Ironically

I've been smacked down from my nerd high from Blizzcon pretty fast. Needless to say, I am extremely unhappy in game right now. I don't want to go into too much detail but I feel pretty f'd up.
I might need a break, specifically from raiding, to see where I want to go WoW wise. Losing my guild, and also not playing Horde has started to really affect me.
There are a lot of factors to figure out, especially since I want to continue playing the game through Mists of Pandaria. But honestly, I have no idea where I'll go. Trying to play with people you want to, but pushing yourself to be in a place you don't want to be, or act a way you aren't used to, really isn't fair or fun. Sometimes, the hardest part is deciding whether it is worth it.
I've always been about responsibly within the game. My biggest belief is that I am taking up someone else's time (when I raid) so I am respectful. I show up on time, I run back to my corpse, I do not dilly dally and go gem/chant new drops. But it's hard when that respect is not reciprocated, in more ways than one.
I am very close to my breaking point tonight. We shall see.

the past is depressing, but at least the future looks bright.

Is it Friday yet?
It's been a rough week and a half. A week ago from last Saturday, my grandma fell and broke her hip. It really isn't that bad at first glance, but being that she is 88 years old, and already full of old people problems, it was a horrific domino effect in her health. To be honest, I'm surprised that my grandma has lasted this long. She has always been very frail, specifically mentally. My uncle passed away a little over 2 years ago, and it has been rough on everyone, but I think mostly for her. Ever since then, her health has rapidly deteriorated, and her mental state has been the biggest fall.
Being in the hospital caused a lot of problems for her. Her anxiety has been erratic, and, while she's lashing out at people, her heart rate spikes. But that wasn't the first problem.
Before she could have surgery, they had to get the blood thinner medication she is on, out of her system. Then, they had to get her heart under control, since the extra stress was making it even weaker. Finally, her kidneys decided to start failing, so they had to put her on dialysis. Eventually, her kidneys began to function properly, but her constant anxiety, for being stuck in the hospital for so long, bedridden, kept keeping her heart rate spiked, keeping her from surgery.
It was an endless circle of problems. With some help from anxiety meds, we were able to get her into an incredibly calm state, and on Thursday, 5 days after she was admitted, she finally was able to have surgery.
The surgery went smoothly, but it was a 20 min surgery that ended up taking an hour and a half long.
It's Tuesday now. My grandma will hopefully be moved to a physical therapy facility by tomorrow, however, her anxiety is a constant problem. Health wise, she is considered a miracle case. Her kidneys are working without dialysis, and her heart rate is under control. She is no longer taking pain medication, and she is starting to take medication by pill form which is crucial to her getting out.
My grandma aside, the toughest thing is seeing my mom come home every night and start crying. She is the sole guardian of my grandparents, and although they are living in a great assisted living home, she still has to take them to every doctor's appointment and make all the tough decisions. My brother is currently in Florida, so I've been trying to be as supportive as possible. Unfortunately, this all  happened last week, during midterms. I completely failed one, and did so-so on another. I am extremely tired, and have been in and out of work.
The good news is that my failed test will not result in a failed grade because I've done well on other big projects. I am hoping to at least grab a C in this class. No high expectations here.  
On the bright side...
I am going to my first Blizzcon this weekend ! :D yay!
I'm really excited, even though I have no idea what to expect. I haven't gone to a convention in over a year (usually I pull off a Comic Con every year) so I am ready for this one. I was pretty sad I missed out on Comic Con this year. A lot of my favorite TV shows and actors were there, but I was not. :(
I'm interested to see what a convention based solely around one company will be like. i have gone to Anime Expo and Comic Con a lot, but there was always soooooo much to do. My boyfriend was wondering if I'd go to any lore or class panels, but I'm afraid it might involve me just being angry and fed up.
I am surprised that Blizzard has not commented on the Wild Growth nerf freak out by the community druids, and as patch notes get updated and changed, Resto druids have seen nothing. It's a very sad and painful thing to watch. I really don't feel like rerolling again.
I am really excited to see the Foo Fighters in concert! Yay! Blizzcon!
:D
In Game Shenanigans 
I've been leveling a rogue on the Horde side...for some reason. I'm not sure. The goblin starting area has Thrall in it, in all his new model glory. Unfortunately, his new model was bugged during the fight against Trade Prince. Epic, tiny (he had that shrinking debuff the whole time) fail. Glad I could do all the work. Aggra was also yelling at me to help Thrall, and I just wanted to punch her, like I normally do. :)
I never, in my life thought I would hate Thrall so much.
Although, I am still a huge Horde fan. I really want a Horde lanyard from Blizzcon. Before, I wouldn't even think of showing any WoW out of game pride. But now all I can think about is, man I want that lanyard. The more I play Alliance, the more I want to play Horde. For the Horde!!!!!
We haven't raided much this week because of real life problems. I'm okay with that. Although school is my main focus, the back of my mind is constantly the thought of what will happen when SWTOR comes out. Will I jump ship? Can I afford to have two subs going on? Will I even want to? Will SWTOR hold my attention longer than Rift? God I hope so. Since I am buying the Limited Edition. ><
Is it December yet?
 
 

Still Around & There and Back Again

I've had a busy few days the past week or so. Between moving from my college "dorm room" back to my old house has been stressful. I haven't slept this well or this long in months! Of course it's partially from exhaustion that I've been falling asleep between 9:30-10:30 pm. That is a scary thought to me. Am I old?!?!
I also finally passed my driver's test! Scary! It wasn't a pleasant experience; in fact it was downright traumatizing. But I mean, something this monumental would never go by without some drama. My life is just like that. And in the end, it doesn't matter. My license won't say "Barely passed," or "Had worst instructor EVR!" on it. It'll just say that I can drive legally. I can live with that.
So exactly which world am I in?
In 7 days, my Rift account will expire. I was on last night to say my goodbyes to the guildies I was playing with, and sent out my platinum and materials. The choice to leave Rift was a swift one. The guildies I was playing with were some of my favorite people. They always made me laugh and welcomed. But the game itself isn't welcoming. And luckily, I know that this game isn't what is keeping these friendships alive. Rift is a great game, with innovation and a polished look. Invasions are fun; rifts are a nice change from the norm. However, as far as a world goes, Rift is still developing, and while it would be fun to see where it goes, I'm not in a point in my life where I can wait around and see what happens. And I love alts. I am a serious alt-o-holic. Rift does not play very well with that set of mind. There is no real variation within the game as far as quest lines go. You have to lines: Defiant or Guardian. Another difficult thing to adjust to is going back to the basic "kill this, retrieve that" quest mindset. WoW has done a great job at creating a single player experience (which may be considered a weakness in an MMO). They achieved this by introducing quest variation; from vehicle quests, and serious storyline quests. It's pretty awesome.
Rift's strength is in it's group play. The ease of public groups and vastness of invasions allow for a wonderful multiplayer experience. Unfortunately, I am finding that being interrupted by invasions is incredibly frustrating. I miss the single player experience in an MMO, where I can quest uninterrupted, and when I feel like dealing with people, I can simply join an instance.   
That old mindset
It's safe to say that the above mindset is the one I'm sitting comfortably in. After the end of school, I went to Target and bought myself a WoW game time card. Yep. I fell off the wagon (or so to speak). I'm not raiding. I did ZA and ZG a couple times and I'm over it. I found that running dungeons with some guildies was fun again because I really did miss my healing UI. Man did I miss addons!
I also am back to leveling alts. I started a new toon, Noctis, a paladin, to experience ( for reals this time) the new leveling experience. I'm almost level 40, and have been through Silverpine, Stonetalon and Southern Barrens. I've discovered that the way to execute people in Horde, thanks to Garrosh, is to toss them from a high up place; bridge, window, you know.   
My other current WoW obsession is my hunter, Otacon (yes METAL GEAR?!?). He's a lot of fun, and I am currently obsessed with pet searching! Since they increased the stable to 25 pets, I've been collecting unique looking pets, usually ones who have only one model of them (cuz Blizzard loves to reuse and recolor models.) I've got almost all the spirit beasts from WotLK, currently waiting for Skoll.
Blog from here
I renamed it Clearcasting since I'm back in WoW (yeah I am indecisive). I won't be raiding, so no guides or analyses or entries where I sound like I know what I'm doing. I have to figure out what direction I want to take this blog, but I haven't decided yet. We'll have to see.

Book Review: Something Borrowed

Today
Will be a big blog day for me. I posted a small blog last night about the passing of my WoW subscription expiration date, but other than that, I've been missing in action.
 But enough about that! On to the review!
I've been seeing these commercials for a movie called Something Borrowed. It features Kate Hudson and Ginnifer Goodwin and is based off a best selling novel by Emily Giffin (I keep wanting to say Griffin, but its GIFFIN). The trailer eludes to being in love with your best friend's fiance, and the back of the cover of the book I picked up on Saturday pretty much says the same thing.
Rachel, the consummate good girl, has always been overshadowed by her beautiful, spoiled best friend Darcy. Then on the night of her 30th birthday, Rachel has too much to drink and sleeps with Darcy's fiance, Rachel's old friend from law school Dex. It turns out though that as the affair continues, Dex and Rachel are deeply in love with each other. As Darcy's wedding date draws near, Rachel avoids the subject of Dex's impending marriage, then realizes she can no longer avoid it. Things begin to spiral out of control and she is faced with choosing her best friend, or her possible soul mate.

Why would I read this chick book anyways?
I have always been incredibly interested in, and incredibly influenced by cheating individuals. And not those cheap nights where one drink leads to a weak moment and it really means nothing. I'm talking, the affair is "true" love and despite the repercussions, the cheating couple ends up together in the end. Like Brad and Angelina; Leann and Eddie. My dad and his wife.
i do not have a good relationship with my father and I especially have a terrible, Cinderella type relationship with his wife, my stepmother. The worst part of it all is that his wife was my mother's maid of honor in my parent's wedding.
From what I can see, my stepmother has been romancing my father for decades and decades. In fact, at their wedding last year, i was forced to stare at a picture of them back when they were younger, when my mother and father were together. Scenes like these cheapen their relationship to me. My father claims she's his soul mate, yet despite everything, he originally turned my stepmother down to marry another woman 6 months after divorcing my mother. (Yes, that's right. I have an ex-stepmother). And alas, almost a decade later, they finally had their dream wedding last summer, which my brother refused to attend, and I watched, suppressing sobs, while staring at a picture of my young, cheating father, alone in the front row. I spent their reception, sitting next to my grandmother who gloated to everyone in passing, isn't it about time. They were destined to be together. Took them long enough. I worked hard to get them together.

It's a well known fact that most women are very Pro Jennifer in the Brad/Angie/Jen problem. I do not like Angelina, but respect her charity work. I think Brad is stupid and I don't understand his sex appeal. Sure he's handsome, but while women were staring at his butt in Troy, I was dreaming about Eric Bana's toned arms wrapped around me. Brad needed a haircut. I wish people would leave Jennifer alone, like the way I wish my dad's family would leave my mother alone. Calling her nasty names because she spent her 10 post marriage years raising my brother and I alone, instead of running off with another man and marrying as soon as the immigrant papers went through.

Oh shut up. What about the book?
Right, so here we have Rachel who in all terms is a sweet girl. She is smart, works a job she hates, and bends to her beautiful best friend's every whim. Darcy is an incredibly villainous young woman, who gets everything she wants with a flip of her hair. Her confidence is something I came to envy, like Rachel. And I watched her turn from best friend to evil rival. She throws tantrums, turns everything so that it's about her, and ends up being even more hateful towards the end.
But what about Rachel. The other woman is supposed to be the despised, evil one.
It may be from my extremely bias position, but I did not understand the relationship of Rachel and Dex. Yes they were best friends in college and he seemed to genuinely love her. And Rachel exudes enough flip flopping guilt that I feel for her. And since Darcy is a bitch, it makes it even easier to want Rachel to win Dex.
My problem with the relationship is Dex. If someone loves someone else, how could the spend months promising to marry another woman. How could he sleep with her? How could they continue the affair, if they truly loved each other and never wanted to be apart? This I do not understand.
Perhaps its my jaded view on love.
I am terrified of marriage; I am terrified of being cheated on. I am terrified of my mother-in-law breaking up my marriage so my husband can be with a woman his mother chose. These are things I do not want to experience.
And even though Something Borrowed had me rooting for the other woman, as I devoured page after page, I couldn't help thinking about how twisted the book made me feel. 
Because cheering for the other woman was like cheering for my stepmother. And I wonder, did she feel sorry for herself, the way Rachel did. Did she see my mother as the evil Darcy, stealing her true love.
My stepmother has no qualms about expressing her bitterness and rivalry with my mother. She claims my mother is jealous of her fabulous life. She expresses hate and disdain for my brother and I because we will always be the bond that binds my mother and my father. My stepmother will never be rid of my mother.
And then it becomes clear. Who the Darcy and the Rachel is in my Something Borrowed tale? 

In the end
Something Borrowed was a great debut novel by Emily Giffin. She has four other books out and I would consider reading them all.
Review: B+

  
 
 

Do I miss World of Warcraft?

April 15 came and went without me blinking. That day was a Friday; I was at my college house when the clock struck 12, leveling Leda, my Rift main, as much as possible to keep up with my guildies who will (and surely did) surge ahead of me 5 levels while I am at work. I watched Evangelion 1.0 and 2.0 twice again because I'm (still) working on their reviews for my blog. I ate a salad from Wendy's. I went to bed when I heard my roommate wake up at 4am and decided I should go to bed when she runs off to work. I woke up at 11. I watched a House marathon and waited for my BF to pick me up. We spent time playing Rift together since he started the weekend trial. We went out and bought Goldenspoon Froyo. It was tasty.
I went to bed at 11:30.

Then on Saturday, I don't even remember when, I thought of Naee. I had tried talking to him after he was raiding one night about my impending leave, but I missed him by no more than 5 minutes. I had sent him an in game mail stating that I would of course hop back on to talk to him over the next week before my subscription ran out.
And when did my subscription run out?

April 15th.

Somehow, the true end of my past 3 years of gaming flew by me without even a thought. Is this a good sign?

I was interviewing my friends about their experiences in WoW. Some were guildies, some were past guildies. All were friends. And it was like a flood of memories hitting me in the face. I met so many people through the games and I am shocked at how many I still keep in touch with. I am extremely thankful that I can play Rift with people I know, but somehow, I began to miss that diverse guild I used to be in.

I was looking at screenshots of my toons, my priest, shaman, pally. And I felt this ache of being level cap'd and having tons of alts. I am behind on leveling on Rift because I find times where I grow tired of pressing the same buttons to level. I love diversity. So not being able to just mindlessly hop from toon to toon is something I miss.
I also dread hitting level cap because I don't want to start raiding again. I don't want that anymore, but then I think, when I'm 50, what now?

Do I miss World of Warcraft?
No.

Quick Blog Update

I have changed my address to indecisivehealer.blogspot.com
I felt that Clearcasting was too related to WoW and since I no longer play WoW and my blog has shifted focuses to many subjects, it was time to change the title.
I hope you enjoy it. :)

Falling Away with You

It's official. I quit.
I've officially canceled my WoW subscription. It ends for good on the 15th, at 7 pm. It's an odd feeling. I knew it was coming and honestly I haven't been on at all, especially enough to warrant a $15 a month subscription fee. Yet, I still feel this overwhelming sense of depression.
Mainly what happened was; after two weeks of poor attendance, our three guild leaders announced they were leaving. This also came after 3 of our other core members have been MIA due to unpaid subscriptions. My bf and I had already been toying with the idea of leaving ourselves, but we kept coming back; mainly because he has a year subscription, and I did enjoy raiding when we did. But with the announcement of the three gm's leaving, it became obvious where I was to go now. I was to leave.
For the past few months, my friends list has become less and less active and people have been leaving quietly and on their own accord. I myself haven't been on much lately, mostly because when I do log on, I just kind of dwaddle around, not really doing anything of substance.
It was time I left.
But I find it pretty sad leaving everyone and this game I have spent so much time on over the past 3 years.
Even though I'm leaving the game because I am so damn bored, I really did stick around because of my guildies, and I think it's a true testament to how much I cared about and enjoyed playing with them. We'll still keep in touch, and I'm sure our forum will continue to be a place for silly conversations. But it's definitely a new hole.
Blog from here
May have noticed a new tag line; I plan to keep blogging with a focus on games. There's a chance I might join in on Rift, but for now, I've been playing old school Gameboy games and Pokemon. I'm gonna be watching more movies and TV shows to report on, so hopefully it'll give me something to write about.

I can't remember when it was good

Moments of happiness elude

Maybe I just misunderstood

All of the love we left behind

Watching the flash backs intertwine

Memories I will never find

So I'll love whatever you become

And forget the reckless things we've done

I think our lives have just begun

Falling Away with You: Muse

 

Monday Update

Blog Update
First, just a small blog update. I'm thinking of renaming my blog because I feel that it is no longer a "restoration" blog, and what I feel like posting, which may still have some WoW events/experiences/insights, are now mostly directed at other subjects. It may have to do with the fact I am only online when I am raiding, and no other time. It may be that my focus has shifted to other video games. Either way, I feel that it's misleading to call this a "restoration" blog when I'm not really talking much about restoration.
The shift going on in the blogsphere, where people are quitting the game or closing up blog shop, is pretty disheartening. Although WoW in-game still has what seems like a ton of people on, seeing prominent players that we may check in with daily to read their thoughts about WoW, leave the community in one way or another makes the reality of WoW much more discouraging. I wish these players all the best, and of course understand the nature of leaving. There is nothing to hold against them. But I think this shift has affected me more than I would like it.
Pokemon Update
That being said, I've been having loads of fun breeding and EV training Pokemon. I think I might post some blogs about Pokemon and EV training just because during my vast amount of research, some information I looked for was difficult to obtain. Until 4.1 hits, I don't have much to report about druids, so I might focus a bit on Pokemon 
Life Update
Facebook is an interesting social networking tool. It has me connected to people I probably would've forgotten about. I remember their names and faces (and apparently I am remembered too). I went to a K-8 private school and was with the same 15 or so kids for over 10 years. And although the majority of us went our separate ways in high school, it's still a weird sensation reconnecting with them impersonally (because we may be friends on Facebook, but we don't really talk).
My best friend from K-8 has a 3 year old kid.
Another one of my old friends just got married and is pregnant.
An old classmate, who ended up being second runner up in a Miss America Pageant, is now engaged.
It's crazy because it's the only reminder to me, who is still in college and just floating around in life, that I am growing up. I am getting to that age where marriage and children isn't necessarily out of the ordinary. If anything, it's in the very near future.
 

Just One of THOSE Days

Was unable to sleep for more than 5 hours again last night. Still battling a cold.

Got a late start this morning so could only take the late bus (which gives me 10 mins to scurry across campus and get to class)

Bus had 3 stops and was overly crowded today, so it took longer.

While rushing to class, a dude on a bike nearly crashed into me, causing me to slip in mud and basically smear the front of one leg and back of the other in mud.

Can't be late to class to clean up because I have an exam.

Was late anyways, exam went fine, but my jeans feel really really gross.

Yeah, it's one of THOSE days.

Thank god its spring break.

It's Taco Tuesday!

The one thing I love about rainy days is  the days after, when the sky is bright blue, the clouds are fluffy and white, and the air holds a cool dampness that keeps the rays of the sun from burning. Today is one of those days.
I'm happy that after a tough night filled with Kleenex and water, my fever broke, and I can be placed into the category of "I sound worse than I feel." My throat is still the highlight of my pain, but the coughing has subsided and my nose isn't runny, it's just plugged up. I can live with that.
A Dose of World of Warcraft
Last night, I logged onto WoW to start experimenting with Haste on my druid. I wanted to see if I could reach the 2005 haste cap without hurting myself, which didn't turn out painless. Dropping so much mastery ended up taking 5% off of my mastery bonus, which I was kind of sad to see. I never thought I'd be behind mastery, but my numbers have definitely gone up when my mastery did. However, I plan to bite the bullet and take on the haste cap because of the changes to Efflorescence (and hastes effect on it) in Patch 4.1.
I'm going to have to walk around with two sets of healing gear (basically 3 pieces I switch out), if I want to hit the 2005 haste cap. I had to switch out my Darkmoon Fair Card: Tsunami out with a heroic Gale of Shadows, which gives me 250+ haste that I was lacking. It does also give me over 300 spellpower to make up for losing 341 intel, but it's still a 341 loss of intel that may hurt me. Which is why I'm carrying around two sets. I also have mastery legs from Maloriak, and the t11 Boomkin legs from a lucky TB run (haste legs) to switch out.
I'm hoping to eventually grab the dagger off of Magmaw, so that I can switch from my Arch Tol'vir staff to 1h+oh. Maybe even try and get the dwarf staff if I ever get back into digging. Either one would give me a hefty haste increase and allow me to switch back the trinkets.
I'm hoping to raid sometime this week (even though I have been part of the stumbling block on our raiding), but I might not get to experiment in real time until next week.
About the Title
My boyfriend and I are going to go out and buy some Tacos from Del Taco <3 Taco Tuesday :D 

Rain, Thunder, Sneezing, Coughing. FML

I've been working in retail for over 5 years now (moving towards my 6th year :O). Because of this, I work all the major holidays, deal with all the major shopping days (hello Black Friday) and know what to expect. I understand that during Thanksgiving and through December, I can rack up some nice hours and earn some good money, therefore preparing for early January, when our hours shoot down because sales tend to plummet. I spend most of November and December trying to avoid sickness. One person gets sick in my work area and its a domino effect. It's one of those lose-lose situations. If you call out because your sick, it's not good because you lose hours, there's a loss in productivity, etc. But if you come in sick, you will highly likely infect others around you, thus making call-outs more likely.
I'm really lucky that my job offers free flu shots to their employees. I've taken advantage of this every year it's been offered. Despite the many complaints from fellow coworkers about how the shot tends to give them the flu instead of immunity, I have yet to have had a bad experience after getting the flu shot. And this past Christmas season is probably the best testament of it.
I usually tend to at least develop a sort of cold of some sorts. Usually just a runny nose and excessive sneezing and/or coughing. But never a flu or some sort of serious fever. I swore I felt some sickness coming on, but after a night or so of runny noses, it would pass without much of a cough. I got through Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, January and February without a cold.
Now here we are, just a week before Spring Break, and I am feverish, coughing, sneezing, my nose running without a stop. I have to go to class because it's the last week, and I have a test and two papers due. We've had last week off from raiding, so I feel like I need to be on this week, but all I want to do is roll up in a ball and sleep. I need to write papers, continue getting little sleep, and study for a couple days to maintain my good grade. But at this moment, I really REALLY just want to be in my bed with Kleenex and a good dose of Pokemon.
F.M.L.
I am thankful though that I fought off sickness throughout the past 5 months. A nice scary stomach flu floated around work for a while. But I feel so gross, sitting in class, sweating, listening to the thunder and rain outside that I will soon have to be walking in to get to my next class. Ugh. :(

Thursday Thoughts: Patch 4.1, Haste, and Being Bipolar

Moving On
Despite the bad feelings that were created a couple nights ago, we moved on last night without a hitch. One-shotted Chimarean, which made me feel good about myself (lol). Probably drop into Bastion tonight and get back at Cho'gall. We're going to have another off week because of absences, which, as far as I'm concern, is okay because I like playing Pokemon. I wonder when we'll get to the point where we can 2 heal fights. Probably not. too much bad luck type stuff happens.

The Real Folk Blues

This is a personal post. This post will be incredibly vague and ill-informed. It will reveal a side of me that is extremely emotional, rash, and indecisive.
It will reveal a side of me full of regret.
It will most importantly reveal a side of me that is desperate. 

Rift between Us

I'll admit I'm a fairly opinionated, but loyal WoW player. WoW was my first and has been my only MMO. This is mainly because most of my friends play WoW and I don't want to venture into a new game without knowing someone. Actually, I tried playing FFXI once a long time ago, but had an anxiety attack at the prospect of people seeing me, judging me, and being around me that I don't know (yeah, don't I sound like I don't have a problem). In real life, I also have this same problem. I don't like trying new things, especially drastic new things. Every time I've had to move, or start a new school (which is inevitable if you want to continue getting higher education), I tend to fall into this depression that takes a couple months to get out of.
I've been getting better. I recently started my first year at a new college, and the transition, which included moving out on my own for the first time as well, went incredibly smooth. I still work at my old job, so I've retained contact with my friends there, and my boyfriend still comes to visit me a lot. Sometimes, living on my own is lonely, but it's nothing a little WoW play can remedy. I've also slowly began overcoming my fear of driving and have been working towards getting my license within the next couple of months.
With this new sense of independence has also come the idea of maybe trying out a new MMO. I'll admit I'm losing interest in Cataclysm fast. I've digged my way through hell and back (Professor with a Doll). I still enjoy raiding with my guild, but outside of that, I find there's nothing to do. I started leveling another druid, a worgen, with some friends on another server (PvP..GASP), just to experience something new and try out something different, but my interest is waning, and although we level together and it's fun when we do, my boyfriend is a much slower leveler than I am, so I have free time on my hands when he can't get on. (He actually reads quests and looks around. I barrel through leveling like I'm on speed).
My boyfriend and I play WoW together because we can't spend time together the way we used to. I know that sounds kinda clingy and sad, but playing WoW allows us to talk to each other without having to be attached to the phone (like my crazy brother and his girlfriend. Um. It's 3 am go to bed. I know you'll talk to her at 6 am cuz I'll HEAR YOU) and to do things together without spending tons of money and time. We've talked about playing other games, but outside of console games. He's an avid Xbox player but I've always been a Sony loyalist until WoW came between us. We've settled on definitely playing The Old Republic when it comes out, but that's still a way off.
So there's this hoop lah going on with this MMO called Rift. Maybe you've heard of it. It's got tons of hype right now, as being prettier, better and more advanced than WoW. A lot of people have been trying out the beta, and the blogroll I read has been littered with "Rift" in their titles. So I'm curious. Especially with my interest in WoW waning. (Fear not, I still plan to raid.)
There's something that turns me off from Rift though, and this is the WoW loyalist talking.
I hate their little advertising phrase. It's on all their ads, and even on their website.
"We're not in Azeroth anymore."
First off, I don't like the Wizard of Oz reference. Now I'm going to look for Toto and Dorothy and sing "Defying Gravity" to myself.
Second, it's a turn off to me as a WoW player, because there is room in my life for more than one game. Not that the makers of Rift would want that. They want to be the next WoW. But I don't think it'll work. WoW has a very strong community and plenty of people have left for other games (coughAioncough) and come running back.
Third, it's a turn off from people who don't know what the hell WoW is. Because of the strong WoW community, a good idea would be to tap into those who don't play WoW at all. A lot of people might not know what the hell Azeroth is. So they might think they re in some Wizard of Oz game as the Wizard or something....

I know this little ramble about an ad catchphrase really means nothing, but it does bother the hell out of me. I'm still debating trying Rift out, and the little punch at WoW won't damage me in the least, but it does urk me. Don't they have better phrases they could come up with? Hmmmm?