Wednesday, May 17, 2006

World of WarCraft: Cancelled

Update
I did come back to WoW for The Burning Crusade expansion, and I had a lot of fun in the first area, Hellfire Peninsula. I played the game pretty regularly until I finished all the quests in Zangermarsh, getting to about level 64.5 or so. But moving to a new area was a mental roadblock, it felt like I was going back to work, and I didn't play for close to a month. Staring at another subscription renewal, I bailed and called it a another Mother's Day present ;-), but with Halo 3 beta launching just days after my WoW subscription was to run out, it was an easy call. I don't think I will be back this time without an ala carte pricing model. Here's how it would work. I want to play some night and I pay for just that night, or maybe its a day, but the right pricing in my mind is probably $1 a day. I am holding out hope that Blizzard implements something like this, since it was one of the questions on the cancellation exit interview, since I can't bring myself to dump WoW from the hard drive.

Original Post
After 18 months of a continously active WoW subscription (and not nearly as continous play) I have cancelled my account and given my wife the best Mother's Day present she could have hoped for, my return to Real Life(tm).

I finally cancelled because the 4th guild I was in imploded, I finally hit 60 in Feb 06, and I just don't have the time to raid, so there isn't a whole lot in the game if you don't want to raid.

Plus, for my birthday in April, my wife got me the Xbox 360, and I love it, the games I have (Call of Duty 2, Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter, and Tomb Raider: Legend) are all very entertainting, far more fun than I was having in WoW Battlegrounds or trying to grind reputation with Argent Dawn. Actually, I think the real final straw for WoW was a 3 hour Baron dungeon run that resulting in nothing after the pick-up group I was in disbanded after numerous wipes. I am just not burning that kind of time with nothing to show for it, and the risk of that happening again is high since I didn't have the energy to try and cultivate another guild relationship.

This doesn't mean I won't be back for The Burning Crusade expansion and the grind to 70, but I might not be either.

After E3, the Nintendo Wii (still don't like the name, but I have started to accept it) looks like a ton of fun, and that may occupy nearly all my time, with Spliter Cell Double Agent for the Xbox, at the end of the year.

Cancelling WoW has also been liberating for The Back-Logged Life.

The Back-Logged Life

ComputerZen.com - Scott Hanselman - Psychic Weight- Life is Pending Scott puts a good title, Psychic Weight, on a phenomena I have been feeling lately, the backlog of junk todo taunts me on a daily basis, and it only gets longer. The post Scott links to is The Back-Logged Life and you absolutely have to go read this.

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

Today's Top Windows Annoyance: Restarts

I installed the Windows Live Messenger Beta Refresh just a few minutes ago. First problem, Windows was patching itself so I couldn't install this, seriously how messed up is that. I can't run > 1 installer at a time that uses Windows Installer, its like we are back in DOS. Once I could get the Windows Live Messenger running, there are is all of this crap that I have to OPT-OUT of, desktop and quick launch garbage icons, some Windows Live ID Assistant (how the @!%@ am I supposed to know if I should install this, very little information about, guess I will install it, weeeee!), and Rhapsody music service (what?!!! I thought I was installing an IM client, no way). I unselect all but the assistant, the installer churns for a while, and then, what for it, that's right, I have to reboot even thought I quit the running instance of the old Windows Live Messenger Beta (that name sucks btw, give me MSN Messenger) before kicking off the install. I am pissed because I got to close down everything, I NEVER reboot any computer (Mac or PC) unless an OS patch requires, and a f'ing IM client should NEVER force a system reboot, that's insane. Then I remember that Apple has an new ad called Restarting as part of the Get A Mac campaign and I start to laugh because I have just been hit by the PC restarting problem. For the record Microsoft Messenger for the Mac does not require a restart. I highly recommend checking out Apple's Get A Mac site and watching all the ads, they are amusing.