Musings of an Internet Junkie

Back in April, I fell off the wagon and joined back up with millions of other players (addicts?) playing World of Warcraft. Well, I was not able to stay entertained long enough to continue paying the monthly fees to Blizzard. I found myself slowly playing less and less of the game and once again felt it was time to move on.

What have I been doing with all of the extra time I have now? I have finally started catching up on movies I skipped watching to play the game. I have enrolled in Baker College’s Bachelor of Computer Science degree program. I have started getting outside more often, becoming reacquainted with that great blazing orange ball in the sky called the Sun, and I even went to the local West Michigan Fly-In event with my father and wife recently!

As some of you may remember, I gave up World of Warcraft around two months ago. This week, I decided to go back and check on how the game has progressed since the expansion was released. I can stop playing anytime I want….right? Yes, I’ve fallen off the wagon.

As some of you may know, I’ve been playing Blizzard’s famous MMO called World of Warcraft since November, 2004, when it first hit the shelves. During the few months before Blizzard finally released the first expansion, named The Burning Crusade, I became burnt out on the game. I had done everything I wanted to in the game, I had played both casually and as a raider, I had several level 60 characters and now I was just limping along until the expansion came out in the hopes that it would add that spark back into the game.

Fast forward to January 16th, the expansion is released by Blizzard. People, including me, wait in line at midnight for it and rush home to see the new content, new races, etc. I play the game whenever I have a moment so that I can experience all of the new stuff that came with the expansion. Unfortunately, after three weeks of playing the expansion, I come to the conclusion that besides the new races, jewel crafting profession, and continent, there really isn’t anything new and original about the game. Flying mounts aren’t really that exciting. The quests are still the same, go gather some items, kill some mobs, deliver an item, escort an NPC, and the list goes on.

After much thought, discussion with the guild I ran, and reviewing my budget I decided to shutdown my account. Due to lack of originality and no new groundbreaking features or advancements, I feel like my money can be better spent elsewhere.