Now World of Warcraft Free for 1 year!!!

If you read my previous "Breaking the Addiction" blog entry I wrote you will know that for 2 1/2 years I was completely and uncontrollably addicted to World of Warcraft. The important piece of information to take away from this fact is that for those 2 1/2 years I didn't play any other games. My poor GameCube and PS2 just sat below my TV gathering dust. What's worse is that during those 2 1/2 years, not only did I miss out on a slew of great games, I also missed the launch of the XBOX360, PS3, and Wii. The entire PC and Console universe was passing me by as I was running around Azeroth. It was time for that to change.

Since I have quit WoW my entire video game life has changed. First I spent some time revisiting my old consoles, the PS2 and GameCube. I played and beat God of War, Metal Gear Solid 3, Final Fantasy 12, and Metroid Prime 2. It was refreshing to see that my old consoles still had some life left in them. Unfortunately after playing these games there really wasn't much else I wanted to play on these old systems.

Then I went out and bought a Wii and played and beat The Legend of Zelda: TP. That game was great but then I hit a snag that there was nothing else on the Wii I was even remotely interested in. So next I went out and bought a PS3. I made sure to buy the original 60Gb version so that I could play all my old PS1 and PS2 games on it. On the PS3 I played and beat Resistance: FOM, Rachet and Clank: TOD, and Heavenly Sword. These were all also great games but then I hit 2 major problems with the system. There were no other great games out to play, and not a single one of my friends owned a PS3.

Finally I decided to ask my parents for an XBOX360 for Christmas, and like the great parents they are, they bought me one. Since then I have gone on an XBOX360 rampage. I have played and beat Mass Effect, Forza Motorsport 2, Halo 3, Assassin's Creed, and Bioshock. I'm current playing GTA4. I also sprinkled in a little bit of PC Gaming in there for good measure, beating Portal, and playing a lot of Team Fortress 2.

What I am trying to get across here is that since I have retired from World of Warcraft I have discovered the wonderful and exciting world of gaming that exists outside of Azeroth. In Azeroth I could only be a Night Elf Hunter, or a Dwarf Priest. Outside of Azeroth I am able to be Kratos the God of War; Samus the Bounty Hunter; Nariko the Sword Wielder; Master Chief the Spartan; or Jack the Big Daddy Killer.

I'm not trying to say that playing WoW isn't rewarding, but unfortunately if you want to truely get a lot out of WoW you have to put a lot of time into it. The side affect is that you don't really get to enjoy the rest of the console/PC game universe. Well I'm done with WoW, and for now I'm done with MMORPGs.