We were happy once, WoW and I. There was a time, when we were both young, that we would stay up all night playing, laughing, crying, having fun. It was a simpler era for me - no kids, no career, no other significant other. I had all the time in the world, and WoW and I spent a lot of it together.
Years passed. I got a good job - one that had good insurance and a 401(k), room for advancement, an office with real walls. I met someone, we bonded, and a year after we made our bond official the two of us became the three of us, then eventually the four of us. I had a lot to juggle, responsibilities to meet, mouths to feed.
WoW understood. She responded by becoming less demanding. Her raids got shorter and easier to organize. Her rep grinds became less of a chore. I could do a heroic with my guild in that little slice of time between the kids' bedtime and mine. There was still stuff for people more committed to it all than I to do, but she made this nice little sweet spot for me and for those like me. As I aged, she aged right along with me.
Then Cataclysm came. I knew something was wrong when she took tree form away. It seemed like a bad omen - she saw tree form in terms of numbers and throughput while I saw it with words like "fun" and "smile at the silly dance". It was like the first little indication that we might be growing apart. Like we were starting to see things in different ways.
The signs came fast after that. I tried to keep up, tried to adapt, but it didn't feel right. What she thought was fun no longer matched what I thought was fun. It seemed like she wanted to turn back the clock to when we were both younger, with CC and long rep grinds and parcelling out heals like a mana miser, but I wasn't that man any more. I didn't have the time for two hour heroics and farming mats and all the rest of the old-style routine. I'd grown up a little. I'd moved on.
I see her now, flirting with younger players. Players with the time to spend with her on all the same things that we'd done so many years ago. I try not to get mad with her; she has a right to live her life the way she wants to, but I still get a little sad. I thought we'd reached a happy medium. It seemed to me like we had a lot of good years left in our relationship, but I guess what I wanted wasn't what she wanted, so now it's time to go our separate ways.
I'm a little bitter at the way it all ended, and I feel a little rejected, but I still wish you luck, World of Warcraft. I hope that you find the new, younger players that you are looking for. I've found a young game myself, World of Tanks, who understands me, my life, and the limits I have on how much attention I can give her. The world keeps turning, I suppose, and we all do the best we can to find happiness.
Goodbye, World of Warcraft. It's been fun.
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Tongue firmly in cheek, although there's a little bit of semi-biographical truth in there. Also, World of Tanks really does rock.