Well, less than ten hours from now, Blizzard will (supposedly) flip the switch on the latest WoW expansion. I do believe I have my affairs in order. Comics for the week are done, a ton of housework has been caught up on, Christmas tree has been assembled and decorated, grocery shopping has been done. My fiancee and I have the next couple of days off to just relax and hang out. Not all of that time will be spent in WoW… but I’m not going to lie, a lot of it will.
On a somewhat interesting note, I’ve been playing World of Warcraft off and on for six years now, starting back in the beta. However I’ve never actually been around for the launch of an expansion. I’ve always tended to stop playing a couple months before, or come back a couple months after. So tonight’s pretty exciting for me in that I haven’t been active in an MMO for an expansion since back in the days of Everquest (for which I was there for the first three expansions).
Having currently been playing for the past sixteen months, this also marks the longest consecutive period that I’ve played an MMO since my days in Everquest as well. Hands down, no doubt in my mind, what’s kept me playing and enjoying WoW this time is my guild, and the people that I play with. Because let’s face it, at 6 years old, WoW is not exactly the best looking or most advanced game around. It continues to improve and refine, sure, but I don’t think I’d stick with it if it didn’t mean I was hanging out with great friends in the process.
In other news, it’s been bugging me lately that I don’t have as much time to read as I used to. I still make the effort, but I don’t get through nearly as many books as I used to. I tend to do a little bit of multitasking while I draw the comic (catching up on shows on Hulu or whatever), so recently I decided to give an audio book a try. Having a book read to me is not quite as enjoyable as having a book in hand, but it really is the next best thing, and if it helps me catch up on books I want to read, I’m all for it.
So to start with I picked up Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter. Not only was the audio book well-read and fun to listen to, but the book was a very fun story. It’s a faux-history narrative, as if told referencing Lincoln’s fictitious personal journals about his secret life as a vampire hunter. The store does a great job blending fact with fiction, making it a very enjoyable alternate take on history. Definitely worth a read if that sounds like a good time to you.