MEHCRAFT

It's the time of year when things get weird, school has started again so my wife is back in the trenches so to speak. And I'm home with our son, the little Ogre that has recently learned during potty training how much he enjoys finger painting. I've got a fair bit to talk about, enough that I've decided to make several posts in the coming week. Today I want to talk specifically about World of Warcraft, my place in it and the writing on the walls, which much like that left by my son has a certain "aroma"...

WARLULZ OF DRAENOR

The beginning of this expansion showed a lot of promise obviously, if it hadn't I would not have come back in the first place. Not surprisingly, I wasn't the only one. Friends from the mean old days of Wrath came back as well, I however had already moved to another server to be alone. I did this partly because I felt (as I still do) that if the game isn't worth playing it solo, it's not worth playing. Lulls happen, and when they do it's hard to enjoy the game at all when everyone is suddenly gone.

I've found that going it alone has also proven to be very productive.

Ding! Ding! Shit mobile...

Of course, then comes the classic problem, now that you've gotten one of everything maxed out - what do you do? I know, I'll look up my friends who started playing again too! Wait, shit... they're all gone again aren't they? Fuck, now what?

Gotta pay for those game time tokens somehow...

Yes, the lull is upon us. The struggle is real, as Forbes reported a loss of 3 Million subscribers to the game in the first quarter of this year. A third of the total player base just collectively said fuck it, there were bound to be some people I know among those numbers. At least one of those individuals though has been absent from the game due to personal injury, Nephora get better.

Still, I find myself going through the motions in a way eerily similar to how I felt during the end of Wrath and from day 1 of Cataclysm.

Making gold is hard guys...

Real hard...

So, what's the answer? I'm not sure yet. Honestly I had thought I'd be into five boxing, but as I started working on my team I realized I really don't give a warm number two about grinding my way through dungeons. Similarly, I don't care about Tanaan Jungle, at all. Making gold is ridiculously easy, I spent 300k to max out all Draenor reputations and earned back half of it in a week without leaving the Garrison. Then, Legion was announced and I responded, meh.

LEGION OF MEH

If I'm being entirely honest, Legion offers some things I'm mildly interested in. Like, the second half of the expansion I already paid an extra $10 to play. And of course a new hero class for me to power level, then forget. The Artifact Weapons sound interesting. But then you realize everyone will have them on the first day of the expansion, every Paladin who's 100 now is going to have Ashbringer. And that will be the only weapon Ser Jorah will use for the entirety of the expansion.

The true problem with Legion though is what I've already said in the first part of that paragraph, Legion is Draenor chapter 2. We're not expecting another raid or serious content before Legion, and Legion appears to be picking up the same story of Draenor. Which is fine, but this is wholly different from previous expansions. Imagine if for example Wrath of the Lich King ended at Ulduar, then started anew with TOC and ICC in the next expansion. So, instead of paying $40 for all of that content you were expected to pay $100. Leaves a bit of a bad taste in my mouth honestly, and from the standpoint of someone who was serious considering playing multiple accounts, I can't justify doubling that payment for each of those accounts.

WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE ME?

Well, I've already bought a bunch of game time tokens. Which is good, because last time I checked the price had gone up considerably (losing a third of the playerbase in a short period of time was bound to do that). Right now I'm struggling to find anything in the game that legitimately interests me, I'm sure I'll try out Legion when it drops. But as stated earlier, I'm sure I'll lose interest. And that's okay, I stopped playing EverQuest once upon a time too. That game keeps going without me, I'm sure World of Warcraft will too. And if I dip my toes in once in a while to test the water, that's fine too. For now, I think I'll play some Civilization...

K