Played Lately: World of Warcraft

• As of Monday night, I completed the current solo end game for Wrath of the Lich King. I finally (Finally!) finished all the quests to reach Crusader status with the Argent Tournament. A quick calculation on WoWWiki tells that this should take about 27 or 28 days. (It depends on whether the aspirant and champions quests overlap. It's been so long I don't remember.) Patch 3.1 launched on April 14, 2009, and I wrapped up the last part on January 11, 2010. That's 272 days ago. If someone used this as evidence that I was a casual player, I would not dare to dispute them.


• The Argent Tournament seems to be the Wrath of the Lich King version of the Isle of Quel'Danas. Both are daily quest hubs that give soloers something to grind while everyone else enjoys their new raids. There is even the promise of epic weapons without even needing to join a group. However, and I'm well aware that I'm viewing this through Scott Summers-style ruby-lensed glasses, I had more fun doing the Shattered Sun dailies, both around the Sunwell and all over the Outlands. On Quel'Danas, we were participating in a war against Kael'thas and his legions. At the tournament, we're... well.... I'm not sure what we're doing. Proving that we are man/woman/etc. enough to take on the Lich King? Maybe, but what self-respecting soloer is ever going to fight him? Sure, get to run away from him in the Frozen Halls, but Blizzard didn't bother to tie that to the tournament as they did with Magisters' Terrace.


• While that may all be a matter of perception, I am left with an uncomfortable fact. Since I am never going to see the end of the WotLK story and I have reached the solo achievement threshold, there is nothing more for me to do. I can keep running dailies for money and random dungeons for badges, but that's not much to go on. I've rolled a couple of alts, but I'm finding even that not much of a draw.


• In essence, I've hit that WoW wall again. It happened a couple times last year, so I recognize it for what it is. Time to unsubscribe.


• I also know that this is not permenant. Eventually the itch will hit me again and I'll want to spend more time with my mage. It may only be a month or two. But for now, I've got plenty of games to look forward to (especially Mass Effect 2). And who knows? Cataclysm may not be as distant as everyone suspects.