I’ve seen statistics about how many people are playing each class in Season of Discovery, but no one tracking what I’m really curious about: is this is largest percentage of characters with gray hair… ever? I’m seeing a lot of old humans in the Eastern Kingdoms. It’s a vibe that fits returning players, I guess.

We ran Deadmines on Monday night for the first time in many years. Compared to more recent instance groups it was a longer, slower, cinematic experience, the sort that cemented my love for this game and has been completely impossible during twelve years of having young children waking unpredictably. I’m cautiously celebrating a return of my ability to concentrate on something for a couple of hours. Maybe it’s safe to start writing and painting again.

I took the boat over the check out the world pvp event in Ashenvale. I enjoy open-world things because I can nose around and figure out the mechanics without taking a spot away from someone more qualified. On my first few trips out, I saw no horde players at all.

Our Christmas Carol begins “Hardcore was dead, to begin with.”

Skull Rock was very quiet and I kept hearing chatter that all the players left for the Season of Discovery servers. And I missed battlegrounds. I recognize that concentrated PvP with permadeath would be inherently ridiculous but I’d do it. It would be fascinating to see how player behavior changed and how some of these maps would play with everyone acting very cautious.

I also missed roleplay ruleset servers. I was surprised to find no overlap with hardcore servers because the entire hardcore challenge is basically roleplaying; it’s trying to fill in the gaps left to your imagination with realistic motivations and consequences.

I made a gnome warlock and a human priest on Chaos Bolt (NA), an RPPvP server.

I would probably be better off if I’d learned a language or something instead of memorizing Elwynn Forest, but those neurons are having fun firing again.

This server is bustling, and since Season of Discovery eventually ends, it meets my goal of wanting an experience that’s finite. Both discovering and using runes is fun. There are now so many variations that World of Warcraft is more of a game system than a game, and I wonder if we’ll ever see Blizzard completely embrace that and let players officially create custom experiences for one another the way they have with Overwatch.