Countdown

We're living in the time of expectations. Well, not literary, I'm passed the stadium of childbirths in my life. But it is a little like being pregnant, this waiting for the Wrath of the Lich King to come. Regarding giving birth in real life, timing is a bit more predictable, at least if you've got some basic knowledge about your body functions. Nine months, plus or minus a couple of weeks.

Of course you can be caught off guard - oops, already! Or you may experience that endless waiting when you're overdue - when is the lump actually going to arrive? But after all, the waiting will never be very long.

To guess when WotLK will drop is much harder and the speculations are wild. Most people seem to think right before or right after the summer. Now the 2.4 patch will arrive soon and that will give the top ranked guilds something to deal with for a while, with a challenging 25 man raid instance, at the same time as we casual players can comfort ourselves with badges shopping, a new five man instance and a huge amount of new daily quests. But for how long can the WoW community enjoy this piece of candy? When will we once again start wandering around like impatient tigers, crying for more? Can Blizzard let us wait for the whole summer, without risking that people will close their accounts?

The most fanatic players probably plan to spend one or two weeks of the vacation, playing from early morning to late night, levelling up from 70 to 80 in an instant. The question is only when to book those weeks.

So far I've met a mixed attitude towards the expansion from other players. Many, probably a majority, is looking forward to it, quite sick and tired of running the five man instances in Outlands over and over again, bored by levelling new alts since they've got stuck with their mains, just because there's nothing else to do. These are players that don't want to or haven't got the possibility to take part of 25 man raiding, and that now are reduced to pvp:ing or to see the same content over and over again, while their stock of badges keep growing.

Other players are starting to feel the bustle. Time is running out and if you'll be able to see a decent amount of the raid instances before the expansion hits and clears them for good, you have to push right now, make your guild work forward in a focused manner, and above all not get stuck in a perpetual gear-up-in-Karazhan-swamp. If you're already stuck in that swamp - well, then it's probably about time that you start looking for another guild that is beyond that stadium. If not you'll never see anything else.

Just because Blizzard now will take away attunements it doesn't mean automatically that you can rush into a 25 man instance right away. Still there are huge demands on the ability to lead an organize, on preparations, skill and gear.

When it comes to me there's no hurry to give out the expansion. I'm hoping to do much more in the current game than I've done so far with Larísa. It would be fun to run through Karazhan at a faster pace, in one night instead of two. Zul Aman is fun and a challenge, I'd love to take down a few more bosses than the first one, preferably on timer, and I also cherish a dream to try out 25 man raiding. Of course their will be new instances in the expansion, but it will take quite a while before I'll be able to take part of it (when it comes to me I've got no possibility to play 24/7 for a week and level up to 80, it will take me longer than that). That's why I want to see as much as possible of everything that is within my reach for now being.

Another thing is that Larísa is such a poor girl, having about 100 g in the bank and no epic mount, and I can't help worrying a bit about this. Reasonably there will be some kind of advantage to have that riding skill in the expansion. Can I really take the risk not having it?
And if I'll ever get all that money, while I keep playing instances, I definitely need more time.

No, I don't feel any impatience at all, the expansion is rather a little threat in my mind. I'm not thinking about the fact that the epics I've worked so hard for in one moment will be replaced by green quest rewards. That is the way this game works and I can give with it - the driving force for me in the game isn't the urge to show off with awesome gear, but to experience things, collecting memories.

The threat is rather that the expansion will put an end to instance playing and raiding for a while and that game friends with more playing time to spend soon will rush away in a race towards end game at the next level, leaving me alone far behind.

So while others impatiently are waiting for the countdown and a trustworthy official release date, I'm happy for everyday that passes without its announcement. At the same time I'm of course looking forward to seeing all those new areas, instances, professions, classes and everything else that will be offered to us. I'll certainly enjoy throwing myself into the brand new world, just as much as anyone else, the same way as I enjoyed entering the portal of Outlands, greedily slurping down all the new impressions. The only thing is that there's no hurry.

I say the same as the title of a movie from when I grew up: Heaven can wait.