Well, it's finally official, I've stopped playing WoW. And while I kinda wish it wasn't the case, this review is an obituary. Wow is dead, but like some varieties of zombie, it just doesn't know it yet. But Moogah, some may say, WoW holds 62% of of MMOG market and current estimates place the number of subscribers at around 16 million, how can you possibly say that wow is dead?!? Short answer: innovation and novelty are the life blood of any good MMO, and those are things that Wow no longer provides for veteran players. I should know cause I am one. WoW's march to the chair might be a long one, but fact is its still a dead Tauren walking.

Now don't get me wrong here. Wow might be dead, but that doesn't mean that it wasn't a great game while it was still actually alive and kicking. IMHO WoW's awesomeness was largely predicated on the fact that Azeroth had something to offer to just about every type of gamer and it also provided a good introduction to the more competitive side of gaming for nubs like me. Let me illustrate: At the outset of my tenure in Azeroth, there was nothing worse than encountering Horde while killing yetis in Hillsbrad. I'd just run and pray that I'd not get ganked for an hour. Now, not so much. Now, I melt faces in PVP. I still remember my first world PVP kill and my first BG. Lame as it may sound, those were empowering experiences.

The other chief contributing factor to WoW's awesomeness was Azeroth itself. Blizzard developers did an amazing job creating a world that was both beautiful and immersive. Proof's in the pudding: check out the screen shots here on Don't Get Hurt and you'll see what I mean. Blizzard also worked hard to ensure that a server's community was as vibrant as the environment that housed it. For example, forcing toons to zone to faction capitals to do their business made sure that players had to interact with each other. I, for one, always waved at familiar faces at the AH. Also, there's just about nothing better than striding in Orgrimmar knowing that nooblets are ogling your 1337 70 epics.

While I'm on the topic of business, I'd be remiss to not at mention server economics and the fun that can be had in this arena. Economic manipulation or tycooning was my favorite pass time in WoW. Tycooning is easy enough to do in WoW, even on a high pop server. 1. farm for start up capital. 2. buy out mats, raise prices. 3. profit. Its a simple strategy, but an effective one. Using this method, I was able to bankroll the careers of 6 toons all of whom have 2 epic mounts and at least 1000g in liquid assets.

Oh, murlocs, I should also mention murlocs. I love baby murlocs. Baby murlocs also significantly contributed to WoW's awesomeness.

So, if WoW had all this stuff going for it, Moogs, why'd it die? As I mentioned above, innovation and novelty really are the lifeblood of an MMO. Despite the immersive quality of the environment and the thrill of PVP, eventually it all boils down to a massive grind. Baby murlocs grow up, and you've got to slaughter about a million of them if you're going to hit 70. While expansion packs are nice, they don't change the nature of the game, they just change its look. Zoning into Northrend just isn't going to have the same impact that my first boat ride from Darnassus to Darkshore had. WoW's no longer novel.

Lack of innovation and decreasing novelty aside, WoW has also been plagued by a variety of different issues which still have not been successfully addressed by Blizzard. (There's a quite a few, but I'm only going to talk about my own pet peeves – its my review after all.) Grouping for instance, (haha pun intended) remains a huge problem on low pop servers. While low pop server suffer from less lag, fewer players means that groups are hard to find/organize. Unless you're lucky, your PUG group is gonna suck be it because you're grouped with nubs, ninjas or that guy who goes AFK every five minutes. Guilds help to alleviate this problem somewhat, but there are definite draw backs to membership in large raiding guilds and "mature" guilds are, more often than not, composed primarily of casual players.

I've also got to mention the ongoing issue of class balancing. I've had the dubious pleasure of playing the two most broken classes in the game while they were still very broken. Shammies and druids could be two of the most versatile classes to play (hybrids are neato – afterall who doesn't want to be a DPSer and healer!) but they've been retooled and hit by the nerf stick so many times that I've just given up on 'em. I'm not the only one. Shamans now account for only 9% of the WoW population – before the nerf bat that percentage was dramatically higher. Sigh, QQ I guess.

Here's another big problem: gold farming. While I appreciate that Blizzard has taken steps to stop the practice, server economies, especially low pop ones, have already been significantly debased and I really can't see how they can ever be reestablished – botters always have more mats to sell than you.

The death of world PVP is yet another of my pet peeves. Halaa sucks, plain and simple, and gone are the days of massive raids on enemy capitals. While the retooling of PVP helped to solve the long time raider v. casual gear problem, it also effectively killed world PVP. Who wants to raid Stormwind when you can just head to a BG and be rewarded simply for your presence? The increasing deemphasis of world PVP has had sad result -- Azeroth feels less "real" than it did before.

I could go on, but won't. It's doubtful that I'll be installing Lich King, but, hey you never know. I'm still paying for my account. Zombie.