I’ve probably played more World of Warcraft than any other game, ever. I’ve played plenty of MMOs, from MUDs to Ultima Online, Everquest, City of Heroes, Lord of the Rings Online, Age of Conan… some hold my attention for weeks, some months. WoW, for some reason, has kept me interested since the beta test before its release.
Oh sure, I take breaks. I quit for months at a time, play other stuff. Even now, I don’t play it obsessively. It’s one of the games I play, but I don’t play it more than all the other games. I have time for gaming, and I play WoW or I play other stuff. But when the expansions roll around, I just play the hell out of it. WoW effectively kills all other games for me for a month or two after a new expansion hits.
For a long time now, I’ve been saying that I hope the next expansion doesn’t go adding a new continent to the world. Give me a new reason to play through the existing stuff with a new character. Revamp the whole existing world, with the better graphics of the latest expansion, the new technology like vehicles and “phasing”, the better and more cohesive storytelling quest threads. Basically, bring the five-year-old stuff up to the level of the latest stuff.
If this post at MMO-Champion is to be believed (and they’re typically very reliable), Blizzard is giving me exactly what I wanted. I mean, the list of stuff they’re talking about is as if the company were directly reading my mind. Hopefully we’ll hear during Blizzcon. Please don’t disappoint me, guys!
