OMG I really did quit

I wanted to wait about a month before I thought it was really official. I did quit WoW this time. Finally too many things about Wow made me unhappy and it was time. I guess I could list all those things, but I have complained about so many things already, and nobody is very fun when they just go on complaining. I estimate I may(50/50 chance probably) play again after the Cataclysm launch, and after it has been out awhile, debugged, balanced, and the stuff that should have been added at launch is finally added. Then, maybe.
The downside is that sometimes I am really bored and it would be fun to play. The upside is the feeling of a burden off my shoulders, the feeling that I need to make progress every day, even if it's just making some money. I would not say that I get much more done in RL now. I would say that I get more sleep. I know that they say there is no rest for the wicked, but I am tired of beeing wicked and I am glad to get the sleep.
I think I can live without the Onyxia pet and penguin pet that will come in the mail if I am playing. I have retired with lvl 80 druid "Yaggle", lvl 80 hunter "Mourndarr", and lvl 50 paladin "Mysharra" on U.S. Cenarion Circle server. I am happy how I have left these 3 incarnations of myself and I feel that they will live forever in Elysium. (or wherever). Over and out.

The Evil Druid

I am down to 2 characters. I will skip the explanation of why. Other than my hunter, the only other class I had felt like playing for months was my druid. So I destroyed Yaggle the warrior, and namechanged my druid to Yaggle. (by the way my other character is a lvl 80 hunter named Mourndarr). Now, it's hard to imagine a big fuzzy white cow druid being evil. And really, good and evil are relative and highly subjective terms anyways, right? Alls I know, he's wearing a black tabard with a skulls border and a big claw in the middle, and on top of that, with the druid pauldrons with big horns sticking out of the, he doesn't look like a friendly flower-picking friend of the squirrels.
I will always be temped to make more characters. But I have to remember my lessons of the past. My shaman with epic flight, my warrior with the hyacinth maccaw. All that money and time down the drain because I could not control my character creation urges. Wait, did I hear something about trolls being able to be warlocks? I'm listening....................................

I can't quit

I am trying to quit playing World of Warcraft but there is a road-block. This road block is "unfinished business". I still have not done all the quests in Northrend. I finished Howling Fjord, Borean Tundra, and Dragonblight, and have done most of Storm Peaks. I have done a healthy chunk of the others. However, some of the quests are darned good. Not all of them, but, well, it's just unfinished business. I never got fishing or cooking to 450 with any characters. I have some level 80 purple items in the bank I got cheap on the AH and they have been sitting in the bank waiting for me to level my alts up. Those purples happen to be on my other character from my previous server, who I was planning on transferring over. UNFINISHED BUSINESS.
I am still using imbued netherweave bags on all my characters. My tailor is one of my alts and almost has tailoring high enough to make frostweave bags. I have a total of about 6k on all my characters so I will be ready to get epic flight and cold weather flying as soon as one of my alts hits 77 (I have a lvl 80, a lvl 75, 2 level 74s, and a lvl 71). Quitting would not be a clean break. It would be like moving into a new apartment and leaving piles of rotting garbage in the old one. I want to do other things with my time, most of the time, and want to get out more, but darnit, some of the time I know very well that I want to keep playing this methamphetamine game and finish my quests, make my bags, equip my purples, get the proper enchants on them, and then, well, what then? Would I feel better about quitting? Or would I still feel that things were not finished? Is my perception clouded by obsessive-compulsive disorder, or is wanting to finish things up a healthy trait that will serve me well? I'm not angry about this, I just feel like one of those people in the movies who is caught in a time paradox where they keep doing the same thing but they cannot escape.
I feel that some irrational behavior is worthwhile. There are some experiences which although destructive or wasteful, are worthwhile life experiences because they are unique and of high quality. The memories of these experiences outweighs their negative aspects and those memories will bring happiness for a lifetime. Perhaps World of Warcraft is one of those experiences.

Seduced by Death (Knights)

I have been playing a Death Knight. And the fact is, I am totally against Death Knights. They are a fraudulent class in World of Warcraft. A player never has to play the character up to level 55, then gets a free epic land mount which, in original World of Warcraft, was a very difficult months-long ordeal to obtain(financially). Death Knights are overpowered. They solo extraordinarily well, and can also DPS and tank well. Basically, they are candy. I avoided playing one for all these reasons, but now I find myself seduced to the dark side like so many other people. It is nothing to brag about that I resisted for this long, since the end result is the same.
The only thing I can say, is that, well there is that poster that says "Absolute Power Corrupts absolutely. It also rocks absolutely." I think that about sums it up. Using Death Grip on a giant or a Clefthoof and watching that thing fly through the air, and then you kill it, what a rush! I cannot help myself. It's a similar feeling as playing a hunter level 10-60. You know you've got it too good, but who's the fool? Somebody's going to be overpowered, and that somebody is me. You cannot understand the power of the dark side! Also I love the ghoul. I love the sound he makes right before he jumps through the air and lands behind my target. That ghoul is more crazy than I am!
I'm seriously thinking about ditching my warrior. It's so totally wrong, because he's not fraudulent, he's not candy, and he took a lot of work levelling. But I'm corrupted absolutely, I fear; and there may be no going back. I say, "WHOSE HOUSE? YAGGLE'S HOUSE!!!!!!".

Doing what I want

I think about some dialogue from the movie "Gladiator" when either I find in life, or in World of Warcraft, either I am not doing what I want to do, or people criticize me for not doing what I don't want to do. Maximus asks his servant, "Do you ever find it difficult to do your job?" and his servant replies, "Sometimes I do what I want. The rest of the time I do what I have to." (sorry the words may not be exact).
When I find in life that all I am doing is things I HAVE to do, and not what I want to do, I remember this, so that I can be content with a very small amount of time doing what I want, that makes up for all the time I am doing what I don't want to do. However, a major part of my philosophy in life, and World of Warcraft, is structuring and planning so I can modify that philosophy to make my life better. My personal philosophy is "Most of the time I do what I want, but some of the time I do what I have to.".
This is why I do not join guilds in World of Warcraft. I find that when I do, although I do not ask others to give their time helping me get what I want, that I am often asked to do what I don't want to do. I understand that if you want a lot of great equipment, everybody has to work together and often do what they don't want to do, so that everybody benefits. But I personally do not think getting great gear is the most fun thing to do. Only once in a while do I want to spend my day trying to do this. So I mostly do what I want to do, which means I do not join a guild. However, most other people do not see it that way, because they value other things than I do. You've got your good things, and I've got mine.
In life, I have made similar decisions. I do not have children. There are people who love taking care of children and have a great life because they have children. There are also people who hate their lives because they have had children. It is not politically correct to admit this, but for many, it is true, and I hear it all the time. I do not want to become one of those people, not just for my own happiness, but it is unfair to your children if you grow to resent them. They do not ask to be brought into this world. I would like to be married some day, but only if it is with somebody who sees things the way I do. I do enjoy children SOMETIMES, which works out perfectly because my sister has 3 children and I will be able to see them now and then throughout my life. There is a saying "Don't look a gift horse in the mouth". Sometimes, you are in the perfect situation but people will tell you otherwise. You have to know yourself and trust your instincts. And that is what I have done.

Rant on WOTLK

I went on a negative rant about World of Warcraft since the Wrath of the Lich King expansion about a month ago. Since then I have kept playing and got 1 character to level 80. But I think there's still some valid stuff in that rant I went on and so I cut and pasted it over from my myspace page: (p.s. yeah I know since I kept playing that it's hypocritical)

The Wrath of the Lich King expansion has been out now for almost 2 months and there have been a lot of changes between World of Warcraft and myself. First of all, the veil has been partly lifted in my subconscious regarding the suspension of disbelief connected to this game. In other words, it doesn't feel real or meaningful lately. This has to do with the fact that it is a very materalistic game. How can that be possible, you ask, since none of it is real? Let me explain. The game is good for your ego because you can better your character by advancing in levels and equipment. You can attain a status that often you cannot obtain in real life. Your work in the game easily translates into rewards. And if you feel the need to prop up your ego even more by obtaining superior equipment and money than your peers, you can put in the extra time and do that. I'm not saying it's wrong or right, that's just the way it is, much like real life, but the playing field is more even. You can sense this Darwinistic feeding frenzy by the vigorous manner that players attack the new content, not taking it in slowly and enjoying it, but rushing through it like mad in order to reach the highest level and get the best equipment, so they can enjoy their status once again.With the release of the expansion, the level cap has been raised to 80. Thus, players' current status is meaningless but they can move up again and get more levels and equipment. Basically, players can chase a carrot again to re-gain a status they already had. OK, fair enough. People need a reason to keep playing and Blizzard needs them to keep playing to make more money. Furthermore, other things are being given away for free or easier to obtain than when old-time players like myself advanced through the game. Already Blizzard had made it easier and quicker to progress through the original game. Then they let players get mounts such as horses at level 30 instead of level 40 when I played. Now recently, they made it easier to advance from level 60 to 70. A lot of the player-craftable items(mostly level 70 items) now are obsolete because it is far easier to obtain them from the new areas than create them, and they're better anyways.I understand why all these things happened, and I don't believe in crying over spilled milk. There's nothing anybody can do about it. However, I have not felt like playing. This whole thing has made me realize how shallow the game is on many levels. The game is not real, and furthermore, achievements in the game are temporary. They will be made trivial by future content, and let's face it; the game itself will become antiquated at some point, and the any meaning that anything we have obtained or accomplished in this game will only exist in our memories. I used to really look forward to logging on and progressing, whether it be in levels, equipment, or money. Lately, it feels like my time would be better spent elsewhere. And maybe a dose of reality is not such a bad thing.