Goldilocks?

I read quite a few WoW-related blogs. I don't always agree with every one of the authors, and I don't always care about everything they write, but overall I enjoy hearing from people about all aspects of the game. One of the best things about this is being reminded that there are other people out there wanting something entirely different out of the game than I do. Whether that is every mini-pet available or an AV that lasts 12 hours doesn't matter. What is important is that checking my Reader reinforces the fact that WoW is a game with wide appeal.

But is that wide appeal diluting the things I loved about the game?

My guild is ranked in the top ten on our server (or at least we were the last time I looked at a ranking page), but we aren't cutting edge progression either. We've killed Sartharion with one drake up (did I mention how ridiculously easy that was?) and plan to tackle him with more drakes alive this week. In my almost three years raiding with xeno, we have gone from being a bit behind the raiding curve to being right in the thick of progression guilds. Every step has been a challenge, and overcoming those challenges was part of the appeal of the game. I love the feeling you get when a group of people from all over the world work together to accomplish a goal.

Many of those blogs I mentioned have commented on Blizzard's apparent watering down of the raid content. Most hardcore raiders dislike the trend to make things easier. There have been rants about the changes in WoW reflecting the overall tendency in our culture to make things fair for everyone. There have been parodies comparing WoW raiding to a rollercoaster that can now only go 10 miles per hour. I can understand these authors' viewpoints, but I'm not sure I share them.

Don't get me wrong. I do think that the early raiding content in Wrath of the Lich King has been very easy compared to raid content in both vanilla WoW and the Burning Crusade. But I'm not convinced that this is the end of the game. Blizzard has promised that harder content is coming. And although I've jumped on the "hurry up already" bandwagon, I think that the easier early content will mean that my guild can be part of the cutting edge when it gets here. We're farming Naxx, Eye of Eternity and Obsidian Sanctum. We're gearing up our regular raiders and their subs. We're teaching new members how to raid with us. And we're learning how to work together as a team. All of these things will help us conquer the next wave of content.

Are the raids too easy right now? Possibly. Mama Bear's bowl of porridge was too cold for Goldilocks, too. I'm hoping that Ulduar and the raids that come after that will be just right. And that the early content will have taught us how to use our spoons.

Prepare for Battle!

First, he planted suspicious crates around Azeroth, knowing full well that we are a curious bunch. (Why else would we agree to ANYTHING the Explorers League asks us to do, if not because of our endless inquisitiveness? We want to see what will happen next, or at least whether or not we'll survive it.) When this curiosity got the better of us and we opened the crates, we found the Lich King had not sent us kittens but instead had infected us with a plague that turned brother against brother, guild member against guild member (sorry again, D, I didn't realize that was your baby alt until I'd already taken a bite), and made us desire nothing more than to create as much mayhem as possible.

Second, he invaded us with his necropolises and made traveling through such zones as the Burning Steppes, Blasted Lands, and Azshara (who am I kidding, no one travels Azshara) hazardous to our health. His Necrotic Crystals were surrounded by shades intent on killing us and withholding the runes we needed for epic loot.

You would hope that would be enough--after all most of us were a little grossed out when we came to our senses after eating brains--and that he'd be satisfied with making our major cities zombie playgrounds and parking his ugly flying pyramids outside our capitals. But no. He had to send his minions after our leaders.




Tonight, the so called Lich King went too far. He launched an all-out attack on our home land and endangered the lives of King Varian Wrynn, Bolvar Fordragon, and the people of Stormwind. Though many came to aid the King in defending Stormwind, I fear it is not enough. It's time that we do more than fall victim to the Lich King's plans. We must take up arms against this menace. We must carry the battle to Northrend and deal with the traitor-prince once and for all!

Small Town Fail

I confess that I am a procrastinator. However, I wasn't entirely positive whether or not I'd still be living in this small town when Wrath of the Lich King was released, so I have a defense for this one. I decided against moving, so I will be here next week when WotLK is released at 12:00 am Mountain Standard Time. So today I finally got around to calling my local GameStop to see if they were having a party (ha!) and what hours they would be open that night. Um...so yeah. I live in too small a place with too few gamers to rate a midnight opening. Who knew? I might have suspected...but I still thought they'd open at midnight for a few minutes anyway. Guess I'll be getting my copies at Walmart.