I have been a bit quiet, lately, and I blame this on lack of interest. The main problem vexing me at the moment is that we are in a world of flux. A realm of ever-changing axioms, if such can be, causes us great anxiety and confusion in the best of scenarios. Over the last few months I have been verbosely looking forward to the upcoming World of Warcraft expansion: Wrath of the Lich King. Truth be told however, there is not a whole lot that I am looking forward to. Sure, the scenery will be beautiful and the quests will be long and interesting, or rather as long and interesting as quests can be while grinding, but we are still moving toward a world that is completely and utterly held in the "end-game."

In the early days, when the cap was set to sixty, the dungeons that were explored and eventually conquered were epic in scope, length, and dedication required. One would have to rally thirty-nine of her closest friends together to even attempt to walk past the first pull, and it was the defining "high-bar" for many guilds and unattainable by many more. In these days, the grind was precisely that: a grind. One would only be grinding for the "end-game" that would yield them their highly sought-after treasures from the depths of the online world. In these times, I never looked into the heart of the world to find my treasure, rather it was in competition that my needs were sated.

My "end-game" was PvP. I never longed for the gear, I simply wanted to compete. Herein lies the problem: this is no more an end-game than it is a pacification. I view the game as more of a round-based first person shooter, rather than the massively multiplayer epic that it is meant to be. Maybe this is a problem with my outlook, or maybe it's a problem with the design of the game in that it is too appealing to casuals and it does not really cater to them. Either way, it feels like once I get to the maximum level, I end up "going through the motions" for PvP and enjoying the game less and less. I am hopeful that the achievements feature added today will improve my outlook, as I will again have reason to do ridiculous things (see achievement: LEEEEEEEEEROY!). Also, the talent changes threaten to break up the current state of 2s arena play in that more viable options may thrust themselves from the shelves of mediocrity and into the fray of competition.