Shadowlands was going to be my goodbye to WoW. It really was. I've been playing since a few weeks after launch, and for a significant number of years it was the game for me. Recently, it's occupied my thoughts for a different reason. When, and how, should we give up the games that had such a hand in shaping us as gamers?
I mean, it's not really my fault, right? I just happened to be glancing across the Blizzard gear store and there it was. World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, Collector's Edition. It's just so. Damn. Pretty.

I need to come clean - I'm a whore for Collector's Editions. From multiple Warcraft editions, to Total War: Warhammer, to Starcraft 2, the collector's editions I fall for need a certain something. The problem is, Blizzard collector's editions just have that. But it's more than that, this time.
See, Dragonflight is bringing changes with it. And sure - I need changes to scratch a certain itch too. Problem is, they're saying all the right things. Maybe there's enough to bring me back, one more time. Again.
I started my gaming journey with FIFA '96. Sure, I had consoles before that, but they were just a passing thing. Settlers II is the first game I really remember charging home to play. It might have taken up a significant proportion of the time I should have been studying for my GCSEs.
I remember Age of Empires, and Freelancer, and Z. But most of all, I remember World of Warcraft.
So much so, in fact, that I've written about it before. I remember the starting area, and leaving it, feeling like I was starting my adventure in the big wide world. I remember the Tigerseye that sparked that article. Wanting to be a Ret Paladin. Being allowed to be a Ret Paladin. Joining my first guild. Taking down Raggy for the first time. Stepping through the Dark Portal for the first time. All of it.
When I was deployed, I would spend at least a day on the longer port visits holed up in a bar that had decent wifi, with a steady stream of alcohol and food, playing Warcraft to catch up with the latest goings-on.

If you're not familiar with World of Warcraft, you can type '/played' in the chat window when you're using one of your characters. It tells you how long you've spent logged in on that character. I haven't done so since the Draenor expansion. But suffice to say it is a long time. The longest of any game I've played.
And yet the polish has slowly eroded from the game over years. Daily quests became the symbol of grind. Compelling story, discovery of new Dungeons, wonderful new zones and mounts to tame and items to loot gave way to calculating how many times a quest had to be repeated in order to get that item, that mount, that reward.
WoW began to replace genuine discovery with a quest you must repeat fifty times, yet can only be completed once a day. That's a pretty cynical move for subscription-based game.
Now I find myself logging in, hoping to experience some of that special WoW magic, only to be faced with a list of tasks that are 'dailies' (quests that bring special rewards, refreshed daily and last for 3 days) or 'weeklies' (boss and experiences that you can only gain loot from once a week, like the games raids) that I've done before. The reason to do them is to drive my reputation upward; an experience-like mechanic that increases by a set amount every time I complete a task for that faction, or the reward they offer, which isn't actually part of the quest itself but an extra reward. Hardly the immersive experience the game started out to be.

There is so much I still love about WoW - my character, Snorri (still the same Ret Paladin he was in Vanilla). His tabby cat, Moggy. The bags full of random worthless items that remind me of some the the quests I enjoyed the most that I still keep in my bank. Even the Legendary weapon Sulfuras, Hand of Ragnaros, that dear friends helped gather the mats for, that I finally acquired and crafted two expansions too late to actually use.
Look, gaming is art. It's very nature means that the good games draw us in, give us a world we feel like we're part of, and leave us wanting - yearning - to come back and experience more.
I firmly believe that different games form part of our gaming education. World of Warcraft handed me my first real-life friends from people I had met in cyber space. Some I am very lucky to still call my friends to this day. It taught me how a game can allow for such different play experiences. Raider, dungeoneer, crafter, collector, auctioneer - so many ways to enjoy and become legendary in the same game that it redefined gaming for me.

I've been with WoW so long now, that I find myself asking if I should just stay the distance. After all, isn't it a little like quitting, not seeing this thing out till the end? I have no idea how much longer the game has to last, having survived 18 years already. Yet there's the lingering knowledge that it just won't be the same. I have a saying when it comes to hobbies (I know, most people just settle for having hobbies).
A hobby that you don't enjoy is no longer a hobby. It's a chore.
And I know I'll enjoy the initial experience. The dungeons will be fun. And then it will start to change. The episodic manner in which each 'wing' of a raid will open up will dry up the enjoyment almost altogether. We will have in-depth knowledge of one wing before the next opens up - removing the exploration element almost entirely.
Genuine discovery will be replaced by repetitive quests, and I think that will be the point at which World of Warcraft and I finally part ways. Knowing this will be my final time in Azeroth will make it all the sweeter. I hope.
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