As all of my faithful readers know, I am a big fan of World of Warcraft both personally and professionally. My favorite warrior gnome Bananadoo has spent many hours whacking away for the good of the Alliance. His lvl 70 status which was achieved last July was a source of personal pride. From a professional aspect, the concept of over 11 million monthly subscribers is a great “business” discussion point.
So needless to say, I was very anxious to see what the Lich King expansion pack has to offer. Now usually I like to wait a few weeks before installing any new software offerings in order to avoid the usual new software bugs and other kinks, in essence letting my fellow players be the guinea pigs. But knowing Blizzard’s reputation for quality control and testing, I was willing to risk being one of the initial adopters so I pre-order my copy a month before the November 13th launch date.
I will admit that I was on the docks in Stormwind at 9:00 pm PST on the 12th to watch the first boat from Northend arrive. As you can see the picture (time is server time CST), there is the first boat. I was so anxious for my software to arrive on the 13th, that I was pacing.
The installation took a little longer than I expected, but it was not difficult nor did it take that long. I was just anxious to get. So it was officially at 1:15 pm PST on the 13th that Bananadoo got on the boat to Northend.
My arrival at Valiance Keep was all and more than I had expected. It looked like a bustling port with toons running around everywhere. Trainers and quest givers were everywhere and being swarmed. Within ten minutes, I had picked up Master in First Aid, Cooking, additional training in Blacksmithing and Mining, and about 5 quests.
While the “professional” training was very similar to the previous game play, it was apparent that the new quests were new and different. Lots of new creatures to help or kill. And lots of humor found everywhere. One moment that still stays with me is when I found my self killing ghosts to have one say “Arrrghhh dead again” as I defeated him. A true laugh out loud moment.
As I write this, I am currently a lvl 73 and am happily working my way through the initial areas of Borean Tundra, Howling Fjord and Dragonblight. I have found no problems with the game and the few I have heard of are usually caused my outside mods interfering. Overall I give this expansion pack five out of five bananas!
In the next few days, I will post on Death Knight Bananadeath!
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