World Of Warcraft: A Love Letter to Azeroth Part 2

Dear World of Warcraft,

You know me. I’m blunt, I’m straightforward. And I never beat around the bush. So here I am before you once again, heart bared, lips parted, to tell you this:

That I love you, and I never want to leave you again.

You truly are a different MMORPG now. You’re nothing like the gawky teenager I fell in love with four years ago. You’ve grown into your ears and your legs, and you’ve never looked better.

People around me say you look dated, say you still have yet to grow up. But I beg to differ. Your looks have a charm no other MMO can duplicate, and I think you’ve weathered well, rather than grown into a completely different thing.

It’s been eight years since you launched, four since I gave my heart to you. They say you never truly leave the one you love, and it’s true.

Though we’ve been apart for the last year and a half, there wasn’t a month that went by where I didn’t think of you.

You were the one who held me through those dark nights, who taught me what there is to life. You held my hand and schooled me in ways of managing people, of making friends, of queuing for the chance to get my paws on your expansion pack first. For Elune’s sake, you even taught me money management, so I’d have enough at the end of the month to continue my affair with you.

It was you who sat quietly, hardly breathing, next to me as we traipsed through Duskwood. You who took my hand as I marvelled at the wonder of Outland’s multicoloured sky.You who squeezed my shoulder and told me that it was all right – we’d get through the Black Temple and to Illidan alive, and together.

You took many of my firsts. And you did it again, you rogue, you, when I set foot into Pandaria proper.

It was exhilarating to be there, to have done that with you. To feel you melding to my touch once again. To fumble with controls once second nature. I felt a rush as my old, familiar sense of being with you came back. Shortly after landing in Pandaria, we were one, once more.

True, some things were different. But I couldn’t have come back to you without expecting you to change. My talent points were given out only every fifteen levels. Quests, once so difficult to navigate and complete, were now presented to me with the guidance of dotted lines. Your wild, untamed landscape, crushed and remoulded by the Cataclysm, was proffered to me with a native QuestHelper.

I no longer had to run back and forth on aimless missions. There was a lot more variety to savour. Where you once only had kill and fetch quests were now fully thought-out quest chains, peppered with that humour of yours that I know and love so well. I loved most how you encouraged us to have more time together in short bursts, instead of commanding my attention for entire days on end like you used to.

And if you’ll permit me to say this, I’m looking forward to our time together at the end of the day…

You used to last for hours. That was all right when I was younger – I could hold out for just as long. But we’re both older and more mellow now. Perhaps you’ve learned that it’s not size and length that matters, but the quality of our experience together. Yes, I’m definitely looking forward to your end game content.

We spent quite a while together yesterday, during my short respite from my job. Never mind that I had other work to do. Never mind that I was now a grown woman, with responsibilities owed to others. You were so beautiful, and you still are. You blow my mind with each expansion pack, with each new landscape you present before my bedazzled eyes. As if in a dream, I wandered through your verdant grass and I realised I missed you – that I had missed you all along.

And now, today, humbled by the breadth and depth of your magnificence, I am here once again, heart bared, lips parted, to tell you:

I love you, and I will never leave you.

With all my heart,

xoxo

Read Part 1 here.