Here is one from about eight years ago on December 3rd, 2006. It looks like me, playing a Gnome Warlock of all things, with Syrana's Dwarf. Either I'm sick or she's watching me sleep.

This one feels like it's all come back home. It's all dark and foreboding, like the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. There are angry Orcs everywhere fighting against other angry Orcs. Though, I've mainly played Horde so far. I only got my Alliance character up to garrison intro level, I assume both sides are similar. With the Horde quest lines, you feel part of everything that is going on. You're dealing directly with Durotan and his son, Thrall (though, I don't think he knows that, yet) while they stand in your Garrison as you fight your way across the world of Draenor. I especially liked the final quest in the Frostfire Ridge area, called The Battle of Thunder Pass. It was like a small dungeon run (and very 300-like), but solo (along with a lot of AI players.) You got to take down tons of enemies and then a few big, elite boss-type enemies.

The garrison stuff is a nice addition. Sending your followers onto side missions is fun. You sometimes get nice rewards for it. I only have three extra buildings so far, since I'm still trying to determine what exactly they all do and what would be best for my character. I did like the initial Garrison Invasion quest. I guess these become more common once you hit max level and start defeating enemies from specific factions. Once you kill a certain amount of these enemies, their faction will attack your garrison. This allows you get some neat rewards.

I have not done any PvP or much else other than questing, though I expect to try some of it out. I hear the WoW 10th Anniversary stuff will be happening soon. This is opening an old-school type Team Deathmatch PvP area called “Tarren Mill vs Southshore” that brings back the feeling of the old Hillsbrad Foothills fighting between factions. Plus, if you win, you get a neat title.

I popped in finally late on Friday, and compared to a lot of people, I had no problems getting in and playing on Eitrigg. I've learned through my many years of game launches (on PC and on consoles) that's it's always good to wait a few days. My only Level 90 was my Dwarf Hunter, Gertbee, so I used him first. He looks much more badass now with the updated character models and he doesn't run like a derp anymore. I made it through the initial Draenor quests with him and started his garrison.

I spent a few days internally battling myself trying to figure out which character to boost to 90. One path was to boost a lower character that I've been slowly leveling up, but with my now limited time, I wasn't sure if I would play them anyway. The next path was to boost my Alliance Auction Mule. I try to keep that character pretty level so I can disenchant things, etc. But, I felt that may have been a wasted boost. The last path was to boost Sideshow since he was still only level 87. In the end, I decided on the last path. I wanted to do the Horde quest lines, but I wasn't looking forward to getting him to 90 before I could do that.

So, I boosted Sideshow. I didn't really read any fine print, so while I was happy to see him in new, sweet-looking gear, I was a bit worried when I logged in found his bags completely empty and only like 3 skills to use. It turns out, if I would've RTFM, that they mail you your old belongings and they slowly unlock new skills and talents throughout the initial quest line. Honestly, I think that is a slick process, especially if you're new to the class you're boosting. It allows you to start out slowly and learn the basics, just like when you start a new character.

Now, both of my characters are about at the same spot. They're both level 91 and have done some basic garrison stuff. I'm excited to get more into my garrison as that looks like a lot of fun, sort of a casual side to the main game. Plus, it gives you all sorts of bonuses to professions or mounts. I also like the follower system where you send them on quests. It's very similar to the Assassin's Creed thing where you send your assassins (or ships in AC IV) on quests, and I imagine some other games have done it before.

I'm glad that I'm thoroughly excited for this new expansion. While it's not as exciting as my first time in game  or that of the my first expansions, it's a nice feeling to have again. Maybe one of these days we'll get Syrana back in.

On a related note, I started a character that I play along with my 4-year-old. She picked a Blood Elf Hunter named Risaralissa (randomized choice.) She holds the run button and occasionally hits attack buttons while I steer and keep her alive. She's really enjoying it so far, but we're only like level 7. I hope this experience will be a good topic for some future posts..and maybe some videos? Who knows. She's a little ham.

I think I may have finally hit that point. The point where I'm no longer interested in playing World of Warcraft. I think the last time I played was almost two months ago and I've had absolutely no urge to play, even though my year subscription doesn't run out until sometime in April.

Hell, it's been just over 7 years since I first logged in on the Eitrigg server back in March 2006. No game even comes close to keeping me interested for that length of time, even with the small breaks I took during it.

I don't feel sad. Syrana hasn't played for almost 3 years now (or 41 years if you believe her entry in battle.net.) Though, I will miss playing with my in-laws since it was a nice way to chat with them.

I will always still remember my first character, who actually was Sideshow. My first non-Horde, Gertbee the Dwarf, whom I still play and is pictured above. My first 5-man dungeon run, Shadowfang Keep with some real-life friends. My first “real” guild, “Crimson Night”on Eitrigg. My first raid, which I think was Upper Blackrock Spire (UBRS) with said guild.

It will go down in history as one of the greatest games I've ever played. No MMORPG I've played has come close to it. It also does have the honor of being the first one I ever played, so it did raise the bar pretty high.

I'm not leaving for any specific reason, just mainly lack of time and too many other things I'd like to do with that time. I enjoyed my time in Mists of Pandaria and I think it was a decent expansion.  Odds are in favor of me popping on again at some point. I foresee the game surviving for many years to come in one shape or another.

The blog is still going to be active, in case you were wondering that. I still game a lot and I love you guys!

I leave you with this. A picture of a creepy bunny zombie. Happy Zombie Jesus Day from Sideshow!

Here we sit, waiting for baby #2 to come. Based on 100% of our previous children (1) we expected him to come a bit early, so it's been like 10 days of hoping today is the day. It gets tiring in it's own way.

Fortunately, I've been able to play a bit more of the games I bought recently. I was initially thinking that I may not get to play them all that much. I picked up Assassin's Creed III when it came out in October. I really enjoyed the series so far and have beaten the previous releases. I specifically enjoy the historical assassins and the history surrounding them more than I enjoy the present day stuff with Desmond. Even after completing ACIII, I am still slightly confused on what is going on there. I really enjoyed ACIII and since it was set in America during the American Revolution, it felt “closer” to me. I knew a lot of the history from the game and it was really cool to find out about some of the lesser known historical facts surrounding some of our founding fathers. It wasn't all happy and shiny.

I did end up picking up Mists of Pandaria. I had previous signed up for the yearly subscription to WoW that got me Diablo III and some other things, so I thought why not. I haven't played in a few weeks, but I got my Dwarf Hunter, Gertbee, up to level 87 (or maybe 88, I forget.) Sideshow is still at 85, but he's a ways into it after doing some questing in the new zones. I am really liking it so far. The landscape is beautiful and the quest lines keep me interested. I hope to get back to it soon.

I'm playing a lot of Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 right now on the 360. I usually don't pick up a new CoD every year like they want you to, but I do enjoy some FPS multiplayer on occasion. I also have a few friends that play so I get to run around with them, which makes it more fun. A friend of mine actually records a video every day for CoD and posts it on his YouTube page. He plans to do one every day for a year, so I wish him luck. I show up on occasion, like on this video here.

As you can see from the last real post here from December 2011, I did pop into Star Wars: The Old Republic. I really did enjoy it. It was well done. The questing was fun, the voice acting was top-notch, and the graphics were slick. I just didn't have the time to play much. The two things I have short supply on nowadays, time and money, unfortunately couldn't be found for the game. Since it's now partially free-to-play, I may check into it again in the future.

Other than that, I really haven't planned much more on gaming for a bit, especially due to Spawn #2 coming (hopefully) any minute now. I'm also patiently waiting for the next installment of Doctor Who. The last episode, The Angels Take Manhattan, was stupendous. I have since become a so-called “Whovian” after watching all of the new series (labeled as 2005) up to now.  Wonderful show, if you've never seen it. If you haven't, most of the seasons up to the newest one are on Netflix.

Photo courtesy of tomyless@flickr.

Gertbee about to take some target practice on the latest spammer recruits. Either that or it's a family with horrible creativity in names.

I still don't know how the Dalaran we know today fit inside of that bubble. Took this screenshot back on December 13, 2006.