A few years later, I was with my boyfriend (future husband), who had played since vanilla, and their first expansion, The Burning Crusade, was releasing at midnight. We stayed up late, at a Gamestop, waiting outside, to get his special edition boxed set. I still did not play.
A year or two later, Wrath of the Lich King was preparing to launch, and my boyfriend was a Game Master at Blizzard. He worked long hours, and the only way to talk to him was to play WoW with him on his lunch breaks. So, the summer before Wrath of the Lich King launched, I began to play. I was Jouselle, a Blood Elf Mage (and fisherwoman). Things were different this time. Instead of the vast, empty Mulgore zone, I had the colorful, better designed Eversong Woods. Most importantly, my boyfriend rolled a hunter, named Gredic, to protect me, and we played together. It was an incredibly long road for my boyfriend, teaching me how to walk, pick up items, attack monsters. I was a complete newbie, in total awe of the amazing world around me. I'd stop to take screenshots of every flower, chatter on about this and that, and bump into walls all the time. It must have been frustrating, but somehow, my boyfriend stayed patient, and helped me every step of the way. We played every zone up through Northrend together, during the Lich King expansion. I even got to raid! I pushed myself to the limit, making every effort to be the best mage I could be, even changing specializations in an effort to be a better team player in the raid group. After The Wrath of the Lich King, was Cataclysm, and we were going strong. We both got special edition boxes this time, and we both played at launch, staying up all hours of the night, enjoying the new worlds and old worlds that had changed, and experienced the stories of Deathwing together.
It was not to last. When Mists of Pandaria launched, my boyfriend, now husband, played through the new zones without me. And then, he quit the game. He had been playing since vanilla, and was now tired of it all. I was devastated. After years of having a partner to rely on, now I had to face the massive online game completely alone. With absolutely no confidence, I quit.
I came back a couple years later, on my own. During the Draenor expansion. I had gotten some experience playing solo in Star Wars: the Old Republic, and I longed for Azeroth, which I had considered home. I was cautious, and slow, but I I struggled though content on my own. Azeroth was very different though. It was a lot colder, and lonelier. Guilds were no longer friendly. Dungeons were speeded through without a single friendly hello. Cities were empty. Still, there was a lot of busywork to do, and on my own, I got 6 characters to max level, each with maxed out professions. I had cheery holiday decorations in my garrison, but few friends. Jouselle had gone through some race changes, because everyone thought of blood elves as sex objects at that point. She was a Pandaren for a time, and eventually settled on an Undead. It was kinda fun being an undead, making all the zombie jokes and corpse puns. Still, things were bleak. The game was grindy, and no longer social at all.
Legion was the last expansion I played in, and my last hope for Azeroth. It seemed both Blizzard and I pulled out all the stops for this one. I begged my husband to play again, and he did for the story of Legion. The Legion expansion was epic. It was a grand story, tying off loose ends from Burning Crusade and other expansions, and giving each player enough fanfare to last a lifetime. Everyone got the very best weapons, special weapons, with stories, and customization options, and I had... the Sheepy Staff. It was a staff with the stone carved head of a sheep, and I thought it was the best staff in all the game. After all, I was a mage who used polymorph to turn enemies into sheep for years. Yes, Legion was epic and amazing, and then... it was over. The content patches stopped, the story ended, the leaks for the next expansion began. And it was over... I had to face facts. For all the storytelling and fanfare, it just wasn't fun anymore. The fun was gone.
When the World of Warcraft Classic servers were launched, I heavily considered joining those. I thought, maybe there, I could reclaim the fun and joy that was lost, but for personal reasons, I decided never to spend another penny on Blizzard products for the rest of my life. I would not recommend working for them, or paying a penny for any one of their games ever again. Even if I did break my vow and get my account back and log back in, there would be no joy there for me.
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