I rolled a little Night Elf Mage alt this weekend. She’s fun, the zones are much smoother. Everything is great. Except one thing. everything is focused on how the world has changed. How the Shattering that  occurred is bad! We must save Azeroth! Every hero is needed now!…right after you defeat the demons in Outland and the Lich King’s Forces in Northrend. Wait what?

Now, I don’t mind that we skipped forward five years. She’s a Night Elf, they tend to be a bit isolated, what with living in a tree and all. Not to mention she’s a mage. They weren’t exactly welcome among even their own people, so it’s in character that she is a bit out of touch. As for my level 80′s…I pretty much assumed when I learned it had been five years, that we didn’t “rip van winkle” or anything. I assumed they meant it took us five years to defeat the Lich King and his forces.

That’s certainly realistic isn’t it? I mean we had to solve all the problems in multiple zones, then kill multiple bosses in multiple underground lairs, help the Argent Crusade get their tournament grounds built, and then compete in the tourny itself to prepare for the battle against Arthas. Not to mention the whole Insane Old Gods thing in Ulduar, Crazed Dragon Aspects, and other big arsed dragons that needed dealt with. I mean even the wrathgate took a long time quest wise, which I’d equate to at LEAST a year in RP time. We the players may have completed these tasks in mere days, but in story time? We really can only guess. My guess is it took five years total.

Sure we the PLAYER have visited Azeroth from time to time, and we the player were only gone for a day that became five years. But this IS an RPG right? So RP it.  We were gone for five years, they best heroes of the Alliance were off fighting a war. We return and our homeland is suffering as a result of our absence. This all makes sense to me. It keeps us part of the story in my opinion. And for at least two of my characters there’s a definite “I should have been here, I should have stayed…” feeling upon seeing the destruction. Mainly my Dwarf hunter and my Druid, seeing the destruction of their former homes. For once I finally FELT something as I traveled through Darkshore and Loch Modan last Tuesday.

That is not my complaint. Here is my complaint.

Rather than incorporate some content for 60-78ish in these changes, we still have to go through the BC and WotLK content. Which means my mage might as well be a bank alt for all the more I EVER want to see BC content again, let alone Northrend. Those stories ended. The Lich King is Dead. BT is dead. Sunwell is DEAD. Blizz already has my money for those two expansions, how does it hurt them even a little if I don’t go back there? It doesn’t. What DOES it hurt? Immersion. That’s right, I said it. I may not play on an RP server, or actively RP at all. But I’m involved in the story as I go. Right up until I get stuck going somewhere that has nothing to do with the story I’m involved in. Stories that ended months and years ago.

So why should I even bother rolling that fresh Worgen alt? Why should I bother getting her all involved in her story, in the Cataclysm Story, just to get smacked with a “To Be Continued” message around level 58? Maybe I shouldn’t. But sometimes I just can’t help but try something new. Especially now. I want to explore the new quests and changed areas. I wanted to see if a Night Elf mage got treated differently. What better way to do that than with an alt that can level and grow as it happens? Sure I’d like to get her to 80. But I don’t foresee that happening any time soon. I’ll play at her when I get bored on my max levels, as I’m doing now waiting for December 8th when my Collector’s Edition arrives. If I find the motivation maybe she’ll make it through those redundant zones. I don’t know, but I wish there was another way. Quite frankly I’m disappointed there isn’t.

It’s even more annoying to me than getting killed by the level 15 DEER critter that accidently got caught in my frost nova.

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