On the WoW situation.

This is my third summer in CD, and much like the last two, it looks like progression will grind to a halt. The same old excuses get drawn out: it's summer, people have exams/holidays, people are bored with WoW, there's a new game out.

This time last year, some people were worried that Lord of the Rings Online was gonna drag people from CD. It failed to do so because the Burning Crusade was still new. Even if they weren't raiding, folks had five-mans and heroics to run and rep to grind.

Fast forward on a year and I'm pretty much done with the 5-man game, and I'm not alone with that. The only thing that interests me now is the tier 6 25-man instances, but even there something feels "sour" or "off".

The lifting of attunements and the provision of the new badge gear means that everyone can now work on the T6 instances without ever stepping in the T5 ones. I hate to agree with the Hardcore raiders who were moaning pre-2.4, but, to quote the Incredibles: "when everyone is special, no-one is."

Before 2.4 I thought that the democritization of the T6 instances was a good thing. I'm no longer sure that's the case. Don't get me wrong, I'm stoked that I'm not turning up to week after week of Vashj/Kael wipefests. But there's a nagging feeling at the back of my skull, especially in Black Temple, that I haven't "earned" this, that I somehow don't "deserve" this.

Still, I'm a tank, and as long as there's a raid I can make, I'll try to sign to it. But I somehow get the sense that Blizzard took things maybe a step too far in the last patch. Age of Conan may have ended up arriving at the right time.