In Which I Agree With A Big Bear Butt

Yeah, you know which big bear butt I'm talking about. Apparently, John's found him some good times, and has concluded that, in fact, "WoW is just so damn awesome!" He's switched his point of view, gone on to a new server, new challenges, and has apparently found his happy place.

Just, you know, playing the game. Who'da thunk it?

I had a similar experience over the last couple of nights. Two, actually.

The first was Monday night, when I logged in to run dailies and wound up in a guild run doing OS for the mount. One thing led to another, and by the end of the evening, I had managed to pick up a bunch of achievements on Aeth. We killed Malygos, which got me The Spellweaver's Downfall, which got me Champion of the Frozen Wastes and A Poke In The Eye as well.

Yep - I had raided on Aeth a bit in Wrath, but I never did Malygos. Going back at level 85 with a handful of Cata epics made it an easier fight, but it was fun to see it. It made me start thinking about whether or not I might be able to manage to finish off the few achievements I need for Glory of the Hero solo...

Then, last night, I logged in to do dailies, and maybe a bit of mining. I didn't want to actually do anything significant, since it was an interrupt-driven sort of evening. I wanted to be able to put the laptop down without worrying that I was abandoning someone in the middle of something.

Mined for a bit, which was... eh. Mining is my "killing time waiting for LFD to pop" activity. Doing it to kill time? Fine. Doing it just to do it? Nah, I don't think so.

So, after a circuit of Uldum, I was thinking about maybe doing some archaeology. That works fine when I've got something else to do as well, particualrly reading and catching up on news online - I can read an article, switch to WoW to survey an area a couple of times, head for the next dig site and switch back to reading. It can make for a pleasant enough evening.

Still, it's not the most entertaining of activities. So when I opened up my map to look at the current dig sites, my eyes wandered over to the Eastern Plaguelands, and I thought, "Oh, yeah - I started doing some quests there. Forget archaeology, I'll just go finish those off and get the quest achievement for the zone."

Two hours and 60+ quests later, like John, I had found my happy place.

Seriously - if you haven't done so, hit EPL and do the quests there. Not because they provide epic lewt, or because the quests are so freaking awesome they'll make your head explode... they're really just the kind of quests that you'd find anywhere else, really. Nicely polished, maybe arranged a little bit better and not quite as railroad-ey as some of the newer cataclysm zones. Pretty average, as a matter of fact.

Except...

The have Fiona.

And Gidwin Goldbraids.

And Tarenar Sunstrike.

The bickering, the conversations, and the character developed around these three NPCs over the course of a couple of hours in EPL is incredible. A Blood Elf and a Dwarf? Fellow paladins? Friends since childhood? Fiona's obvious affection for the two of them, and her concern for others she meets along the way?

Awesome.

Thrall? Jaina? Varian? Pfft.

Pikers.

At the end of Cataclysm, when I'm doing whatever it is I need to do along the quest lines that lead up to assaulting Deathwing... I want Fiona, Gidwin and Tarenar there with me.

All of which, at then end of the evening, reminded me that there's something like another two dozen revamped zones in Cataclysm that I haven't quested through yet. There's undead to lay to rest, murlocs to kill, kids to rescue and heroes to meet.

If any of them are even as remotely engaging and interesting as Fiona and her crew, it's going to be a fun, fun time.