Returning to the fold

Well after a few months of a break due to real life concerns I have decided to come back to the game but not in the same capacity as before. I've decided that raiding has progressively become less and less fun and I finally said to myself something that many other people eventually do: "why am I doing something that isn't fun, and furthermore why would I pay money for it"? With that I am going back to my PvP roots and arenas/battlegrounds/world PvP to enjoy myself for a paid service with a few close friends all the while still being able to upgrade my gear in a more systematic manner over random PvE drops, which is comforting considering they do seem to have that set of gear on an upgrade path as is evident with Arena Season 2.

I did enjoy PvE from the standpoint of witnessing the story of Warcraft unfold the BWL process of working through the encounters is still one of my favorite gaming experiences I've had. I wish I could see all the new things that are bound to be available in the realm of PvE but the be frank, the encounters have gone downhill since BC. All encounters now are so derivative it makes instances that are brand new incredibly boring incredibly fast, much faster than it should be. Sooner or later Blizzard will realize that the consumers are catching on to the rehash and will either move on or rather simply do something other than a mmo. PvE needs to be flexible and less dependent on others as odd as that sounds (I'd love too see bots in raids to fill in patchy spots so anyone can raid these older 40 man instances with updated loot mind you or even the new 10 and 25 man instances). Currently, Blizzard is making money hand over fist so why change what is obviously working? They have no reason to innovate encounters at the moment, which is another reason why I want out of that WoW raiding culture. However, between farming consumables/gold, waiting for people to show up for raids, and the mammoth time-sink that these factors create I can no longer afford it, which is merely a fact that I've come to grips with over the months away from the game.

I am, for a change, excited to be returning to a game that I will be playing by my pace and within my time frame rather than waiting for the moons to align in order to raid effectively. At long last I can play WoW and have fun on my terms not someone else's.