Project Lore

There was another topic I almost addressed in yesterday's post on World of Warcraft and other games (they do exist!). I chose not to discuss it because it is a wholly other topic, deserving of its own post. Also, it would have derailed the main point of the post, seeing what you guys are playing, and how you fit it into your MMO regiment.

So here it is folks. I once stopped playing World of Warcraft. No, no. It wasn't one of those times where your friend throws a hissy-fit and quits, only to return a week later. I was gone for awhile, and I went cold turkey to top it off. This was actually around the same timeframe that I quit, just before an expansion.

There are a handful of reasons behind my decision, but the main issue was that I felt Blizzard Entertainment was double dipping. I had no issue paying for a subscription fee, but that, coupled with planned yearly expansions – that cost $39.99 – kind of pissed me off. I knew that the double dipping was the norm of Western MMOs, but that didn't mean I had to like it. So there I was, just a month before The Burning Crusade was set to drop, still raiding Naxxaramas, and I let my account expire.  At the time, I would have been happy with paying $20 a month, so long as they kept releasing the awesome content patches semi-regularly.

My main reason was clearly a fiscal concern. The other reasons, not so much. My number two would be that I was constantly upset at missing all those classic games I mentioned. Then there was my concern with the upcoming content. I just wasn't excited about what The Burning Crusade had to offer. The feature set seemed too underwhelming to me, two new races, umm, okay, whatever. Swapping Paladins and Shamans? Sorry, but sounds like they just got fed up trying to balance the classes. Spaceships??? Add to that a collapsing guild, changes in the raid structure and a host of small issues and I had enough reasons to bail.

I never lost touch with the community, and frequently conversed with my Rogue buddies while I was away. A few tried to suck me back in, and luckily, they finally did. Months went by, but I was finally pulled back into Warcrack and was happy to return. Even if things weren't the same. TBC turned out to be a lot better than I anticipated (I thought it was going to suck...), with my favorite feature being short and sweet 5-man content mixed in with more epic stuff.

No worries about me ditching this time though. Blizzard has me on the edge of my seat waiting for Wrath of the Lich King. Arthas, you are not prepared!

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