Why I Like Paying My £8 a Month

Now, we all like to QQ.

I spend a long time QQing that I can’t make any gold (because I spend everything I make on levelling professions), I whinge that I can’t tank heal (because I panic too much), I complain that hunters suck (when really, I just suck at playing one), and I moan about how long levelling takes (when really, I’m just easily distracted).

However one thing I’ve never complained about is Blizzard’s subscription fee. This will be one of those posts where I ramble for ages before making any points, so feel free to move on.

Now, those that know me will know I am not a particularly social person, and I favour routine. My personality means I like to plan – excessively, weeks, months in to the future, and I like to do the same things every night of the week. As I’ve discussed earlier, I like it that I do the same things every night.

I like it that I horse ride every Monday – and that it’s the first thing I’ve ever genuinely seen myself progress at and get better at to the point where I actually feel like a success.

I like it that it’s date night every Tuesday. I like it that we raid 25 mans on a Wednesday, I spend my Thursdays nattering with my friends and doing some levelling or old content, that we do ten mans on a Friday and a Sunday. I like the fact that on Saturday morning I do my studying, on Saturday afternoon we run a fun run, and that pattern repeats on a Sunday.

I like it that I get to watch Jerry Springer for an hour every day (5 – 6, or 6 – 7 depending on when I get home from work – LivingIT and LivingIT + 1 are made of awesome). Small things make me happy.

I have one extortionately expensive hobby. Horse riding costs me roughly £75 a month in lessons. But there is no way in hell I’d ever give it up. Ever. I love it. It’s the most exhilerating, enjoyable, wonderful thing I’ve ever taken part in. And the fact that I can DO it, and that I don’t SUCK at it makes everything a little bit better.

Warcraft costs me £8 a month (or something very similar – I pay quarterly). For £8 a month, every month, I get:

• 3 nights a week raiding content with 9/24 other people who make me smile.
• an achievements system that caters to my obsessive compulsive tendency ideally
• millions of objectives for me to complete
• 50 slots of character space should I ever decide to create that many characters
• the ability to level 10 characters on my main server (so one of every class and every race should I be that way inclined)
• a professions system
• an in-game currency system (which I am as rubbish at as I am real money)
• old content that hasn’t gone away, allowing me to experience things other people have, just at a different level
• beautiful gear with intricate artwork
• gorgeous settings and surroundings
• a massive social network made up of guilds, chat channels, server chat and partys
• instances and dungeons for every conceivable level my character might be at
• something for me to do whatever mood I’m in.

I don’t have to pay extra for any of these things.

And then of course,

since I started playing in January 2008, my £8 a month has resulted in me:

• finding an absolutely incredible man who makes me happier than I ever thought possible
• acquiring three seriously fabulous friends
• having amazing guildies
• being part of the blogosphere and all the fantastic and friendly, kind, amusing and accurate, clever, intelligent bloggers (there are so many more I could link) that make work pass quick and have helped me learn so, so much.
• all these people that I wouldn’t ever have met, come across, come into contact with.
• Roughly 100 people every day looking at what I’m writing about. Wow.

I, for one, am glad that it’s £8 a month. If WoW was a free-to-play game where you bought gear with real money, bought extra zones, downloaded content…I doubt I’d play it.

I like the fact everything is there in front of me.

I bought a Pandaren Monk. I bought a Lil’KT and I just bought a Gryphon Plushie. Why? Because they came with vanity pets and I like pretty things. They weren’t integral to my gameplay. Without them, I wouldn’t have fallen behind brand new content or missed out. They’re just added extras.

If WoW gave me a legal, fair way to buy an ingame gold with real money – would I?

Probably. I’d love a choppa. I’d love to be able to buy all the things I needed and not have to worry about cash! But at the same time, I can see many many valid reasons why it isn’t buyable and isn’t allowed.

In my honest opinion, Blizzard do a brilliant job. I love World of Warcraft, and I think as a…what do you call me? A Casual Raider? A Gamer Girl? An Achievements Whore?

Whichever – or any other name – I am, Blizzard caters to what I need perfectly and does it really well.

So I say – props to you Blizzard for enriching my life in the many ways you do, including the ones I would never of expected.

Thanks

Sophx