I won!
The end, when it came, was a rather subtle and anticlimactic affair, which in itself was not altogether unexpected. A few days recent minor illness saw me at home, with time on my hands, time which I spent at least partly in World of Warcraft, making that last big push on Level 60. I was just handing in a quest to the night elf commander chap at Cenarion Hold in Silithus, when I dinged for the final time. Huzzah!
Of course many players would maintain that in World of Warcraft, life begins at 60, and now the game opens up for me in any number of ways.
There’s faction grinding. At least four different high-level NPC factions exist, and if I beat on enough of their enemies, in a curiously Everquest-like meta-grind, I can buy phat loots from them.
There’s endless zergfest PvP, fighting over and over for Great Victory, or indeed, for Great Defeat. One of the neat aspects of WoW PvP is that both sides seem to win, and there’s cool shineys to be had for all, so really, one just needs to turn up. (This becomes even easier with the coming revisions to the Honor Ranking system - truly, everyone will be the best!)
There’s the raiding end-game, where I get to join a guild, work through the drama, follow the calendar, and save up loot-tokens, in the hopes of further increasing my power through equipment, while being repeatedly wiped and shouted at, but on a much bigger scale than the traditional pick-up grouping that I’m used to. (I must admit, I'm probably not good Guild material anyway, being a little on the emo side myself at times)
There’s the mercantile game. Finish off my Alchemy skill and get meticulous about the Auction House. Buy low, sell high, camp that listing. Little spreadsheets with supply and demand and stock. A huge pile of gold awaits, which may come in handy to buy myself the Epic Mount and required riding skill. Or the other five pieces of ‘Valor’ T0 Warrior armour I’m missing. And associated ‘Heroism’ T0.5 upgrades.
And of course, I still have a full book of unfinished quests to tidy up, and the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza to win!
(I finally got there on time to try it last Sunday. It was won 35 minutes in, at which time I had only 26 fish out of 40. I kept going and hit 40 45mins in, and after 1 hour 30 mins, I gave up with 91 fish, which sold for about 4g. Clearly my strategy needs refinement. I have 240 Fishing skill so far.)
But despite having a very relaxed attitude toward levels and progress, simply not having any xp bar at all anymore has rather taken the wind out of my sails a bit now. I’ve done it, I’ve won; the rest is just goofing about really. In a genre where the Ding is All, there is no more Ding to be had.
Of course, there’s always alts. This character is Horde. My highest Alliance was about 27 or so, but from what I gather, the quests become almost identical in most cases beyond L40 or so anyway, so I’d be collecting exactly the same monster junk, just giving it to a different person. Having finished the race, I’m not entirely sure I just want to return to the starting line and go again.
All this comes just in time for the expansion to be pushed back three months, although I’m not sure I’d want to charge right in there in the first week anyway – 2000+ players all grinding away in the first new zone. Better to lag behind a few months and let the rabble powergame up to 70, I think. Three months post-release ought to see pretty much everyone maxed out again, and the new content useable once more. Plus, I'm quit looking forward to getting to L70 and soloing the current crop of 5-man L60 Instances
The Burning Crusade looks heavy on controversy already, with the latest and most amusing turn being that the male Blood Elves have been deemed too 'Bishy' and have been given a massive course of steroids so that young male gamers don’t need to worry about their sexuality while playing them.
Slashdot: Male Blood Elves Get Pumped Up
(Never mind that…Blood Elves can’t be Warriors!? How difficult is it to pick up a stick and hit someone with it?)
Nah…I’m a Late Adopter in most things MMO, I doubt TBC will be any different.
You know what I actually went and did, post-60? Fired up Guild Wars and picked up my epic story in progress there. More to come, as the Wheel of Interest revolves once more...