I did a bad thing...

So many of you may have been wondering where I've been the last few months, with no posts either on this blog or my YouTube channel.  Now I did share on my channel that we recently adopted our son, and if you've ever had a newborn you know they're rather all-consuming during that stage.  So yes, part of the answer is I just haven't had nearly as much time for videos as usual.  But there's something far more nefarious going on as well, that I felt the need to confess here on my blog.  After swearing I would never do it, I've gotten into playing World of Warcraft Classic.

Now I never played original Vanilla back in the day.  When MMOs first started coming out the idea was anathema to me.  I was (and still largely am) all about the single player experience, and to me an "MMORPG" was almost a contradiction in terms.  In my view an RPG is about assuming the role of the hero of the story whose actions drive the plot to its completion.  Thus RPGs like the Ultima series to the original Baldur's Gate to Skyrim have been my bread and butter in gaming for decades now.  I also had a healthy skepticism of how the social aspect of these newfangled MMOs was going to play out, as the internet was no less toxic back then than it is today.  I didn't have any friends who played, so there was no one to help tempt me into it and provide a safe, non-toxic bubble I could partake of it with.

So for many years I avoided World of Warcraft altogether.  While I had played Warcraft 1 & 2, I never played the legendary 3, so I didn't have the strong tie to the franchise and its story to lure me in either.  It wasn't until some time in 2009 during the Wrath of the Lich King era that my best friend finally encouraged me to try it, and much to my surprise I was immediately hooked.  I continued playing for the next few years through the end of WotLK and into the first part of Cataclysm, at which point I put down the game for good.

While I never got to experience true Vanilla, the old world Azeroth leveling experience from 1-60 was still there during WotLK, and I have a lot of fond memories from that time.  When the Classic version of the game was first announced I will admit I had a wistful desire to join in, but for the longest time I just considered it not practical.  My life just does not afford me the luxury of setting aside four hours every Tuesday night for "raid night", and what's the point if you can't partake in the endgame experience?

Nevertheless, in the last few months I've been listening to a Warcraft-focused YouTube channel that the YouTube algorithm started pushing on me.  It has a lot of interesting information about the history of WoW and its evolution, and gradually it's been stoking the nostalgia fire inside me, reminding me of my glory days soloing dungeons with my hunter and owning the level 60 Alterac Valley bracket in PvP.  Finally I broke down and realized, why not?  So what if I can't raid?  Most of my best memories are from solo play anyway, so I can at least enjoy the leveling experience if nothing else.

So yes, I officially have Warcraft Fever, and it has been dominating my gaming time for the last couple of months, sadly to the neglect of this blog and my YouTube channel.  I'm going to try to fix that and get back into at least some of a routine of posting again.  Now I have no intention of making WoW videos for my channel, but I think I will write up a few more blog posts on it, going over my memories from back in the day as well as my experience now with Classic.  In the meantime please forgive my absence and pray that something comes along to snap me out of this obsession - like the Fangs of Asterkarn DLC for Grim Dawn getting a release date in the near future.