[WoW] Aaaaand...I went back.

Okay so I am a hypocrite; well not entirely, the mulling and dithering I experienced did eventually result in me returning to WoW. However the return was through the 10 day trial, wherein I made a panda monk and I punched, kicked, and rolled my way through the old world, Outland, and much of Northrend before the trial expired. Downside is I didn't actually make it to Pandaria.

I may have also spent 100+ gold on transmogs...the helmet from Badlands and the class-quest staff looked so badass I couldn't help it.

Still, I enjoyed my brief period in Pandaria, though I am not sure it has pulled me back to play the way I once did. I think WoW has some good qualities, it's a game that provides plenty of short-term, achievable goals that players like me enjoy, it's approachable and easy to return to, and it's art, while cartoon-y, is as always, gorgeous. However, it's still essentially the same game I played for the better part of a decade, and it's age shows in how it plays. I found myself using the Monk class's "Roll" ability just as I would have tried to dodge in Guild Wars 2, and I found myself moving around in combat like newer MMOs even though it makes no difference (aside from staying out of the bad stuff).

The revamp to talents and specs certainly is nice, I don't miss the old talent trees and I like that so many leveling guides I read said something along the lines of "Choose the talent you like most..." which I never saw prior to Pandaria. It may change when raiding, but it was pleasant to feel like I actually had options...granted, sometimes I felt like one worked much better than the others for me, but I could see each fitting a niche.

Actually the rate I leveled surprised even me, to go from 1-70 in 10 days with limited playtime (no more than2-3 hours per day) was impressive to me, though there is one big reason...

This plus 35% from Heirlooms = Outland in 1 day. Monks cheat

This was a nice idea and it certainly helped my leveling speed; in fact it kicked it into overdrive. Though the need for buffs like this seems to suggest to me that maybe Blizzard needs to offer more options for people who want accelerated leveling. Tera had the idea of letting you boost friends you invite up to max level, and Guild Wars gives an item that levels your next character from 0-20 instantly as a reward for achievement points. Sadly, I just find I can barely stand the leveling process anymore; especially since this is the 11th or so time I've gone through the old world, Outland, Northrend, and now Cata content.

Also, I am not sure if they tweaked prices, but I don't remember having to pay 4750 gold for 270% speed flying then the same price again for 310%...though it helped that my monk had earned over 2k just from selling Mining and Herbalism mats I farmed while leveling. Prices seem to have gone up across the board, even int he auction house.

I am not positive why it is that the game won't keep me, but I think it's having all those reachable goals, but also not giving me much reason to stick around. I do believe that it is the social connections in a game that keep us playing; and it was friends that brought me back to WoW, and I'll play it with them but if they stopped, I am fairly sure I would too. For the same reason DnD might not be perfect, but is fun to play with friends, I think WoW is great for groups and like DnD is not something I want to sit and play purely on my own.