If you follow my blog, you’ll notice that it’s been pretty dang silent around here.  You may have also noticed a change in the timbre of my posts.  I had begun to get a little down on the game, and down on blogging, too.

That’s the honest truth.

So I’m here, like many recently, to close up shop.  Put the chairs up on the tables, sweep the floor one last time, and wipe down the bar.  It’s just plain time for me to get going.  My reasons?

I’ve played World of Warcraft for quite long enough.  I began playing in April or May of 2004 in the closed beta.  Before Hunters were even in the game – when you still needed to spend skill points to buy weapon skills and such.  A long time. 

The funny thing is, I’m still not actually tired of it.  I could keep playing this game for the foreseeable future and have a good time.  But it’s gotten to be too much.

My little All Played tracker put me over 120 days of /played time overall.  That wasn’t even including time I spent on a horde server getting a warrior to 50 in 2006.  I sometimes wonder what else I could accomplish in that amount of time.  It’s really pretty crazy when you think about it.  Now, I don’t necessarily regret it, but it is a rather large number – almost 3000 hours.  Now that IS over about 5 years, but still.  3000 hours?  I sure got my money’s worth!

I also once again reached the point where the only real progression for me came in the form of raiding.  That meant the necessity of four hour play sessions during prime time.  It also meant I had to spend at least a little time farming gold and such to keep in tip top shape.  In short, it was becoming a bit of a job.  That’s unacceptable.  I was in the midst of leveling my rogue, who I intended to be my fourth level 80, when it kind of all came crashing down on me.

I had had enough. 

And I could no longer sacrifice family time for raiding.  The one night I did raid I basically had to log on about 30 minutes after I got home, long enough to MAYBE do one puzzle with my daughter, and eat a little something.  As she has gotten older (she’s 2 1/2 now) I’ve become more reluctant to swap time with her, my wife, and my 10 moth old son for a game.  Wherein I put on my headphones, and checked out for four hours.

Not anymore.

So about a month back, without telling many people, I cancelled my account.  It just so happened to be the day after I had been charged again, so it gave me plenty of time to prepare to say goodbye, and get my last licks in.  Some achievements, a little more raiding, and my favorite thing of all, a little more leveling.  I got that rogue up to 68, so he’s ready to get it done if I do come back someday.  And I could – I’ll give the Michael Jordan 99% surety of retirement.

Anyhow, now I can move on to other things, finally.  I plan to start work on a different blog, where I can talk about some of the other things that interest me.  Books, movies, video games, music, whatever.  A blog without borders, that’s what I need now.  Leave me in your reader, and I’ll put up a link soon if you are interested.  I can also make a real attempt at writing that book that’s in the back of my mind.  Let’s see how that goes.

I could go on and on, but this is a goodbye post.  You don’t need my life story. 

I want to thank everyone who supported me.  Thanks so much for taking the time to read or to comment, I really appreciate it.  This blog showed me that I COULD write on a regular basis, and that there are people who want to hear what I have to say.  I hope I’ve been informative in some way, or helped you enjoy WoW like I always did.

I also want to thank all the other bloggers out there who helped me along, either through their leadership, encouragement, or link love.  Thanks to Phae for getting me off the ground, and thank to Matticus for being very supportive.  Also thanks to all the BA people, and especially Fim and Bre for the Twisted Nether blogcast.  One of the highlights of my blog was being on your show!  And of course thanks to WoW.com for really blowing me up in the beginning.  I owe much of my readership to them. 

I’ll miss WoW, and I’ll miss this blog.  I will keep it up, as there are some posts here that I hope can still help people.  I don’t have any intention of truly pulling the plug, just don’t expect new posts.  So long, and thanks for all the fish. 

PTD out.