Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Lets Make it Offical

I've gotten several emails and such asking about the blog and such, so I guess I should explain what has been going on lately. As all of you can see I haven't written a blog post in over four months at this point. In fact, I haven't logged into WoW in almost as long. I didn't plan on taking an extended break from the game (I still have an active account actually), but it just kind of happened after a couple of things happened both ingame and IRL.

I am still a big fan of the game, in particular I love raiding and the community that can develop around a guild who raids together. I love the struggle. I love the triumphs. I love the stupid inside jokes. Unfortunately, I've found those aspects of the game increasingly hard to find over the past few years. As I've said several times before, Cataclysm was a very tough expansion for me guild wise. Prior to cataclysm I had been in only 3 raiding guilds over 4 years, but during that one expansion I spent time in 6 or 7 different guilds. Most of them fell apart or were on the verge of falling apart when I left. It was a tough time and I considered quitting the game many times. However, I decided to take a second shot at a guild I have a lot of respect for thinking that if it worked out, it could be the long term home I've been looking for.

Unfortunately, it didn't work out. My trial was rejected for what I think are fairly nitpicky reasons. At about the same time I was laid off from my job and it was the straw that broke the camel's back (For the record, I have a new job now.). I didn't have a reason for logging in anymore, and that was good because I didn't feel like logging in anymore. I didn't mean to take a break for 4+ months, it just kind of happened.

Quick Edit: I have gotten a couple of comments asking what kind of guild would reject my trial. The simple truth is that just because I wrote a blog about moonkin doesn't mean that I'm an amazing raider. There is a lot more to raiding then knowing the theory. I've never claimed to be the best moonkin and can say for a fact that there are a lot of players out there better then me.

While I do think the reasons told to me for rejecting my trial were nitpicky, I also know that I could have performed more consistently. At the highest levels of raiding the little things matter a lot and I left myself open to critisism on a couple of occasions. Also, I think trialing at the start of an expansion when everyone is excited about the game was a mistake.


So, what does the future hold for me and this blog? I honestly don't know.

At this point, I doubt I am done with the game forever. I still feel the urge to log in and see whats going on every so often, but haven't done so yet. At the very least, I'll probably buy what ever expansion comes and try it out.

In terms of the blog, I think I'm done. I won't say I'll never write the blog again, but I doubt it. The blog has gotten increasingly hard to write over the years. When I started there were very few moonkin blogs and none of them were doing theorycrafting. On top of that, the theorycrafting was very simple in the beginning. However, over time it got harder, and Moonkin became more popular and attracted more theorycrafters. As time has gone on my blog has become tougher to write and less and less relevant. Given all that, it is probably time to put the blog to rest. But who knows, If I get back into the game in a big way maybe I'll get back into the blog in a big way as well.

I do want to say a few thank you's if this does end up being my final post.

First and foremost I must thank all of my readers over the years. I never imagined that the blog would become as big and influential as it was for a time.

I also want to thank Blizzard, GC, and the developers I had contact with (Chris and Chadd). Thanks for making a great game and getting me into Betas.

Thanks to Phaelia for providing a guide and helping my blog to grow early on. I wish you were still around.

Thanks to the many moonkin over the years who helped the blog both directly and indirectly over the years. This is by no means a complete list: Erdluf, Lissanna, Murmurs, Hamlet, Relevart, and many, many others I am forgetting at the moment.

A big thanks to all my great guildies over the years. Necro, Jeeves, Abid (rip) at FoC; Dchaney, Lotsapots, Doom, Ardin at WA. Sevrenwinter, Myraxa, Osmand, Keahe, Auro, and Syni at LoE. Finally at Skunkworks Infinitum, Neatpete, and Olducu thank you for your support.