What’s the rush to Northrend?

What’s the rush to Northrend?

You know another side effect of the achievement system is it is making me take a good hard look at what I haven’t done in game.

It has made me think about all the games I have played in the past, the ones where I have seen 60% off the content and either become stuck (and frustrated to the point of turning the PC off in disgust), or that were losing their appeal for one reason or another, then got uninstalled while the shrink-wrapping came off some shiny new monster covered game box.

Two abandoned Games

Two that come immediately to mind are:

Neverwinter Nights – it was a bit buggy, and my mates all dropped the game soon after my purchase to play the next big hope – WoW.

Vanilla WoW – who didn’t pre-order?  Who didn’t dive into the portal to the Outland at the first opportunity to experience 3x XP and all things weird and wonderful?

So here I stand now, on the cusp of a new shrink-wrapped box (which I expect all my mates have pre-ordered) and wonder, why the rush?

As I won’t be attending a midnight and staying up all night to install then roll a Death Knight, why rush back from India and cough up $60?

Now, I am no Old World purist, that wants Vanilla Wow servers introduced to the game. Anything that keeps the masses engaged and the game alive is good by me.

You see I figure if I resist the urge to buy the CDs, I will encourage myself to explore more completely Vanilla and TBC content. I will take the time to read the quest text, to grind the Furbolgs, to smell the Peacebloom.

Will I feel that I have gotten my monies worth for the 1st two boxes?  Doubtful, I consider the primary expense to be the subscription.

Will I miss leveling to 80 with my mates?  Definitely, but they will all be at 80 and raiding long before my return to the great southern land.

Will I feel the tug to join them A.S.A.P.?  Yes, but the shops won’t be open when I am online with them, so the purchase will be put off for another day.

Will I enjoy soloing quests below my station in game for little reward than the sense of completing and experiencing content that I rushed past to reach 60, then 70?  Well I guess that is yet to be seen.

Catching up is easy

I think back to when there were only 5 mates in the server and it was only the hope of running Kara that brought a few more to heed the call.

Five of us took ages to level, then spent many more months honing our gear, enchants and gems. The other 3 then powerleveled, assisted where necessary by over geared and overpowered 70’s to complete our core raiding group.

At the time we entered Kara, we were generally on par with gear.  Those extra 12 months of play ultimately amounted to nothing, we were all equals in the end game.

So maybe this time I will loiter near the back of the pack, view the Old World with new eyes, then blink forward to Northrend when I am satisfied that Gnomeaggedon has truly conquered the Old World and Outlands.

Goodbye and good luck shock troopers

There is no rush to Northrend. There will be forces aplenty to stage the initial charge, to lay the foundations for the reinforcements like myself that come with fresh eyes and new desires.

I will gladly wave off the initial troops from the docks at Stormwind, but I think I will remain behind for a little while and keep the home fires burning.

Gnomer and Out!