Ok, so this is an editted repost of my story from yesterday. If you read that one, do not go ahead and read this one too because you already did read it!! It’s just got less spicy language.
Story Time with Alynsa: Gap Year!! The Unspicy Version!!
Those are weird quotes to start this off with, right? Well, I hope any of you who have read more than two of my posts expect weird, and both are related to my year break from WoW. Specifically, how it changed my views and what brought me back. Spoiler: it wasn’t actually Xal’atath, but it kinda was. Sorta.
Also, uhm, guys? I was like… Gone. For a year. And you all remembered me??
You do not understand how much love I have for you for that. Posting here and you guys just… Not having forgotten me has made my eyes mistier than Pandaria, which is extremely dorky to say and I’m okay with it. It’s just nice to know I had some small thing to you, and not in a negative way.
I’m not gonna go into the details of why I was gone. The long and short of it is I dealt with a confluence of medical and personal problems. It’s wasn’t (EDIT: “substances”), cuz everyone always thinks it’s that and it does sound like that. It was so much lesser than that, and in the end everything worked out very well.
But (Edit: “the strong physical or phychological need”). Because I do have an (Edit: “the strong physical or phychological need”), and it’s to this game. Gone for a year, and probably the first couple months I was all sour grapes.
“Good, I’m glad I can’t play, (Edit: “bunny ears”) that stupid game anyway!! Dang dragons are just gonna mess everything up, because dragons are good for nothing except adding to my mount collection!! I bet they somehow make Toddy an old god minion, and the Horde ends up burning down that Omaha Plains place!!! Dumb game!!”
And for those first few months, like every time I quit the game for a while, I got all the adverts.
Wanna watch a painting tutorial? How about an ad for the latest World of Warcraft patch, Caves of Bad Stuff!! Look at the caves!! Look at the bad stuff!! I bet the bad dragons want to do bad things with the bad stuff!!"
Trying to play an Avril Laveign song you know by heart and have on your phone but want the YouTube video anyway? “Introducing WoW Hard(edit: “Molten ____”)!!! It’s not even that (Edit: “a town in Elwynn forest”) kind of Hard(edit: “Molten ____”)!! This is HARD and it is (edit: “MOLTEN ____!!!”)!!!”
Ok, well, maybe your favorite Sims YouTuber has a new video and you want to wat- “Fifteen (Edit: “popular streamer who watches videos while under the WoW category”) videos in your recommended viewing feed!!! Two from (edit: “Irish YouTuber”), and you’ll never guess why he’s mad at Warcraft this time!!! Preach (Edit: so if I get banned now, Preach is clearly a curse word) has hair now!!! WARCRAFT!!!”
And so on. You can all relate, I know you can.
But then it got real strange.
Because it all just… Stopped.
I don’t know when, but it was late spring-ish. Suddenly I’m not recommended anything WoW related. I don’t know when it happened, but I know I finally realized it back in August, towards the end of the month.
I would pop in, check out what you guys were saying. I’d look and see what new stuff came out. I’d check in.
But I wasn’t ready to come back yet. See above mentioned personal issues.
By early November, everything was settled. I was happy for the first time in a very long time, with time on my hands. But it’s been too long to come back. Right? Nearly an entire year!! I would be lost, the story wouldn’t make sense to me, I wouldn’t know what to do, and…
Blizzcon.
That (edit: “maternal figure who drives a truck”) snuck up on me!! It freaking snuck up on me AFTER it already happened!!! That (edit: “maternal figure who drives a truck”) (edit: “current Nintendo console”)-hitter snuck up on me!!!
And then it’s everywhere.
“Hey Alynsa, I see you googled ‘jewelry cleaning easy for dumb’ (this is an actual google search I made)!! Did you mean ‘leveling Jewelcrafting easy’? I’m’a show you a site for that anyway!! Also, would you like to learn more about The War Within, the next expansion for World of Warcraft???”
“Look Alynsa, I know you came to YouTube to find out how to fix a leaky drain, I’m’a let you watch that, but The War Within had one’a the best Blizzcon announcements of all time!!!”
“Ok, I know you specifically typed ‘directions to nearest Dollar Tree’, but before you decide to not do all that walking anyway, why don’t we talk about how (Edit: “name of the new WoW head of story stuff whose initials are CM”) did the announcement for The War Within?”
Yeah. Ok, I got it Internet. I played a lot of WoW, I Googled a lot of WoW, and now I broke you into thinking every single thing is about WoW. But I still need to buy paper towels from the Dollar Tree, because my sink’s drain was very leaky and you were very unhelpful!!
But of course, it’s a (edit: “infectious thing”). It’s a mind-(edit: “infectious thing”) and it won’t even think of going away until I (edit: “IDK, I don’t think what was typed here was spicy at all, but I’m not taking any chances, so just fill it in yourself”).
But I won’t go all the way. Just log on to my F2P account. Run around, see what’s what in Orgrimmar and Stormwind.
But then it happened.
I rode the bus.
…
I should just end it right there. It’d be funnier. “I rode the bus” and that’s supposed to explain me coming back with a new outlook.
Ahem. I rode the bus. And on that bus ride, I wanted some music. Headphones on, YT open, song selected, what next? Scroll right past the expansion adverts because I don’t-
Bus jostles.
I.
Click.
The Video.
And so I watch it. The Features one specifically.
Quick. Shots of some stuff. Title card.
Alleria face. (Meh).
Alleria voice. Mmm. Did… Did she always sound like this? (She did)
Visions? Dalaran tho. Voidy stuff?! Bug people.
Features:
New zones!!
It’s just that Wrath dungeon I have a personal vendetta with.
Oh look, now it’s Dragon Isles mixed with Draenor Nagrand.
And a heavy overcast version of the same zone.
And now a city that- is that a draino space ship in the corner? Hmm…
- Delves? Scenarios repainted probably.
- Forge my Warband! Oh, so followers are back. Meh.
- Master Hero Talents!! Uhm, yeah, we got new talents all the time tho, so ok.
- Another flavor of dwarf. I bet Sledgie will make seven of them!
- Dynamic flying? Wait now, hold up. I can Maximum Zoom outside of the Dragonlands? Interesting…
- New raids and dungeons I won’t do.
So meh so far. More Alleria voice. I really like this Alleria voice… And then…
And then.
Even from behind, I knew who it was. And my first thought was “really? Kael’thas head-(edit: “orbs”), but voidy? Really tho? Really.”
“But damn, her transmog looks good.”
And then she looked at me.
Xal’atath turned to the camera and looked at me.
…
Yes, I KNOW she didn’t look at me. And I don’t get all bothered by pixilated AI people.
Until Xal’atath LOOKED at me.
Suddenly millions of young boys I poked fun at in my younger years cheered victoriously. Because suddenly I was just like them. I was converted.
But (edit: “appealing to my eye”) evil (edit: “very high temperature”) soul-looking-into Xal’atath was not enough. I had to make a list, because I’m a list-making person.
What did I like. What did I hate. A list per expansion.
And my lists were harsh (edit: “feminine word for masters”). My hate list would include things like “no flight whistle in Shadowlands”, “Suramar illusion sometimes failing because some dork rode by and I’m stuck”, “too many turtles made it to the water, so I’m a crab now”. If there was more hate than like, there would be no way I could resub.
But… There wasn’t.
Even being very petty with my hate. Even including “Ysera keeps making me cry” on both sides of the Legion and Shadowlands lists, even though it’s a thing I clearly love because Ysera is the only dragon of any worth and value, and I hate every dragon but Ysera somehow keeps making YOU cry because I do NOT cry at video games. Even trying to pad the hate list with “Maldraxxus is too green”.
I loved more than I hated.
And it wasn’t even close.
BfA is my most hated expansion because of the faction war stuff. And yet, the thought of leveling a new character through Zuldazar again excites me, because I won’t even see that shenanigan. And when I’m done, I can take a break from leveling, open up Nazjatar and Mechagon and go re-experience those zones. And the visuals, the music, the stories… They are all great.
Shadowlands, my third most hated expansion (Cataclysm is number two because of the world revamp). Four amazing quest zones, four amazing covenant campaigns, and Zereth Mortis. Sure, the Maw and Korthia stuff are not something I enjoy. Two zones. Compared to five. Two storylines. Compared to nine.
Making those lists was a catharsis. Right there, in black and white and blue and red and purple and green and golden yellow (my lists demand many colors). The things I hate are so much smaller than the things I love.
Xal’atath stared right into my soul. And I was changed. I was (edit: “a priest’s heal-over-time instant cast spell that probably was deemed inappropriate because of how it makes night elf fans feel”) (sorry night elf fans, I empathize with how triggering that word can be, and I do understand).
And so I came back. I resubbed. I did some stuff on my hunter, Miss Mocha Elf, Alynsa. But I also decided it was time to give the Alliance a try again. Because as much as I do love the Horde, I also love the Alliance, so maybe we should spend some more time doing that too.
And maybe I did cap my druid’s fishing on day two of my resubbening. I love WoW fishing!! It’s time to be unashamed of my love for this game again.
And I came back here.
Because I love this place too.
And I love you guys, because you make this place what it is.
So. That’s my story about my resubbening and why it seems like I love the story now.
Because I don’t love the story now.
I always loved the story, and I just let the parts I hated overwhelm that love.
…
TLDR: Alynsa is sappy and emotional and back.