That's right, World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria hits the shelves today, and will have shot to the top of the best-selling games list as thousands of people rushed out to grab a copy. I wasn't one of them.
I haven't logged into my WoW account for over three years now. I'm not sure if they keep your characters on their servers forever, or if my once cherished characters Davarnus, Laveur, Valexia and Soddit might have been deleted by Blizzard in a cleanup of inactive accounts. I quit the game around the time that I moved in with my girlfriend, and although that change of circumstances was what forced me to stop, in truth I'd been burned out a fair while before then.
I'd been Guild Leader for Heroes of the Alliance for a couple of years, and I'm proud of the fact that I revived a dying guild from only 10 or so members into a thriving guild with over 100 members and an active casual raiding scene. I'm even prouder of the fact that the guild is still going strong three years later, with many of the same old faces running the show! I have very fond memories of raid-leading our initial forays into Karazhan, and our guild's first kill of Prince Malchezzar which netted me the first Tier 4 helmet in our guild. I have fonder memories of our first attempts to build a 25-man raid team, and our hard-won kills of Maulgar, Grull and Magtheridon.
We were late to the raiding party, so we didn't get much further in Burning Crusade. I played through Wrath of the Liche King, but had started to become tired of the effort required to keep up to date with the game, and I didn't get far into the level 80 end-game. The time that was required to maintain your equipment, level up, and then spend an entire evening raiding was, although always enjoyable, very demanding.
I'm going to say it straight. World of Warcraft was the best game I've ever played, and still is, but I have mixed feelings about the game. One part of me wants to go out and buy the expansion right now and dive back in, reunite with Heroes of the Alliance, and explore everything that I've missed out on since I left. To hell with free time. The other part of me recognises that this particular game has a knack of becoming rather all-encompassing, and before long I'd be spending far more time on it than I'd intend to. I'm not just talking about time in-game, but time spent thinking about the game, planning, theorising and generally lacking focus elsewhere in life. All that time added up, and it left little room for other things.
At the end of the day though, I have other hobbies now, and (unless against all odds my girlfriend decides she'd like to create a WoW character and give the game a try) I think I'm better off sticking to them.
To everyone returning to Azeroth today, I wish you good luck and happy exploring. Watch out for the pandas.
