, because I was struggling to be well enough to record on schedule.)  I will never be the player at the top of the Leaderboards.

Who would want to watch me play Diablo III? I’m not sure anyone does. The best I can provide is entertaining comments as I play.  It is not unusual for me to … talk at the video game while I’m playing… and to think out loud about what I’m doing in-game. Maybe some people will find me amusing.

So, as a test, I decided that I would sit down and play Season 1 and keep playing until I got my brand new Seasonal Monk through all of the objectives of Chapter I of the Season Journey.  I didn’t keep track of how long I was playing, but it must have been over an hour.

Despite my best efforts, I failed to complete Chapter I during the time I set aside to work on it.  The reason wasn’t because dinner was done, or I had to get back to work, or other stuff like that.

My hands ached too much for me to continue playing.

I have rheumatoid arthritis, and it is in my hands and feet. My rheumatologist gave me a drug to try that would reduce inflammation (and perhaps, as a result, reduce pain) but it made me sick because it contained gluten. Long story short, he doesn’t have any other medications to give me – until I get much worse than I am now.

There is nothing good about learning that one of my chronic illnesses is making it more difficult for me to do the things I enjoy.  I’m disappointed, and frustrated, and there is nothing I can do to change this situation.  I will never be a successful Twitch streamer because it is no longer possible for me to try and keep up with everyone else, despite my best efforts.

Not gonna quit playing Diablo III (or other video games) though. I’m still going to buy the Necromancer pack, but I’m using that as a motivation to get this website fixed up the way I want it to be. One thing I learned from the beta is that Necromancers are amazingly fun to play!

Slowly Starting Season 11 is a post written by Jen Thorpe on Book of Jen and is not allowed to be copied to other sites.

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