I decided that since I wrote a post on why I still play The Old Republic, I thought perhaps I should do the same for World of Warcraft. I actually have an active subscription for both games. I have been playing WoW since it was a year old and I have many friends (most of which I know in their physical form) that are still playing as well. Most of us are on the same server and in the same guild. We don’t care about how our guild does compared to other guilds on the server, we just play to hang out. We all know that we have our own lives and that sometimes we can’t log in and raid because life happens.
My friends are predominately the reason I still play WoW, but there are other facets of the game that I still enjoy. I know the game has changed tremendously since vanilla and many people have criticized Blizzard for making those changes. While I understand their viewpoint, I think they are being a bit obtuse. The game has to evolve. Only a small percentage of the player base were experiencing the bulk of the content, if Blizzard hadn’t evolved the game to appeal to more players the game would have died years ago. I’m glad they got rid of 40-man raids and implemented 10-man raids. I love the dungeon finder tool and transmog. All of these changes improved the quality of life of the game and are the other reasons I keep logging in.
I doubt I will play WoW until the servers shut down, it all depends on what life brings for me and my friends. Despite my feelings for the name of the expansion, odds are that I will be playing Mists of Pandaria. I’m not really looking forward to the changes to the talent system but I’m sure I will adjust, just as I did for all the other expansions where they made dramatic changes. In a few days it will seem natural again and I’m willing to give the new talent system a chance. Perhaps after 6 years of trying to meticulously construct the perfect build, it will be nice to only have to worry about six talents.
I’m also kind of a fan of the Asian culture and I’ve always been a big martial arts fan. I’m looking forward to making my own “kung fu panda”, I’m already working on some names so I will be ready at launch. I don’t know if I am going to buy the collector’s edition. I’m not sure that I am as much into the game as I was for Lich King and Cataclysm. I might just buy the digital version instead of going to Best Buy at midnight.
Blizzard has done a fantastic job with World of Warcraft and I’m glad that I chose to make it my hobby because I have made some terrific friends. It’s also been fun to unexpectedly meet a complete stranger because they yelled “For The Horde!” when they saw your Blizzard t-shirt.
Cheers!