Think I should chime in on this thread...
Just to be clear from the get go, I'm not leaving SWTOR or this community, I seriously love you guys.
I'm just... regrouping a bit. Losing an rp partner is a bit of an emotional 52 pick up for me and I need some time to reorganize my characters and my story ideas. Add to that, school has been exhausting from before its beginning this year and I'm starting to realize just how much that's affecting me.
For the last probably four years I think I've been in SWTOR probably 360 days a year. This past August, I suddenly found myself lonely in game. Hadn't had that in a while. Too many people who stepped away, too many of the others who were just too busy with real life and I logged in one night, and all evening, OOC channels were silent on both sides and my friends lists were empty no matter who I was on.
So, for the first time, I started looking elsewhere. I've started playing BlackDesertOnline and have been finding myself just crashing in a whole bunch of crafting there most evenings since school started. I'm enjoying BDO and I'm set up for rp there, even though I haven't done more than a couple dabbles in rp there. I'm finding I'm enjoying the change of scenery and pace, doing new mindless grinding there rather than the old mindless grinding I've already done in SWTOR a couple dozen times when I'm just looking to lose the stress of the day before bed.
BUT I'm not planning on leaving SWTOR. I do still intend to get back to my Iokath searching for the parts of the key missions (I'm really hoping to get the next one going in November), as well as the offshoot I'm developping and I still intend to be at Dancer's Palace every week, other than the rare occasions when real life gets in the way or I'm not feeling well, and I have some other rp underway with some other people that I'm still planning to continue. I'm just not always hanging out in game all evening anymore.
Consider it a shared custody arrangement.
I can always be reached here though and usually see pm's pretty quickly unless I'm out, so if you have some rp for which you want me, please pm me!
Plus, one advantage of the server mergers, I've already opened up Tatooine, Nar Shaddaa and Yavin strongholds on Harbinger. Given that my current Nar Shaddaa and Yavin strongholds are permasets for community rp, and my Tatooine one is kind of in a permaset for private rp, suddenly being able to plan stuff on all three of those strongholds for running events is likely to push some new energy into my creativity!
*hugs to all who want them*