My wife, my all-time favorite playing companion (and reluctant former battleground pocket healer), uttered four beautiful words to me the other day, saying wistfully, "I miss playing WoW." She had suspended her account some time last year, in the middle of steamrolling through Ulduar and spanking General Vezax, expressing her desire to spend more time raising our two-year-old daughter. Hardcore raiding had started to get in the way of paying our daughter attention, and Clara-style parenting simply wasn't an option, so something had to give. Incidentally, our good friend and guild leader quit around the same time to take care of his wedding, effectively spelling the end of my raiding days.

Fast forward close to a year later and Cataclysm looms on the horizon. My wife and I have a new, two-month-old daughter, and our old guild leader has a five-month-old son of his own. My wife has been reduced to playing Facebook games she can easily leave when our babies need attention (and not have someone die as a consequence), and our GM has taken to playing League of Legends. But the time will soon come, I believe, to unleash ... the Scroll of Resurrection! Cataclysm beckons, and it's simply too good of a reboot of our favorite game to pass up on.

Sure, there's the little matter of our babies, and we'll probably even have less time to play the game -- but didn't World of Warcraft transform into the casual player's MMO since the time everybody up and left? Sure, maybe we'll miss out on Horde-side server firsts or skip some hard mode achievements this time around, but how can old players resist the charm of a revamped Azeroth? Maybe we'll just take our time leveling our goblins. My wife, who isn't sold on the not-quite-attractive-as-belfs goblin females, had her ears perk up at the mention of Best Deals Anywhere, the goblin racial that grants a faction-best 20% discount with any vendor. Her love for moneymaking also likes the idea of the remote auction house for the iPhone (though she balks at the real-money subscription cost). The trap is set.

Soon, I will launch a wave of Scrolls of Resurrection, mass resurrecting unsuspecting friends and getting them back into Azeroth just in time to see Deathwing rend the world asunder. It's the perfect time. Right before patch 4.0 hits, GearScore won't matter, and it will be an event that simply cannot be missed. I rub my hands in scheming glee. Do you have plans to bring old friends back into the game? Or are you an old player who will finally rise again? What features of Cataclysm will you use to entice old players to play once more? Deathwing is upon us. It's time to bring old warriors back for reinforcements.

Tags: cataclysm, facebookfeed, game-discussion, gamer-discussion, resurrection, scroll-of-resurrection, world-of-warcraft-cataclysm, world-of-warcraft-discussion, world-of-warcraft-topics, wow-discussion, wow-hot-topics, wow-issues, wow-topics

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Breakfast Topics, Cataclysm