The decision day is here. My stomach is in knots.

“It’s just a video game!”

It’s so much more than that. It’s no different than being on a bowling team, a softball team, a book club, or any other social gathering. The difference is that instead of driving to those places, I park my happy ass in front of my computer and put on a headset. It’s still a social experience.

I have quit before. I have left friends to go play other games. Contrary to all the talk behind my back, I am not burned out on the game. Fun was still being had in Azeroth. So much so, I just spent $55 to transfer my shaman. Excited and jubilant are two words that come to mind.

“But you sat out raids!”

There were three mages in our group. It only made sense to take turns. Which is exactly what we did. So I sat out. Then I raided the following week. The week after that was a holiday here in my home town. I had plans with the family so I was unable to make the Tuesday run. I still showed up and filled in on the Thursday run when someone couldn’t make it. The following week was my turn to sit out anyway, but that is when my attitude started to sour. I elected to take the week off. I admit this. I had originally planned to level my shaman but more and more teasers were released by blizzard. By the end of the week a full blown “leak” was out in the open.

That is when it happened. That is when the proverbial straw that broke my back happened. Blizzard was releasing bit by bit to string along the player base. Why wouldn’t they? They are masters at drumming up excitement. While it has so far worked for everyone else, it hasn’t for me. It did the opposite. I felt further and further from confident in Blizzard. Then we record Pugcast 43 and all of my frustrations that had been seething and churning came out. My displeasure does not come from the people I play with, the game itself, or even the community attached to it. It comes from the company itself.

I don’t expect anyone to agree. As a consumer I feel Blizzard is fully tainted by the reasons I no longer buy Activision games. The Call of Duties, Guitar Heroes, and now Warcrafts are simply over saturated. Activision has no issues driving a franchise into the ground and milking every penny out of it while they look for their next big hit. I just don’t see a passion for gaming from that company. I’m sorry, but if I’m giving someone my money to entertain me, I want them to be passionate about it. Call it a character flaw or me just being a dick.

I’m not going to sit here and say Blizzard is ruining the game. That is for each person to decide on their own because its a simple opinion. I disagree with how they are doing business, plain and simple. Honesty be told, if the podcast, guild, and everything else attaching me to WoW didn’t exist, I would have left the second the first pets went up for sale.

So, instead of being a hypocrite or giving people one more reason to hate me, I am leaving WoW. My twitter account will be my personal account. It won’t change much from what it is now, but there will be a lot less WoW tweeting.

Does this mean you’re out of the community?

I have no idea. I’m sure I’ll slowly start to unfollow the boring fucks that do nothing but talk about WoW like your WoW.com people, but the mass majority of the people I hope will stay put. I may have found people because of WoW, but we tweet about all kinds of things that aren’t all about WoW. I’ll still have an opinion on WoW and I will still keep up with the news.

What does this do to Pugcast?

Again, I have no idea. None of this has been easy. And while I hate to mess with something I love, I can’t very well talk about a game I don’t play. The WoW talk was an excuse to hook up with Drae and talk shit every Saturday night. It doesn’t have to be about WoW. We haven’t figured out the exacts yet.

Regardless of what anyone thinks. This has not been an easy decision or one made in haste. I have been thinking long and hard for two weeks. The time to move on is here. I’m not saying I’ll never play WoW or another Blizzard game ever again. I hope Cataclysm is the greatest expansion ever released for any video game. I swear I do.

Over the last year I have made some dear friends. We’ve also had people I consider friends transfer their toons to our server to play with us. To all of those people, I am very deeply sorry. I spent the same if not more to hop around and I feel burned in those transactions too. Drae will still be around and he will lead you to glory. Maybe I’ll see you in Cataclysm or maybe you won’t let me show my face. Either way, WoW is just a vehicle for us to share. There is always facebook, twitter, and other games. This is only the end for those that elect to let it be. I’ve already had a few reach out and we’ve figured out ways to stay in contact. Hopefully you and I can do the same.

Tonight I will log in, say my goodbyes, face the firing squad and listen to any bitching people need to do, give out the hugs and kisses to those that are sad rather than mad, transfer guildleadership, and be gone.

BTW, as I said, I don’t want to leave the game, so if you want to pay my sub, feel free to hit me up! I have no problem spending your money. I just don’t want to spend my own! lol Sorry, I needed to end this on a smart ass, semi-humorous note.