EJ – Farewell

To get straight to the point:

Yes, I’m done maintaining the EJ posts. I won’t go into the many reasons why – most of them have been stated here or elsewhere, and the rest are probably easy enough to infer or guess at. At any rate, I apologize if this lets anyone down, but if I were to continue writing my guides, the quality would have inevitably dropped. Sure, modesty aside, the posts would have still been superior to most of the equivalents of other classes, no matter how much I let my work slip, but it would have fallen below my personal standards, and that’s what’s most important. Thus, I figured it best to step down sooner rather than later.

Although I won’t go into too much at the moment, there is one question I’ve seen asked a couple of times, and I wanted to go ahead and address it: Will I continue blogging here about DKs?

I really can’t give a simple “yes” or “no” to that, unfortunately. As long as I play the game I will, of course, be theorycrafting for my own use – figuring out what spec is best, how to gear, and all that jazz. That’s something I couldn’t imagine not doing at this point, and I find it enjoyable anyways. Whether or not I need to say anything publicly all depends…

If whatever individual(s) who takes up my place at EJ is lackluster at the job (inaccurate information and/or slow updating and/or missing essentials, and those sort of faults), then sure, I’ll inevitably blog here so people aren’t left in the dark or, worse yet, misled into playing in a suboptimal manner. If they’re doing an absolutely abysmal job that I just can’t stand idle knowing I could do better, then I might do new guides, although it would be a different format (starting from scratch… oh the possibilities there would be!), and it would probably be located here, not there. I’m not saying “suck, and I’ll return!”, but if there is one thing I can’t stand is watching someone (for lack of a more polite term) suck at something, and causing others to suffer, while knowing I could do far better.

If there’s a particularly interesting change to the class or to the game, then yeah, I’ll almost certainly blog about it. After all, I am still playing the game, so if I find something particularly thought-provoking, I’m sure I would love to ramble about it.

If someone really, really wants my two cents on a subject (and if the subject is deep enough for me to write an entry about), and they email/tweet/comment here about it, then I might come out of the woodwork and talk a bit. Who knows!

If there’s interest, I might do some write ups on RIFT. I am playing it (although, to be clear, that fact has absolutely nothing to do with my EJ decision or current feelings about WoW), and there’s no limit to the number of topics I could discuss in regards to the game. It’s just a matter of whether anyone here would be interesting in reading such talk, and whether the game ends up lasting.

So, yes, I suppose I will still be blogging about DKs. The real question is how much and how often, and that is what depends on those three above factors. Time will tell, as it always does.

Anyways, I tried to keep this short, but I do want to take a quick second (as opposed to a slow second?) to thank everyone for their gratitude and such posted here and elsewhere. It truly is appreciated.

Musings – End Game

It’s been about a month since I’ve done a blog entry, and although I’ve been occupied with this and that, I certainly haven’t been that busy. If I had something I really wanted to talk about in that time, I could have found the minutes to jot down my thoughts on the subject, I’m sure. Yet, despite the fact that there’s been plenty of material – a patch, a hotfix, the current raiding scene, and so on – from which I could have easily drawn motivation, I haven’t felt the slightest impulse to tackle any of it.

It hasn’t been a matter of laziness so much as utter disinterest.

As of late, the game has just been terribly bland for me. It’s not that the current content is any better or worse than previous tiers (it has its upsides and it has its downsides), nor that this expansion in general has been any more or less than what was promised or expected. It’s just that, well… it’s precisely that, actually! It’s that the current content and the expansion as a whole haven’t been notably changed from the past. It’s the same formula Blizzard has used for the last six years, and although the formula may be brilliant, and although they may regularly stumble upon improvements to it, it’s still what it’s always been when you come down to it.

Now, don’t get me wrong, in some ways, the game is better than ever. Classes are more balanced (although certainly not close to completely so). Rotations are more dynamic (although still rather simple at the core). Raiding is more open (although have fun if you’re too good for normals but not good enough for hards, especially on 10 man). Fixes are faster (although most could still be avoided in beta/PTR, as always). So on and so forth.

By almost any objective measurement, the game has never been stronger. And, even as I write this, I agree wholeheartedly: The game as a whole is at the best it has ever been over its six year lifespan.

And therein lies the issue; as a whole.

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