'Lock and Reload

Change is scary. It's why many people in many facets of their lives would rather remain unhappy than to try something new and potentially wonderful. Dead-end jobs, bad relationships, and the like, they are all consistent and familiar. If nothing else, they breed a sense of security and investment, as crazy and idealistic as that may sound. Constancy is stability, and for the most part, survivability. Why stray away from something that has worked so far, even though it may not be ideal? Change, afterall, comes with risks of failure, and something potentially worse.

That sense of familiarity and security is why I remained on Alexstrasza for over a year and a half, even though the environment itself made it feel like an eternity. Being that it was my first realm, I didn't notice the significance of logging into a deserted UC or Org, which were like ghost towns throughout the entirety of a day. There were other clues that the server was dead or dying Horde-side, but I wasn't paying any attention to them. I had grinded to Rank 14, made some great friends, raided with some of the best, etc; I had made investments, and change was not a palatable option, even when I admitted to myself a couple of months ago (a small fraction in WoW time) that I was no longer having fun.


What the hell was I thinking...

Oh, wait, I actually have a fairly reasonable answer to that! It's the whole "I put so much effort into this toon, I can't just ditch it now" investment kind of thing. I had a Level 70 Undead Warlock, High Warlord, decent spell damage, decent gear, lots of gold, epic flying mount, heroic keys, the works. It was the culmination of 150 days /played, and that made it very hard to walk away.

So what finally pushes people beyond their natural tendency to hold on to the familiar? I'm not exactly sure what it was for me, but when I find out, I'll need to send it a Thank You card, maybe some flowers, perhaps buy it dinner, take it to a movie, give it a foot rub, maybe a back rub, offer it some wine, and then do it's laundry in the morning after I serve it breakfast. Yeah, it's THAT good to be done with Alex. It's been THAT worth it to re-roll. We're having THAT much fun.

The group that re-rolled has been busy leveling, choosing professions, setting up the guild, and all that goodness that comes with starting anew. It's been a strange and surreal experience, lacking abilities and the general familiarity of things. In it's own awkward way, it's been nice going from a very powerful toon to one a good sneeze can kill. It makes you more careful about taking in your surroundings efficiently, which also allows you to appreciate them all the more. Tranquillien, for example, and the surrounding Ghostlands is so incredible and well-designed! If you've never leveled there or even seen the place, I highly recommend doing so. It's where my Undead has been leveling, and he'll continue to do so until there's nothing left to do there. Yeah, THAT good.


The new server is, in a word, amazing. The first time I stepped into Org, my reaction was "holy shit" at the sheer magnitude of people that were standing atop the bank, running between the it and AH, or heading for the flight master. It was far more than any number I'd ever seen in Alex's Org, and it was the middle of the night!


Trade channel was active with tells that were actually economy-related, and the LFG channel was active with PUGs even for Karazhan! Glum and I nearly shit ourselves at the thought. I'm still flabbergasted at the newness of it all. The differences are as wonderful as they were unimaginable to me before I re-rolled. Yeah, THAT big of a difference.


I guess the point of what I'm trying to get at is this. If you're thinking about re-rolling, and you have been for some time and are unhappy with the game and have been considering quitting because it's just not fun anymore, re-roll elsewhere. Don't transfer. Don't find a new guild. Don't start a new toon on your server. Re-roll. Nothing else will break the pattern of familiarity that has been plaguing your gaming experience. Start fresh. Start new. Re-roll, and enjoy the game again.

Oh, and as an aside, and because milestones are pretty exciting when you're starting with nothing, it's worth mentioning that we downed our first boss (Taragaman), cleared our first instance (RFC), and won our first WSG in dominant fashion in just the last couple of days! Oh, and we'll be hitting SFK this week and gearing our casters up big time. Well, for level 20-somethings anyway. =P Lol @ the fun of getting excited for stuff like this again... it's been way too long.


Re-rolling FTW. Change FTW. Fun FTW. FAIL FTW.

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