Nothing Lasts 4 Evah

From the comic For Better or For Worse, July 7, 2005.
April's band was named "4 Evah", a reference to the four
members of the band. And yes, Jeremy was a Class A asshat.

Shintar poked me the other day, asking me when I was going to post about WoW Forever. I am, after all, a Classic Plus skeptic.

I heard about WoW Forever even while I was up in Milwaukee, because you can't truly escape the gamer news cycle, but beyond that it now exists --and that there's a new Elven race that you have to pay to access*-- I knew almost nothing about it. In fact, I heard just as much about Diablo 5 and the announcement about new game set in the StarCraft universe** as I did WoW Forever: hardly anything. Given that I was with family, that's fine.

And some friends.

But I'll also admit that I'm just absolutely damn tired of it all.

***

Maybe it's the fact that I've got to start over once more and try to figure this stuff out without spoiling the discovery process in the game for me --as tons of people seem to have no issues doing that for themselves already-- but I'm also tired of the "same old same old" that will be the modus operandi once the game opens. You know the drill: the game opens and everybody and their Grandfather rushes out to max level, because that's what they've been conditioned to do. 

For all the lip service paid by the Devs to the Journey***, both they know and I know that it simply won't happen. People will rush to Endgame, do all the new instances, have YouTube videos and Wowhead in their (virtual) hands, and min max their way to happiness. Oh, and do all the new raids. 

My Questing Buddy mentioned something about WeakAuras not working in WoW Forever (I think I have that right), but that won't stop people from trying to figure out other ways to make the raids trivial. To what's probably a vocal minority of the WoW player base, overcoming the obstacles to making the raid trivial is just as important as the raid itself. But since they are quite vocal, they have quite a bit of influence over the player base and the Devs, so... I look at every other fresh WoW environment that Blizzard has released --Retail/Classic expansion, new Vanilla, or whatever since I began playing in 2009-- and the behavior has been the same. 

And I'm kind of sick of it. 

***

This isn't a matter of me whining that I didn't get my way with Classic Plus, as in my "I'll believe it when I see it" stance means I now have to believe it, but more a matter of me being tired of going against the grain. About the only thing I do know is that based on my prior decades of gaming experience, going with the crowd and rushing ahead only leads to frustration and self-loathing on my part. Ever plowed through a ton of Halloween candy and immediately regretted it afterward? It's like that, but instead of Snickers bars you're inhaling all the in-game content you can without a whit of self-control. 

I know for a fact that if I did rush ahead I wouldn't be able to control myself, because I've done that while reading novels. Or playing video games.**** Even WoW, to be honest. (See: the Summer of 2021.)

I do realize that this is just a funk, and I'll eventually get out of it, but I don't think I will do all that much of anything resembling a deep dive into the game. I ought to at least look at a few basics and hash out some theories about WoW Forever and the Azerothian Universe. For now, my initial, very off-the-cuff impression is that WoW Forever is in the same point in the timeline as Warlords of Draenor: an alternate universe akin to what you find in comic books. As I described WoD back in the day as the equivalent of DC Comics' "New 52" reset, WoW Forever fills a gap in the timeline where the timeline zigged instead of zagged. 

The hubris involved in calling the game WoW Forever has also not been lost on me, because my initial reaction to the name has been "Really? You're going to call it THAT?" Oh, I get the why of it, but I also don't believe for a minute that was the only reason why that name was chosen. And all I'll say to that is... Nothing lasts forever.

This is the last photo we have of Bleu. Last Wednesday
my oldest found her very lethargic in the morning and rushed
her to the Emergency Vet. She was told about the worst news
you could have, where Bleu was in severe pain, and the two
choices were to undergo a highly risky surgery with a low
chance of success, or putting her down. She decided
to have Bleu be put out of her misery. At least we got to see
her over the weekend, where she seemed happy and healthy. 

*The fact that Blizzard has already monetized WoW Forever says a lot about their belief it'll be a success.

**James Strive from the YouTube Channel GameLinked (it's a fork off of LinusTechTips) commented on that StarCraft game "I'll believe it when I see it" at the 2:40 mark from their weekly post this past Thursday. Four years away from release is a long time, and let's be honest: we can't predict what's going to happen in the game industry even two years in advance with LLMs on the rise, much less FOUR years.

***This is another of the few things I do know about WoW Forever.

****Helloo, Baldur's Gate 1. It's been a few decades since I completed you, hasn't it? 1999, you say? That sounds about right. But that was quite a blur back then, because I was a new parent, and despite that I stayed up all night for several nights and then went into work dead tired because I couldn't stop myself from playing until I finished it.