Do you remember the night that Burning Crusade came out? I waited in the cold outside Game Stop with about 30 other people. We boasted about our accomplishments and I nearly came to blows with a decidedly orcish young woman who played a Gnome Warrior (with pink pig tails). I rushed home to install the expansion and couldn't wait to get in. First, I ran my character into Orgrimar to get the PvP version of the Hawkstrider. I was disappointed that it didn't exist so I bought a Skeletal Warhorse and trotted on to the Dark Portal.

There was a raging PvP battle in Blasted Lands. The ground was covered in skeletons. I ran the gauntlet as quickly as I could, grabbed the quest and zoned in. Through the portal I found the worst monster I've ever encountered in WoW: lag. With everyone starting in Hellfire Peninsula it was like my character was swimming to sand. While there was an uneasy, unspoken truce between the factions quest mobs were hard to come by. It was reminded of Black Friday at Fry's. I still stayed up until seven the next morning.

This time Blizzard is attempting to disperse the opening crowd. We will have the option of beginning in the Howling Fjord or the Borean Tundra. Horde and Alliance will approach from different places so that's another bottleneck out of the way. Some players will chose to roll a Death Knight character right away, which will also diminish the churn. There will be lag, but hopefully it'll be more bearable this time.

So my WoW Insider friends, let's make a plan. Let's try to spread out a bit. Lend us all a hand and participate in the following poll:

Tags: borean-tundra, death-knight, dispersion, howling-fjord, lag, overload, Release, start, starters, Wrath

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Blizzard, Expansions, Leveling, Wrath of the Lich King, Polls